Well, my personal opinion is the following :

Introducing the element of Love in RPGs is relatively new - at least from my own point of view which is set by a relatively short RPG career (started with the Nordlandtrilogie).

The makers of BG saw that it fit quite nicely - especially in the eyes of the players. Maybe it was just an experiment, I don't know. But the result is clear : It introduced a new element into the role-playing (at least C-RPGs, I expect Love as an elöement in P&P role-playing to have been there outside H/S all of the time) and players like it so much that every now and then remarks / suggestions of incorporating this element into Larian's RPGs pop up, often referring towards BG.

Considering what role-play in its core is, the game The Sims is also kind of a role-play, at least insofar as you can control characters like in "real" RPGs. I know that this game lacks nnearly everything that has a "real" RPG, but it's still about socialization.

This, and Love as elements in RPGs ... you could attract people who like to do socializing in(to) an RPG (look at the sales of The Sims), but every "hard-core" RPG player would probably moan.

Especially from the *huge* H/S fraction (Blizzards D2) I would expect irritation. From others as well ( I remember a heated discussion I had started about gender roles in Gothic I at the JoWood Forums, the german publishers of Gothic).

My personal opinion is tht socializing and love are definitively elements C-RPGs often lack and could provide "deeper" role-playing, apart from H/S.


When you find a big kettle of crazy, it's best not to stir it.
--Dilbert cartoon

"Interplay.some zombiefied unlife thing going on there" - skavenhorde at RPGWatch