Originally Posted by TheOracle
I don't think this type of interactive media can depict healthy polyamory.
I think that the extent to which interactive media can depict complex and realistic relationships is broadly questionable. As you say, the PC is the main character of the story-world in a way that none of us is in real life. There's a level of escapism involved in how much our actions matter, and, frankly, in how much we matter to every last person around us. (Of course, in real life, we do matter to some people very much.) If you want to make this sort of analysis, I don't see why it should be limited to the depiction of poly relationships. It applies in general.

In spite of the limitations of interactive media, we enjoy making and playing games anyway. We can never achieve a life-like level of detail and complexity. However, with the time we have, we can still write and enjoy some splendid characters. I think it's never wrong to make suggestions for improvement. At the same time, it's okay to allow a work to be "completed" while, in some grander sense, it is incomplete.

As a recovering toxic perfectionist, I'm trying to make my motto "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." I can report good results so far. wink