ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that romantic love and gameplay are in fact two relatively trivial variants of fundamental type of human activity. It provides a careful examination of why and when game designers and players might come think of particular games as seeming romantic in nature. The chapter also provides some careful thought about what is essential to the romance genre more generally, and what specific types of aesthetic experiences its most avid consumers expect to deliver. It shows that in a certain very important if perhaps very slightly esoteric sense, videogames simply cannot also be true romances, and that even strong appearances to the contrary must be dismissed as illusions. The chapter draws the relationship between romance and gameplay, comparing own views along the way with a fascinating alternate take on the subject provided by Ronald de Sousa. It looks at a type of computer-mediated human activity that qualifies as romance precisely because its status as game-like is irrevocably indeterminate.
