Whole websites and books exist to teach people how to conduct themselves in relationships with multiple partners. When I told my partner and her other girlfriend about this, I described the situation as one where there was “no drama” for carrying on multiple relationships, to which one quipped, “Oh, so it’s definitely a fantasy then.” What her wry joke was hinting at, of course, is that in the real world polyamory is rarely free of theatrics and emotional anguish. But this is also a very preliminary first step, and if developers want to really explore polyamory, there are plenty of interesting routes they can take that will generate realistic conflict and even interesting new game mechanics. Just as we are finally moving away from portraying heterosexual relationships as the default norm in story-based games, so too can we move away from the staid portrayal of monogamy as the only option. Make no mistake: this is a watershed moment in mainstream gaming, and it is very much worth celebrating. No fuss is made about this neither preachy treacle nor artificial conflict impede the simple presentation of a world where your character can be unproblematically poly.

'Make no mistake: this is a watershed moment in mainstream gaming, and it is very much worth celebrating.'

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