Thoughtful Thursdays #1: Love

Love is a complex emotion, and it's even more complex to depict it in an interactive medium. With Valentine's day come and gone, I thought it'd be interesting to look at Love, a game lets you "play" its title emotion.

Love: It's squares shooting lasers

I'm sure you don't see much about romance in the above screen capture, but it's there. Love is another minimalist game, like Canabalt from my previous post, except it goes even further. It hits a level of pure abstraction that is rare in any modern games. You're playing a square that goes near other squares in order to score points. The creator of Love could have released this game without the philosophical thought behind it, and no one would know the difference.

However, it's the name that sets the tone for the rest of the game, and unveils its thoughtfulness. Love argues that love is a good thing, that it "makes your head spin" and gives you positive bonuses.

This is all well and good, until you dive a bit deeper. The game encourages you to switch between partners at a whim, hunting solely for your own personal gain. You're not to get too close to one of your partners, or you'll die. These are interesting takes on the concept of love, which the game tries to flesh out through its mechanics.

Then you add in the optional "Infidelity" mode, which lets the player control two characters at once, attempting to juggle two lives. While the idea is to make the game harder and, therefore, more stressful to play, Infidelity again sends a mixed message. By playing two sides, you get double your score in the game. Taken literally off its premise, living a double life is valuable, as long as you are skilled enough to keep in control.

What do you think about Love? Do you feel it depicts the emotion well? What changes would you make to the game to make it more accurate?