If There’s A Videogame That Utilizes Ace/Aro Love,
… it’d be Journey by thatgamecompany.
Journey is a stunningly beautiful puzzle game released 2012 for the PS3. It almost instantly became a hit worldwide. Gameplay is a short 5-10 hours, but it has heavy replay value and offers a powerful experience. But what made Journey special was its secret co op mechanic;
The player starts off alone, but there’s a chance to run into a similar-looking cloaked figure undergoing the same ‘journey’ as you. Should you choose to, the both of you can stick together as partners in your journey to reach the mountain. Your methods of communication are limited to emitting sonar ‘beeps’ every once and a while. So team-based puzzle solving requires patience and non-verbal communication between the two of you. Sticking close together in a ‘hug’ also recharges both your magical powers.
Eventually, the journey becomes more and more perilous, which cumulates to one last harsh struggle. By this point, you and your partner would have been together (nonverbally) for hours. There’s no guns, no fighting. There’s only the strength of comradery and the determination to reach your goals together.
At the end, you’re given the reveal that the second accompanying figure wasn’t an npc. It was another real person, playing the same game as you, filled with the same love and friendship that drove the two of you to enjoy the experience together.
Journey’s unique co op gained a reputation for being emotionally fulfilling and effective. Players would make new friends by contacting each other after finishing the campaign. People would circumvent the lack of verbal communication by drawing hearts in the snow. If one player got stuck, the other always waited nearby. If one player got attacked, the other always rushed to their rescue.
You don’t know the other person’s gender or age. You don’t know what their body looks like, or what their voice sounds like, or their degree of education or employment or marital status. And even so, this game encourages a special sort of love that very much mirrors aromantic and asexual affection.
(Journey Voyagers by thorilaart on DeviantArt)
Now obviously, this game probably wasn’t made with a-affection in mind. But it’s nevertheless applicable to how strong and fulfilling ‘love’ can strike us all, completely apart from any sexual context. If anyone ever feels as if their love is ‘limited’ or ‘not fully baked’, think of Journey and how powerful and special it’s made everyone feel.
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