IMO One of the hardest parts about Emotions in games is the narrow edge between developing a loving relarionship and a caring One as a close friend. I loved the Characters and interactions in BG3 but Part of me wished there were also "comraderie Events" similar to stardew valley were there are Events for getting to know poeple closer without the intent to develop a sexual relarionship to the Character

Best way of designing intimacy in games?

Give both intimacy options names like Angel and Skye. Give the player no indication which one is male or female.

I honestly don't care if they do or don't add this stuff, but please make it skippable. The last thing I want is some boring corporate-approved formulaic bland sex scene that I have to suffer through in the middle of an interactive game. At least movies and shows let me 30-second skip past that stuff. All of them are exactly the same sequence. It's tedious.

As for flirtation being more important to in-game social interactions and dialog trees that could be fun. It could also set young people up for trouble. They'd be practicing the "wrong habits" that will get charges filed against them IRL.

The reason game designers are afraid of sex is because most of Western society is. Can games help turn that around? I don't know, but probably not. The USA is super puritanical about all things sex (but blood, gore, and violence are generally OK).

Take gf to burger place.

Take gf home.

Bang. Restore all health and status ailments.

Except crabs. Your character has crabs now.

How much more intimate do you need?

I've never found sex scenes in games appealing. First of all, there's rarely any build up to them. If there is, it's just sitting there, listening to an NPC talking about themseves for 10 minutes and selecting the "good" answer to gain "affinity points" and proceed with the dialogue.

Then you get to the sex scene, and it's either fade to black immediately (hopefully), or two uncanny valley dolls touching each other for a few seconds.

After the sex scene, the partner becomes another NPC, sitting there doing nothing, having completed their purpose. So inspiring.