- Nov 6, 2020
- 27
- 67
Eh, yes and no. The two types of relationships can certainly overlap or blur and I do agree that it's pointless to "get super hung up on trying to differentiate them" because most games on here contain a mix and not strictly one or the other. And considering there is no poly tag and both types are currently tagged as harems, it seems the site admins agree that there's no point in differentiating.
However, unlike your example of squares and rectangles where, indeed, all squares are by definition rectangles, not all harems are polyamorous. At least not with the common definitions. The simplest definition of a polyamorous relationship being consensual nonmonogamy i.e. mutual non-exclusivity between partners whereas a harem describes one person (the one with the harem) having many partners (harem members) exclusive to them.
This game even makes a distinction between the two, like tbarton is referring to, with the ep14 choice to keep relationships separate or to combine them. Unfortunately, this game calls the poly path (with the combined, open group relationship) the harem path and does not correctly label keeping the many separate relationships between Camden and the others a harem path. And I say this as someone who is on (and enjoying) the harem/poly path.
Should probably not discuss this topic further in the thread but I'm fine to keep talking in PMs.
