When I started gaming in '79 (blue box set), my first character was the magic-user Damien the Undaunted. My second character...his wife. My next characters...their children. Of course, this was with my brother DMing (I was born in '66; he in '68), with a "party" of just 1 player (over Christmas break). It just seemed natural to create those characters as a family group.
In my first AD&D campaign (with me DMing), my friend Keith's first character was Julius Invincible (now a deity in my current campaign). His next character....Julius' father.
These family elements seem pretty core to the human experience, IMHO. In rpgs, we have the option of telling the story of one set of heroes (ala Conan, say, or Elric of Melnibone), or we have the option of telling stories that span generations (as The Hobbit moves into LotR). One option gives us the ability to really focus on a single individual (or sets thereof), whereas the other allows us to make items like a mithral coat or Sting have greater meaning (that Gimli is son of Gloin means nothing without The Hobbit to give context to who Gloin is).
It's tough to run campaigns that span generations if all of the PCs are loners, and they never have any romantic entanglements. Because I am interested in the passage of time, I have devised special rules IMC to slow the "campaign world" time it takes PCs to level, while allowing them to level in roughly the same "real world time". And, I've included incentives to become involved in real life (as opposed to constant adventuring) with the idea that at some point, you can stop and say "Five years have passed since...." without howls of protest at the wasted time.
I, for one, like romance in a game. I like long-term relationships. I don't go around targetting loved ones indiscriminately to make them a liability, and I make sure that my players see NPCs with children (or who are children), and NPCs who are involved in their own love stories (requited or not).
RC
