Angry Gaming 04.30.07: The Lost Art of the Dating Sim
Posted by Damian Sarcuni on 04.30.2007
A look at what happens when sexual revolutions go horribly, horribly wrong.
Welcome to Angry Gaming, the tease of a female who wants to be just friends with the raging hormonal teenage boy that is the gaming industry. I am your hate master, Damian Sarcuni, and as you've probably guessed by now I'm having minor girl trouble. KLOKBUNG!!!
The Lost Art of the Dating Sim
I ran into an old friend recently, really she was an old friend's ex-girlfriend. I hadn't seen her since I was 16 years old and back then whenever anyone tried to get near her to even talk my "alpha male" of a friend would get all pissy about it. I never really had the chance to talk to this girl because of it, as most of us didn't want to hear my friend's mouth for the rest of the evening just for the sake of chatting with her. Yet despite that, I always had a crush on her and after all these years it felt like a god sent that I could now pursue it.
So I took her out for lunch as friends, and as is often the case with cross gender friendships, most of her conversation steered directly towards the one topic I didn't want to hear about in the slightest: her boyfriend. Now to her credit, she didn't go on and on about what a great relationship she was having or hand me some grocery list of adjectives describing how great her guy was. Most of her talk was simply based around the things she had been doing with her life lately, and as is the case with all normal relationships, her significant other was heavily involved in that.
Despite this, I found myself engaging in what I believe was a certain amount of flirting with her. I say "I believe" because as I've mentioned in my very first article here at 411, I'm usually clueless as to the signals of the opposite sex. Regardless of that, I did my best to communicate my position and let her know that I liked her. She didn't go for it of course, and at one point she even asked me if I knew she had a boyfriend, after spending the entire day talking about it. I sometimes wonder if comments like that come to a girl's mind simply out of defensive panic, or are the females of the species really that far at a loss of common sense.
I thought about this a lot on the long drive home, and as usual my thoughts turned to brooding on the sexual dysfunction of today's societies and how virtual entertainment is becoming the substitute for sex these days. I wondered how a man; or woman for that matter, who was even slightly lacking in social experience could possibly read the necessary body language and subtle innuendos that make finding companionship so difficult. Why don't they teach us about this stuff in sexual education classes? Why isn't there a training simulator for this sort of thing?
Then it hit me. There is, or rather there were, training simulators for human social interaction right on our own computers and video game consoles. Yet most people outside of Japan never got a chance to try these games because there never seemed to be a market for it. If you've never played one, a dating sim is a game that usually focuses on one male character surrounded by female characters. Through conversational responses and RPG elements, the object of these games is to guide the main character into some form of a relationship, all the while learning valuable and not so valuable lessons about the opposite sex.
Dating sims have always been considered silly Japanese novelties, along with used panty vending machines and toilets that resemble shower drains. But this gaming genre can remain only in the land of the rising sun no longer. The rest of the world needs dating sims now, and I've got three reasons that might make you think twice before writing the genre off as whacky and useless.
They're Already Here (Sort of)
I'm spruuuuung! How'd she GET MEEEEE! That song is one of the worst ever. Ironically, Sprung, one of the debut titles on the Nintendo DS, was also one of the worst games ever. Sprung was about the closest thing to mainstream dating sim title ever seen outside of Japan. Released in late 2004 and early 2005, Sprung followed the misadventures of a young man and woman who were long time friends that travel together on a ski trip. The object of the game was to actually get these two characters to fall for each other, and to do this one had to go through dozens of conversational choices, most of which would end the game and force players to reload and start over again and again. Although there were also useable items in the game, obtaining and using these items was so convoluted the game might as well have not used them in the first place.
Yet what Sprung lacked as a dating sim, other games have made up for. Several key elements in Japanese dating sims have been incorporated into other games, and these have been huge hits outside of Japan. For example, finding love in The Sims or any of its countless expansion packs and sequels usually involves keeping two of your Sims close together. When you command your Sims to do complimentary things for each other over time, they eventually warm up to each other and hook up. Sure, The Sims is a simulator for every day life and love is meant to be incorporated into that, but it's still a key element in a dating simulator. Even if Electronic Arts were to pull their current romance system from The Sims and incorporate it into an actual dating sim, the necessary basics would still be there.
How about in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, where the main character CJ has to maintain relationships with several women in order to achieve certain goals throughout the game? Rockstar games didn't just casually throw in a side quest or two in this endeavor. The dating system in San Andreas is large enough to be its own game entirely. Here, different girls have different preferences in gifts, restaurant choices, and dating activities. Depending on your choices in each of these, CJ's relationship either blossoms or wilts, eventually leading him to achieve a desired goal or gain a bonus in the game. The famous Rockstar "hot coffee" mod which allowed CJ to have sex with these women isn't so shocking either when you think about it: X rated hentai dating sims have been popular in Japan for years now.
The point here is that dating sim elements might appear cheesy when lumped all into one game, but they are not unheard of in the western game market. In fact, when introduced as a smaller part of an epic game or series, they become quite popular.
The Evolution of the Genre
Like many other people my age, I tend to appreciate nearly all things Japanese. Yet just because a certain country created something first, does not mean they created it the best. In the case of dating sims, up until now most titles within the Japanese genre have used strict RPG interfaces, usually consisting of a bunch of first person views and character designs. Dating sims didn't exactly evolve with the 3D era, and when we consider the enhancements made in the latest generation of gaming hardware, the possibilities are endless.
Think about how many of your poor, pathetic friends have found love and romance online, or more specifically in MMRPG's. The social systems used in those games, such as guilds and wedding events, do take a backseat to the typical RPG game play of killing monsters and leveling up personal characters. There is no reason, however, that this order can't be switched around. Why not have a multiplayer dating sim? If people playing online fantasy and RPG titles are hooking up at an alarming rate anyway, why not just cut out the middle man and do an MMO completely dedicated to the romantic aspects of these games? If nothing else, it would make RPG purists that much happier; watching your friends make /kiss emotes while you are trying to kill orcs and slay dragons is not exactly a thrilling experience.
Even the Nintendo DS, which has already seen its first attempt at the dating sim genre, is moving into a position for improved dating sim titles. Gamers may have thumbed their noses at Sprung, but Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney was somewhat of a hit for the portable system and with a few good writers, the system that made it so good can be applied to a new, better dating sim. If nothing else, bringing a fresh genre into the mainstream would certainly switch things up for western gamers, and developers could easily capitalize off the controversy that would come from these more adulterated games.
Because We Need Them, Damn It!
Lately, developers have become far more personal with their content, and the latest and greatest titles available have struck a chord with gamers on a political and social level. Much in the same way that San Andreas was somewhat of a political commentary about life in the ghetto during the 90's, dating sims have an opportunity to really expose and elaborate on the social and romantic changes going on in western culture.
Look, up until recently The Jerry Springer Show was one of the most popular things on television. Audiences both live and at home were ecstatic to see society's most deranged and exotic relationships and dirty laundry aired for all to see, usually with explosive results. In reality TV, where romantic interaction is usually heavily documented and publicized, the voyeuristic fascination continues today. Everyone is watching these things, but writers and designers have not been able to really commentate on them yet. The game industry has an opportunity to really expand people's minds and look at a society that is accepting a broader range of relationships and lifestyle than ever before.
If done poorly, a dating sim based on real western culture would create a lot of anger and shock, much like a movie or TV show of the same base. But done properly, a dating sim that incorporated new social values could both educate people and be all the more entertaining because of it. I specifically like the idea of using video games as the medium to communicate this as well, because the target age of older gamers are definitely the ones who could use the most assistance in the dating world. The entire world is changing in the way we look at relationships and there is a lot of confusion (which often turns into pain) that goes along with it. Since nobody has any answers, nobody is talking. I am certain that someone out there is just waiting for the right way to share their romantic impressions with the world, and dating sims would simply be an excellent and ultimately welcome way to do that.
The Anger
And so, the struggle to find (or in some cases avoid) companionship in this jumbled mess of a world continues. I suppose I should mention that there are several independently developed dating sims available online, and should you be curious enough to play one I warn you to proceed with caution. Some of those games out there are either poorly developed or utterly disgusting, depending on your point of view. I'm usually the first one to mock someone going overboard enough to try something like a dating sim, but if there is one thing I've learned lately, you have to embrace originality wherever you can find. So until next time, play with romance, embrace the hatred.
