9 ms·

Worth being aware that this genre is essentially romance novels in game form. So it's capitalizing on sex drive, just like porn does, not some clever nuanced un

Worth being aware that this genre is essentially romance novels in game form. So it's capitalizing on sex drive, just like porn does, not some clever nuanced understanding of how to make conventional games appeal to women. Nothing wrong with that, but the article hides the fact for some reason.

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waheoo 6y ago
Pot, meet kettle. Games are still sex filled escapism. News at 11.
- arcticbull 6y ago
  I didn't realize Factorio was sex-filled escapism! Here I thought it was just vanilla escapism. I'll have to give it another go next time I find 6 straight months I don't mind blotting out.
  - Bakary 6y ago
    Factorio and its genre are escapism to an alternate fantasy world where there is a clear and linear connection to effort and reward. It's almost sexual in a way
  - whelming_wave 6y ago
    Factorio might not be, but that doesn't mean Huniepop is going to win awards for its writing.
    - watwut 6y ago
      I dont understand why this is downvoted. Huniepop was popular and praised and succesfull. There was also some controversy about it, sure. It was basically romance for men.
    - pototo666 6y ago
      Huniepop is actually good game. My wallet is wating for another game that surpasses Huniepop. I don't buy Huniepop 2 because I don't like the art style.
- hnlmorg 6y ago
  You’re unfairly getting downvoted. The games industry has always been male orientated. Whether it’s C64 games with drawings of blonde warriors in skimpy anime skins, or Lara Crofts triangle boobs in Tomb Raider. There’s always been a common theme with female protagonists: they have an idealistic figure with impractical clothing to match. This isn’t some opinion peace of the few either. The modern versions of Jumanji featured Karen Gillan in a sexy hot pants and a tight top as a direct parody of the clothing worn by female characters in computer games. It’s just western content: anime is frequently male oriented. There’s even a thing called “fan service” where popular anime’s pander to the lusts of male audiences. Obviously people will chip in with examples like Factorio and Sim City and yes, I agree that not all computer games are sexist. But a lot already are and it’s an established trope that has been called out many times in the past. (I appreciate this is written from a heterosexual perspective. Obviously I’m not suggesting that women can’t enjoy male-orientated content and visa versa)
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Blikkentrekker 6y ago
It's far worse than how you paint it. The article makes it seem as though it be a unicum, a new hole in the market dived into. Otome as a genre is old, and has been commercially viable for a very long time, and there are tonnes of products in it, not merely video games, but books, television series, theatre dramata and so forth.
- Noos 6y ago
  It hasn't been that much in the west, though. I actually own many otomate games, and generally they get discounted heavily after a bit. There's at least 5 on the switch right now, rereleases of code realize, piofore, collar x malice, cafe enchante, and more. Code realize i think bombed on the PS4. The anime exist but don't really seem to be too popular, even if the games are big. Diabolik lovers, Amnesia, etc. I think the female market is too segmented; female fans like shonen sports anime, boys love manga, traditional shoujo, yuri, and otome content.
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jhanschoo 6y ago
Also note that the same thing (erotica in mobile game form + loot boxes) but primarily catered to men are an established, and already quite crowded market in Japan.
- astrange 6y ago
  Mobile games are typically erotica-free because such things won't make it past iOS app review. The closest thing I can think of is Azur Lane[1], which is a Chinese game that sometimes pretends to be Japanese and is really really uncomfortably horny but still not quite there. [1] a clone of a Japanese game called Kantai Collection, which did the classic JP move of accidentally becoming super popular and dealing with this by refusing to improve anything and hoping their customers would go away.
  - jhanschoo 6y ago
    > Mobile games are typically erotica-free because such things won't make it past iOS app review. Ah, I meant the non-explicit ones. But note that the space has a lot of overlap with r18+ ones that are usually browser-based, but may have hybrid clients (including iOS ones for the sanitized clients but share the same account); DMM Games and its r19+ brand Fanza is a market leader in publishing them.
vagrantJin 6y ago
> capitalizing on sex drive Yeah, sex/romantic relationships are quite base and easier to sell than say universal paperclips about paperclips.
meheleventyone 6y ago
Sometimes a good idea is in hindsight an obvious one that everyone else has overlooked. If all that was required to make a huge company without taking VC funding was to make romance games for women and that’s a such an easy thing to do why was the niche so underserved? Or it wasn’t underserved and they were extremely good at it? Either way I don’t think the implication that people like sex means that these romance games were easier to make or easy to make appeal to women.
- watwut 6y ago
  1.) There are tons of romance products, so competition is actually high. Plus you gotta understand the market - there are many subgenres and expectations and so on. 2.) Despite being massive market amd financial success, romance is the most looked down at and despised genre. People just know it is stupid, regardless of whether they played or read piece in question. (See also universal "it is porn" dismissal regardless of whether the actual piece is smut or not).
astrange 6y ago
You need a lot of understanding to make a successful otome game, there are a lot of genre expectations. And of course successfully bending genre expectations takes even more understanding than just implementing them. I've heard stories of all-male teams trying to localize a Japanese game like this and changing all the parts women liked because they couldn't take them seriously. On the male side, there's a lot of bad visual novels that are trying to "improve on" or "take down" what they imagine are Japanese dating sim games, but have nothing to do with actual Japanese games because they've never played any of them, and so have little real appeal.

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waheoo 6y ago

Pot, meet kettle. Games are still sex filled escapism. News at 11.

arcticbull 6y ago
I didn't realize Factorio was sex-filled escapism! Here I thought it was just vanilla escapism. I'll have to give it another go next time I find 6 straight months I don't mind blotting out.
- Bakary 6y ago
  Factorio and its genre are escapism to an alternate fantasy world where there is a clear and linear connection to effort and reward. It's almost sexual in a way
- whelming_wave 6y ago
  Factorio might not be, but that doesn't mean Huniepop is going to win awards for its writing.
  - watwut 6y ago
    I dont understand why this is downvoted. Huniepop was popular and praised and succesfull. There was also some controversy about it, sure. It was basically romance for men.
  - pototo666 6y ago
    Huniepop is actually good game. My wallet is wating for another game that surpasses Huniepop. I don't buy Huniepop 2 because I don't like the art style.
hnlmorg 6y ago
You’re unfairly getting downvoted. The games industry has always been male orientated. Whether it’s C64 games with drawings of blonde warriors in skimpy anime skins, or Lara Crofts triangle boobs in Tomb Raider. There’s always been a common theme with female protagonists: they have an idealistic figure with impractical clothing to match. This isn’t some opinion peace of the few either. The modern versions of Jumanji featured Karen Gillan in a sexy hot pants and a tight top as a direct parody of the clothing worn by female characters in computer games. It’s just western content: anime is frequently male oriented. There’s even a thing called “fan service” where popular anime’s pander to the lusts of male audiences. Obviously people will chip in with examples like Factorio and Sim City and yes, I agree that not all computer games are sexist. But a lot already are and it’s an established trope that has been called out many times in the past. (I appreciate this is written from a heterosexual perspective. Obviously I’m not suggesting that women can’t enjoy male-orientated content and visa versa)

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Blikkentrekker 6y ago

It's far worse than how you paint it. The article makes it seem as though it be a unicum, a new hole in the market dived into. Otome as a genre is old, and has been commercially viable for a very long time, and there are tonnes of products in it, not merely video games, but books, television series, theatre dramata and so forth.

Noos 6y ago
It hasn't been that much in the west, though. I actually own many otomate games, and generally they get discounted heavily after a bit. There's at least 5 on the switch right now, rereleases of code realize, piofore, collar x malice, cafe enchante, and more. Code realize i think bombed on the PS4. The anime exist but don't really seem to be too popular, even if the games are big. Diabolik lovers, Amnesia, etc. I think the female market is too segmented; female fans like shonen sports anime, boys love manga, traditional shoujo, yuri, and otome content.

deleted 6y ago

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jhanschoo 6y ago

Also note that the same thing (erotica in mobile game form + loot boxes) but primarily catered to men are an established, and already quite crowded market in Japan.

astrange 6y ago
Mobile games are typically erotica-free because such things won't make it past iOS app review. The closest thing I can think of is Azur Lane[1], which is a Chinese game that sometimes pretends to be Japanese and is really really uncomfortably horny but still not quite there. [1] a clone of a Japanese game called Kantai Collection, which did the classic JP move of accidentally becoming super popular and dealing with this by refusing to improve anything and hoping their customers would go away.
- jhanschoo 6y ago
  > Mobile games are typically erotica-free because such things won't make it past iOS app review. Ah, I meant the non-explicit ones. But note that the space has a lot of overlap with r18+ ones that are usually browser-based, but may have hybrid clients (including iOS ones for the sanitized clients but share the same account); DMM Games and its r19+ brand Fanza is a market leader in publishing them.

vagrantJin 6y ago

> capitalizing on sex drive Yeah, sex/romantic relationships are quite base and easier to sell than say universal paperclips about paperclips.

meheleventyone 6y ago

Sometimes a good idea is in hindsight an obvious one that everyone else has overlooked. If all that was required to make a huge company without taking VC funding was to make romance games for women and that’s a such an easy thing to do why was the niche so underserved? Or it wasn’t underserved and they were extremely good at it? Either way I don’t think the implication that people like sex means that these romance games were easier to make or easy to make appeal to women.

watwut 6y ago
1.) There are tons of romance products, so competition is actually high. Plus you gotta understand the market - there are many subgenres and expectations and so on. 2.) Despite being massive market amd financial success, romance is the most looked down at and despised genre. People just know it is stupid, regardless of whether they played or read piece in question. (See also universal "it is porn" dismissal regardless of whether the actual piece is smut or not).

astrange 6y ago

You need a lot of understanding to make a successful otome game, there are a lot of genre expectations. And of course successfully bending genre expectations takes even more understanding than just implementing them. I've heard stories of all-male teams trying to localize a Japanese game like this and changing all the parts women liked because they couldn't take them seriously. On the male side, there's a lot of bad visual novels that are trying to "improve on" or "take down" what they imagine are Japanese dating sim games, but have nothing to do with actual Japanese games because they've never played any of them, and so have little real appeal.