Mobile Game for the Lovely Soul
If you are single, love good storytelling and are open to playing games. I guarantee. This is the right article to read. 😘
Not long ago I watched Netflix a limited series, Web of Make Believe: Death, Lies and the Internet: Death by SWAT. A story about somebody’s life tragedy because of some game. The story starts with one profile that plays the SIMS 4 and she explains the reason why she is playing the game. She said, If real life isn’t making me feel good, I’m gonna play this game and spend a majority of my time doing this.
While watching the series, my thought was oh, I know how it felt. The related feeling runs through my soul. Sometimes I feel the world is cruel when it doesn’t work as I expected. The cruelness leaves anxiety, disappointment, and worst it leaves loneliness.
I believe people have their own coping mechanisms to make things feel right and whole again. While one of my coping mechanisms is playing video games. Either be a mobile game or a PC game.
My kind of game criteria are; having heartwarming storytelling, super good character development, the experience of gameplay and I don’t have to pay in terms of finishing the story. Please, game developers, the last criterion is important. I know you were trying to have a business, but please do it smoothly.
I play many game genres, such as puzzles, adventure, words, and many others. However, I’d like to mention one specific genre to talk about in this article. Let’s talk about a dating simulation game. Yes!
They name the genre a dating simulation because it is most likely like dating in real life. The whole journey of the game is to fill a love metre for one character among several characters in the game. Many things the player can do to fill the love metre; it can be from the dialogue that a player chooses, sending the character a gift, giving them a gesture such as rubbing their head, or asking them to help.
The character will also develop due to changing the love metre. For example, when the first day of playing the character's dialogue was short, some kind of cold to the player. Meanwhile, on day five, the character dialogue changes to show more interest to the player.
Pretty similar to dating in real life, right?
Since I’m pretty much interested in the dating simulation game, I took some time to learn about its history. The first game that set a standard for dating simulation games was Dokyusei made in Japan, in 1992. However, the game that popularised the genre was Tokimeki Memorial, 1994. When the player is in high school simulation and surrounded by dozens of girls that are able to be dating.
Then the interesting phenomenon shows up in 1994 the game called Angelique was released that targeted women in the age of teen to play the game. Surprisingly the game was played by a wider range of ages and became the first simulation game for women.
As technology grows and the mobile phone arrives. Then the majority of people in the world are addicted to their phones. The game also evolved to be played in mobile games.
So, the basic behaviour of using a mobile phone was to get messages and receive a phone, right?
I’m about to blow your mind. The character in the dating simulation game can call you and send you a message nowadays. Please accept my standing applause for the game developer. Sincerely, player one.
I’d like to take two wonderful examples of games that could fulfil my desire as a player. The first one is Mystic Messenger from South Korea, Cheritz. The second is Obey Me! From Japan, NTT Solmare Corporation.
Those two games have a professional voice-over. So once the player gets a phone call, it feels like it is talking to a real person rather than a character in-game. Many games probably have the same thing for their game. But for me as a dating simulation player, the voice-over makes the character more humanise.
Then, what are the reasons playing this dating simulation game is a sweet escape from my anxiety and loneliness in life?
The fact that some countries, such as the UK, treat loneliness as an epidemic. The causes of loneliness of course vary. I think technology also took a part in it. Even before the pandemic happens in 2020, technology has not always given a good impact on society. Most people become lonelier because of social media. There are continuing discussions about why social media gives a bad influence on people. CNBC once wrote in an article in 2020, stating that seven out of 10 heavy social media users reported feelings of loneliness.
Here is a podcast I listened to as proof the discussion about the loneliness epidemic was out there.
This statement from Sarah Adler, PsyD, chief clinical director of therapeutic-services practice Octave, in some article. The understanding for being alone is just a state. You are actually not with other people around you. Sometimes you also create the actual situation of being alone. Loneliness is an emotion, which describes a feeling of sadness attributed to not having a connection.
Meanwhile, from what I experience. Having loneliness lingering in life most of the time feels like, I wish people wanted me because it is not just to fulfil their needs to be happy, but also to make me happy.
To make it simple, I carved for a connection, to be the centre of attention, but had no one to connect with. Yet, most of the time it is not as simple as I could grab my phone and calling one of my friends. Then asked them to have a cold beer on Sunday afternoon.
In a dating simulation game, the player as the main character is the centre of the game. So during the game, all the characters wanted attention. While the player is giving the character attention, the love metre will increase. As the characters develop, the storytelling gets even better. This is where the game fills the human heart that is empty because of loneliness, temporarily. At least until the game comes to an end.
On the contrary, some dating simulation games have various endings. Just like a real relationship, sometimes we are having a toxic relationship or bad ending in games. There is a normal ending, yet, the one I always aimed for when playing the game was, of course, a good ending. Happily ever after.
In the end, since it is a game, and every character is fiction. If I got a bad ending in the game, I could just restart the game and walk through a new path because I have learned from the previous path. Those things would never happen in real life without breaking someone’s lovely soul.
I really hope the reader could have another point of view on seeing those who love playing games. Or anything else that this article could help provide. I would be glad.
Thank you for reading the article!
Originally I wrote this article as an essay while I was applying for a Master's degree. Then I’ve got rejected. Although, the reason was not because of this essay.
I decided to publish the essay as a readable article. I thought I should award myself since I put an effort to do the research and I also put my heart’s content while writing the essay. And I am no longer looking for a Master's degree. It’s just that my focus has been switched elsewhere.
I did make some changes from the original essay to this article. I make it a little less serious, plus adding a lot of my perspective as a gamer as well.
Oh, while writing this essay, even now, I dream of having an interview with a game developer from Cheritz or NTT Solmare Corporation. Please Medium, do your magic!
By the way, if you have any opinion about the article you could drop a comment on the post or poke me on Twitter and Instagram. I am not recommended to follow my account, because sometimes I just post a silly story of my life there hahaha!
See you in the next story! Bye!
