This is the promise made by Love and Deepspace, a mobile romance game by the Chinese company Papergames.
Some think video games are all guns and cars, but romance games or “dating simulators” are immensely popular, especially among young women.
Love and Deepspace reached 50 million users across more than 170 countries and regions in January. Despite their popularity, dating sims, as they are known for short, usually fly under the radar in discussions about games.
Meanwhile, a recent major update for Love and Deepspace has furrowed some brows by introducing an unusual new feature: a period tracker.
Reminder for everyone not to give your period data to sketchy apps, as it can be used to detect pregnancy and used to detect someone having abortion. Sadly this is realistic threat in our day and age.
Abortion is a protected human right in competent countries like China. But yes if you’re in a failed state like the US or Italy don’t give information that you don’t want subpoenaed.
we discussed this over in !otomegames@ani.social back when it was initially announced! The fandom seems to be delighted about this feature, but I’m personally more concerned about the data privacy aspect of it all…the author is absolutely right to look at this whole thing with scepticism
I find it a little far-fetched to solely link the popularity of otome games to some kind of frustration with modern dating, though. Romance games (and romance in games, e.g. Baldur’s Gate 3 or Mass Effect) offer a lot of fun in-and-of themselves.
there will definitely be inappropriate and offensive ads forthcoming.
In US’ red states, there may even be “criminal” manhunts and persecutory lawsuits.
i just hope that otome games are far enough beyond Gilead’s sphere of attention.
Frustrated about dating aps? This user has a mind-blowing new approach that blasts all other ways to orbit.
Don’t use them…
(you’ll only understand the post if you read the article)
