Pete seems to be confused about the difference between dating games, where the player wins if he gets a girl to "confess", and eroge, which is short for "erotic game", and in which the player wins if he manages to have sex with one or more of the girls. (Both of which are distinct from otome games in which the protagonist is a girl, and in which you win if one of the boys confesses.)

Yosuga no Sora is based on an eroge. The World Only God Knows is about a nerd who is good at playing dating games (not eroge). I'm not clear on which kind of game it is that the imouto is hooked on in My Sister can't be this cute.

I personally don't have any interest in either kind of game, but given how violent a large proportion of eroge are, I find them a lot more objectionable. Rape is very common, and child molestation is nearly universal, and some kinds of eroge are notorious for their dungeon scenes.

I don't have the same kind of visceral objection to dating games, I just think they're insipid. And the idea that any game like that would teach you any kind of lesson applicable to the real world is ludicrous.

UPDATE: By the way, a visual novel is different again. Dating games and eroge don't tend to have story lines. They set up a situation, and there may be events as time passes, but the story is the player's interaction with the girls. Visual novels (e.g. Clannad) are much deeper.

I also thought I'd mention that one of the creepiest scenes in Bottle Fairy shows Tama-chan, the kindergartener next door, playing a dating game.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 10:52 AM | Comments (18) | Add Comment
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