![]() When Alex’s creepy ass arrives at the literature club, he is stunned to see the club is “full of incredibly cute girls!!” Classy. Regardless, one day, Sayori invites Alex to her book club, the “Doki Doki Literature Club,” which Alex hesitantly attends, in spite of his worries that it will be filled with a bunch of losers (ironic, I know). Yet, Alex treats her like shit, whether that means scoffing at her “laziness” (which is later revealed to be one of her depressive symptoms) or calling her ditzy or embarrassing. This friend, Sayori, has been his neighbor since childhood and does nothing but watch out for Alex and encourage him to make friends. The protagonist (whom I named Alex because God knows I’d never bestow my real name to such a misogynistic, insensitive, pathetic loser) is a high school boy with exactly one friend. Even though the protagonist is faceless, it is clear from the limited dialogue options you are given in each encounter that you are a terrible (and horny) person. The contrast shows how merely operating from a problematic framework or mindset can lead you to ignore or justify accordingly problematic worldviews.Ī primary way in which DDLC elicits such discomfort to confront the male gaze is through the protagonist. But when you’re immersed in the gameplay and the game starts drawing attention to those issues, not only are you too engaged to be able to ignore the discomfort, you’re also much more sensitive to the ways in which your prior expectations are subverted. Dating simulators are non-threatening and comforting, so it can be tempting to overlook the issues with the genre. This creates an implicit association between “dating simulators” and “horror,” while the emphasis on the former lulls the player into a false sense of security. #Doki doki literature club logo japanese full#The passing mention of a “psychological horror experience” in a trailer full of cutesy anime girls causes cognitive dissonance (especially when these darker themes are not directly mentioned any further in their promotional materials), but more importantly, the brief hint at the true nature of the game establishes a set of expectations. However, DDLC is also billed as a psychological horror game, though the “horror” aspect is only briefly alluded to in gameplay trailers and plot summaries. The mere fact that the characters in such games are programmed to “love” the player reinforces the lack of agency women are afforded and constructs a fantasy world in which “no” simply isn’t a possible answer. It is a brazen objectification of women, and its existence revolves around the perpetuation of the male gaze. It should come as no surprise that this subgenre traditionally caters to men, and female characters are often the ones to be “wooed.” The concept of a dating simulator, as a result, is inherently problematic. #Doki doki literature club logo japanese simulator#A dating simulator is essentially a subgenre of video games in which the explicit purpose is to charm a romantic interest by managing things like “time,” “affection” and “trustworthiness.” The goal is to simulate the experience of wooing and dating an actual person, but in reality, it’s really just to pretend you can get into someone’s pants. The moral murkiness of dating simulators, the protagonist’s nauseating attitude toward the women around him and the restrictive stereotypes that said women are pigeonholed into all coalesce into a fascinating discussion of how the male gaze warps reality itself.ĭDLC is heavily informed by the dating simulator genre and, in promotional materials, it’s primarily advertised as a dating sim. Salvato’s game, dubbed DDLC, is a genre-bending, hard-to-define visual novel, structured as a Japanese anime-style dating simulator. In his 2017 psychological horror game, “Doki Doki Literature Club!,” game developer Dan Salvato critically examines the misogyny that’s particularly relevant in games and other media by parodying the male gaze itself. What’s obviously even more horrifying - to an extent I can never truly understand, given my own identity as a cisgender man - is the harm this misogyny results in. There’s something deeply unsettling about the inner machinations of the minds of horny cishet men, especially when narratives are already predominantly centered around and written by them. This article contains mentions of depression and self-harm. ![]()
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