2. Yo!
● Video Game Critic
● Social Justice Activist
● Creative Writing MA at San Francisco
State University
3. Love, Sex... in Video Games?
● How romance usually goes: Dragon Age:
Origins - Alistair Romance
● The 'standard' for sex scenes: Mass
Effect 3 - Liara Sex Scene
● A rare emotional reaction: Reaction video
to Katawa Shoujo's Rin
4. Sexual Scripts... How do they work?
● Shared cultural protocol for romantic
and sexual interactions
● Three kinds of scenarios:
1. Cultural
2. Interpersonal
3. Intrapsychic
5. Contemporary Romance in Video Games
● Visual Novels & Dating Sims
1. Mainly heterosexual, cisgender,
Japanese/American(?) boys
2. Situations revolve around romance
● Romance Subplots of Role-Playing
Games
1. Separate from everything else
2. Part of 'Hero's Journey'
6. Sexual Scripts in Games
● Reinforces hegemony, particularly from
a heterosexual boy's perspective
● Sex is the end-goal or reward for
attaining relationships
● Perpetually stuck in adolescent
interactions
7. What about the rest of us?
● Women: Also reinforce hegemony, but
in a 'what men think women want'
manner
● PoC and disabilities: Rarely included
and often fetishized
● LGBT: On the rise in representation,
though typically used for heterosexual
fantasies
9. Persona 4
● Dating while solving murders, saving the
world, and getting good grades
● Deals with
sexuality and
gender
identity in a
heterosexist
bias
10. Katawa Shoujo
● Creates a bland, generalized boy
character for heterosexual men to
easily relate to
● Exotifies love
interests by
emphasizing their
disabilities
11. Re: Alistair++
● The girl protagonist presents herself in
a manner according to the love
interest's tastes
● Nothing sexual is
alluded to; rather,
each love interest
is a different
shade of 'knight in
shining armor'
12. Hatoful Boyfriend
● Satirizes otome games by substituting
out typical bishounen for... pigeons
● The game
becomes how
much the player
can get involved
with the love
interests despite
being pigeons
14. Don't it personally, babe, it
just ain't your story
● Forces the player to realize their
meddling nature
● The player can
only react, not
dictate, queer
relationships
15. Absolute Obedience
● The trysts of gay men use tropes from
gay pornography and yaoi fanfiction.
● Who is this game
for? Homosexual
men or
heterosexual
women?
16. Dragon Age II
● The politics of every character being
attracted to the player, no matter what
the gender
● A large, visible
company
introducing gay
relationships to
their typically
heterosexual male
audience
17. Encyclopedia Fuckme and The
Case of the Vanishing Entree
● Uses the form of
CYOA to speak to
the player's
experience
● Negotiates with and
trains the player
like in a sexual
relationship
18. Ending Thoughts
● More experiments with how narrative
structure interacts with players on a
romantic/sexual level
● Diversify game development- the
industry needs minority devs
● Conceptual game mechanics based of
philosophy instead of skill
● Create games for diverse audiences
instead of assuming a 16-24 year-old
hetereosexual, cisgender dude.