Thanks to a J-list.com care package, I was able to play a few hentai titles before high-tailing it out of the country. While I’m hoping to play more once I get home (or once I break down and dual boot my Mac), I’d like to take a sec to tease out some patterns of sex/gender imagery I saw in and The Sagara Family. As the local h-game expert, Leigh Alexander has been dutifully consulted on this list. She says that while a lot of these patterns hold true for a hefty chunk of hentai, it’s important to remember that, like another medium, h-gaming is full of sub-genres–each with its own standard set of plots, archetypes, and other such analytically sexy fun. Without further ado, those sex/gender patterns:
-You playing from the perspective of a young male virgin.
-The story hinges around/is set in a non-traditional/queered family environment.
-An unexpected level of attention given to the act of being slapped by women.
-There is, of course, the overall assumption/perception of social interaction as a series of multiple choice questions, the correct answers to which will get you into someone’s pants.
-All women are beautiful; all women are potential sexual partners.
-Many of the women–even if they turn out to be sex pros–start as virgins.
-When a woman says “no,” it doesn’t necessarily mean “no.”
-Textual details take precedent over visual stimulus. (That ones not sex/gender-y, it just makes this language dork happy.)
Any h-game players want to do add to this list?
Bonnie Ruberg is a sex, technology, and video games journalist who contributes regularly to publications like The Economist, Forbes, and The Village Voice. By day she's also a comparative literature PhD student at UC Berkeley, where she studies French, English, gender, sexuality, surrealism and perversion. You can reach her at [her first name and last name, all one big word] AT gmail DOT com.
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:25 pm
Character archetypes as well, most of the games have a shy, bookish girl who turns out to be a secret freak, a loli character (who has always JUST turned 18) the overly obnoxious ‘girl next door/childhood friend’ who usually does most of the slapping.
Uhhhhhhh, subway groping is quite significant in many games.
November 3rd, 2007 at 10:18 am
As you’ve talked to Leigh Alexander, there’s no point in pointing you to her character archetype column in The Aberrant Gamer. Suffice to say that there are few real generalities in the medium, other than the fact the women are all beautiful, answering multiple choice questions will get you into someone’s pants, and the game is text heavy for reasons of economy. There’s not even that much still artwork either, or a lot of artwork which is merely minor variations of one another.
November 6th, 2007 at 3:27 am
Hmm, seems like it’d be an interesting media to play with, in an artistic way. I mean, I know that certain games take a more artistic approach–but I mean play with the gameplay, mess with it and see what it makes…
November 6th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
And the loli characters that only JUST turned 18 are usually only in that predicament in the translated english version :P
November 6th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
It’s been a while since I’ve played any, but back in the day…
When it’s not about multiple choice questions, it’s arranging your schedule so that you interact with the object of your affection as often as possible. This typically requires metagaming in the form of “mapping” the decision trees or min/maxing stats.
November 7th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Because clearly the more a boy rearranges his schedule to spend time with a girl, the more likely she is to let him in her pants :). Wait, actually…
November 7th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
I personally want more (okay, any) Mac-compatible H-games. Mac users need hentai love too.
March 1st, 2009 at 1:32 am
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