This week we played “Mystic Messenger” by Korean otome-game studio Cheritz. Though I had always been aware of dating sims and otome games from references in media, I had never gotten the chance to play one, so this one was my first. From what I knew of otome games, I kind of knew what to expect going into it, and for the most part, Mystic Messenger matched those expectations.
After having played the game for about a week, I initially and naively thought of the game’s system built around the idea of time, both as in-game currency and as a mechanism to trigger real-time based events, as simply clever and novel. However, upon reading the paper, its issues regarding the assumptions of the game’s target audience were made very apparent. As the paper notes, this type of system revolving around time assumes that women, the game’s target audience, either have random spurts of free time that they’d like to allocate towards taking on the emotional labor of dealing with a man’s problems or if they don’t, doing so is worth their time regardless of whether they are free or not. I remember thinking it was really interesting that when I mentioned to the RFA that I was not a woman, it was dismissed and joked by the characters, even though they had just been surprised by the idea of a woman entering their chat. Perhaps these systems in place that demand such emotional labor from the women who play this game could be interpreted as some sort of critical commentary on these stereotypes of women, but my experience playing the game didn’t exactly scream at me that the game was meant to be satirical in any way.
This is simply a conjecture I am making, based on my own personal experiences and being from Korea, but I wonder if part of why this game leans so far into traditional feminine stereotypes is because it was born out of Korea. From my own experiences, I’ve found that socially, people who stray too far out of the norm or what is expected, whether it be related to gender stereotypes or not, are often ostracized by their peers. In general, it’s always seemed to be that conformity is viewed as the path of least resistance, so straying too far from what might be “normal” can be considered taboo. I’ve seen this applied in the context of gender stereotypes as well, and I wonder if these societal norms in Korea that delineate from those of America (at least, the more progressive parts of America) are what this game was borne out of. In any case, I would love to see an otome game or dating sim that instead of leaning into gender stereotypes, flips them on its head and gives players the freedom to pursue relationships in a way that suits them best.
Your suggestion for an otome game or dating sim that challenges and subverts gender stereotypes is really cool! It reflects the desire for greater freedom and diversity in relationship dynamics within the genre. I wonder how games that provide players with the opportunity to pursue relationships on their own terms, unconstrained by traditional gender roles, can contribute to a more inclusive and empowering gaming experience.
I really appreciated your perspective and desire to see a dating sim game that flips gender stereotypes. Being Korean, I agree with your thoughts about extreme conformity and ostracization if one deviates from what is considered to be normal and acceptable. It’s definitely a lot more palpable when I go to Korea, and I wonder how the cultural differences manifested in the development process and initial reception outside the country.
I think your additional perspective on Korean culture was really interesting — it makes me wonder about why dating sims / otome games might be more popular within certain cultures, and ways that cultural norms affect representations of people and activities in games. Do you think there are ways in which Mystic Messenger’s mechanics or story beats could be changed to remove its reinforcement of problematic norms?