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Saw this pop up under Simulations as a new game, looked to see what it was, and then found myself wondering....why?

(NSFW Warning- Game is Listed as Mature)

http://store.steampowered.com/app/321060/

And the Why? is really, what did the creators and publishers intend? As a game, its a visual novel based on the concept of people in a lab accident changing gender....and then turning into other things.

I've seen the discussions here of how gender is treated within games and how it is handled by publishing companies. Normally I shy away from such subjects, but this game struck me as the oddest release I have ever seen from Steam through Greenlighting.

I am wondering if this game is intended as something more than it seems. Do the creators wish to push an agenda for discussing certain subject matter, or is it something less complicated than that and is exactly what it looks like as it is.

More to the point, is this something Valve gave serious thought to as it got pushed in Up votes to be Greenlit? I know many games that deserve a chance went though the same process as this game, so since it is now Greenlit, it is there for people to look at and comment on.

Which revolves back to wondering what others think of this and any other greater implications for seeing other Steam games come down the pipeline.

It looks japanese, so if it their work, it's probably just what it looks like. I think they invented the spontaneous sex change trope.

I think $25 is a rip off, and the implication is the same for all games. If it sells, they'll make more of them.

Seems neat, if overpriced. I don't like visual novels though. I like to play games instead.

Yeah $25 is too steep for my tastes, especially with the fairly sloppy artwork now that I look at it. Whoever did the art for that game needs a cleaner to smooth everything out or something. Besides, sooner or later the whole thing will be on youtube, and really watching a visual novel is pretty much the same experience as playing one

Looks like a fairly standard Japanese game

The Japanese do have an odd fondness for Gender Bending fiction XD

 LordofHats wrote:
Yeah $25 is too steep for my tastes, especially with the fairly sloppy artwork now that I look at it. Whoever did the art for that game needs a cleaner to smooth everything out or something. Besides, sooner or later the whole thing will be on youtube, and really watching a visual novel is pretty much the same experience as playing one

Jim Sterling's already had a bash it at (in fact this is where I found out about the game). Not that I particularly like his videos on games like this.

Looks just as lame as any visual novel style game.

Besides, something going through greenlight has nothing to do with a game being worth while, Valve dropped the ball on that entire system.

It's a 100% generic japanese dating sim. Trash, as usual.

 WarOne wrote:
Saw this pop up under Simulations as a new game, looked to see what it was, and then found myself wondering....why?

(NSFW Warning- Game is Listed as Mature)

http://store.steampowered.com/app/321060/

And the Why? is really, what did the creators and publishers intend? As a game, its a visual novel based on the concept of people in a lab accident changing gender....and then turning into other things.

I've seen the discussions here of how gender is treated within games and how it is handled by publishing companies. Normally I shy away from such subjects, but this game struck me as the oddest release I have ever seen from Steam through Greenlighting.

I am wondering if this game is intended as something more than it seems. Do the creators wish to push an agenda for discussing certain subject matter, or is it something less complicated than that and is exactly what it looks like as it is.

More to the point, is this something Valve gave serious thought to as it got pushed in Up votes to be Greenlit? I know many games that deserve a chance went though the same process as this game, so since it is now Greenlit, it is there for people to look at and comment on.

Which revolves back to wondering what others think of this and any other greater implications for seeing other Steam games come down the pipeline.

Maybe the game is something more then it seems or maybe not. This trope is rather common in some places. Some times it's just silly fun, some times it's a metaphor for gender dysphoria (some times it's not that, but people take it as that anyway), some times it's both. It's almost always used as a vehicle to poke fun at the gender double standard.

Valve didn't worry. This is kind of the game greenlight was made for. A quirky game that will only appeal to a small number of people. A game like this is below valves notice.

I don't know what to think of it myself except I have too much of a backlog of quirky games I found on steam, so I don't think I will get to play it. (I kind of want to try some dating sims/visual novels to see what they are like.)

Wait, this is a game?

Shoot, I already saw a couple of videos of it online because a friend showed it to me; "Check this out", he said. 'GTFO" I said.

 Wyrmalla wrote:
Jim Sterling's already had a bash it at (in fact this is where I found out about the game). Not that I particularly like his videos on games like this.

To be fair, I had the exact same sigh he had after reading the name the game. Perhaps this is one of those notgames that appeals to all those people who don't like games. At least they give every indication of what the game is in the title.

To be fair, it's not a game, it's a visual novel.

It's more like a choose your own adventure story in a visual format (but with a gak ton more options). Some blend in RPG elements.

This isn't anything particularly special one way or another. The whole "Whoops! I changed my genitals" shtick is a pretty popular thing in certain circles, hardly anything new. Not sure why this is getting attention all of a sudden. It's got a target audience and they'll like it or whatever I'm sure. This seems like just a non-thing unless were kind of waiting for the exact premise with this exact setup in this exact format. *shrug*

 Chongara wrote:
This isn't anything particularly special one way or another. The whole "Whoops! I changed my genitals" shtick is a pretty popular thing in certain circles, hardly anything new. Not sure why this is getting attention all of a sudden. It's got a target audience and they'll like it or whatever I'm sure. This seems like just a non-thing unless were kind of waiting for the exact premise with this exact setup in this exact format. *shrug*

But this is Gender Bender DNA Twister Extreme! It's that same shtick but it sounds like a monster truck rally should be involved somewhere.

I don't think this is all that strange.being a Japanese visual novel I doubt they are trying to hard to tackle the themes of gender or take a real look at what life is like in the shoes of a person of another gender. I could be wrong though. I don't see why valve should be concerned by this game being green lighted at all. Steam rarely curates their page or worries about quality or content of the games on the site.m

There is a visual novel/dating game called hatoful boyfriend where you are a girl going to a all bird school and can date pigeons and other birds. That's far odder than this.

Probably the only reason this is getting so much attention is cause steam.

 daedalus wrote:

 Chongara wrote:
This isn't anything particularly special one way or another. The whole "Whoops! I changed my genitals" shtick is a pretty popular thing in certain circles, hardly anything new. Not sure why this is getting attention all of a sudden. It's got a target audience and they'll like it or whatever I'm sure. This seems like just a non-thing unless were kind of waiting for the exact premise with this exact setup in this exact format. *shrug*

But this is Gender Bender DNA Twister Extreme! It's that same shtick but it sounds like a monster truck rally should be involved somewhere.

Something along the lines of...?

 Melissia wrote:
To be fair, it's not a game, it's a visual novel.

What is the difference?

My disdain, mostly.

 Chongara wrote:

Spoiler:

Something along the lines of...?

Yeah... that's actually perfect.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

nomotog wrote:

 Melissia wrote:
To be fair, it's not a game, it's a visual novel.

What is the difference?

Ultimately, what's the difference between MS Paint and a game?

 SilverMK2 wrote:
Looks like a fairly standard Japanese game

Except it's made by a Canadian and an Aussie.

http://www.desura.com/company/transcendent/members

 Melissia wrote:
Probably the only reason this is getting so much attention is cause steam.

I'd rather say it's because it has "gender" in its name

 Platuan4th wrote:

 SilverMK2 wrote:
Looks like a fairly standard Japanese game

Except it's made by a Canadian and an Aussie.

http://www.desura.com/company/transcendent/members

Unsurprising. Those are about the only people more crazy than the Japanese


But is it weirder than this game?: http://store.steampowered.com/app/310080/

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 Platuan4th wrote:

 SilverMK2 wrote:
Looks like a fairly standard Japanese game

Except it's made by a Canadian and an Aussie.

http://www.desura.com/company/transcendent/members

Unsurprising. Those are about the only people more crazy than the Japanese


But is it weirder than this game?: http://store.steampowered.com/app/310080/

The pigeon game wins hands down on art quality.

Basicly Deviant Art: The Game, like someone said in the user reviews.

nomotog wrote:

 Melissia wrote:
To be fair, it's not a game, it's a visual novel.

What is the difference?

A visual novel is more or less what the name says. Instead of playing a game, you're reading a story with a lot of (anime-style) pictures. Usually, there will be a few key points where you can make an A/B choice that will influence the plotline in some fashion (and provide a small degree of replayability). But there are also some that don't even allow that.

Most Japanese visual novels are romance stories, and frequently include at least one scene with sex and nudity.



Some of them have ended up being quite popular in Japan, spawning sequel after sequel, as well as tv shows. One of the strangest is probably Muv-Luv, which started out as an apparently "normal" visual novel... before being followed up by sequels that had the protagonist suddenly shifted to an alternate reality Earth in which the planet was in a fight for survival with an alien species that functioned an awful lot like tyranids. The sequels have spawned at least one (and possibly two) anime side stories that don't involve any of the characters in the visual novels, but instead focus on events going on elsewhere at the same time during the alien war.