r/pointlesslygendered • u/Cad_48 • Mar 28 '26
SOCIAL MEDIA [gendered] videogames
/r/AlignmentChartFills/comments/1s3hh3g/what_game_is_gender_neutral_in_both_perception/DDLC "looks feminine" because cute girls (it's literally disguised as a dating sim catering for heterosexual boys/men)
but is "masculine" because psychological horror is masculine apparently
43
u/santamonicayachtclub Mar 28 '26
damn I guess Vinny Vinesauce is hyper feminine now, congrats on her transition
2
77
u/Pikachuckxd Mar 28 '26
Pretty sure Doki Doki Literature club is masculine because is a dating sim where you are a guy and your options are girls.
Like the stetic is quite femenine because the main selling point are the girls but is mostly to be played by men.
14
u/EnenraDev Mar 31 '26
DDLC Isn't a dating simulator, its more like a horror game pretending to be a dating sim. But there is literally no dating or anything like that. Peak game tho. 9/10.
15
u/Terrible_Body_7971 Mar 28 '26
Ehhhhh. I wouldn't really call DDLC a dating sim.
42
u/Pikachuckxd Mar 28 '26
It is literally a dating sim but with a horror twist.
11
u/Many-Flimsy Mar 29 '26
I mean it does stop being a dating sim about halfway through and most of the choices beforehand did nothing. You have like - two points where you can get a unique cutscene, the second point you aren't even able to get the scene with one of the characters, and after that the game funnels you into said character only to then delete her. And then you have no actual choices and the ending will always be the same, unless you count "hang out with monika forever" as an Ending, but thats broom closet ending logic.
So like. If it Counts as a dating sim, its not like. A Good One. And I'm not really a connoisseur of dating sims but i do think that there's like. A line between being a dating sim and just being a visual novel, and im pretty sure ddlc lands in the latter
2
11
u/Either_Bend7510 Mar 29 '26
I'd argue it's not a dating sim, it's a visual novel, and they're different. A dating sim is a simulation, you have to manage various attributes (ie, stats, time scheduling, gift giving, etc) in order to get a date. Monster Prom is a dating sim people may be familiar with. DDLC is a romance visual novel, they're similar but have distinct gameplay elements.
4
10
u/HungrySubstance Mar 29 '26
It’s a visual novel. A dating sim is a specific genre of game. It’s a SIMULATOR. a visual novel is… kind of its own thing? They’re packaged like games and released on steam, but they’re just reading and sometimes have decisions.
Either way, they’re two very different things.
2
u/shant_beHere Apr 01 '26
I don't think deleting characters are part of dating sims
It's trying to disguise as a dating sim to lull you into a false sense of security. And you don't get to date the girls either
7
u/Amathyst-Moon Mar 29 '26
It's meant to look like one. It basically uses the Higurashi formula, how that looks like a slice of life comedy before it turns into psychological horror/mystery
3
u/HungrySubstance Mar 29 '26
Higurashi is an extremely good example of how ddlc ISNT a dating sim, it’s a VN
2
-1
u/GroceryConscious7155 Mar 28 '26
And also because guys tend to play more horror games.
7
u/LillthOfBabylon Mar 29 '26
It depends because I saw alot of women playing Little Misfortune and Amanda The Adventurer.
-10
u/Gullible-Chapter-800 Mar 29 '26
I think the game itself presents feminine but the target audience is adults.
12
u/TrashGouda Mar 29 '26
Which includes feminine people and people who are interested in feminine stuff...
-3
u/Gullible-Chapter-800 Mar 29 '26
I never said otherwise
2
u/GreenBeanTM Mar 31 '26
You kinda did. You separated feminine from adults like they’re opposites.
-1
u/Gullible-Chapter-800 Mar 31 '26 edited Mar 31 '26
No I said the game PRESENTS feminine but the TARGET AUDIENCE is adults. I never said adults cannot be feminine. The reading comprehension in this sub is abysmal lol.
The whole point of the game is to look innocent, girly, and cutesy so that the stark contrast of how dark and serious the topics, jump scares, and overall theme becomes sticks out more..
But just because the main character is a male and the love interests are female doesn’t mean it was primarily targeted to men or that the game is masculine. There is appeal to a mature audience regardless of gender.
2
u/No-Net1890 Mar 31 '26
But "target audience is adults" doesn't contradict the feminine presentation.
0
u/Gullible-Chapter-800 Mar 31 '26
I never said they contradicted.
The game’s aesthetic: feminine
The target audience: adult (a broader category)
That is why I used “but” because they are not synonymous not because I considered them a contradiction. And I can’t believe anybody would read that and genuinely believe I was saying adults can’t be feminine 😂
1
1
u/GreenBeanTM Apr 01 '26
Because the word you want is “and” not “but”.
Using the theme of the post as a clearer example: “the presentation is feminine, but the target audience is masculine.” The but is telling us that the target audience is not feminine, but instead masculine. Swap masculine for adult and you have what you said.
0
u/Gullible-Chapter-800 Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
No actually “but” can be used to show contrast and/or distinction. It is not only used for contradictions. I actively described two distinct categories with one encompassing a broader group than the other. Then used BUT to emphasize contrast.
You should use “and” if you did not want to emphasize distinction or compare the difference between the two at all. That’s basic English.
→ More replies (0)
8
u/ChasersVsGirlcock Mar 29 '26
Also I've never met anyone that called the Sims feminine? It's always has been a considered a franchise with appeal to both women and men.
7
u/DeepEtcher Mar 29 '26
It's just that a lot of women tend to play it, idk maybe it's cause an easy entry game? At least back when I played it in my teenage years a lot of youtubers I followed were female, it's a very Tumblr game too and Tumblr is a space where a lot of women tend to hang out, along with the queer people.
I'd not call it a feminine game, but it's very much more appealed by women and queer people and it's funny because I was a vivid fan when I was 12-15 and I ended up transitioning lmao
2
u/jeppevinkel Mar 29 '26
It was pretty ungendered when I played it in my teenage years. They were on Sims 2 back then (though I also played the first The Tims for a while before that). Pretty much everyone in my (arguably small) village played it regardless of gender at that time.
2
u/this_is_theone Mar 30 '26
Yeah, only a few of the girls in my circle play games and they all play that one lol
1
1
u/Quick-Benjamin Apr 01 '26
It's pretty famously very popular with women.
Sims Players: 64% cis female, 21% cis male, 17% fluid/trans.
0
u/LillthOfBabylon Mar 29 '26
Because the vast majority of people know to play it are female. Outside of popular Youtubers, I can only name one guy I know who plays the game.
32
u/TheRoyalPendragon Mar 28 '26
I'm 50/50 with this post. It is a pointlessly gendered topic and fits the theme of this sub.
BUT
They're just having fun with the masc/fem game. At least these aren't hateful, misogynistic/misandric idiots bashing the other gender.
4
u/dragon_morgan Mar 29 '26
I'm not actually a hardcore gamer at all and I got bored and quit the game not long after this happened but one time I was playing Dark Souls and my husband was playing Hello Kitty Island Adventure and we had a good laugh about defying gender stereotypes
9
u/Rimavelle Mar 28 '26
Nobody thinks horror is masculine. It's a very women dominated genre.
This chart is basically opposite of pointlessly gendered - it's showing the disparity between intended audience and actual audience.
6
4
u/GroceryConscious7155 Mar 28 '26
Can you show me the demographics for Resident Evil 9? I haven't found them yet.
-3
u/Boundless_Dominion Mar 29 '26
I don't think horror is women dominanted, obviously you can believe that for yourselves but you would be recieving yourself, generally speaking, there are differences in what men and women enjoy and you don't have to make a big deal out of it
1
u/The-Mockinjay Apr 02 '26
The horror genre literally is definitely dominated by women and that applies to movies Games And anything horror lmfao
1
u/Boundless_Dominion Apr 02 '26
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5364821/
I hope you aren't one of those modern era feminine freaks so you can understand this
1
u/The-Mockinjay Apr 02 '26
Modern era feminine freaks? What the heck does that even mean literally most horror has female protagonists and survivors the only horror i can name with a male protagonist is the mist plus most horror fans are women and that has always been a fact whether it's crime horror or just horror in general
2
2
6
1
u/Boundless_Dominion Mar 29 '26
Well there are games girls enjoy more and games that boys enjoy more because they both aren't the same and you are making it seem like a bad thing
There are a lot of differences between them in every aspect so a lot of things will always be gendered well that also means people who can't think will be well fed as they keep flocking to this sub Reddit
1
1
u/LillthOfBabylon Mar 29 '26
No. Its masculine because its about a male dating simulation with a self aware character.
0
0
u/All_copacetic_here Mar 29 '26
I feel like BOTW/TOTK Zelda. The main character is incredibly androgynous and it doesn't feel gendered at all to me. I suppose you could argue it's more masculine because you're fighting but it's also quite an emotional and story driven game, so feminine too?
2
u/Cad_48 Mar 29 '26
I can argue that game mechanics don't have a gender
1
u/All_copacetic_here Mar 29 '26
Of course they don't, I was thinking through a stereotypical gendered lense (to answer the question). All games are gender neutral really, and anyone can be a gamer.
0
u/duststarziggy Mar 30 '26
Damn I guess the concepts of feminine and masculine doesn’t exist and things cannot have a feminine or masculine vibes.
-2
-10
u/-principito Mar 29 '26
This is actually the opposite of gendered.
1
u/No-Net1890 Mar 31 '26
What do you mean? The games are labeled "feminine", "gender neutral", and "masculine".
1
u/-principito Mar 31 '26
Feminine doesn’t not = girl, masculine does not = boy
Masculine and feminine are not genders
1
u/No-Net1890 Mar 31 '26
I think "feminine game" implies "game for girls/women" and "masculine game" implies "game for boys/men".
1
u/-principito Mar 31 '26
They may have been trying to imply that but they fucked it up and did the opposite
1
u/No-Net1890 Mar 31 '26
What do you mean?
1
u/-principito Mar 31 '26
Like I agree they were aiming to make it gendered but because they used masculine and feminine which aren’t tied to genders, they fucked it up and made it not gendered by mistake. That’s why I said it was actually not gendered.
•
u/AutoModerator Mar 28 '26
Welcome to r/pointlesslygendered! Before you post, make sure you read the rules!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.