Yumi: “It feels different when, ah, somebody else is touching me!”

well, today i was going to write about klingons and density functional theory (guess it will have to wait till monday), but yesterday a friend of mine asked me about my status message on yahoo msg – which is now the title of this post. i never thought people actually read the status message; it’s been the same for three weeks and nobody noticed.

by now some of you might have guessed that today’s topic is h-games. they are also called “bishoujo games”, graphic novels and many other names. these games are very popular in japan, but are much less known in the west. if you have not seen such a game yet, imagine reading a novel on your pc’s display while 2d bitmaps scroll in the background illustrating the story you read (most such stories, though not all of them feature sexual content to some degree or another). in addition, in most of the games you’ll be able to make decisions at certain points which will affect the outcome of the story.

as with other forms of media, you will find a lot of trash and very few diamonds among it. the worst titles of the genre are very linear, have a shallow story (if they have any at all) and present nothing except for the sexual content itself – you should try your best to avoid these. on the other hand you’ll also find games with an intriguing plot and multiple ending possibilities, where the focus is not on the sexual scenes. (although, since the text is translated from japanese by small companies or by fans, usually the narrative is too simplistic). “kana imouto” (kana little sister), “critical point”, “devi-dead” are just some of the titles i think are worth trying.

i find that these games will much sooner leave you with a lasting impression than the dozens of american action games (which by the way are of an ever-decreasing quality in terms of gameplay). sure, spending an afternoon with your friends playing halo is fun, but it’s by no means a memorable experience. contrary to this, after having played “kana little sister”, you will sometimes remember her when it snows or when you see a grass-of-parnassus and you will surely think of her pale face every time somebody mentions chronic kidney insufficiency.

there is a lot more to be said on the subject, but i have neither the time nor the inclination to put my thoughts to paper (i didn’t even mention the hard-core genre). and just to round it up nicely i’ll end the post the same way i’ve started it: with a quote from “kana imouto”, kana todo’s last entry in her journal.

Kana: “Today, I have seen the ocean. I’m not afraid anymore.”