DRAGON AGE: THE VEILGUARDDAVRIN & ASSAN

DRAGON AGE: THE VEILGUARD DAVRIN & ASSAN

it's interesting how every month or so (usually on twitter) there will be male-centric discourse on otomes, typically "why won't more otomes let me play as a man" or "why do I have to date men in otomes", in much more volume than there was years ago. I can only imagine that these sentiments typically stem from general anime fans trying to get into otomes with the misconception that dating sim = otome and vice versa.

for those unaware, not every dating sim is an otome and not every otome is a dating sim (though quite a few are). otome, as we define it in English-speaking fandoms, is a game with a female protagonist and male love interests. the kind of MC (faceless; customizable look & gender; fully fleshed out background), the length of the game, and the amount & gender of the love interests have varied over the years, but the constant is that otome has the choice to play as a female MC with at least some male LIs. most otomes are a type of visual novel, while dating sims are a subset of the visual novel medium focused on stat raising. dating sims can be any kind of romance orientation and not all romance visual novels are dating sims.

so because there's this misconception some have of what an otome actually is, we get repeating discourse every few weeks/months where someone comes to the ice cream shop asking for chicken tenders. that's not what we serve here. a lot of times these people mean well- they just want a certain kind of game but don't know the right terminology for it. sometimes they don't mean well and the conversations devolve into misogyny, but we're not here to discuss that aspect of it.

as more people become aware of visual novels and dating sims as a whole, these are the kind of growing pains the audience is going to face sadly. aside from telling people to Google terminology, I will leave you with this- if you see someone or you're interested in playing otome-like games that aren't just female MCs or male LIs, mess around with tags on itchio and you'll find a plethora of indie romance visual novels.

gay visual novels - boys love visual novels - yuri visual novels - dating sims - lgbt visual novels - romance visual novels

Abolish the comic book industrial complex 🙂

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We DO NOT talk enough about Ulder Ravengard's diary. Like, the fact that Ulder took Wyll for walks, that Wyll asked questions about everything and Ulder took the time to try and answer. That Ulder had to fish his son out of the water because he was trying to see mermaids. That Ulder notes how Wyll lost his new shoes, in that way that a parent mourns clothing or items getting ruined but the relief that your child is okay renders those things meaningless. That Ulder sat down some evening, opened his journal, and wrote about his day with Wyll. That it was important to Ulder to record how Wyll was in his arms, teary-eyed over mermaids. That the journal's description mentions how the journal is well-used, that Ulder must have revisited those pages again and again.

My man and my son Davrin & Assan, Dragon Age the Veilguard