Made of Sugar

On August 11 the much anticipated Boyfriend Dungeon went live and immediately gained praise for a content warning it gave at the beginning of the game about texts from a character "mom" to the player and how the studio recognized this may be hard on people so you could opt-out of receiving those if you so chose. It also had a content warning about references to stalking behaviour.

[image of original warning]

As people played further it became clear that it wasn't "references" but your character being the target of that behavior from one of their suitors. This was understandably upsetting to some players, so many of us have been targets in real life and getting those sort of texts even in game would be jarring.

The studio, KitFox, has listened to the complaints about their insufficient content warning and are updating it to further detail the level of stalking behavior the player will encounter during game play. Great, we love studios listening.

[tweet showing they listened and will be updating]

But part of the conversation about Boyfriend Dungeon wasn't just that the warning wasn't clear enough but that players are subjected to the behaviour at all. Part of the ask was that the game do as it did with the "mom" text and allow you to opt-out of receiving the stalking texts as well.

And here's where a lot of the disconnect and messiness comes in. People were excited for Boyfriend Dungeon because it was hyped up as a queer dating sim with a dungeon crawling aspect because your dates turn into weapon that you use to escape the dungeon!! It built an entire kickstarter campaign around being a quirky dating sim! And most dating sims have several routes you can take and lots of options that never show up if you don't end up on that route.

Boyfriend Dungeon as it turns out is less dating sim and more using dates to take the character through to a specific end that involves healing and part of that healing is dealing with this creepy stalker guy. You can't opt-out of receiving those texts because you would be opting out of the story itself. It's a case of setting the wrong expectations for the game itself and setting up high expectations with the ability to opt-out of non-essential story texts.

People who've played through the game say it deals with the themes well but for a lot of people the subject alone is enough for them to nope out. And that's perfectly valid because not everything is for everyone! I personally have no intention of playing the game for several reasons including the fact that getting texts at all gives me anxiety let alone getting unwanted ones! Plus honestly thirsty behaviour in general makes me uncomfortable and I heard a lot of people say that was a thing they enjoyed about the game.

But rather than say ok this game deals with themes I do not want to be subjected to in my leisure time and going and playing Garden Story instead there's people saying that the depiction of stalking behaviour at all is a problem. That by not allowing players to be able to play the game without dealing with this stalker the studio and the devs are morally wrong. That not allowing people to cater the game to their specific needs is disrespectful and dismissive of people with trauma.

It's ok to be disappointed that a game you were looking forward to turned out to be something different. And it's absolutely ok to criticize the way in which the game was set up and executed. But you aren't owed being able to play a game. And this is a bit of a lesson in backing kickstarters because at the end of the day you aren't going to be guaranteed a game you can play. Maybe don't let the hype sweep you and just wait til it's been released and reviewed if that's a major concern.

Right I've lost the thread of where I was going here but this is why I don't write articles anymore let's not talk about how unmanageable my adhd has been lately

I don't have a personal history with The National Lampoon. By the time I was old enough to be interested in that sort of humour the magazine had been gone for a few years and while I saw Vacation and Animal House (and the practically Lampoon in all but name Caddyshack) I never revered them as those who elevated them to cult status do. But this week is the Chicago Critics Film Festival and my entire thought process in deciding to go see this film was, "eh, why not? I'm free tonight and it could be fun."

Fun is an understatement. Hilarious and wonderful and heartfelt and a little heartbreaking Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead weaves interviews and and clips and stills from the magazine (some animated) to tell the story of The National Lampoon using Doug Kenney as the lynchpin and it was so well done. The audience was dying with laughter and by the end I found myself mourning a time and a person I'd never really thought of before. I don't know that I have much to add. It's a lovely documentary done very well and will appeal to longtime fans and those who barely know the Lampoon alike.

One thing the movie did briefly touch upon, with some expansion from the director in the post movie Q&A, was how a magazine that boundary breaking would never fly in todays society. The stills they showed from the magazine were incredibly offensive and hilarious and would definitely send tumblr into an uproar. The inability to fail is something that's been talked about quite a bit recently in comedy circles. When everything that's said or done is recorded and shared in seconds and then picked apart by committee just looking for a reason people are very careful to barely even touch the line let alone push and go past it to see if something on that side will stick. The director, Douglas Tirola, said as they were editing they almost left out some of the most offensive stills (Hitler and KKK and failed abortion child with hangar suck in head and oh so many others that 'caused audience gasps and then bursts of laughter) because he didn't want him and the company being known as those guys who did that offensive Lampoon movie when promoting other work (he mentioned briefly a doc about a pair of lesbians who opened a vegetarian restaurant and sparked the farm to table movement which I can't wait to see) before ultimately deciding to push past the fear and go for it.

But it's a valid fear when the slightest misstep has you being lambasted by everyone who wants to feel righteously offended by everything and has the means to voice it loud and clear into the Internet. It's kind of refreshing to laugh and know no one is going to judge you for it because they're all laughing too.