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Script for Dream Daddy video essayDianne KimWhen it comes to dating sims, it’s hard not to think of Dream Daddy, a game by Game Grumps that took the Internet by storm in July of 2017. The premise is simple: you’re a single dad who recently moved to the other side of town, and by pure coincidence, the cul-de-sac you moved into is full of other hot and mostly single dads. With the promise of endless dad jokes and an array of suitors to choose from, Dream Daddy seems like a funny, lighthearted dating sim—but a deeper look into this game reveals that there is a lot more to it than it initially may suggest.First, I want to go over the ways in which Dream Daddy does fulfill the basic and conventional formula of a dating sim game. The gameplay is simple: a mostly text based sequence of scenarios, some in which you can choose between several options in response to a particular character. The game offers you immediate feedback on whether your answer was liked by your suitor or not. The comical display of emojis when a dad likes your answer is an easy way to tell that you are on the right track. Furthermore, whenever you complete a ‘date’ with one of the dads, of which the third is the most serious one that reveals your ending with that dad, you receive a letter rating of how you did: S being the best. While the rubric for that grade is arbitrary, it is still a good way of keeping track of how you are doing. Getting an S rating on all 3 dates would be the best way to get the ‘good ending’ of the dad you are pursuing. The characters also fulfill conventional dating sim tropes. You are a character in the game, whether you choose to build your character as yourself or a ‘dadsona’ – there are lots of customisation options available to you, ranging from realistic to meme-y. You can even name your character, and your chosen name will be how the characters refer to you throughout the game. The dads, despite their dad-ness, still somewhat portray common stereotypical dating sim suitors, ranging from the perfect, princely type, to the hipster, the emo, and even a vampire dad. So, on the surface, Dream Daddy is like any other dating sim. But I would like to argue that upon closer inspection, there are so many ways in which it is unconventional as a dating sim game.Firstly, the LGBTQ representation. Dream Daddy does a wonderful job at representing the trans and bisexual part of the community, which are unfortunately often misrepresented or not represented at all in mainstream media and games. Not only do you have the option for your dad character to be trans, but also one of the dads, Damien, is a trans character. The best part about this representation, in my opinion, is that it is not overemphasized for the sake of representation. I didn’t even realize he was trans until I did research after playing the game! A lot of times in mainstream media, attempts to represent the LGBTQ community unfortunately end up in ‘representation for the sake of representation’ or the character’s sexuality being the only apparent trait that they have. In Dream Daddy, Damien is so much more than just a trans man. While being trans is a big part of his identity, he is a multifaceted character whose trans identity is just one more thing that makes him who he is. Perhaps the biggest way that Dream Daddy sets itself apart from other games in its genre is through its equal emphasis on parenting and romance. Your daughter, Amanda, and your relationship with her are extremely important throughout the game. After every date or outing that your character goes on, he will come home to his daughter and have various dialogue with her. In this particular thread of the story, your goal is to support your daughter through something that she is going through at school without overwhelming her. As a result, the game spends almost an equal amount of time allowing you to pursue love and be a good dad for Amanda. Furthermore, the other dads also have their own children, with whom they have unique dynamics with. Oftentimes, they encounter problems in their relationships, and at times you help them through these issues, whether it is by lending a listening ear or accompanying them as they confront their children. I thought this layer was very interesting—not only because it takes the ‘daddy’ aspect of the game, which on the surface is very humorous, to a more serious level. Dating and parenting are not usually portrayed together in conventional dating sims. Furthermore, you and some of the dads in the neighbourhood are single dads—and the game portrays this as something that is taxing, but also rewarding. These are all very unique and meaningful messages that the game attempts to convey despite it being a dating sim.Amanda and your relationship is so important that Amanda also comes with a ‘good ending’ and a ‘bad ending.’ This brings me to my next point, where I wanted to bring in the Bernard Suits reading about the paradoxy of game. The part of the reading that stood out to me was his discussion of the difference between a game and sexual activity. He argued that the two are ultimately different because you may simultaneously complete a game and lose it. As for sexual activity, which admittedly Suits over-simplifies for the sake of his argument, you cannot simultaneously complete it and lose it. So, let’s put it this way. In a game, there is a winner and a loser. You and your opponent work together to complete the game—at the end of which will result in a winner and loser. How can we apply this to dating sims, which combines romance and game? First, as a game. It is hard to apply Bernard’s definition of a game to dating sims because most dating sims, including Dream Daddy, are singleplayer. You don’t really compete with anyone. And what does it mean to “win” a dating sim? Is it ending up with your chosen suitor? Or is it getting the so called ‘good ending’ of that suitor? If you think about it, these two are not always the same thing. Even if you end up with your chosen character, parts of the storyline may not end up in an ideal way, suggesting the ‘bad ending.’ Or vice versa. Mystic Messenger, another dating sim game, portrays this concept nicely. Alright, let’s say we decided on what a “win” means for a dating sim. Does the ease at which you can achieve this “win” challenge this definition? Dream Daddy and a lot of other dating sims make it very easy for the player to load various save points, or to fast forward to the moments in dialogue where you have to make a choice. I am guilty of this, too. When I chose the wrong answer, I just loaded from the last autosave point and tried again. Good thing this is an entirely fictional game, right?But anyway, winning in Dream Daddy, in this sense, is complicated. In my first playthrough of the game, I pursued Joseph. It was probably because of his pink shirt, but also he seemed like the character that the game was ‘pushing’ you to pursue. Dating sims actually do this quite often, where there is a clear and obvious ‘main character’ among the suitors that supply the ‘canonical storyline.’ So I thought I had been doing well with Joseph, but in the end, I did not end up with him. Instead, he told my character that he has decided to work on his strained marriage with Mary and that he wants us to remain friends. I was confused, to say the least. Why didn’t I end up with Joseph? Why? After all that?! After much research, it turns out I did actually get the good ending for Joseph. The bad ending is similar, but it leads to Joseph hinting at the fact that he would like to keep you as a sidepiece while he presumably works on fixing his marriage. Yeah. Clearly the worse of the two, right?I mean it makes sense. Joseph is a married man, and perhaps the creators did not want your character to be a ‘homewrecker.’ But the fact that I technically ‘won’ the game, but did not end up with my chosen suitor complicates this whole discussion. Let’s say I did win. Then who lost? Is it the other dads in the cul-de-sac that I went on multiple dates on and just completely blew off? And, even if I didn’t win, it actually meant more to me that I got the ‘good ending’ for Amanda, and that I was able to bid her a sweet farewell as she went off to college.These are all really interesting questions that arise from the fact that Dream Daddy challenges various conventional tropes in the dating sim genre. And I think that’s great. Dream Daddy is a fantastic game with a lovely mix of both humor and life lessons. It is perfect for the game’s targeted demographic: me. No, really. Millennials and probably the early Gen Z-ers will find this game hilarious with its references to various things that we grew up with: Pokemon, Wii, and even Naruto. Everytime Dadbook, the game universe’s social media service greets you with the: “Welcome! You’ve got dads!” It’ll bring a smile to your face. And who knows, maybe you’ll even chuckle at some of the horrendous dad jokes. ................
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