Choosing love: performances of romance in mobile dating simulation games
Date
2022
Authors
Martinez, El, author
Elkins, Evan, advisor
Diffrient, Scott, committee member
Martey, Rosa, committee member
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Abstract
With the launch of the Android app store in 2008, mobile gaming has occupied a surging niche in the video game market. While considerable scholarly attention has been paid to video games, with mobile games enjoying a portion of that attention, the study of dating simulation games is still emerging. Further, almost all existing scholarship on dating simulation games focuses on console- or computer-based games. This thesis aims to fill that gap by analyzing how dating simulation conventions translate onto mobile devices. What changes when a new platform, with its own conventions and affordances, is introduced? Through textual analysis of gameplay mechanics, visual style, and narrative, I examine how popular mobile dating simulation games offered through the Android app store construct and restrict player access to romance on the axes of time and money. Ultimately, I argue that the ways time and money flow on the mobile device afford unique performances of romance while foreclosing others, apart from their progenitors on consoles and PCs.
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Subject
gender
romance
dating simulation games
video games
mobile games