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Trigger Happy
269
And the remit of videogame “simulations” in Japan
is sure to expand. Adult Japanese women, for example,
want “a simulation game of being a housewife, giving
experience of leading a happy married life including
housework, having/raising children, sex”; “a simulation
of buying a house”; “a game in which the user raises a
human baby”; “a job simulation game”; “a game in
which the user can date actors/singers”; “a simulation
game of overseas travel”; “a game of cooking in which
the user finds ingredients, cooks and becomes a master
chef”; or “a climbing game in which the user tries to
reach the summit. On the way rivers, valleys, birds and
little animals appear.”
Now, this looks a little weird, to be sure; but just as
with the deformed anime tradition, we must be careful
not to imagine an unbridgeable cultural chasm where
none exists. Again, in fact, this phenomenon of
burgeoning “simulation” genres is a logical progression
of facets in Western videogaming, albeit one powered
by a characteristically Japanese conceptual tradition.
Most Japanese people live in cramped
accommodation in sprawling cities. The idea of
escaping to a rural idyll and lazily casting off by a
babbling stream is largely an unattainable fantasy,