Generation Gaps & Culture Shocks

[yumachan]

Do you have any stories about feeling a "generation gap" while playing retro otome games, or experiencing "culture shock" while playing overseas ones?

When the characters' means of communication is a flip phone, you really feel the passage of time. It makes you acutely aware that you can't live in the same era as them.

There are differences in school systems and dating cultures between the country where the otome game is set and the user's country.
I enjoy accepting those differences as a kind of fantasy.

In Japan, when gods or yokai are romance options, foxes and dragons are usually the main motifs. When Japanese works use Western monsters, they are usually vampires or werewolf characters.

 

[Sir.Hikari-desu]

I think it's normal because they come from different times. Just like when visual novels first started, they could be way too straightforward, or maybe the plot wasn't very well developed. That's something that has been refined over time. And now that we're older, you can feel that generational gap even more.

I imagine that when younger generations play older games or read older literature, they'll probably say that it's "outdated" or that things aren't like that anymore. But I guess that's just normal. I mean, 20 or maybe 30 years is a pretty big difference, and society changes a lot over that amount of time.

 

[star light]

I've been playing a game called *StarrSky* recently, and when a mobile phone appeared in it, I was struck by the contrast with today's world of smartphones. It's interesting, because when a story is set in the Bakumatsu or Taisho eras, I don't feel that kind of disconnect at all.

 

[baybridge]

I've been playing a game called *StarrSky* recently, and when a mobile phone appeared in it, I was struck by the contrast with today's world of smartphones. It's interesting, because when a story is set in the Bakumatsu or Taisho eras, I don't feel that kind of disconnect at all.

I feel you! I'm used to the historical settings (different countries and time periods) and don't feel out of place but yeah, seeing how phones used to be like > smartphones right now still hits a bit hard

 

[yumachan]

>>Sir.Hikari-desu
You're totally right—as we get older, that gap becomes even more noticeable. It's funny to think that what feels completely normal to us now might look totally "outdated" to future players. Time really flies!


>>star light
I totally get that! It's so true—historical settings feel like a completely different world, so we easily accept them as pure fantasy. But games where characters use mobile phones give us this strange sense of a "time lag" or generation gap because we actually remember or lived through that era!


>>baybridge
Thank you as always for your comments! It makes me so happy.
It is such a strange phenomenon, isn't it? Since we have no actual experience with historical things, we can immerse ourselves in them as pure fantasy, but when we see mobile phones, realistic things, or what was popular at the time, we feel the passage of time.
For me, I get that feeling whenever I look back at things I used when I was younger—or things used by the generation just a bit older than mine—after a long time.

 

[joaoka]

Large age gaps in historical otome like Ken ga kimi that takes place in the edo period always take me by surprise, I feel they're not as common in modern themed games !

 

[Kyouri]

uhhh well I'm in my late 30's so uhhh now I feel old af.

 

[caducus]

uhhh well I'm in my late 30's so uhhh now I feel old af.

Mid-forties, and I know a few gamers in their fifties and sixties. You're still baby.

I was there for WEBRINGS. Hell, I used to get my illegal fansubs mailed to me on VHS. I used to have multiple VCRs set up so I could watch anime on one while simultaneously playing/recording on two others. I remember when mIRC and torrents were like. REVOLUTIONARY.

 

[nerim-w]

Probably the alarming amount of incest lmao.

I used to swear I would never play a route with someone related to me, but now here i am, folding immediately for Chojiro and Yoritomo now I just happily self insert and pretend theyre talking to me instead, bc I ain't letting incest get in the way of me romancing beautiful men

 

[b3rryb3rry]

Probably the alarming amount of incest lmao.

I used to swear I would never play a route with someone related to me, but now here i am, folding immediately for Chojiro and Yoritomo now I just happily self insert and pretend theyre talking to me instead, bc I ain't letting incest get in the way of me romancing beautiful men

No fr why is incest so huge in Japanese media. I would love to see a study on the reason behind this bc I really don't see the appeal.

 

[Kyouri]

Mid-forties, and I know a few gamers in their fifties and sixties. You're still baby.

I was there for WEBRINGS. Hell, I used to get my illegal fansubs mailed to me on VHS. I used to have multiple VCRs set up so I could watch anime on one while simultaneously playing/recording on two others. I remember when mIRC and torrents were like. REVOLUTIONARY.

Yeah, I did all that too haha. VHS fansub trading, don't miss that. I did finally toss old VHS tapes some years back. was hard to let go. :( Still miss using IRC, discord community wise has been a lot worse for me socially.

 

[caducus]

Yeah, I did all that too haha. VHS fansub trading, don't miss that. I did finally toss old VHS tapes some years back. was hard to let go. :( Still miss using IRC, discord community wise has been a lot worse for me socially.

I kind of miss the community as well, but sending money for tapes into the void and crossing your fingers and hoping that whoever you were trading with was legit? That I do not miss at all. Or finding that one person who had the last 2 episodes of a series you were obsessed with and then finding that they ONLY offered trades for things they wanted, then doing a fetch quest for the next 3-6 months so you could get something they'd be willing to swap with? Bleh.

Oh, or ye olden days of Suncoast and Blockbuster and them having the most utterly random selection available? Things like pocky and ramune being difficult to get your hands on? It's crazy how the world changes.

 

[Kyouri]

I kind of miss the community as well, but sending money for tapes into the void and crossing your fingers and hoping that whoever you were trading with was legit? That I do not miss at all. Or finding that one person who had the last 2 episodes of a series you were obsessed with and then finding that they ONLY offered trades for things they wanted, then doing a fetch quest for the next 3-6 months so you could get something they'd be willing to swap with? Bleh.

Oh, or ye olden days of Suncoast and Blockbuster and them having the most utterly random selection available? Things like pocky and ramune being difficult to get your hands on? It's crazy how the world changes.

yeahhhh and it was like, okay what generation of a copy is this cause the quality degrades after so many retapes...though there was one girl I used to get from who used to include little stationary and drawings with the tapes! I still have them somewhere :D