Empty Promises
The Problem with Dating Simulators
SCOPE:
Curation
Packaging Design
Research
As part of a project involving curation of data, I chose a fairly strange topic - dating simulators. What appears as a seemingly harmless demographic regarding people enjoying a video game, actually contains a fairly dark and depressing aspect. What I discovered through research was that a percentage of dating simulator players, mainly in the East, are totally immersed and sucked in to the gameplay, believing their relationships with the video game characters to be genuine and real, and ultimately disregarding all real-life, social interactions completely. Within dating simulators, however, the words that are said are all scripted. What should be heart-felt, emotional and humane, suddenly becomes robotic and meaningless.
Hence the title - Empty Promises.
The designs shown here are an exhibit of data I have collected and curated in the form of old, worn and recognisable packaging design styles. They are vintage and timeless. But at the same time, while the designs may be aesthetically pleasing, the packaging itself is finite, perishable garbage, and the words are mass-produced hundreds of thousands of times amongst each product. They hold no value other than to attract the consumer's attention. On the back, however, are warnings. Similarly to regular packaging, the front is used to draw the consumer in, whilst the back has small print regarding important information including warnings.
In the same way is the manipulation of emotions for profitable gain - selling someone a fantasy that they become completely immersed within, to the point of obsession and the disregard of social interactions altogether. In the same way that brands have loyal followers by capturing their hearts, minds and attention, many dating simulators have used this technique to the extreme, and perhaps have crossed a moral boundary to their own consumer market.