Yandere Simulator: Trivializing Suicide, Sexual Consent

IN April 21, 2015 BY Philip Wythe 7 ‎مشاهدات 1 Comment

Despite a unique premise, Yandere Simulator deeply sanitizes ongoing problems with harassment, suicide, and sexual exploitation in high school communities.

Last year, independent video game developer YandereDev began working on Yandere Simulator for PC. Based on the archetypal “yandere” character from Japanese manga and anime, the player takes on the role of a high school girl who obsesses over “Senpai,” the object of her affection. The game tasks the player with eliminating Senpai’s love interests over the course of ten weeks, and offers players various ways to dispatch Yandere’s rivals – including social sabotage, murder, and suicide.

In an interview with Gamesnosh earlier this year, YandereDev noted how the simulator draws gameplay mechanics from such series as Hitman, Metal Gear Solid, Dishonored, and Persona. Indeed, the game is incredibly ambitious, and the developer hopes to blend Yandere Simulator’s stealth gameplay with a dynamic, open-world high school simulator.

In theory, Yandere Simulator strikes an interesting look at the obsessive “yandere” archetype. The game promises to reveal a new look at the sociopathic psychology of the trope, which many narratives fail to explore. And YandereDev’s simulator succinctly captures the mechanics of such games as Hitman: Blood Money, which rely on careful planning and meticulous detail in executing murders. Yandere Simulator certainly presents a new perspective on the “yandere’s” motivations, and YandereDev plans to draw on some of his favorite titles in creating the final build.

Yet the game often feels tone deaf on real problems found within young women’s educational experiences. Bullying and harassment are two core gameplay mechanics that Yandere uses to isolate Senpai’s love interests – often mirroring the same experiences with social isolation and suicidal ideation that young teenagers regularly face. And Yandere’s distribution of non-consensual sexual photography trivializes sexual exploitation in public school settings, and downplays its invasive impact on young women. While Yandere Simulator is an intriguing concept, many of the game’s design mechanics translate predatory behavior into a form of entertainment, which sanitizes their abusive role in young women’s educational experiences.

During gameplay, YandereDev presents the player with a variety of options to eliminate Senpai’s love interests. For example, Yandere can orchestrate gossip against Senpai’s current admirer, and ruin her reputation. She can also purchase blackmail, and threaten her rivals from approaching Senpai. And if the player so chooses, Yandere can even kidnap her fellow students, and murder them on school grounds. Upon release, Yandere Simulator plans to host a variety of gameplay mechanics for dispatching Yandere’s romantic competition.

However, one of the more sadistic choices that players can make is socially isolating Senpai’s classmates. Indeed, according to the game’s official FAQ section, Yandere can “convince every other girl in school to bully [Senpai’s admirer] until she commits suicide,” thus successfully removing her from the game.

Granted, Yandere Simulator will feature a variety of ways to peacefully eliminate Yandere’s competitors. And the game never requires the player to become a harasser in order to win the game. However, turning suicide by harassment into a gameplay mechanic is exploitative of the very real prevalence of social ostracization and suicidal ideation within teenage life.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the third leading cause of death among 10 – 24 year olds, and approximately 157,000 youths “receive medical care for self-inflicted injuries at Emergency Departments across the U.S. [each year]”. Likewise, CDC findings also note “bullying and suicide-related behaviors” are strongly correlated, and that middle school students are “three-to-five times more likely to have suicidal ideations and attempt suicide if they are involved in bullying, compared to uninvolved pupils.” Harassment and suicidal thoughts remain epidemic problems in teenage life, as many high school students continue to struggle with self-harm and suicidal ideation rooted in school bullying.

However, by utilizing suicide as an a gameplay mechanic, Yandere Simulator erases the devastating impact that harassment has on many young lives. Instead of recognizing the long-term struggles with anxiety, depression, and traumatic stress that can result from student bullying, Yandere Simulator simply presents suicide as another course of action towards winning the game. This simplifies suicidal ideation, and sanitizes the internal torment that results from prolonged harassment in high school communities.

In the current prototype of Yandere Simulator, Yandere can sneak under students’ skirts, capture snapshots of their briefs, and send these photos to her distribution contact, Info-chan. In-exchange, Info-chan will give the player perks, such as weapons, spare uniforms, and student identification information. Although capturing and sending these images are optional, certain playstyles seem to rely heavily on bartering creepshots for support, as Info-chan can help improve Yandere’s reputation and spread gossip on her behalf.

Distributing sexual photos of young women’s bodies without consent remains an ongoing problem throughout the Internet, as “creepshots” and “revenge porn” often surface online for the personal gratification of others. And the non-consensual distribution of explicit sext messages is an enormous issue within high school communities, as many young teens privately share explicit photos of their classmates without permission.

However, non-consensually producing and sharing sexually explicit images of teenagers is a serious criminal offense. According to Canada’s Department of Justice, the non-consensual distribution of “visual representation […] of the sexual organs of persons under the age of 18” falls under child pornography laws. And in New Jersey, reproducing sexually explicit images without permission violates invasion of privacy statutes, which can result in a $30,000 fine at most. Recording non-consensual sexual photography is an incredibly serious crime, which disregards the bodily autonomy of its young victims.

Yet by adding “panty shots” as a gameplay mechanic, Yandere Simulator trivializes the sexual exploitation of teenage girls in high school settings. The game treats Yandere’s classmates as sexual objects, who can be targeted and harassed for personal gain. In turn, this replicates ongoing problems with sexual harassment and non-consensual sexting found throughout high school communities, and treats women’s bodies as objects bartered for gameplay advantages.

As a gameplay mechanic, recording and sharing creepshots trivializes sexual exploitation in high school life, and sanitizes the long-term damage that can result from non-consensual image distribution across the Net. Although Yandere Simulator does not condone this behavior in real life, the game has a simplistic view on non-consensual imagery, and ignores its predatory nature in high school communities.

Just as YandereDev has the right to create the video games that he chooses to, critics have the right to analyze and deconstruct the works that we play. And indeed, Yandere Simulator turns abusive and predatory behavior into gameplay mechanics for the player’s entertainment. In the process, this trivializes the traumatic damage that harassment, suicide, and sexual exploitation can have on a young teenage girl’s life.

Certainly, that’s not to argue that YandereDev’s work should be restricted from Steam Greenlight. Nor does it mean that the developer should be censured for creating Yandere Simulator. However, the game has a deeply simplistic view on abuse and harassment in school settings, and the design mechanics seem unapologetic on these concerns.

YandereDev notes that the project is “only a game.” Indeed, he (obviously) does not condone Yandere’s behavior in real life. But the problems that the game explores have real-world consequences. And as the game seems to simplify harassment and abuse, Yandere Simulator’s approach is not particularly entertaining for those of us who have suffered from these issues in our pasts.

Note: Analysis was based on the April 17th build of the Yandere Simulator prototype, and YandereDev’s prospective features as of late-April 2015. The featured image was illustrated by Joakim Waller, and the original image can be found on YandereDev’s official blog.

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