It's research yo!

As some of you may or may not know, there is a popular market for what are known as "dating-sim" games in Japan. That title is perhaps a bit understated, given the fact that these games are actually pornographic in content. The majority of them are aimed at a male heterosexual audience and are essentially video game hentai. Nonetheless, there does happen to be a smaller but still important market of BL (boy's love) dating sims aimed at female audiences. I'd heard about some of these but figured they'd never make it to US shores--too controversial I thought. But it would seem I was completely wrong! I was scrounging about online for the latest happenings in the world of yaoi today and found an announcement that JAST USA has just released an English version of the BL game "Enzai--Falsely Accused." Well you bet your sweet asses I zipped straight over to their website and blew $40 on the game, which should be arriving on my doorstep soon. I've heard all kind of talk about this game (there's an infamous OVA anime version that is...to put it mildly...disturbing). But there are also tons of hot bishies and I'm totally intrigued to see how this game plays. One of my friends here works in the burgeoning new area of video game studies and I have a strong suspicion a future essay will be coming out of the "research" I'm planning to do on this game. JAST USA is releasing another BL dating-sim later this year which I'll probably pick up if I have a fruitful experience with this one. I'm not disillusioned. This is totally a pornographic game, but let's face it--my dissertation is largely dealing with material that could be classed as pornographic (boy-love manga, erotica, lesbian comics, etc.). Believe me, I've totally passed into the realm of de-sensitization when it comes to a lot of this stuff. And it seems like everyone I meet in academia is excited about my project and wants to see what I've written. Porn is a totally legitimate realm of academic study. God, I love being in an English Department!