So, at the end of Magical Diary, players have the option to upload their character to the Online Yearbook to display to others.
This also means we have a record of play distribution. Obviously this won't cover ALL players, only those who choose to upload their characters, and therefore, the statistics may be off. But it's still interesting to look at. We have five romanceable characters, and four of those have two ending possibilities, Romance or Friendship. It's also possible to end up alone, either through not starting a path or through screwing one up midway through.
Of the ~900 current uploads:
14% ended alone.
5% were Virginia Romance.
2% were Virginia Friendship.
9% were Ellen Romance.
3% were Ellen Friendship.
16% were Grabiner Romance.
2% were Grabiner Friendship.
20% were Donald Romance.
3% were Donald Friendship.
and finally...
24% were Damien Romance.
While it's slightly tricky to be sure from the records, I expect quite a lot of the 'end alone' were people on Damien's path, too.
So there you have it, mathematical proof that people still prefer the bad boys. :) (To be fair, the game does sort of steer you in his direction for your first playthrough.)
(as for the missing 2%, blame rounding.)
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4 comments:
To be fair, he kind of throws himself at you at the beginning and keeps shoving himself in your face for most of the game. To reject him you have to be somewhat pushy/not afraid to be a social outcast/hurt his feelings.
Perhaps this reflects how girls (who I assume are playing this) are still reluctant to be assertive when dealing with people who pursue them aggressively, out of a socially-induced need to "not be mean". If you look at it that way, it's fairly disturbing how many players are willing to let their avatars be, frankly, coerced into a relationship.
Ah, I'm Anarchy from LSF by the way. I finished the entire game a while ago but somehow forgot to comment, ahaha. I took Damien's route the first time because his character design was the most attractive to me (*has a long hair fetish*) and because he stood out the most, I think, with all his flamboyance and attention-seeking antics. Of course, when I first started playing his route, I kept rolling my eyes, thinking how cliche this entire game was, and more importantly, how unhealthy the message this route was sending to "impressionable little girls" (god I sound like an old fogey). Which also meant that I bought into his facade completely because I didn't think that this route was just going to do the whole stereotypical "oh poor misunderstood me" shtick. And then the gym scene rolled around and I started laughing in surprise and relief. I realized what was up as soon as he was like "ohnoes I will die without a soul pwease won't you help me". That made me revise my opinion of his route a fair bit. Though the fact that you get his good ending by selecting "I love you", IMO, reinforces the kind of attitude his route seemed to be warning against. If you love a bad boy enough, he'll change because of his love for you.
That's why, overall, I feel like Damien's route is sending out mixed messages. You have "see, this is what manipulation looks like, be careful" and "if somebody has a bad reputation, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're misunderstood, it might simply mean that they ARE freaking evil", but those healthy messages are mixed in with "if you love a bad person and stay true to him even when he abuses you, he'll change for you", as can be seen from the "good" Damien endings. It's that kind of mentality that drives some women to stay in and even die from abusive relationships.
What I've tried to do is to make it clear, even his 'good' endings, that he HASN'T really changed. He may have decided he wants you too much to kill you, but he is definitely not a good guy and you can't trust him the tiniest little bit.
(If he shows up at the dance, he bites you. If you go for the ring option instead, the RING bites you.)
All the Damien fans I've seen comment on the ending seemed to get the point that it is not a healthy relationship. (And I've seen some players ragequit at the gym scene, too!)
It's the Minnie/Kyo pairing that sometimes seems to be a little too subtle... I see players who've finished the game and STILL think his behavior is romantic. Um, guys?
Well..
Not only girls play it. I've been playing it too this week (with my wife sometimes watching me and discussing the game).
My first route was with Damien as well, being long haired and partly "evil" myself it was the obvious choice.
Also he pushes himself into your face and triggered my "they sure won't follow the demon-cliché"-mode.
I ended up alone because i refused to date him instead of helping my friend Ellen. (Chicks before Dicks)
The part in the gym had me laughing and i can imagine why people ragequit. Especially if they didn't create several savestates like i usually do in this type of games.
My second run was (for curiousness) the not soo good end, but still dating Damien.
And i just finished this morning with sna..... Hieronymous i mean.
So far i like him the most.
About Kyo..... Yeeeeeahh.. That guy is SERIOUSLY messed up and made me think how a magic columbine massacre would look like. He's the guy to pull it off.
Well, it's no wonder Damien's easy to end up with: he uses a lot of the tactics that Kyo uses on Minnie, but he's a proper predator.
My only regret is that cursing him to death means you end up alone.
Secondary regret: I missed the Virginia romance.
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