BxB demographics

[Hudzon]

I'm a bit curious as to what the demographics for BxB games is. Are they only intended for gay men and women, or do straight guys play them as well?

If you're a straight guy, please comment on whether or not you played or considered playing a BxB game!

[mikey]

From what I know most of the BxB games are targetted at women (BL they are called) - and I'd also say that they are largely played by heterosexual women at that.

As for me, I played a few, and I wasn't feeling anything special, if it was a good game, it was good, if not, then not - so I'd play more of them, no problem. Though I never played them "as myself", I just found my favorite pairings... but I think that's normal.

[Ignosco]

I've only played Poisoned, although I've bought Animamundi which I probably won't get around to starting for a while... I guess for me, if a game's story looks interesting, I'd play it regardless of relationship type.

[Sailor Kitty]

Actually, there are two kinds of BL. BL for straight females and Yaoi for Homosexual males. Straight girl yaoi has Bishies and Bisei, gay-yaoi does not.

[DaFool]

BL is a really huge category. On another forum (animesuki I think) someone mentioned that BL is 98% of all josei (works targeting young-adult women). There are magazine compilations after another specifically BL. Gay BL and the more mature shoujo equivalent josei are vastly outnumbered.

Thus I can reasonably assume most of the otaku girls would rather make a BxB game than a GxB game. And there's a lot of BxG already, so sometimes I find it my calling to work on GxB and have toyed around the idea of making an authentic GxG (the non yuri hentai type) -- not just for balance, but because I have genuinely wanted to make something or other at some point.

To answer the question, I have never exhausted a BL game (i.e. played start to finish, then replay to get all endings like how I usually play a VN completely). I have mostly played a bit, casually. I haven't yet found one that was compelling enough for me to exhaust it. Perhaps when the verdict is in on what is the best, I'll probably play, but it's not something I actively seek out.

[papillon]

... why is it that I like the idea of actual boys kissing, and I've read and enjoyed m/m fanfic, and yet I'm still sort of put off by a BxB game? (I'm female, for reference.)

I think the elements of m/m that I find sexy do not come through very well in anime. That same mysterious factor might make it less offputting for straight men, I'm not sure. The only m/m scene I've played through in a game (since I never got that far in animamundi) would actually have made much more sense if the male-bottom was a girl. And he practically looked like one anyway.

But then, there are lots of m/m fandom elements I don't quite get. Like mpreg. WTF?

[DaFool]

Hmmm, yeah, a lot of BxB is essentially shoujo where the heroine is replaced by an uke. All others stay the same

I read some psychological and philosophical analysis that BxB is escapism from the constraints of womanhood and what society expects of them, but the simple kind of heroine -> uke hero replacement type of BxB is like Superman -> Clark Kent with glasses on... yes, WTF indeed.

[DaFool]

Topic revival! (A bit 18+ ish, be warned)

I'm toying around with the idea of making A BxB game for straight males.
Yep, you read it right...

I'll probably call it something like Academy Von Traps

You play the role of a biseinen who enrolls in an all-boys school. Convinced that the institution would be filled with territorial gang violence and machismo, he is surprised to find that a good proportion of the student body is made up of cross-dressing guys.

Among the cross-dressers, he isn't quite sure who would rather be girls, or who are just straight males who just love cross-dressing. But he is about to find out as he is overwhelmed with the attention he gets (he is quite handsome, after all). Are they flirting with him? He starts to feel uneasy, but at the same time, he starts to find some of them quite cute. He begins to question his own masculinity, often wondering whether he were gay, then subsequently trying to convince himself that he is straight.

Furthermore, there are a few non-crossdressing students who start to show interest in him, and the protagonist is now going WTF.

The protagonist now has the following choices with their corresponding outcomes:
1.) Repel them all and assert his proud heterosexuality.
2.) Go after the crossdressers...a.) He ends up with a trap / uke / feminine counterpart and is happy as long as he's the one "to stay on top". b.) He mistakenly hits on heterosexual cross-dressers at which point he gets his ass handed back to him.
3.) Go after the non-crossdressers... a.) He ends with with a gay classmate and he finally surrenders to the fact that he may be either bisexual or gay (finally coming out of the closet) b.) He mistakenly hits on heterosexuals at which point he gets his ass handed back to him.

So... wondering if people (males and females of any orientation) would actually be willing to play such a thing... or whether I should just put this in Ideas Dump thread.

Now, the reason why I mentioned that it might appeal to straight males is that I plan to make the traps very appealing, very moe.

[papillon]

Well, not being a straight male, I must say that the point of this game is totally lost on me. I'd watch a setup like that as an anime comedy but I wouldn't really want to play it.

[mikey]

I am also in the "not really" club. I like to play BxB as something refreshing and with the knowledge that it is actually aimed at girls, there is a distance between me and the game. And I like it.

Playing as a male looking for other males no matter how moe is something I wouldn't like to do. It's a relatively simple explanation - I'm not attracted to men. A game like this will most probably ask/want a minimum of open-mindedness to the subject from the player, but even playing with the idea of "what if" (or having an avatar that thinks this way), while not really eeking me off or making me uncomfortable feels kind of pointless to me.

I guess it's because you can't be open to everything - I don't want to explore my "gay side", just like I don't want to try reading religious books - because I'm not looking for a religion and similarly, I'm not really feeling the need to re-examine my orientation.

That's more or less the short explanation. So this wouldn't really be my cup of tea.

[monele]

2b is so bad XD...

Anyway, uuuh... I'd be curious about this ^^;... But only if the crossdressers look *reaaaaally* feminine. Like... draw a cute girl and just pretend it's a man in your game

[Ren]

Weird things happen when i don't sleep at night...

And for the last time, no!I don't cross dress, I'm an average molestable uke who's not into that kind of things T^T

There's a manga called Princess princess that somehow reminds me of this.The protagonists are first years forced to dress like girls to make their schoolmates(in a all boys school, no girls to admire ;-;) happier.
None of them is happy about it though, and I doubt anyone's gonna turn gay...

If I was you I'd aim at the female audience, transform it into a parody and make the main character less than comfortable with the situation.Maybe make him all angry when someone makes advances to him, and all flustered if he stares too much at one of his class mates.

My life...my life is ruined, for ever!

senpai.jpg (38.58 KiB) Viewed 2302 times

[DaFool]

I was inspired by the Princess Princess anime but if I remember correctly I gave up after one episode because the cross-dressers weren't moe enough (I tend to dislike very sharp character designs).

Hmmm... appreciate the feedback. They're not representative of all the potential players, but you guys are the most vocal, and I really need data on the "what if the player had this attitude / reaction?"

[mikey]

I was just going to say that - don't take the comments as representative, most people are indeed quiet.

[chronoluminaire]

I'm just fractionally on the other side of the line from mikey. A lot of the starting point is the same: I'm a straight guy, with no intention to re-explore that orientation (I'm married!), and I don't have any interest in BxB manga or games in general.

Buuuttt... that game DaFool describes does sound like a lot of fun XD I did enjoy watching Gravitation with friends, even though that's BxB. I think of it as the exception that proves the rule. So it's possible that I might enjoy this proposed game too (I'd go for option b).)

Also: DaFool, you have one straaaange imagination