This episode of the podcast is NSFW

This weekend Berlin celebrates the 40th Christopher Street Day, thus the StoryFusion podcast tackles the subject of queer, kinky sex in Christina Love’s video game “Ladykiller in a bind”.

Stemming from the tradition of the visual novel genre, “Ladykiller” is a video game about a young woman who takes the role of her twin brother on a cruise. Beset by love interests, unreliable friends and alleged foes, she has to navigate a perverse game which is set up by an unknown entity and which promises riches to whoever is best at navigating this treacherous journey.

Apart from the sometimes erotic, sometimes pornographic content, the games sets up a very complicated network of characters, each of them more manipulative and deceptive than the other.

We ask about the deeper meaning of the power mechanics on display, their theoretical roots, as well as their political implications and why we took such different paths while playing this game.

CW: Discussions of sex, pornography, BDSM, kink and queerness

Everything is put through this filter of manipulation and deception. You are not who you pretend you are and everything is ultimately about an exchange of something that you want.

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Genre and story of the game

00:20 Introduction

2:15 About visual novels

4:45 Summary of the story

7:40 The characters

Within the mechanics

10:40 The game within the game

15:00 The endings

20:40 Choices and mechanics

The politics of sex

23:00 Capitalism and sexual economics

25:20 Libertarianism, emotions and the morals of the game

29:45 Everyone is playing games

34:10 Against heteronormativity

39:00 Michel Foucault and other French people

Exciting last words

41:30 Is it romance?

43:30 Is it pornography?

44:50 In search of an editor

48:50 Can a game like this go mainstream?

51:30 Recommendations

Philipp’s recommendations:
“Analogue – A hate story” and “Hate Plus”, the expanded version of the former, are two other games by creator Christina Love

“Smut Peddler” is a comic book anthology published by Iron Circus, featuring lots of sex-positive, queer and kinky pornographic stories

Further Reading

 

All screenshots are copyright of Love Conquers all Games

Our title song is “Witchcraft” from “Go fly a kite” (General Electric)