You can get very far in life simply by following the generic dating sim stat-raising paradigm.
You know the one. You, as the protagonist, plan out your day and your stats rise accordingly. If you work out, your fitness goes up. If you study, your intelligence goes up, and so on. And as you raise your stats, your opportunities with the game’s girls increase. The sporty girl notices you when you’re fit. The bookworm notices you when you’re intelligent, and so on.
It’s a simplified version of exactly how real life works.
If you choose to work out, you’ll be more physically fit.
If you choose to study, you’ll by more knowledgeable.
If you choose to slack off, you’ll gain nothing and miss opportunities.
Obviously real people aren’t programmed to respond to you once your deadlift reaches a certain weight, like videogame characters are. But people take notice in subtle ways that aren’t always obvious. If you can make a good impression on someone, that might open up an opportunity.
Opportunities are what the game offers you when you reach a certain level. If you have more opportunities, it means you have more options. If you have more options, that increases the likelihood that you’ll really like one of the options presented to you.
This doesn’t just apply the guys, either. Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side is a thing, after all. All people notice other people who stand out to them. Most people like to be around people who are kinda like them. Most people also inhabit spaces that interest them. In these games, you’re likely to find the sporty girl (or boy) at the gym, or the bookworm at the library.
You’re likely to find an otaku at an anime club or anime convention.
And you’re likely to stand out in that environment if your stats are higher. In a way, there are even more ways to succeed in real life, since you can usually combine stats in ways that make you stand out even further. Going off of the anime convention example, if your fitness and competence stats are high enough, you can make and wear an excellent cosplay. If your charisma and confidence stats are high enough, you can host a cool panel.
There are things you should be doing in order to live your best life. Things like taking care of your body and your space. There are also things you enjoy doing that will make you stand out to other people if you do them enough. Through the discipline to do these things, you become the kind of person for whom other people will create opportunities.
That’s the essence of dating sim games, and it maps directly onto real life.
This is the Stats Project. We’re helping to improve our readers’ lives by tailoring our “Otaku Lifestyle” content to particular important sectors of life. You’ll see tags on our articles relating to specific “stats” we’ve identified. We hope to help our readers improve their Fitness, Competence, Confidence, Charisma, Sociability, Mindset, and Responsibility with our articles and videos.
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