There is a dramatic scene Nier: Automata in which a desperate, downtrodden android orders his AI companion to shut down all logical functions. The AI, reasonable thing it is, warns him that there’s almost no chance this will end well. Our hero knows that, of course; he does it anyway. This leads to one of the most memorable lines in the entire critically acclaimed action game. “Why do I long for people like that,” the android cries as he takes a dangerous leap of faith that ends up hurting someone.
If you’ve ever checked out Tinder, you might know exactly what it’s like, even if you’ve never played Nier: Automata. A woman named Jen certainly does, based on her experience on dating apps. Jen, who works as a paralegal, went viral on Twitter earlier this year for, as she put it, swiping on Tinder and “making guys buy Nier: Automata‘ only to ‘ghost her’.
By her count, she has ensnared 22 men in her devious but amazing plan. Since it’s been a few years, she claims, she couldn’t show it my box Proof that she convinced dozens of men to buy the unusually philosophical game. However, she did have a handful of screenshots of flirty conversations where people said they couldn’t believe they would buy a video game just to impress a girl. [Editor’s note: This bar is low.] And at least some of the people pictured appear to have actually played the game, as the screenshots show discussions of various endings and plot points between her and the would-be lovers.
Known for his intense post-apocalyptic and introspective storytelling, Nier: Automata is full of twists and turns, including shifting perspectives, shifting genres, and multiple endings. There’s very little out there like kidney, and even less like Yoko Taro, its enigmatic and offbeat creator. Let me wrap up his whole deal by saying that he’s best known for wearing a giant moon-shaped mask over his head based on the character Emil from the original kidney.
It takes a certain kind of appetite to even be open to this kind of offbeat weirdness – Snoop Dogg’s peddling call of Duty or John Cena falling in Provided this is not. kidney Fans recently proved to everyone that in a group of modders they are on a whole different level than most people convinces the world that her Creations could have been a long-lost secret in the game, or maybe an ARG.
No, those were the cryptic messages that took the gaming world by storm “just” a bunch of hardcore kidney Fans who love their game like hell. As it sounds, that’s the kind of distinctive soul that Jen, who claims her Tinder bio said so kidney was her favorite game, she wanted to find: someone she could really, really talk to about her fandom.
Part of what makes the story believable is the sheer reach of Jen’s fan base, which she describes as an “obsession.” She shared a picture of a shrine she said she keeps in her room, and guys, that thing is huge. It has Emil everywhere, in a variety of different forms. The table – which even comes with its own candle – would stand out in any room. In fact, Jen said that before people enter her room for the first time, Jen has to warn her beforehand.
The shrine makes sense given Jen’s connection to the game, which she said came into her life at a time when she was “severely depressed and suicidal from being bullied and from an abusive family.” Back then, she watched a Let’s Play of the game and became obsessed with everything from the music to the aesthetics. She still likes to remember sentences like “Your future is not given to you. It’s something you have to take for yourself.”
That’s an idea she really took to heart on Tinder. With no one local to talk to about the game, she hoped to change her fortunes with a dating app. Most of those interactions were superficial, she admits.
“Many [Tinder matches] wouldn’t appreciate it that much [as I did]or if I wanted to talk about every detail and they just said ‘[it] was a good game [but] Not much to talk about,'” Jen said, taking cues to light her up and move on. Nonetheless, many chose to do so.
“It was really crazy how many men would buy it,” she said, noting that while she sometimes directly told them to buy the game, she never promised anything sexual in return. But, echoing the entitlement that comes with buying a woman a drink at the bar, many of these men did not see buying the game as a neutral act.
“Actually, a lot of full-ons expected something from me to recommend a game,” she said. “I’ve read many times how they wished I would wear 2B’s uniform for them.”
Really, the way Jen describes talking kidney almost sounds like she used it as a shield against the constant sexualization she keeps encountering on Tinder. The more men tried to get naughty, the more she talked shop about lore and the like. But eventually, it was precisely this rudeness that made her stop looking for a counterpart and instead just try to sell Yoko Taro’s masterpiece outright. You can do something with it, right? As she said in her original viral tweet, “High sales mean more taro games.”
“I think that [the crassness] made me a little more apathetic over time… [of course] I know that was pretty crappy on my part too, but I think Yoko Taro’s games deserve more credit.”
It was amusing for a while, but eventually the reality of it all started to hit her like the ferocity of watching listlessly caress dozens of people in the toilet after midnight.
“I quit because I kind of realized how casual I’ve become about something so freaky?” she said. “Although some of them were really gross, but others maybe just didn’t like the game or weren’t that into analysis and theory and stuff like that [I] probably hurt her feelings [by] just ‘disappear’.”
These days, not only is Jen adding more to the shrine, she’s also found her people on Discord. Better yet, her Discord buddies “really like the game and don’t just want to fuck me.” One pal even lives close by. Besides, who needs smelly boys when the man himself is watching over your shit post?
“Yoko Taro followed me a few years ago when I was making nude fan art of the two main girls from vending machines,” she said. “I think that made my obsession even stronger, lmao.”
