In The Game: The Game, It’s You Vs. Pick-Up Artists
▻https://kotaku.com/in-the-game-the-game-its-you-vs-pick-up-artists-1822727691
To women like me who enjoy going to bars, The Game: The Game might make you physically ill. It’s a tactical visual novel with the emotional impact of a piece of reported journalism. The player is a woman who is approached by any of six real-life dating coaches at a bar, their natural habitat, and subjected to their manipulations—negging, faux compliments, self-depreciation. Its dialogue is entirely informed by over 50 seduction coaching videos, 20 books and endless hidden camera footage from the coaches, including Julien Blanc, Roosh V and Neil Strauss, who in 2005 wrote The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, thereby bringing the subculture of picking up women into the mainstream. These so-called artists charge up to $3,000 per seminar to shape their devotees’ words, body language and tone to come off as confident alpha men.
