Citations:dating sim

Noun: "(video games) a social simulation game centered on building and maintaining a romantic relationship with one or more NPCs"

 * 2004, "Dating Lessons With Anime Play?", CPU: Computer Power User, September 2004, page 9:
 * Unlike typical Western games, the goal in Japanese dating sims is to attain true love rather than defeat level bosses.
 * 2006, Madelynne Ellis, Dark Designs, page 74:
 * Silk embodied Remy’s yaoi fantasies, and he knew his own image played heavily on that. He smirked. This was just like one of the dating sims that were so popular in Japan. Seduce, cajole, trick and treat your way to the perfect clinch.
 * 2010, "Subtitles", Anime and Philosophy: Wide Eyed Wonder, page 313:
 * Bishōjo characters are seen in almost all genres of anime and manga, especially in dating sims and visual novels, known as bishÿjo games, and harem anime and manga.
 * 2011, Ian Bogost, How to Do Things with Videogames, page 107:
 * In the ren'ai game, or dating sim, players manage a male protagonist who must converse with a variety of girls in hopes of courting one. Dating sims are often completely nonsexual.
 * 2015, Nicholas Ware, "Interative romance and button-mashing sex: Gameplay design and video games' Nice Guy Syndrome", in Rated M for Mature: Sex and Sexuality in Video Games (eds. Evan W. Lauteria & Matthew Wysocki), page 234:
 * Tokimeki Memorial was hugely influential not just in kickstarting the entire dating sim genre in Japan but also in the way its gameplay influenced the love mechanics I've already described in Persona 4 and Dragon Age: Origins.
 * 2021, Edwin Evans-Thirwell, "Kitfox Games", Edge, December 2021, page 93:
 * Short had enjoyed playing dating sims in grad school, but grew frustrated by their focus on the desires of cishet men. "I was like, 'Ah, I gotta make a game where you can date whoever you want, because this is ridiculous'," she recalls.