Eroge
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Background
Eroge, aka Erotic Games, trace their origins to the early 1980s, when Japanese companies introduced their own brands of microcomputer to compete with those of the United States. The earliest known commercial erotic computer game is PSK's Lolita Yakyūken, released in 1982. That same year, Koei released the erotic title, Seduction of the Condominium Wife (団地妻の誘惑, Danchi Tsuma no Yūwaku), which was an early role-playing adventure game with color graphics, owing to the eight-color palette of the PC-8001 computer. With sales numbering in the millions, its success raised Koei to a major player within the gaming industry.
Conversely, Yuji Horii recalled that he saw a demonstration of a Yakyūken-like game running on the FM-8 around November 1981, opening the floodgates on adult games. Other sources claim that the Yakyūken prototype developed by Hudson Soft was the first Japanese eroge.
Initially, erotic content was meaningfully integrated into a thoughtful, mature narrative, though more it was more often used as a flimsy excuse for hard core porn. As the visual novel standard was adopted, explicit scenes became less apparent <s>More and more people who used to reject such type of games began to become more open-minded, realizing that eroge are not just about sex anymore. Some story-focused eroge tend to have only a few erotic scenes. Lies! Lies! All lies spread by the Purity Brigade out at Wikipedia! Eroge literally means erotic game. They're aimed at basement-dwelling perverts and feature some of the most depraved, misogynistic content the human mind can possibly conceive! Why do you think they were so damned successful?
BDSM
All kidding aside, relatively few BDSM-themed eroge have been produced at this time (although pornographic content forms a significant proportion of the overall consumer demographic). Nevertheless, a few games began to appear in the mid 2000s, especially in venues with a large amateur membership. While these early entries were mostly simple experiments, the software offered the possibility for more sophisticated work, and the freeware status made it accessible to a potentially huge user base.
A number of BDSM-based "adventures" were proposed through online communities with actual production meeting with varying levels of success. Many were text-based interactive games supported by minimal graphics; a few of the more ambitious projects utilized high resolution images and animated sequences.
Theoretically, a user can assume any role within a BDSM scenario. A well-designed game might also offer sound effects, animation and high-resolution illustrations to enhance gameplay. In the present day, 3D models and backgrounds may be imported onto the game stage, allowing for hyper-realistic rendering and figurework.
