There’s a dramatic scene in Nier: Automata by which a determined, downtrodden android instructions his AI companion to stop all logical features. The AI, wise factor that it’s, warns him that there’s nearly no likelihood this may finish properly. Our hero is aware of this, in fact; he does it anyway. This results in one of the crucial memorable traces in your complete critically acclaimed motion sport. “Why do I lengthy for people like this,” the android cries out, as he takes a harmful leap of religion that finally ends up with somebody getting harm.

When you’ve ever gone on Tinder, you would possibly know precisely what that is like even should you’ve by no means performed Nier: Automata. A lady named Jen definitely does, based mostly on her expertise utilizing courting apps. Jen, who works as a paralegal, went viral on Twitter earlier this 12 months for, as she put it, swiping on Tinder and getting “guys to purchase Nier: Automata” solely to “then ghost them.”

By her rely, she roped 22 males into her devious but superb scheme. Because it’s been a few years, she claims, she couldn’t present Kotaku proof that she satisfied dozens of males to purchase the unusually philosophical sport. She did, nevertheless, have a handful of screenshots of conversations filled with flirts, by which folks would say that they couldn’t consider they have been about to purchase a online game simply to impress a woman. [Editor’s note: This bar is low.] And no less than among the pictured of us seem to have genuinely performed the sport, because the screenshots present dialogue of various endings and plot factors between her and the would-be paramours.

Recognized for its intense post-apocalyptic and introspective storytelling, Nier: Automata is filled with twists and turns, together with altering views, alternating genres, and a number of endings. There’s little or no on the market like Nier, and fewer nonetheless like Yoko Taro, its enigmatic and offbeat creator. Let me summarize his complete deal by saying that he’s finest recognized for going round sporting a large moon-shaped masks over his head, based mostly on the character Emil from the unique Nier.

It takes a sure kind of urge for food to even be open to this type of offbeat weirdness—Snoop Dogg hawking Name of Responsibility or John Cena dropping into Fornite this isn’t. Nier followers not too long ago proved to everybody that they’re on a wholly completely different stage than most individuals when a bunch of modders satisfied the world that their creations may need been a long-lost in-game secret, or maybe an ARG.

No, the cryptic messages that took the gaming world by storm have been “simply” a bunch of hardcore Nier followers loving the hell out of their sport. From the sounds of it, that’s the type of distinctive soul that Jen, who claims her Tinder bio stated that Nier was her favourite sport, needed to search out: somebody she may actually, actually discuss to about her fandom.

A part of what makes the story plausible is the sheer scope of Jen’s fandom, which she calls an “obsession.” She shared an image of a shrine she stated she retains in her room, and folk, the factor is very large. It’s acquired Emil throughout it, in quite a lot of completely different kinds. The desk—which even features a devoted candle—would stand out in any room. Certainly, Jen stated that earlier than folks go into her room for the primary time, Jen has to warn them about it first.

The shrine is smart when you think about Jen’s connection to the sport, which she stated got here into her life throughout a interval when she was “closely depressed and suicidal on account of being bullied and having an abusive household.” On the time, she watched a Let’s Play of the sport and have become obsessive about all the things, from its music to its aesthetic. She nonetheless fondly remembers traces like, “A future is just not given to you. It’s one thing you could take for your self.”

That’s an concept she took to coronary heart on Tinder, actually. Having nobody native to speak to concerning the sport, she hoped to vary her luck on a courting app. Most such interactions have been shallow, she admits.

“Many [Tinder matches] wouldn’t recognize it as a lot [as I did], or after I needed to speak about each element and so they simply stated ‘[it] was a great sport [but] there isn’t that a lot to speak about’,” Jen stated, which she took as her cue to ghost them and transfer on. Nonetheless, many went for it.

“It was really insane, what number of males would purchase it,” she stated, noting that whereas she did typically inform them outright to purchase the sport, she by no means promised something sexual in alternate. However in an echo of the entitlement that comes with shopping for a girl a drink on the bar, many of those males didn’t see shopping for the sport as a impartial act.

“Really many full-on anticipated one thing from me in return for recommending a sport,” she stated. “Many occasions I needed to learn how they wished I’d put on 2B’s uniform for them.”

Actually, the way in which Jen describes speaking about Nier nearly appears like she used it as a defend in opposition to the fixed sexualization she saved coming throughout on Tinder. The extra males tried to get saucy, the extra she talked store about lore and the like. However ultimately, that crassness was precisely what pushed her to cease looking for a match and as an alternative simply begin attempting to promote Yoko Taro’s masterpiece outright. May as properly make one thing of it, proper? As she stated in her unique viral tweet, “Excessive gross sales imply extra Taro video games.”

“I feel that [the crassness] made me a bit extra apathetic over time… [of course] I do know that was actually fucked up from my half as properly, however I do suppose Yoko Taro’s video games deserve extra recognition.”

It was amusing for some time, however ultimately the truth of the entire thing began to hit her just like the starkness of watching your self swipe listlessly over dozens of individuals on the bathroom previous midnight.

“I ended as a result of i kinda realized how nonchalant I turned about one thing so fucked up?” she stated. “Like even tho a few of them have been like really gross, however others may need simply disliked the sport or aren’t that a lot into analyzing and theories and such and [I] in all probability harm their emotions [by] simply ‘disappearing.’”

These days, Jen is just not solely persevering with so as to add to the shrine, she’s additionally discovered her folks on Discord. Higher but, her Discord buddies “like the sport genuinely and don’t simply wish to fuck me.” One pal even lives near her. And apart from, who wants smelly boys when the person himself is watching over your shitposts?

“Yoko Taro adopted me a number of years again after I made nude fan artwork of the 2 foremost women of Automata,” she stated. “I feel that made my obsession even stronger lmao.”