I'm a brazillian, so I cant really speak about what beeing a DIK means.
I know the word "DICK" means "PENIS".
Here in Brazil we have a word for it: "PICA".
Someone who is a PICA is someone is who does not let others shit in his head.
It doesnt mean he is violent, sometimes he is, but the major characteristic is that he is someone who demands RESPECT.
You see him, you treat him with respect.
If you try to wedgie him, you will suffer the consequences.
So, when I first saw the term, I thought beeing a DIK would be like being a PICA, an Alpha male, someone who does not get trumpled upon, who is not other people's bitch and so on.
But the main char receives so much humiliation that it makes you wonder what is the meaning behind it all.
I mean, to become an DIK someone has to endure public humiliation from another MALE?
Does he need to let another MALE dominate him like a little bitch while begging for a chance to be part of their group?
And worse: the game wants me to believe that girls will find this attractive and will want to fuck him and be his best friends?
"Oh, I endured a lot of humiliation for enough time so now I'm a big shot!".
No, man, you're just that group's bitch!
Maybe the main char will change, like when in my gameplay he fought with a whole group tri-alpha guys while saying he was breaking his code. And I respect that change.
If the author's goal was to make the main character (MC) change and grow, ok, I respect that.
But before that moment, there was not a single moment when the MC talked about this code.
If he had mentioned it the first time a tri-alpha wedgied him, I would understand his motivations for not picking a fight at that time.
But it was never mentioned, like it was the most normal thing in the world.
But, hey, maybe thats the culture in other places, like EUA or Europe.
In my eyes, thats quite strange, but may be normal for the majority here, who knows.
And I know, most people here get mad when we complain about the game main character's lack of masculinity, and instantly tell we should stop playing and so on.
I will keep watching the game since there are entertaining aspects.
I’m from Australia and we had a similar mindset to the US when it comes to “initiations” and all that. While “hazing” has been pretty much made illegal here (because it always went too far), before my time, even apprentices to a trade would be hazed on their first week of employment. It usually involves something humiliating or sexual, like being tied up naked somewhere or having something shoved up their ass. Not sure why straight men are infatuated with shoving something up another guys ass, but a dude even got killed when they shoved an air compressor hose up his ass and turned it on!
So hazing is pretty dead in Australia now (like that poor air compressor dude), that kind of behaviour would result in the perpetrators being expelled, fired or facing charges in this day and age, but one tradition still exists, and that’s the humiliation of the groom on his buck’s night. Being tied naked to a flag pole in a public park in the early hours of the morning is not unheard off for a guy who is getting married the next day!
So in Being a DIK, the developer has blurred the lines between the 80s (from the US movies he draws inspiration) and today, where the reader is expected to have the sensibilities of today’s populace, but many of the characters are the maniacs of a bygone era. It works.
But if you’re from a culture that takes manhood very seriously, where everyone wants to prove they "are a man", where having your manliness insulted or threatened is very serious, then watching the main character being a little bitch from time to time might bother you.
Talking about different cultures... What does “start dating” mean in USA? In episode 8, the MC commits to one of the main girls, but their relationship is not official, right? They're not boyfriend and girlfriend, are they?
In Brazil, we use the expression “going out with other people” for this type of unofficial relationship, we can go out with several people (just like the MC did in the first 8 episodes) and nothing would be considered cheating.
My confusion is: In Brazil, saying that you are dating someone means that the relationship is already official (boyfriend and girlfriend relationship). Could someone clarify this matter for me?
What do you means - "Officially" ? I think officially, it's husband and wife, legally married. Any other relationship cannot be official. It's just having fun fuck together.
To me, dating just means going out with someone with the intent to start a relationship. Of course you can still go on dates with someone you're serious with, or married to, but early stages of dating aren't that serious.
Taking a girl to the movies or to dinner or whatever, one-on-one, is dating her. It’s definitely ok to date more than one girl until you find someone you really want to get serious with, as long as both you and the girl agree it's not serious yet. This is where shit gets messy, when one party thinks there's more to the situation than the other. That's why communications is for.
And that leads to the distinction this game makes (and I would make), that being in a relationship with someone is more than just dating them. If you’re in a relationship with more than one person it means your cheating on them, unless of course the girls are aware of the circumstances and are fine with it, but that's are rare thing outside porn games.
So, to equate some words here:
Brazilian "
going out with other people" when we're talking about going out as a couple with some someone you're sexually attracted to, is "
going on a date" or "
dating".
Brazilian "
dating" is equivalent to "
being in a relationship".
Being in an official relationship, outside of marriage, just means other people are aware you're in a relationship. "Official" is used rather loosely there.
Not everyone will agree with these terms, but this is how it's interpreted in the game and is fairly typical in my circles too.
Simply put, I don't think it's fair for the cheat counter to be added to the game, at least not until the MC and chosen girl have this dialogue below:
MC: "Hey, do you want to be my girlfriend? That's how I roll."
LI: "Haha! "How I roll.""
LI: "You're a cutie, but are you even legit?"
MC: "Bitch, please..."
LI: "Just kidding, of course I want to be your girlfriend. I can't wait to tell everyone about us. :3"
That cheat counter being triggered before the MC and the chosen girl made things official was just a bad move.
The mc made his decision at the end of episode 8. He literally told the girl that you chose that he wanted to be with them, Jill even gave up her virginity to him, although he didn't tell Maya & Josy that he wanted to be exclusive with them, but he told Derek near the beginning of episode 9. So I think episode 9’s cheat counter made sense.
- If Jill hears that he was behaving like a slut during the party, she'd be mortified.
- Sage wouldn't be too upset unless she finds out he's fucking other girls. I don't think harmless flirting would bother her much.
- Maya & Josy don't know the mc wants to be more serious with them until later, but he told Derek, and Derek would castrate the mc if he found out he was two-timing his sister.
- Bella would be disappointed and probably end things with him, like she did when she found out about Cathy.
So yeah, by the end of episode 8, potentially all relationships except M&J were solidified, so groping other girls asses etc. doesn't go down well after that point.
And I'm not sure if your definition of "making it official" means telling others, or just deciding between the two of you, but a girl's gonna feel cheated on if you cheat on her, regardless if others know you're in a relationship or not.
To be fair some VNs do offer you option to opt out of the main storyline and just end right there. But it's just a joke.
This is a game about "Being a DIK" and not "Shunning DIKs And Doing My Own Thing" so, yeah. It's going to be core part of the story.
A lot of the "Far Cry" games have alternative endings where you can just not start the conflict and the game ends in like 10 minutes. It's a joke, and nobody bought the game to play it that way and then shelve it.
There was a game here that I played a couple of years back that allowed you to ignore every single girl if you chose to, and it eventually resulted in the mc getting up, having breakfast, doing nothing, having dinner, and going to be again. It was pointless.
For BaDIK to have the mc ignore all the girls and just sit in his dorm with Troy, jerking off whenever he's got some alone time... It would be funny, but it would also be a waste of development time when 99.9% of people aren't interested in that path.
