{"id":1404,"date":"2021-08-19T11:49:58","date_gmt":"2021-08-19T02:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=1404"},"modified":"2022-03-07T18:04:44","modified_gmt":"2022-03-07T09:04:44","slug":"20210806-1404","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210806-1404\/","title":{"rendered":"Elden Ring gets tagged as \u201cCute\u201d \u201cCasual\u201d \u201cDating Sim\u201d on Steam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Publication date of the original Japanese article<\/a>: 2021-08-06 17:17 (JST)
Translated by. Nick Mosier<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n


From Software\u2019s newest title Elden Ring<\/strong><\/em> had its Steam page go live on August 6, and in no time at all, the game has been tagged as \u201ccute casual dating sim.\u201d In this article, we want to take a look at the culture of the From Software fandom and Steam features that cause this sort of thing to happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Update 2021\/08\/19 11:44 JST
Elden Ring<\/em>‘s Steam store page has since been updated to include tags that are more in line with the actual game (such as “soul-like” “RPG” “Action RPG”).
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


Just to be clear, Elden Ring <\/em>is not a dating simulator, but rather an action RPG. The developer, From Software, is known for making the Dark Souls<\/em> series and other titles with a dark atmosphere and steep difficulty. Their newest title Elden Ring<\/em> looks to be an action RPG in that same vein. At the very least, it would be tough to say it looks like a cute dating simulator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, at the time of this writing, the game\u2019s Steam page has tags like \u201cDating Sim\u201d, \u201cCute\u201d, \u201cCasual\u201d, and \u201cNude\u201d attached to it. It\u2019s hard to think these tags are based on the actual contents of the game and it seems unlikely that From Software or Bandai Namco, the game\u2019s publisher, would add them. The suspected party here is Steam\u2019s user-defined tag system.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


Steam\u2019s tag system allows genre and other relevant information to be linked to a game as a tag. It can be something broad like \u201cRPG\u201d or \u201cAdventure\u201d to something more specific to the game like \u201cDifficult\u201d or \u201cSci-fi\u201d. Eventually, the top 20 tags will influence how users can search for the game and where it shows up in the store.  The game\u2019s developer\/publisher can add tags or order which tags have the most priority through the administrator settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides developers, regular Steam users are also free to create and add tags to a game. However, these tags aren\u2019t immediately reflected on Steam. For example, if one user adds a \u201cCute\u201d tag to a game, it won\u2019t have a high enough priority level. As long as other users don\u2019t add the same tag or endorse the \u201cCute\u201d tag, its rank won\u2019t rise in the system. These limitations make user tags more of a supplement to the tags provided by the game\u2019s developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now if a whole bunch of users use the \u201cCute\u201d tag, it can suddenly climb the ranks as a tag that represents what\u2019s in the game. In other words, Elden Ring<\/em> is most likely being tagged as a cute dating simulator because Steam users are backing these tags in large numbers.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


In order to know the background on why they\u2019re doing this, we need to take a look at the fan culture around From Software\u2019s games. As previously mentioned, the studio’s games such as Dark Souls<\/em> tend to be dark and gloomy with game design that\u2019s meant to be tough and heartbreaking. They\u2019re great games though with the worlds and gameplay being highly detailed and finely tuned. That\u2019s why From Software\u2019s games, despite piling on the deaths and breaking gamer\u2019s hearts, are beloved by a wildly enthusiastic fanbase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing that brings comfort to these fans is the NPC characters. One that\u2019s especially popular is probably the Fire Keeper from the Dark Souls<\/em> series. The series has multiple characters that are called Fire Keepers, but across each game they\u2019re an important support character that helps the player with things like leveling up and strengthening healing items.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After overcoming the danger, death, and despair of battle, these devoted characters await to offer support and a lot of players are probably quite fond of them. But it\u2019s not limited to just Fire Keepers. From Software\u2019s games have naked spider-women, dragon girls, stout goddesses, and tall slender dolls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plus they have charming and fascinating male NPCs. There\u2019s a sun-loving fellow, a lovable and chubby knight, a sly man, a handsome guy willing to lay his life on the line for his kingdom and family, and many more. It\u2019s not too out there to think that there are players that have \u201cfallen in love\u201d with the characters they\u2019ve come across in these games.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Because of all the players that love these characters, the fans have likened From Software\u2019s games to dating simulators. As for why Elden Ring <\/em>was dubbed a dating simulator, fans pushing the \u201cFrom Software games are dating simulators\u201d meme is likely the culprit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although it\u2019s probably only a portion of fans adding tags, when the fanbase is huge, these sorts of results can arise. Something worth keeping in mind is that tags in Steam that don\u2019t match what\u2019s actually in a game have the potential to impede searches and marketing for a game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luckily the priority of tags can be edited by the game\u2019s developer\/publisher so it\u2019s unlikely that Elden Ring<\/em> will continue to be treated like a dating simulator. Making joke tags isn\u2019t something we recommend, but this shows the anticipation that\u2019s building around the game and characters.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of characters, the cute character dubbed \u201cPot Boy\u201d that briefly appeared in a trailer for the game is already gaining popularity among fans that can\u2019t wait for the game. But it\u2019s a From Software game, so while it may look cute, it could be a player-killing machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elden Ring<\/em> is planned to release on Steam, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and the Xbox Series S|X on January 21, 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elden Ring gets tagged as \u201cCute\u201d \u201cCasual\u201d \u201cDating Sim\u201d on Steam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":1411,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[56,18],"class_list":["post-1404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-elden-ring","tag-global-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nElden Ring gets tagged as \u201cCute\u201d \u201cCasual\u201d \u201cDating Sim\u201d on Steam - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210806-1404\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Elden Ring gets tagged as \u201cCute\u201d \u201cCasual\u201d \u201cDating Sim\u201d on Steam - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Elden Ring gets tagged as \u201cCute\u201d \u201cCasual\u201d \u201cDating Sim\u201d on Steam.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210806-1404\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-19T02:49:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-07T09:04:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/20210806-171581-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sayoko Narita\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sayoko Narita\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Elden Ring gets tagged as \u201cCute\u201d \u201cCasual\u201d \u201cDating Sim\u201d on Steam - AUTOMATON WEST","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210806-1404\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Elden Ring gets tagged as \u201cCute\u201d \u201cCasual\u201d \u201cDating Sim\u201d on Steam - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Elden Ring gets tagged as \u201cCute\u201d \u201cCasual\u201d \u201cDating Sim\u201d on Steam.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210806-1404\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2021-08-19T02:49:58+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-03-07T09:04:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/20210806-171581-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sayoko Narita","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sayoko Narita","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210806-1404\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210806-1404\/"},"author":{"name":"Sayoko Narita","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/6ff2721c450e20970538373b7515eaf6"},"headline":"Elden Ring gets tagged as \u201cCute\u201d \u201cCasual\u201d \u201cDating Sim\u201d on Steam","datePublished":"2021-08-19T02:49:58+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-07T09:04:44+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210806-1404\/"},"wordCount":963,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210806-1404\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/20210806-171581-header.jpg","keywords":["Elden Ring","News (Global)"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210806-1404\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210806-1404\/","name":"Elden Ring gets tagged as \u201cCute\u201d \u201cCasual\u201d \u201cDating Sim\u201d on Steam - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210806-1404\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210806-1404\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/20210806-171581-header.jpg","datePublished":"2021-08-19T02:49:58+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-07T09:04:44+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210806-1404\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210806-1404\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210806-1404\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/20210806-171581-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/20210806-171581-header.jpg","width":1200,"height":675},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20210806-1404\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Elden Ring gets tagged as \u201cCute\u201d \u201cCasual\u201d \u201cDating Sim\u201d on Steam"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/6ff2721c450e20970538373b7515eaf6","name":"Sayoko Narita","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Narita2-150x150-1-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Narita2-150x150-1-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Narita2-150x150-1-100x100.jpg","caption":"Sayoko Narita"},"description":"JP AUTOMATON writer","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/seiji-narita\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1404"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1499,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404\/revisions\/1499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}