Played during the Backloggd’s Game of the Week (11th Jul. – 17th Jul., 2023).
Perhaps more than any other genre, erotica and pornography can be used to educate as much as to indulge desires. The exploration of BDSM is often rooted in complex and intimate experiences, making it difficult to capture or describe all the factors that lead to the pursuit of certain practices. Its popularisation in recent decades, which accelerated sharply following the publication of Fifty Shades of Grey (2011), has led to certain practices being coded into the collective imagination, while simultaneously increasing the prevalence of toxic behaviour. In the words of its creator Anna Anthropy, quoting a review by Kieron Gillenn, Mighty Jill Off 'isn't about just that "games players are masochists". It's that "games designers are sadists", in the sense of a Master/Slave relationship. In that, it's a question of trying to punish your slave in a way which makes it a relationship' [1].
Adapting BDSM to videogames: using repetition to stimulate obedience
There is something virtuous in this vision, emphasising the negotiated aspect of a BDSM relationship. However, Mighty Jill Off quickly sidesteps these concerns by delivering something almost cruelly sadistic. The gameplay is modelled on Mighty Bomb Jack (1986), with an emphasis on platforming and verticality. Perhaps intentionally, the controls are a little uncomfortable, and it is not uncommon for Jill to accidentally hit an enemy or a spike. Thankfully, the title mitigates the frustration by offering regular checkpoints. Jill's horizontal movement allows some interesting design ideas to be explored, especially when climbing the second tower, which requires a much tighter execution: on several occasions, for example, the player has to achieve pixel-perfect positioning to stand next to a flame without being hit.
Taken in a vacuum, these micro-challenges are effectively a way of making the player feel uncomfortable in the face of the Queen's and the game designer's sadism. Yet there is something disingenuous and heartless about the implementation. Repetition is a common motif in games exploring BDSM. Text adventure games use multiple choices to force the player to carry out a punishment: Gloss's Lost in Laminate (2019) and Stables of Cyn (2021) sometimes require the player to click on the same choice dozens of times to simulate the effort of concentration and submission required of the protagonist, occasionally using tricks like varying the length of the text to change the spot to click. Similarly, line writing, inherited from school discipline, has become a common punishment in online BDSM circles, thanks to sites that check the accuracy of the typing and can punish the submissive by giving them extra lines if they make a mistake.
Simulating and negotiating consent in a video game
The central element of these games and practices is negotiation, or the invention of negotiation, between the parties involved. In the case of the written lines, the framework is contractually defined between the dominant and the submissive in order to adapt the rules to the needs and boundaries of each party. Stables of Cyn places considerable emphasis on the negotiated nature of the BDSM relationship between Violet and Cyn, and the title constantly comforts the protagonist and the player by regularly checking in on them and providing the necessary aftercare in the narration. A BDSM relationship is a shared affair, and submission to authority must be balanced by tokens of affection – or at least closeness – if the experience is to remain enjoyable.
Mighty Jill Off fails to create such an ecosystem. The Queen is relentlessly cold and almost ungrateful in the face of Jill's enthusiasm to please her, whose quest served to 'earn' the Mistress's presence. Jill is immediately subjected to seemingly cruel acts, such as being pushed away again despite her ascent of the tower. The endings show that she derives genuine pleasure from this, but for the player, who lacks the precise context of the relationship between the two women and what has been agreed, it feels toxic and slightly abusive – all the more so because they may identify with the protagonist. The complete lack of aftercare after enduring several minutes of precise platforming is aberrant and conjures up a fantasised idea of BDSM relationships. Punishment is not necessarily its own reward. Having never been given the opportunity to express my limits, even fictionally, I have rarely had the opportunity to feel so uncomfortable and disrespected by such a title.
__________
[1] Kieron Gillenn, 'Whip It: Mighty Jill Off', on Rock Paper Shotgun, 8th September 2008, consulted on 12th July 2023.
Perhaps more than any other genre, erotica and pornography can be used to educate as much as to indulge desires. The exploration of BDSM is often rooted in complex and intimate experiences, making it difficult to capture or describe all the factors that lead to the pursuit of certain practices. Its popularisation in recent decades, which accelerated sharply following the publication of Fifty Shades of Grey (2011), has led to certain practices being coded into the collective imagination, while simultaneously increasing the prevalence of toxic behaviour. In the words of its creator Anna Anthropy, quoting a review by Kieron Gillenn, Mighty Jill Off 'isn't about just that "games players are masochists". It's that "games designers are sadists", in the sense of a Master/Slave relationship. In that, it's a question of trying to punish your slave in a way which makes it a relationship' [1].
Adapting BDSM to videogames: using repetition to stimulate obedience
There is something virtuous in this vision, emphasising the negotiated aspect of a BDSM relationship. However, Mighty Jill Off quickly sidesteps these concerns by delivering something almost cruelly sadistic. The gameplay is modelled on Mighty Bomb Jack (1986), with an emphasis on platforming and verticality. Perhaps intentionally, the controls are a little uncomfortable, and it is not uncommon for Jill to accidentally hit an enemy or a spike. Thankfully, the title mitigates the frustration by offering regular checkpoints. Jill's horizontal movement allows some interesting design ideas to be explored, especially when climbing the second tower, which requires a much tighter execution: on several occasions, for example, the player has to achieve pixel-perfect positioning to stand next to a flame without being hit.
Taken in a vacuum, these micro-challenges are effectively a way of making the player feel uncomfortable in the face of the Queen's and the game designer's sadism. Yet there is something disingenuous and heartless about the implementation. Repetition is a common motif in games exploring BDSM. Text adventure games use multiple choices to force the player to carry out a punishment: Gloss's Lost in Laminate (2019) and Stables of Cyn (2021) sometimes require the player to click on the same choice dozens of times to simulate the effort of concentration and submission required of the protagonist, occasionally using tricks like varying the length of the text to change the spot to click. Similarly, line writing, inherited from school discipline, has become a common punishment in online BDSM circles, thanks to sites that check the accuracy of the typing and can punish the submissive by giving them extra lines if they make a mistake.
Simulating and negotiating consent in a video game
The central element of these games and practices is negotiation, or the invention of negotiation, between the parties involved. In the case of the written lines, the framework is contractually defined between the dominant and the submissive in order to adapt the rules to the needs and boundaries of each party. Stables of Cyn places considerable emphasis on the negotiated nature of the BDSM relationship between Violet and Cyn, and the title constantly comforts the protagonist and the player by regularly checking in on them and providing the necessary aftercare in the narration. A BDSM relationship is a shared affair, and submission to authority must be balanced by tokens of affection – or at least closeness – if the experience is to remain enjoyable.
Mighty Jill Off fails to create such an ecosystem. The Queen is relentlessly cold and almost ungrateful in the face of Jill's enthusiasm to please her, whose quest served to 'earn' the Mistress's presence. Jill is immediately subjected to seemingly cruel acts, such as being pushed away again despite her ascent of the tower. The endings show that she derives genuine pleasure from this, but for the player, who lacks the precise context of the relationship between the two women and what has been agreed, it feels toxic and slightly abusive – all the more so because they may identify with the protagonist. The complete lack of aftercare after enduring several minutes of precise platforming is aberrant and conjures up a fantasised idea of BDSM relationships. Punishment is not necessarily its own reward. Having never been given the opportunity to express my limits, even fictionally, I have rarely had the opportunity to feel so uncomfortable and disrespected by such a title.
__________
[1] Kieron Gillenn, 'Whip It: Mighty Jill Off', on Rock Paper Shotgun, 8th September 2008, consulted on 12th July 2023.