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Review
Encyclopedia Fuckme is a fast-paced, action-packed lesbian BDSM-themed CYOA game, written in breathless prose that is certainly meant to be hot and sexually arousing. Does that make its purpose "clearly pornographic", as Sam Kabo Ashwell claims in his review? I do not think so. It seems to me that an essential part of pornography is that it gives the reader (or watcher) exactly what he or she desires, which is why (a) most pornography is very formulaic, and (b) it is always clearly classified, so the consumer can choose the exact right product and not be confronted with kinks he or she doesn't like. Wittgenstein famously claimed that there can never be surprises in logic, and the same is true for pornography -- which makes it somewhat surprising that sex is more fun than logic, as John Cleese once proved, or rather, did not.
Anyway, what I want to say is that Encyclopedia Fuckme doesn't spell its specifics kinks out in advance; and that given their bizarre nature, and the way they are played out, it will be the rare reader who finds this game arousing all the way to the end. This is intentional. Encyclopedia Fuckme wants us to explore the weird tensions that arise when sexual arousal meets (Spoiler - click to show)revulsion, revulsion not in the shape of disgust, but in the shape of fear and uncertainty.
As far as I have seen, the game has two endings: a bad ending that you'll probably reach the first time, and a good ending that takes a little thought and exploration (or dumb luck) to find. The good ending is (Spoiler - click to show)hilariously over the top. For me, at least, it provided the catharsis needed after the rest of the story by making me (Spoiler - click to show)laugh out loud in disbelief and delight.
Comments on this review
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It seems to me that an essential part of pornography is that it gives the reader (or watcher) exactly what he or she desires
I think that this is usually mostly true, but it's counterpointed by other factors: people sometimes like to be introduced to new things, for instance. And in the specific case of D/s, issues about control, helplessness, and choice denied are a Big Deal. So I think that this:
(Spoiler - click to show) the weird tensions that arise when sexual arousal meets revulsion, revulsion not in the shape of disgust, but in the shape of fear and uncertainty.
can constitute a kink in its own right, or a meta-kink.
I certainly don't think that it's solely pornographic in intent; if that were the case, it'd have been released in a different context. But, insofar as porn is something designed (to at least some extent) for someone to wank to, I think this qualifies.
To be honest, in my only playthrough, the game begun like a porn something, (Spoiler - click to show)but got into the horror setting quite soon. After a while I forgot about the porn and just looked for ways to eacape. The fact that the text is so straightforward means it IS porn, after all, but in a more wide rage of aspects...
Perhaps it's not so much the fact that unexpected things happen, but that fact that it is not even announced that unexpected things will happen, that make me believe that the purpose of the game is not pornographic. The probability that any of your readers would like to wank to a story about (Spoiler - click to show)a vagina with teeth that bites off somebody's hand seems infinitesimal to me. But perhaps I am just naive. :)
