I Dare

I just had a 13-hour workday. I’m not really able to post anything coherent. But I can give you at least this.

Is it “Raining Man” during a “Flirt-Thunderstorm”? I may have bought the wrong game.

What is this? Why, it’s the infamous We Dare game by Ubisoft. More specifically, it’s the German version I was able to grab on the release day recently. I didn’t have a chance to try it yet but there are two things to comment on already.

First of all, the name is different. The game is called “Flirt-Gewitter” which translates “Flirt-Thunderstorm”. This is actually not something recent. The game was advertised under this name from the very beginning. Changing names for the German market isn’t uncommon. It’s actually quite common for movies. There were some instances in games as well. Usually, it has to do with some licensing/trademark conflicts. In this case, the reason seems to be a different one. I speculate that the name was adjusted to make it more obvious what the game is about. They seem to be targeting the game at a non-gamer audience. It makes sense to spell it out. “We Dare” may sound to cryptic in Germany. On the other hand, while “Flirt-Thunderstorm” does the job, it sounds a bit silly. It seems like they localized the name in France as well, but the result is much more sexier there: “Petits flirts entre amis”. Is there anything that doesn’t sound sexy in French?

Another interesting detail is the small sticker that says “Elterliche Beratung empfohlen”. It translates to “Parental Guidance advised”. Really? Huh…. The game received a benign USK12 rating from the German rating board. It’s actually right there on the package. What reason was there to put that sticker on it? Were they forced by a third party? The sticker does resemble the kind of warnings you see on cigarettes. But I never seen such stickers on games. It lacks the details to make this an official warning. There is no reference to any government office or law. I conclude that the sticker was put there voluntary by Ubisoft. There are two options. Either they were afraid of a scandal and decided to put some extra warnings in order to have a backdoor in case some 12 year olds really do have a sex orgy – “we warned you”. The other option is that this is actually meant to ENCOURAGE people – especially minors – to buy it. It makes the game appear more dangerous and kinky than it apparently is.

I will give you a full review soon. Until then, what do you think?