Announcer- "And now, the Game Theorist's present."
Announcer- "Poetry... with MatPat."
~MatPat clears throat~
MatPat- "Roses are red,"
MatPat- "Violets are blue,"
MatPat- "Could playing 'Dating Sims',"
MatPat- "Mean more dates, for you?"
Announcer- "This concludes poetry with MatPat."
-Hello internet!
-Welcome to 'Game Theory'.
-The show for when I promise you
a 'Dating Sim' episode.
-I deliver a 'Dating Sim' episode!
-Two years later.
-But really guys when I asked you way way
back in the 'How real can Video Games get?' episode.
-Back in May of 2014.
-Ooohh that's embarrassing to say.
-I had no idea
you would actually be so enthusiastic about a 'Dating Sim' theory.
-I mean granted 'Minecraft Creepers' won the vote.
-But there was a really strong contingent of you
that wanted dating advice.
-So much so,
that this is seriously been my most
consistently requested theory of the last year.
-Considering you discount FNAF...
and 'Undertale'...
and 'Fallout'!
-And some math-y episodes like Zelda rupees.
-Anyway, regardless.
-Now that I've been through all of those,
it's finally time to get down to
this one you wanted. Like fifth most.
-And after making you wait all that time.
-I wanted to make sure that this episode was worthy enough for you guys.
-That's why it's a 2 part-er covering everything
you wanna know to get your 'Mac Daddy' on.
-I don't actually think that that's a real thing...
'Mac Daddy' is not a verb!
-Anyway, get ready to get lucky.
-Cause today we're getting you a date... theorist style!
-But honestly I shouldn't be surprised by your
enthusiasm for a dating sim episode.
-In 2014
there were 107 million
single adults in the U.S. alone.
-That's more than a third
of the total population.
-And equates to like... what?...
8 trillion 'Tinder' swipes left?
-When you think about how staggering that statistic is.
-It's really easy to see why
dating simulation games or
"Dating Sim's" as the cool kids call them.
-Have exploded! Let's face it.
-Dating, is really hard!
-And one of peoples biggest fears is being rejected by someone they like.
-So 'Dating Sim's' have presented a new way for people to feel like a pro dater,
without being afraid of being rejected.
-Laughed at...
peeing in their pants!
-Other things that happen to kids
in high school when they talk to someone they're romantically interested in.
-That wasn't just me right?
-Right?
-Moving on then!
-Dating sims are just what they sound like.
-A simulated relationship.
-As the player you "Win"
when you get the girl to go out with you
or have sex with you or...
do... whatever is... happening here.
-Oh that should not go there!
-Noo no.
-What what is that?
-Also a quick disclaimer!
-I say "girl" because it is almost always a girl.
-Hey, I just cover the games! I never said they were particularly "progressive".
-That being said though. A lot of the techniques we're going to be talking about in these two episodes.
-Are actually ones that apply regardless of gender & sexual preference.
-So you do you internet!
-Go out and find the man, woman, or tentacle totting beast that most attracts you.
-But all that being said...
none of this is realistic, right?
-These games are pretty absurd...
or are they???
-Well it turns out that winning at dating sims
is actually a lot closer to the way you win at
real life dating than you might think.
-And with that segway.
- I give you 'MatPat's Theorist's Guide to Dating in 6 Easy Steps
based on dating sims.
-Step 1: Keep your friends close...
and the girl you're secretly stalking closer.
-Despite what they say
absence
doesn't make the hear grow fonder.
-The reality of life
and dating sims is that you win a lot more
you're actually near the person
you want to go on a date with.
-In the game 'Love Hina' you play as a narrator
who gets the girls because
you literally live
with them!
-In the game 'HuniePop'
which honestly makes me sound dirty every time I say it.
-Your character keeps running into
the same girls over and over again because
he only goes to a few different places
-And this is a common trope in the genre.
-Either focusing all your activities around 1 central
location like a school or
a hotel or
a space station or fixing your activities
around 3 to 7 regular locations
that you're visiting on a daily basis
practically.
-And believe it or not. This is one of the best ways
to find love in real life.
-Let me introduce you to the psychological concept
of propinquity.
-You know that "friendship bar" or "love meter" that you see
tracking your progress with all the different
potential dates in dating sims?
-Well you can think of propinquity as exactly that.
-Propinquity is kind of like a personal
closeness score.
-If you run into someone once a month at Starbucks?
-You have a low propinquity.
-You only have interactions
every once in a while.
-If you have class 3 times a week with someone?
-You have a pretty high propinquity.
-You see them a lot.
-If you see someone at work?
-Then get drinks with them on Friday nights,
and then you e-mail them on weekends.
-You have a really high propinquity.
-And chances are you probably like them.
-And more importantly...
they probably like you.
-Psychologically the higher your propinquity
with someone the more likely you are to develop
feelings for them
and them for you.
-So why does this happen?
Well there are 2 psychological effects at play here!
-The "Mere-exposure" effect and something call
"Perceptual Fluency."
-The Mere-exposure effect basically says,
-In the 1960's, psychologist Robert...
Zajdonc - ZI-yence
uhh... oaf... I don't know how to pronounce that.
-pronouncenames.com, what da ya got for me?
ZI-yence (Zajdonc)
-ZI yence. Alright!
-I'm gonna take your word for it there.
-Names man, names are the worst.
-Polish names?
-What are your letters even doing?
-Anyway, Robert "ZI-yence" (Zajdonc)
-This guy.
-Demonstrated that people separated into 2
focus groups would rate members of their own
group higher at the end of the day than they
did at the beginning of the day.
-Even if they performed pretty badly
in focus group activities.
- Once you're used to something
you like it more.
-When you see something in a store after
seeing a commercial for it on tv.
-You take notice and remember it
because you've seen it before
-This in a nut-shell is the
Mere-exposure effect.
-But just seeing someone isn't enough to make you fall in love.
-That part comes from a concept called "Perceptual Fluency"
"Perceptual Fluency."
-Basically that you fall in love with the people around you,
because it's the easiest
thing to do.
-Yeah! When you break down the
psychology of love man, it is super romantic
-Yeah. They just happen to be there.
-Now we're... married...
animal instincts are weird man.
-You can see this exact phenomenon
in our example from "Love Hina."
-Initially, Keitaro can only speak to one new
girl per day.
-But the more he speaks to them.
-The more rapidly their
relationship score increases.
-Your Mere-exposure, and their Perceptual
fluency work day after day,
and they view you more favorably
as a result.
-In 'Huniepop'
the uh... honey...
you receive from talking to the girls
is related to how much you've talked to them
in the past.
-The more familiar they are with you.
-The more talking to them
adds to your "honey pot!"
-I feel like this whole game is just like
bastardizing Winnie the Poo's.
spelling of the word "honey."
-I love the Winnie the Poo!
-Don't you taint it with your
dirty...
dating sims...
smuttiness.
-I have to hug him every time we go to Disneyland.
-Okay.
-Confession.
-In short, the more exposed you are to people.
-The more likely you're gonna view them favorably
and vice versa.
-Looking for real world proof?
-It's everywhere!
-Office romances and schools
are some of the most popular places
to find relationships because you're exposed to
the same people constantly
-According to 'Careerbuilder.com.
-38% of people have had at least a
fling with someone they work with.
-A way higher hit rate than
just meeting someone at a bar.
-And Volts 2014 survey, reported that
-If you're still in school. This applies to you too.
in the U.S
There's a reason why actors doing the movie
together, or theater people doing shows
together, engage in show-mances
-Because you're spending hours a day together.
-Your propinquity score is thru the roof!
-Then when you add
to the fact that actors have to pretend
to be in love with each other.
-Of course, the human brain
is gonna be tricked.
-But what does this mean for the gamer guy or girl,
trying to get a date?
-Well start with the people you hang out with most.
-And make sure that you're holding
more LAN(d) parties.
-Literally, every time you're
near the person you like.
-They're psychologically becoming
more likely to be attracted to you.
-Even if you're to nervous to make a move.
-But propinquity isn't just
based on physical proximity.
-E-mails, phone calls, Skype messages.
-All of that add to that
"familiarity effect"
we're talking about.
-Just like in the game where a daily conversation
or a phone call raises your
friendship score!
An e-mail or Skype message in real life
is gonna raise your propinquity!
So go ahead, have some more smite rounds
with that cute Neath you've been interested
in for the last couple months.
-But then how do you hold that conversation?
-Step 2: Leave the lead speak for the MOBA's.
-According to the University of Wisconsin.
3% of men approached woman they
find attractive.
-Come on guys we need to grow a
collective pair.
-One large pair of testicles
that all of use can share
and gather testosterone from.
-This has gotten far to graphic.
-I did not anticipate it getting this graphic this quickly.
-But honestly this isn't a problem
for the just the unpopular or shy people.
-According to dating websites:
over
who are making over
still struggle with not knowing how to start a
conversation with woman.
-The opposite sex is like
"The Great Equalizer."
-We're all just shy, blithering,
fools, when we're faced with them.
-That said can dating sims actually help you to break the ice?
-Surprisingly,
yeah!
-Some of them seem to have stumbled across
the solution.
-In dating sim conversations trees
often times you'll be presented with
misspelled options,
or ones that are purposely offensive,
or ones that have you being shy
and stuttering a bunch.
-Very rarely are these the correct options.
-And in real life,
the same thing is true.
-In fact,
things like misspelling
make a big difference.
-And it's becoming even a bigger deal
when a lot of dating happens online.
-Did you know that in 2014,
dating online became the
preferred way of finding someone?
-At this point:
of people globally prefer dating online
to meeting random in person.
-Except apparently in France.
-Where they still want to meet face to face
for some reason.
-Whhat??
-Human contact?
-Oh France,
you're so old fashioned.
-But anyway, the shift to online
dating is actually great news
to dating simmers.
-Because the dialogue exchange's in
dating sims are great practice
for what you're likely to do in real life.
-As long as you know that you're following
a set of rules.
-The biggest one is to communicate
using actual words.
-Shocking I know.
-But just like in dating sims
where those misspelled conversation items
are usually the wrong ones.
-In real life, statistically,
when you communicate with someone
you're trying to get a date with
using short hand (texting)
you're less likely to land that date.
-The results on this are actually staggering.
-Your likelihood of getting a reply back
if you lead off with words like:
and can't with apostrophe.
-Reduce the likelihood of you getting a response by:
-That is
huge!
-On the other hand, using "haha" is okay.
-But you should probably avoid "hehe,"
because it's 10% less effective.
-And seriously you just sound silly.
-Like who actually says "hehe?"
-The only time where "hehe" is acceptable
in usage, is if you're like an anime
schoolgirl tittering in the corner.
-Believe in MatPat
for a more grammatically correct online dater.
-MatPat 2016.
-And while we're talking about ice breakers.
-You know how they tell you,"Just go up to her and say hi?"
-Well yeah
forget that.
-This is one area
where some of our dating sims
fall a bit short.
-Since in most games
you start off with standard
conversation openers.
-For instance, in HuniePop,
your opening line is killer.
-Hi...
-Hoo hoo
-Boy
-My panties are
on fire.
-With an opener like that.
-Based on the data.
-It's better not to lead off with a regular "Hello."
-Why?
-Because it's such a common way to greet someone.
-Especially if you're a popular
online dater getting dozens of messages.
-Your brain is mentally tuning that out.
-It becomes white noise.
-Interestingly enough,
-The same thing happens on
YouTube when creators ask people to
subscribe at the end of every video.
I see it in the data all the time.
-If you're a regular YouTube watcher.
-It's likely that you can't really remember
whether someone asked you to subscribe
at the end of specific videos or not.
-Because you're so used to hearing it,
that you just tune it out.
-And the same thing happens in online dating.
Where people filter out these common words
and they actually result in lower response rates by:
-So what do you do?
-You mix it up! Using words like:
actually increase your chances of
of getting a response.
-The phrase "How's it going?,"
is the king of opening liners here.
-Increasing your chances of response
by a whooping 20%.
-Alright congratulations!
You made first contact with the schoolgirl
anime character
pigeon of your dreams.
-Pigeon!
-A pigeon dating sim.
-But you'll still have to figure out if they're the right one for you.
-We still have a long way to go
and a whole lot more to talk about
when it comes to things like actually landing a date.
-Than figuring out how to round the ol bases.
-And even stay in a relationship for the long haul,
because yeah
that's a thing!
-It's not just about the "Wham bam
thank you mam."
-I told you that I wanted to do this topic justice
and I'm gonna do it!
-So make sure you come back for the next episode
or subscribe to have it show up in your subscription feed!
-I'm asking you to subscribe, so chances are your tuning that out.
-Let me rephrase that.
-Caress that subscribe button!
-Make sweet sweet love to it in the pale
light of the moon.
-Give it a gentle kiss on that screen right there
-And then treat it to a nice dinner and smoke
when you've had your way with it.
-Don't run away from that subscribe button in the morning.
-Don't be ashamed
-Don't be afraid to hold its hand.
-It'll thank you for it.
-And you'll thank yourself because by doing all those
weird, crazy, kinky things
with that subscribe. You're insuring that next weeks
episode, continuing how to get a date thru
dating sims, is gonna show up in your subscription feed.
And don't worry, I won't teasing you along for two years
-I'll be back next week with more dating advice.
-So line up your Tinder prospects.
-And in the mean time, remember
thats
just a theory
A
GAME THEORY
-Until you get a date and then it becomes a game fact.
-Go out there and get your Mac Daddy on!
[Subtitled by YouTube Community Volunteers]