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Protect Your Streamer in New Horror FMV Game, Gamer Girl

Wales Interactive, the studio known for interactive, AR horror and thrillers like Simulacra and The Late Shift are calling on you to be the best stream moderator you can be in Gamer Girl.

Playstation posted the trailer for the game on Twitter but immediately took it down, speculating that it was a leak. Not much is known about about the game.

Here is what we do know about Gamer Girl.

  • Because it’s Wales Interactive, Gamer Girl will be either a thriller or a horror game.

  • You play as a moderator for a rising streamer named AbbieCake99.

  • Your goals are to help Abbie’s stream be successful and help keep Abbie safe.

  • As Abbie’s mod, you will essentially manage her chat, stay connected to her and, the better the job you do, the more options you will have.

  • Every choice you make effects the story.

As AbbieCake99’s following grows, she takes her streaming out into real world situations, ie, hanging with friends. As her moderator, it’s your job to keep her safe from predators and the dangers that lurk. From what I gather, the moderator will either do a good job or bad job that will either get them fired or place Abbie in harm’s way. But the moderator will not be the perpetrator.

The music from the trailer reminds me of Netflix’s Stranger Things. The live video reminds me of Blair Witch Project or Black Mirror. The trailer is still circulating among Twitter via esports and games industry insider Rod Breslau. From the comments, however, it seems as if many do not know what the game is about. Honestly, the trailer doesn’t exactly give much of an explanation. It just tells you what you will be doing:

  • Meet Streamer AbbieCake99

  • You’re the Moderator

  • Control the Chat Stream

  • Make Choices Together

  • Become Part of Her Life

  • Choose the Story

On the surface, the game looks to be very cringeworthy, stereotyping the relationship between “gamer girl” and the moderator—allowing a mod to become an intimate part of her life, which in reality, has proven to be a very dangerous way of thinking. For horror enthusiasts, though, I can see how this can be intriguing.

Criticism on Twitter, however, is basically calling this game for what it is on the surface, a “simp simulator” or a “Simpulator” as Breslau put it. And then there are those for whom this game is, not only unsettling, but evokes the trauma of having gone through the experiences of being stalked and preyed on. Someone also compared Gamer Girl to Netflix’s Cam “which was a bit of a dumpster fire as well.”

The trailer simply doesn’t translate well and, in all honesty, reminds me of a game called Rape Day that was submitted to Steam. But I don’t think the game itself will be as cringe as the trailer. The story will likely be told through the streams as you moderate, texts, phone, and video calls you will have with the streamer, which, honestly, doesn’t really sound normal for someone who is a “new” moderator as the game’s trailer suggests.

Wales Interactive says that Gamer Girl is the first “improvised” FMV game and will be coming to consoles and PC September 2020. Will you play it? Or do you think this game is going too far?