In Third Person

Shortly after writing my previous post on my time with the Catherine demo, I decided that I was going to purchase the game. Normally, when I’ve made the decision to buy a game before its release, I patiently wait until launch day and buy said game at a store. I like the experience of going into a store and getting the game immediately, rather than having the release date pass by while my game is in transit at the mercy of the postal service.

This time, I pre-ordered it online. I grabbed the PlayStation 3 version so that my girlfriend can play my copy too. I’ve never pre-ordered any games online before, and this is only the second time I’ve ever purchased a game online. No, I didn’t go out of my way to pre-order it so that I could get the bonus soundtrack and art book (though it’s a nice bonus, I guess). I pre-ordered it to save myself from any potential embarrassment.

Catherine is not your run-of-the-mill video game about violence and adventure. Instead, it’s about a game about a man caught between two women. It also happens to have some sexual content in it, though it is not the primary focus of the game. However, the game happens to have very sexual marketing materials surrounding it, including trailers, print ads, and the box itself. If you didn’t know any better, it would be very easy to look at that box art and assume it’s a perverse dating or sex game.

Despite my understanding of the game’s content, my comfort-level with my gaming hobby and my comfort-level with my own sexuality, the fear of being seen as the creepy guy at the game store buying the ‘porno game’ by anyone in the area was enough to drive me towards less public means of purchase.

Even though I’ve bought hundreds of games in the past, everything surrounding this made the purchase of Catherine infinitely more embarrassing than I’ve ever felt buying something video game related before. Should I have been embarrassed? Or should I have been comfortable enough with myself to buy this game in a store, when there’s really nothing about it that isn’t ESRB approved? Let’s discuss in the comments!