Oh! This is the logical progression of romance jubensha! Plus sort of also the concepts from host cafes / paid dating. Plus also kinda the scripted, viewer participatory romance that folks get from VNs and reader x fics.
I'm not super duper knowledgeable about jubensha, but if an overview is useful the quick version is that it's popular small group larp where the venue provides the props and rules. As of the early 2020s, iirc there was a push to regulate jubensha (due to queer, nongovernmental, horror themes, etc appearing in some,) but I don't have a strong understanding of how/if this really changed the culture of play.
I don't really like the article's moralizing title ("American men are paying for videogames, even though they know Frog from Chrono Trigger isn't real") but it's fascinating to see a slightly different culture of play grapple with the same problems as ttrpgs, larps, forum rps---just heightened by the financial motive of the shop and the fact that direct physical contact is happening.
I def agree with the larp friends asking "are they doing aftercare for this?" An up-front "don't catch feelings for the performer" disclaimer is kind of a flimsy talisman when the performance is then meant to pilebunker its way through your reservations and cause you to experience profound emotional bleed. But aftercare might also not be the first thing a service industry thinks of---you make money based on who you can hook, and how many people you can churn through the venue. Profit first, safety second---although safety is thankfully still placing.
Also, the love interest being an NPC in a love companion game adds an interesting dimension to things.
If you bring your friend to a romance jubensha, you either have some knowledge of your friend as a person before they step into the role, or you at least have some expectation you'll see your friend again after they step out of the role. This creates dual incentives for treating your friend like a person during the game, not just like their character. But a store worker who's NPCing your love interest is... maybe less implicitly a person because you don't know them. And, conversely, the character they're playing becomes even more person-ish as a result. The less you know the performer, the more you're seeing only the character.
I think this style of gaming is really cool, and I think it's interesting to see that safety, intensity, and commerciality are three sides of the larp triangle that DO NOT get along.
I also think a toned down love companion game could maybe clean up at a convention if they managed to thread the pricing needle, and I'm super glad to see game design that's built around addressing people's emotional needs.
This was a really solid read and I have no idea what it's going to do to my ttrpg writing.
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