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I Bought a Used Japanese Fantasy Game and Now I'm in Another Man's Fan Fiction

"I always like to wonder how much you can read about a person from their save files."

Admittedly, I'm a little late to a few game parties. Tomodachi Life, a headliner for a recent parade of weird 3DS software, is definitely one of them.

Nintendo touted the game as an easy way to goof around with your favourite stitched together game stars, or even celebrities, since the advertising campaign included Shaq.

You can create and import Mii characters on your 3DS into an island city where they can hang out, fall in love, perform rock operas, hold garage sales, and dress up like jerks.

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My hesitance to start my own virtual world was because, let's face it, Tomodachi Life is The Sims for assholes. I saw folks on Tumblr and Twitter posting their videos, the pop-star sequences re-written to be about whatever fever dream they wish.

The day I finally gave in came this week, when I found a used copy for a price that spoke to the worst parts of me. I picked it up, not really thinking about the consequences of buying what is essentially a digital used ant farm.

I booted up Tomodachi expecting to see an introduction or tutorial. Instead, the city was already well populated. There was a save file, something we were all accustomed to when we rented N64 cartridges from Blockbuster, but less so when used discs are resold without the previous owner's world etched onto it.

To restart Tomodachi Life you go into the town hall, and on your way to the 'delete' option you pass by the records of all the town residents. "So," I thought, "before wiping these video game people from the universe, why not take a look?"

And so I scrolled into what would prove to be another man's fan fiction world.

And so I scrolled into what would prove to be another man's fan fiction world.

The first character I encountered was Arthur Orin (the real name of Aquaman), standing doe-eyed, shirtless in a red swimsuit, long hair drooping past his beard. Under him, "Barbera Gordon," a.k.a. Batgirl, a.k.a. Barbara Gordon, smiling in a green dress that's patterned like a Christmas tree. Under her, Bruce Wayne, a.k.a. you know who Bruce Wayne is, dressed in ninja fatigues like the first act of Batman Begins. He's a confident go-getter, married to Wonder Woman. Together their daughter is the Huntress.

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This, I guess, is the game being put to use. Nintendo suggested making the game your own personal fan fiction with whatever familiar faces you can create with the avatar options. I'm sure out there, are Tomodachi carts loaded with some Avengers, Sherlocks, Narutos, Trailer Park Boys, even the Dutch royal family. It's not something I'm above, either. In some discarded hard drive somewhere, there's a Ghostbusters theme park I made in RollerCoaster Tycoon.

I can tell who owned this game. Most of the Miis are created by the same person, who has two avatars in the village, one made by himself and one made by someone named Jen. The version made by Jen is wearing an unbuttoned green shirt over a black tee, with a cat-smile on his face. The version he made for himself is a foot taller and wearing gladiator armour.

Catwoman is in here. Her spouse is Ryan, someone I'm guessing was drawn in from reality. He's wearing samurai armour. Likewise, Poison Ivy is married to Ken, who has a similar face to Ryan (as far as I can tell), though it's hard to see much behind his golden knight costume. Batgirl's partner is in a robot costume.

The Joker, Riddler and Nightwing are all bachelors. Tony Stark and Lucy Liu are in here too, though Stark is clean shaven and dressed like a member of Green Day and Liu's name is misspelled.

The first thing I see when exploring around the island is Wayne building sandcastles with his daughter on the beach. Meanwhile, in the cafe, Batgirl and Harley Quinn chat over coffee, talking about their dreams of becoming pop stars, losing weight on a cake-based diets and Catwoman's new pirate ship. Barbera quickly makes her way to a rap battle with Jonathan, a man who looks like a Pokémon trainer. When I visit Poison Ivy in her home, she appropriately tells me she likes plants.

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Tomodachi Life is similar to The Sims, but with very fundamental differences. In The Sims, you try to design someone's life, someone's home, someone's lifestyle, and you can do so with great finesse, god-like abilities that often let players experiment in cruel ways on unsuspecting computer people. In Tomodachi Life, you can curate people's wardrobe, but can't do much more than that. The real fun is waiting to see what bonkers scenes your populi create with each other.

Both rely on a big dose of voyeurism: you're watching your pets in a big fishbowl with a curiosity about their behavior. In Tomodachi, you can watch people in their apartments before you actually enter or let them know you can see them. And this is usually assuming they're characters you created. When I picked up my copy of Tomodachi Life, I found myself haunting a stranger's place. One they probably didn't think about releasing into the mitts of another person.

I always like to wonder how much you can read about a person from their save files. Do their choices in Skyrim or The Walking Dead say anything about their real selves? Can we ever genuinely gauge someone by their behaviour around the virtual, or are their choices strictly made out of curiosity?

I don't want to draw too many deep conclusions about this other creator. I mean, I could. He's definitely someone who spent some time pairing off his personal friends with comic book characters in a video game. This wasn't done in passing, since some characters are decently leveled, but he apparently wasn't that invested since he eventually traded the game in. According to Facebook, the owner of this game once worked at a comic book store. His cover photo is of Batman.

Instead I'll look at the man in the mirror. My Tomodachi Life is some twisted extension of what these games are all about, looking from afar, sometimes violently shaking the dollhouse. The fact is, this game is about watching, and I'm watching someone else's game.

Before going nuclear on this island town, named Megaton, I decided to insert my own avatar in there. I named him "Splash Gumby." I got him an apartment, a phantom costume, and a catchphrase. He's an outgoing charmer. He quickly began to quiz me on other members of the community, matching up faces to names. The scariest part is, I got all the questions right.