Dark dating game teaches women how to identify dangerous pick-up artists

It’s a new mobile game from China where you play a journalist assigned to probe pickup artists. The best place to find them, according to the game, is either a dating app, speed dating event or art museum. You need to flirt as eagerly as possible to make them believe you’re a susceptible target. In your pursuit to woo these men, you put your character in potentially dangerous situations.

It’s as disturbing as you imagine.

Langyi, a bartender who says he suffered from child abuse, convinced me to ditch my friends and meet him at a bar where he had clearly downed more than a few drinks.

One evening, Langyi flipped when he found out that I lied to him about being at home (I was at work meeting my editor). He texted the next day, instructing me to show up at a hotel room where he pressured me to have sex to prove my love. When he left to shower, I scrolled through WeChat messages on his phone and texted one of his victims. She was so emotionally scarred that she was cutting her wrists.

Yeah, this game gets pretty dark. But there’s a reason for it.