L.O.L: Lack Of Love is an evolutionary life simulation game developed by Love-de-Lic and published by ASCII Entertainment for the Sega Dreamcast. The game was released only in Japan on November 2, 2000. The game was never exported to the West but it received a fan translation in 2020. Gameplay The gameplay of L.O.L.: Lack of Love revolves around the player's control of a single creature placed on an alien planet during robotic terraforming. The player must cause the creature to metamorphose into new forms by communicating with other living creatures, establishing symbiotic relationships with them, and thus helping them. The game is non-linear, lacking a HUD almost entirely and requiring the player to simply remain alive. This can be done by helping, or eating other creatures, as well as performing various bodily functions including sleeping and urinating. Development L.O.L.: Lack of Love is the last in a trio of games developed by Love-de-Lic after Moon: Remix RPG Adventure and UFO: A Day in the Life. It was directed by Kenichi Nishi and produced by Hiroshi Suzuki. The game was designed by Keita Eto and Yoshiro Kimura, the latter of whom had already left Love-de-Lic and began working on other projects with his company Punchline. The musical score for L.O.L.: Lack of Love was created by film composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, who was also the game's scenario writer. Nishi and Sakamoto met at Club Eden via a mutual friend and, through a series of e-mails, began discussing James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis. This theory states that the earth's living organisms function in harmony and respond to ecological changes in order for the planet to sustain life. Nishi explained about the game's message: "We should care for other people, life, the environment and nature. Sakamoto came up with the title. We wanted to question the way in which our lifestyle lacks love". The team first considered developing the game for the PlayStation, but Nishi was convinced by Sega's president to develop it for the Dreamcast beginning in 1998. Nishi intended to communicate the game's themes without text or voices. This was done by setting the scene with a long opening sequence and utilizing various puzzles akin to a point-and-click adventure game. A communication system between the organisms consisting of sound and movement was used due to the Dreamcast's inability to perform graphical facial expressions. It was Nishi's idea to implement a cycle of