Friday, October 18, 2013

News::Hey Ubisoft, How Did Delaying Rayman Legends Work Out For Sales?

Playeressence - I hate to say I told you so Ubisoft, butI told ya so. I wrote a article back in February saying that Ubisoft is sending Rayman Legends out to die. And by the looks of things, I was dead right. Here is a snippet of my article I wrote the day Ubisoft decided to delay Rayman Legends on February 7th: Mark my words Ubisoft will regret delaying Rayman Legends on the Wii U its going to come back and bite them in the ass. There is too much competition out there for Rayman Legends to succeed in September. GTA V, Mario, Zelda, and new consoles will overshadow it.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375946/hey-ubisoft-how-did-delaying-rayman-legends-work-out-for-sales

News::LEGO Marvel Super Heroes Preview - Worlds Factory

Are you ready to be a superhero? In LEGO Marvel Super Heroes you'll be able to play as one of your favorite Marvel characters of all time.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375995/lego-marvel-super-heroes-preview-worlds-factory

News::Need For Speed Rivals "More Visually Impressive" On PS4 Than PC

GR: Need for Speed Rivals, the upcoming racer from Electronic Arts, is said to be more visually impressive on PlayStation 4 than PC.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375993/need-for-speed-rivals-more-visually-impressive-on-ps4-than-pc

News::VideoGamer: On Patrol with Need For Speed: Rivals

VideoGamer writes: How much depth is there to Ghost's sandbox? Both times I've played Need For Speed: Rivals following my initial hands-on, I've come away with questions about the game's emphasis on casual play, wary of Ghost's decision to move the series away from an established structure and whether the game itself really does enough to motivate the player's interest for prolonged periods of play.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375998/videogamer-on-patrol-with-need-for-speed-rivals

News::IGN- The Stanley Parable Review

IGN:Sometimes The Stanley Parable feels like an exploration of the peculiar madness of boredom. Other times its something else entirely: a joke at the players expense, a commentary on choice and consequence, a parody, a burocratic nightmare. All its different plotlines and personalities overlap and combine to create something thats intriguingly opaque, but always entertaining, and genuinely funny. Whatever it is, its worth playing.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375948/ign-the-stanley-parable-review

News::Need for Speed: Rivals get your motor running | VG24/7

Whether or not youre a real life petrol-head, there are few experiences in gaming to match the raw thrill of a near miss at high speed. By stringing together a few of these daredevil manoeuvres and throwing in a beguiling drift its possible to attain a near Zen-like state of reflex and reaction.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375976/need-for-speed-rivals-get-your-motor-running-vg24-7

News::Ghost talks Criterion's downsizing and its expansion into the UK

"There was never any big official decision to stop [Criterion working on Need For Speed]," says former Criterion creative director Craig Sullivan. "It just naturally evolved that way. Alex [Ward, Criterion creative director] and Fiona [Sperry, studio director] wanted to do something that wasn't Need For Speed and that's what they're doing now. If you're not both working on the same game then you might as well go and work on separate bits and pieces."



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375992/ghost-talks-criterions-downsizing-and-its-expansion-into-the-uk

News::Need For Speed: Rivals Preview | TSA

TSA writes: "Ghost Games Need for Speed: Rivals sits somewhere much closer to Hot Pursuit than it does Most Wanted. Theres much more structure to the game than in Most Wanted, for one thing, returning to a clear progression through ranks, levels and missions, so that you unlock new cars and abilities as you go. Theres quite a neat divide between the two sides of this high speed war, with you able to switch from your career as a Cop to that of a Racer whenever youre in the garage."



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375987/need-for-speed-rivals-preview-tsa

News::Need For Speed to be taken out of annual rotation?

EA could be planning to take Need For Speed out of annual rotation according to hints from Ghost Games' creative director Craig Sullivan, who told VideoGamer.com earlier this week that the developer "could stop and wait a few years" before doing another title.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375977/need-for-speed-to-be-taken-out-of-annual-rotation

News::Never Seen Before Assassins IV: Black Flag Internal Video Shows Next Gen (PS4/Xbox One/PC) Effects

During a conference held by Nvidia in Montreal Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag Associate Producer Sylvain Trottier introduced a very impressive video that was never shown before, used internally a few months ago to showcase the effects specific to next generation platforms (PC, Xbox One and PS4) to the publishers executives.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375950/never-seen-before-assassins-iv-black-flag-internal-video-shows-next-gen-ps4-xbox-one-pc-effects

News::Call of Duty: Ghosts Ad Altered to Promote BF4

A fan has decided to use the latest Call of Duty: Ghosts commercial to showcase just how great Battlefield 4 looks.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375960/call-of-duty-ghosts-ad-altered-to-promote-bf4

News::Using Chemistry Styles in FIFA 14

FIFPlay: FIFA 14 fan and real football journalist, Darren Cross gives you some tips on how to use Chemistry Styles in FIFA 14.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375972/using-chemistry-styles-in-fifa-14

News::ChristCenteredGamer The Wolf Among Us review

The Wolf Among Us proves one thing: Telltale has an undisputed talent for storytelling. The story is wonderfully crafted, the characters are believable as ever, and the game is an auditory and visual masterpiece to behold. If anyone thought The Walking Dead was just a fluke, The Wolf Among Us can put those thoughts to rest. However, this game is meant for mature audiences. The gritty story of Fabletown is engrossing, but the gore, sexual content, and language may be too much for some.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375958/christcenteredgamer-the-wolf-among-us-review

News::Of Course, Danganronpa Looks Much Better on the Vita

News::Disney Infinity Toy Story In Space Tralier

Join Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, Bullseye and Rex in space. Take part in an epic adventure across the universe and confront the Evil Emperor Zurg. The hop over to the Toybox and have hours of endless fun. Disney Infinity is out now!



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375350/disney-infinity-toy-story-in-space-tralier

News::The Elder Scrolls Online: Character Creation screenshots

TESO here are more than 50 screens taken from latest Character Creation trailer.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375689/the-elder-scrolls-online-character-creation-screenshots

News::The Eccentric Family is a Truly Magical Anime

News::Snake Gets Re-imagined in The Prettiest Ribbon

Pocket Starship, developer of such games as Rotor and Last Chapter of Man, has released their latest game The Prettiest Ribbon.The game can be literally summed up as Snake on a cube.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375759/snake-gets-re-imagined-in-the-prettiest-ribbon

News::The next 3 big eSports titles for 2014

MWEB GameZone writer, Nicholas Holden, takes a look at 3 games that will be the next big eSports hits in 2014.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375923/the-next-3-big-esports-titles-for-2014

News::Windows 8.1 mouse lag reportedly renders some PC games "close-to unplayable"

You might remember that Windows 8.1 rolled out yesterday. In doing so, however, it knocked over a vase and pulled the cover from the DPI framework, sending its contents crashing to earth with an almighty crash and souring its relationship with the mouse.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375876/windows-8-1-mouse-lag-reportedly-renders-some-pc-games-close-to-unplayable

News::Rocksmith 2014 is "as clear as it possibly can be" | GRTV interview

GRTV caught up with Rocksmith 2014 Edition creative director Paul Cross: "I didn't realise that was an issue until I started playing more and more DLC," said Cross. "And I started to start at higher levels and started to push things. Instead of playing pure dynamic difficulty and building one note at a time I was skipping ahead. And then I'd be like "woah, what was that?" and then go "oh, okay, that's not as clear as it could be". So with Rocksmith 2014 we think it is as clear as it possibly can be."



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375893/rocksmith-2014-is-as-clear-as-it-possibly-can-be-grtv-interview

News::VS - Episode 33 - Jack vs. Geoff

Geoff thinks really hard on what game to play in this week's VS. Will his meticulous made choice lead him to victory and win that coveted belt?



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375645/vs-episode-33-jack-vs-geoff

News::Ubisoft Predicts That Assassin's Creed 4 Will Be Less Popular

Yesterday after Ubisoft reveled a new story video for Assassin Creed 4 they had a conference in which they discussed how many copies do they expect to sell in the first 6 months of Assassin Creed 4, and there expectation are kinda low.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375599/ubisoft-predicts-that-assassins-creed-4-will-be-less-popular

News::Gamespot- The Stanley Parable Review

GS:I have always been someone who wants to go the "wrong" way first in games. When I sense that a game is trying to usher me down a particular path, to get me to run from left to right or maybe to charge straight ahead, I need to satisfy my instinct to go against the grain, to explore, to see what the designers have put back the other way. Sometimes I find a 1-up or a collectible stashed away to reward me for my intrepid behavior. At other times, my explorations are rewarded only by the crushing disappointment of running up against an invisible wall. Whatever I find or don't find, my action is a manifestation of my desire to exert some independence, to make my own choices within a system that severely limits my options and encourages certain, specific behaviors.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375577/gamespot-the-stanley-parable-review

News::Mutant Football League Doesn't Make Kickstarter Goal

Mike Mendheim's attempt to resurrect EA's old Mutant League Football via Kickstarter as Mutant Football League has failed its funding goal. The game raised $141,821 of its $750,000 goal and attainted 1,105 backers. Mendheim said via Twitter, "We will be back my friends. Not sure how, when.. but were coming."



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375570/mutant-football-league-doesnt-make-kickstarter-goal

News::USA Weekly Chart Week Ending 12 October

The week's top-selling games at retail ranked by unit sales 1. X/Y Pokemon X/Y (3DS) - 1,306,858 2. Grand Theft Auto V (X360) - 295,654 3. Grand Theft Auto V (PS3) - 213,846 4. Beyond: Two Souls (PS3). - 162,004 5. NBA 2K14 (X360) - 100,046



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375560/usa-weekly-chart-week-ending-12-october

News::Hothead Games Beneft from Humble Weekly Sale

Hardcore Gamer: Paying anything over $1 gets you a Steam key for DeathSpank, DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue, and Penny Arcade's On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode One. Paying $6 or more gets you Episode Two and The Baconing. OSTs are DeathSpank and Episode One are included with every purchase.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375558/hothead-games-beneft-from-humble-weekly-sale

News::Multiplay celebrates 50 incredible weekends with Insomnia 50

Multiplay, organiser of the Insomnia series of gaming festivals, the largest gaming festivals in the United Kingdom is pleased to announce the initial line-up for its 50th LANniversary, Insomnia50, taking place at the Telford International Centre from 29th November through 2nd December 2013.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375552/multiplay-celebrates-50-incredible-weekends-with-insomnia-50

News::Games Only Podcast Episode 109 - Beyond: Two Souls, The Wolf Among Us, Pokemon X and Y

Somehow, there were 4 new releases all in one week! Doc and Blue talk about their quick time experience in Beyond: Two Souls. Doc finishes the first episode of The Wolf Among Us and really wants more. Blue hates the roller skates but still needs to catch them all in Pokemon X. Finally, HP mixes and matches the tops and bottoms of his favorite characters in Skylanders: Swap Force. I hope you all enjoy!



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375486/games-only-podcast-episode-109-beyond-two-souls-the-wolf-among-us-pokemon-x-and-y

News::Myst Studio Brings Obduction to Kickstarter

Cyan Inc., the studio behind Myst and Riven, is seeking Kickstarter support for a new adventure entitled Obduction.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375421/myst-studio-brings-obduction-to-kickstarter

News::Night Force Action Report #115 - Encroachment

Horrible Night: "Ethan has fashion advise for Resident Evil and doesn't know how to Knock, Knock. Jason makes a mean Minecraft hemisphere and isn't too bad with a pot of chili either. Justin gets drug advise in check out lines and falls hard for bad ass, Larry, er, Lara."



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375405/night-force-action-report-115-encroachment

News::Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I Don't Know! Hands-On | gamrReview Preview

gamrReview's Chris Matulich: "Hopping into Adventure Time was like seeing an old friend after a long period of time, as it boasts an old school, pixelated visual style that resembles the old Gauntlet games before they reached their 3D days in the Gauntlet Legends series."



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375397/adventure-time-explore-the-dungeon-because-i-dont-know-hands-on-gamrreview-preview

News::Gunz 2 interview with Christian Schonlein (Product Manager) of ProSiebenSat.1 Games

Christian Schonlein (ProSiebenSat.1 Games) talks about online free to play game 'Gunz 2'.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375321/gunz-2-interview-with-christian-schonlein-product-manager-of-prosiebensat-1-games

News::The Wolf Among Us: Episode 1 - "Faith" Impressions - Blackman 'N Robin

BNR: Telltale Games' The Walking Dead was a perfect storm of quality, timing, and brand. Taking the adventure game genre's focus on narrative, but (mostly) getting rid of the item collecting and puzzle solving, The Walking Dead provided an intriguing combination of storytelling and gameplay. Depending on your responses, conversations with characters affected your relationship with them. Decision making was a core game mechanic where your choices could have irreparable consequences for the characters. It felt like everything you said and did could have an effect on what happened in the story. Its flawed, yet relatable, characters and permanent consequences made for an absolutely engrossing experience. Add to all of that a brand name that, even now, is growing as a pop culture phenomenon, and Telltale found itself with one of the biggest surprise hits of 2012, raking in both critical acclaim and cash. Now, nearly a year after The Walking Dead's conclusion, Telltale is back with...



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375245/the-wolf-among-us-episode-1-faith-impressions-blackman-n-robin

News::ArabicGamers- Review- F1 2013

It remains the best F1 game that's ever been made, and now by quite some margin too here's hoping it stays that way for years to come...



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375861/arabicgamers-review-f1-2013

News::Wayward Manor gets its First Teaser Trailer

A new teaser has dropped for Neil Gaiman and The Odd Gentlemans Wayward Manor due out this autumn on Windows PC, Mac and tablet devices. In the past Gaiman has described Wayward Manor as a game where players take on the role of a ghost living in a 1920s New England mansion, he said Your mission is to clear the house of all [the] people, you want to scare them away. How you do that will take all your ingenuity and brilliance.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375692/wayward-manor-gets-its-first-teaser-trailer

News::DICE: Battlefield will get female multiplayer characters, but "not just to tick a box"

"We've been looking at how much it's worth, compared to how much we'd have to sacrifice," says Patrick Bach.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375897/dice-battlefield-will-get-female-multiplayer-characters-but-not-just-to-tick-a-box

News::The death and resurrection of survival horror

Examiner: While creepy films and literature have always been popular, horror video games have seen small, though dedicated fanbases. The name 'survival horror' was first coined by the Resident Evil series, released by Capcom in 1996, though the developer's NES title, Sweet Home, is often credited as being the first in the genre. Other earlier titles, such as Alone in the Dark and Clock Tower, were retroactively categorized as survival horror. The original Resident Evil took inspiration from these games, though mostly from Sweet Home, and offered a more refined horror experience. Enemies were powerful, ammo was limited (though not as scarce as many would claim), and players were given a finite number of saves. Most of these elements would come to define the genre, and would be carried over to franchises such as Parasite Eve and Silent Hill.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375791/the-death-and-resurrection-of-survival-horror

News::Gfinity London 2013 Call Of Duty Black Ops 2 ESports Montage

The best Call of Duty Black Ops 2 pro gamers competed in London for cash. Check out this montage video from Gfinity London 2013.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375725/gfinity-london-2013-call-of-duty-black-ops-2-esports-montage

News::Pixel Pacas: The Stanley Parable Review

Marcus of Pixel Pacas attempts to review The Stanley Parable but finds it difficult when the game itself seeks to confuse players.



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375744/pixel-pacas-the-stanley-parable-review

News::FIFA14 Review - iRobot Gaming

IFA14 is by far one of the Cleanest Soccer games ever made, the graphics is absolutely stunning. When playing FIFA14, you really get the feeling your watching a live tournament, but your in control. This is one of those games that you can play for hours at a time and with the ever changing comedic commentary you won't get bored. It's entertaining to play and even watching......



via N4G: pc news feed http://n4g.com/news/1375262/fifa14-review-irobot-gaming

News::Why are big-budget game developers so afraid of exploring sexual themes?


Our society already gamifies sex,” game developer Anna Anthropy points out on her blog, linking to a Google image search on the word ‘Cosmopolitan’. Hundreds and hundreds of Cosmo covers pop up, with coverlines such as ‘75 sex moves men crave’, ‘100 best sex tips’, and ‘Guys rate 50 sex moves’, as if women can win or keep a boyfriend by thoroughly completing a checklist. Sex is everywhere. ‘Sex comedy’ is a Hollywood film genre firmly marketed at young men and women: Easy A, Superbad, American Pie. We are consistently told that sex sells, and are bombarded with tits-out HBO dramas and ‘edgy’ TV series such as Game Of Thrones. The porn industry has more vigour than ever. And yet the best-known western videogame we have about sex is Leisure Suit Larry. Is the industry afraid of sex?


BioWare has tentatively included thematically serious sex scenes in its games, to much public comment, ever since the first Mass Effect. David Gaider, lead writer on BioWare’s Dragon Age series, gave a talk at this year’s Game Developers Conference called ‘Sex in Videogames’, in which he pointed out that sex is an exceedingly popular topic on the BioWare forum. Yet videogames, he says, have a very particular image problem. “We’ve had negative reactions [from the media] to go along with the positive – not all of it is particularly credible, but it’s important to understand where that negative reaction comes from… you have to understand how people view our players, who they think our players are. The public views our audience as mostly children… For us, who play games, we are like, whoah, that’s so far behind – 20 years behind the reality.” Any attempt to make a game with sexual content, even with strict age ratings, may be construed as a subversive move for a medium until now best known for its supposed influence in school shootings.


Gaider went on to explain how the game industry itself is no better: we tend to think of players as being young adult males, which is still a good ten years behind the reality. The ESRB reports that the average game player is now 34 years old, and that 47 per cent of the gaming audience is female. Regardless, sexual content remains scarce, and female characters are still primarily the ones being sexualised. During sex scenes, the woman tends to be the focus – her body, her vocals, her nakedness.



The Witcher’s sex scenes are representative of many across videogames – shot from a male perspective.



Take the Witcher 2. It contains a sex scene between Triss and Geralt that involves a 360° shot of Triss removing her clothes entirely by magic, while Geralt dives into the bath with his trousers on. It’s incongruous from a narrative standpoint for Geralt to do this: he’s no prude. Triss’s hips, buttocks, super-perky breasts and orgasmic expressions are the focus here, and her loud moans are actually the subject of the cutscene’s narrative device. In contrast, there are no camera shots of Geralt’s naked chest or buttocks, shots of his face or any kind of audible vocal expression from him during this fairly explicit scene. It’s a neat shorthand for the way games treat sexual encounters: sex scenes are for heterosexual men to look at, and are usually shot from that male perspective. It brings to mind Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel who, when accused of sexism, retorts, “What’s wrong with being sexy?” Perhaps by portraying sex in the same tired manner, the game industry is missing an opportunity not only to try new (camera) positions, but also to broaden its (sex) appeal.


But what about playable sex scenes? These are few and far between in videogames, and the ones we do have – such as the one between Lucas and Tiffany in Farenheit – seem clumsy and awkward, made more ridiculous by the idea that you can ‘win’ at sex by pressing a button at the right time. (Farenheit was rebranded Indigo Prophecy for the US market, with most of its sexual content scrubbed to avoid an ‘Adults Only’ rating.)


Richard Lemarchand, ex-Uncharted lead designer and visiting associate professor in interactive media at the University of Southern California, objects to sex being portrayed as an interaction that can be won, lost, or completed. “That kind of modelling in a game of sex comes at the subject with a certain mindset,” he says. “There’s a ‘game of skill’ to be played here – if you win the game then there’s a positive outcome, and if you lose the game there’s a negative outcome. I think a lot of people have that idea about sex itself on many different levels – you know, if you wear the right aftershave and you say the right things you might get to have sex with someone… I think a lot of people grow up thinking there is a right and a wrong way to ‘do sex’.”



Fahrenheit’s sex scenes are made ridiculous by the idea that you can ‘win’ at sex.



Famed for saying to a crowd at NYU Game Center that game creators put up too much front and didn’t make themselves vulnerable enough, Lemarchand goes on to say that he is heartened that games are becoming more about the idea of play as being intrinsically rewarding. “The historical place that we’ve come from in game culture is to do with zero-sum games, or to do with win/lose states in games. I’m excited to see a shift in games away from win/lose conditions and towards systems and artefacts that embody many different kinds of playfulness. The greater this shift, the more optimistic I get about being able to map that onto unisexuality. As I have struggled to come to an understanding of sex and what it means to human beings, over the years I’ve come to understand that sex is not just about navigating obstacle courses and goals. Play is an end unto itself.”


However, Lemarchand is still keen to emphasise how difficult human interaction is to model. “As games have advanced in the last few years, there’s obviously been a move towards figurative descriptions of either quasi-realistic or stylised realistic scenes… It’s very hard in computer graphics to get characters even emoting well at one another. Depicting the human body, and the human emotion… something as complex and as nuanced as that – which you need to depict sex well – this presents one of the biggest hurdles to depicting sex in games.” For example, he says, “we always agonised as to whether we could get the characters to kiss well in Uncharted” – a game where he says the team preferred to cut away rather than depict sex graphically.


Former design director for Epic Games Cliff Bleszinski shares Lemarchand’s sentiment. “Take Mass Effect, for example,” he tells us, “a fantastic series that I’ve praised numerous times, but when the characters interact in their sex scenes it kind of looks like two cosplay mannequins rubbing together. I think the key is to suggest sex, and to imply first, before we try to make Hot Coffee: The Standalone Game.”



Mass Effect’s sex scenes looks “like two cosplay mannequins rubbing together,” says Cliff Bleszinski.



Not everyone feels this way, though. Martin Hollis, the veteran designer whose work spans GoldenEye 007 to Bonsai Barber, is making a game about love for GameCity Festival 2013, and he is not sure that it’s just game mechanics that are steering big-budget titles away from more sexually aware themes.


“In terms of game mechanics, there’s no theoretical problem,” Hollis says. “Videogames have a lot of repetition. Sex itself is… repetitive seems like the wrong word, but you know what I mean. Given the repeating layered loops in the structure of most ludic or game-like games, it is silly to say that the medium is intrinsically antagonistic to sex. In fact music, dance, sex and games naturally and structurally have an intimate relation that we can loosely call ‘rhythm’… What we see, however, is 6,000 years of games about competition, conflict or war. The cultural history of games we have been bequeathed makes it difficult to mine [other] tropes, mechanics or systems, so it is an uphill struggle to design the abstract part of a game concerning sex. Even the concept of a romantic game is a difficult one for a westerner familiar only with middle-of-the-road western games.”


The structural history of games can be a crushing load to bear for game designers: the fact that there is no real track record of sexually explicit interactive experiences being profitable or successful is a theoretical roadblock. Game designer Matthew S Burns once lamented games’ structural problems on his blog, pointing out that their reluctance to leave familiar game mechanics behind causes the accompanying narrative to suffer as a result. “The very second you try to wrap actions like [shooting aliens or punching people] in a ‘good story’ that does not somehow address what happens during the mechanical part of the experience,” Burns argues, “is the second you fail to write a good story.”



“It is silly to say that the medium is intrinsically antagonistic to sex,” says game designer Martin Hollis.



Is that why Mass Effect, God Of War, even Grand Theft Auto’s sex scenes seem incidental and barely developed? Is it because we are failing to address sex directly, with a new language of game mechanics? Is sex doomed to be a punchline like in Leisure Suit Larry, or a racy subtext like in Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines?


Imagine, though, that developers had not spent years and years iterating on technology to make violence more realistic, and instead focused on making emotional experiences, sex and the interaction between characters’ bodies more believable.


Independent developer Pietro Righi Riva is making a Unity game called Awkward Sex, which simulates two human bodies that hover where your mouse leaves them: the aim is to click and drag where you would like them to go. Of course, the game is called Awkward Sex, and you are inclined to make the two bodies touch each other, but it’s melancholy and difficult. Positioning the two humanoids to meaningfully touch each other is a slow, almost impossible process. Imagine that we had mastered this years ago: would we be playing games that had more to say about sexual interaction?


There’s still hope. Japanese games have always embraced sex as a subject and theme, although they can be very misogynistic and often avoid 3D modelling or any real approach to sex as a meaningful interaction between two characters. And there certainly isn’t a dearth of actual thematic discussion of sex in the indie game scene. As previously mentioned, critic and developer Anna Anthropy often makes games about sexual experiences, shunning hyperrealistic graphics for discussion about the issues surrounding sex. Anthropy’s game Mind Fuck, about staring down your partner erotically in a competition for points, is multiplayer and entirely based on one button – the rest of the game leverages your real-life relationship with a partner.



Anna Anthropy’s Mind Fuck.



A text-based adventure about saucy police antics, Anthropy’s Sex Cops is a game where the oppressive constraints of the narrative options act as a domineering dominatrix on your erotic adventure. Twine game developer Porpentine used the same constraints to make Cyberqueen, where your character is erotically abused by a sci-fi computer resembling SHODAN from System Shock. From what Lemarchand and Bleszinski have said, perhaps large-budget videogames are actually crippled by their own compulsive reliance on incredibly sophisticated 3D graphics – so much so that the complexities of sex are impossible to portray in a nuanced and non-ridiculous manner.


But exactly what is it that allows independent games to explore these issues more freely? Although David Gaider’s games and the Mass Effect franchise have clearly done well, what stops big-budget games being more explicit, more incisive, more exploratory with sex like indie games? There’s something else at work. Conservative attitudes present in western culture, particularly in the US and Australia, are limiting the ways in which such content is portrayed in games.


“The taboo of sex in console games is politically and commercially censored more strictly than that of male nudity or the taboo of killing people,” Hollis says. In particular, Hollis cites the furore surrounding the Hot Coffee mod made by Patrick Wildenborg for Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which allowed players to access a previously unrated sex minigame that existed in the game’s undeleted assets. The Hot Coffee content, although inaccessible without the mod, caused GTA: San Andreas to be re-rated in the US, turning it from an ESRB rating of ‘Mature’ to ‘Adults Only 18+’, which made many shops pull the game from their shelves.



The Hot Coffee scandal saw Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas pulled from shelves and re-rated in the US.



This is a serious issue for publishers in terms of profits, and a warning shot for big videogame developers. But it’s an issue that the makers and distributors of free games about sex – such as Anna Anthropy and Porpentine – don’t have to worry about. “The bottom line is that the only way my games got made is because I made them myself, for free, on my own time without compromise,” Porpentine says. “[Most commercial games] focus on realistic graphics and refuse to experiment with stylisation that would better evoke emotions and arousal. They rely on highly structural, antiquated mechanics instead of designing organic controls suited to intimate experiences. You see stylisation in every other artform, but [triple-A games are] focused on realism in a way that reminds me of when rich people only cared about extremely realistic paintings with detailed lighting.”


Hollis cites commercial and political censorship as one of the main reasons why big studios won’t touch the topic of sex. “After Rockstar Games’ clumsy and accidental ejection and Take-Two’s spanking, we should expect little from console games because of self-censorship,” he says. “With Hot Coffee, a conflux of conservative America, Australia and opportunistic politicians did wrathfully smite a game publisher who [had] thought naughty thoughts. People say there is no such thing as bad publicity, but there certainly is such a thing as being badly removed from the shelves. The view seems to be that 17-year-olds should be allowed to engage in virtual murder but they don’t have sex, and therefore do not need to know or learn about sex in the interactive medium. Sex is very wrong and illegal, whereas mass murder is acceptable and legal – in games. One is abnormal and the other is normal; what a strange world we have made.”


“When I was 12 years old it was perfectly OK to watch Robocop or Predator,” Bleszinski says, “but the second that a breast was flashed on screen, my mother would attempt to toss a blanket or a coat over my head. That probably explains a lot of my adult issues. Americans in general have really weird ideas about sex and violence, and that micro-example kind of summarises it nicely.” Bleszinski feels certain that commercial games can still address the diverse ways in which humans interact with each other; he’s just unsure about how well they can do so.


“I still have hope that we may someday feature titles that deal with the nuances of relationships and how very complicated yet beautiful sex can be,” he says. “I have a feeling that Oculus Rift might just help with the immersion aspects of depicting a sexual experience. [But] when it comes to nuance and pacing and depiction, that’s another battle altogether.”



Wicked Paradise, “the world’s first erotic virtual reality videogame”.



Someone who is already attempting to fight that battle is Jeroen Van den Bosch, the founder of Wicked Paradise. His team – a group of triple-A veterans who’ve worked on Rage, the Call Of Duty series, Lost Planet, Madden and PlanetSide 2 – is in the very early stages of developing “the world’s first erotic virtual reality videogame” as episodic content powered by Oculus Rift. Although Van den Bosch says that he will initially be making experiences targeted at straight males, he adds that he would like to branch out into making games for other sexual orientations too. The 3D virtual reality headset will offer more immersive experiences, and so is ripe for exploring other experiences than the usual death machines; already it is being lauded as a way for those who may have mobility problems to experience things they may not be able to do in real life.


Asked if he thinks there is a special risk attached to making erotic games, he says: “I think a big part of the industry evolved into choosing the safe route and rehashing their successful formula year after year. I remember in the early days of my career in the game industry there was much more room for creativity. Games with unique premises such as Messiah, Magic Carpet and Little Big Adventure had a place. But slowly over time, it seems that most of the triple-A studios moved towards the same style of games, and every year we have a slightly better version of the same game being released. Most of the really creative games have moved to the indie scene. These smaller studios simply don’t have the same budget as large studios. There are special risks in doing a project like this, but I don’t want to play it safe. You just need to have the conviction to go for it.”


For Van den Bosch, the sophistication of 3D technology is more of an asset for him than a limitation. Having 3D bodies interact is the crucial part of his work. “It is difficult, but it’s not impossible. I think Mirror’s Edge did a great job of avatar embodiment, giving the player a virtual body. Ultimately it boils down to having very talented 3D character artists and animators on the team who fully understand every aspect of human anatomy and know how to translate that into realistic behaviour in a virtual environment. But at the core of it, we are using the same motion-capture techniques that are used in triple-A firstperson shooters, so just from a pure technological standpoint there is no difference.”



Wicked Paradise uses “the same motion-capture techniques that are used in triple-A firstperson shooters.”



But is he overestimating how much work it will take to have two or more 3D bodies touch each other meaningfully? Van den Bosch agrees that his job would be significantly easier if the industry had iterated on the mechanics of love rather than the mechanics of violence for years. “I always found it amazing that it’s perceived ‘normal’ to blow people’s heads off in games. However, when you create a game that focuses on happy feelings, like sex or relationships, it immediately becomes controversial. That just doesn’t make any sense to me. Luckily that is rapidly changing, and I think we see it in other media as well. For example, Game Of Thrones is a fantastic series with a rich, complex storyline and copious amounts of sex. That paid off for them.”


Are we talking videogame porn here, then? Is that where we are going? “No, not at all; we are not making porn,” Van den Bosch emphasises. “Unlike porn, in Wicked Paradise [the developer’s first game will be self-titled] the player isn’t watching something passive on a screen, but rather the player is immersed in an interactive virtual reality experience. That’s a huge difference. We are actually working with a critically acclaimed erotic novelist to help us create a rich, mature storyline.”


Do we even need a “rich, mature storyline” to justify our interest in sex? Can’t sex itself be an expression of who we are? Thanks to the fearless personal games that indie developers are making, the examples of how to treat sex as a nuanced expression of the human condition are out there, waiting for the larger culture to cast off its superficial titillation.


If it has proved a difficult task before, focusing on hyperreal graphics may not be the answer. Focusing instead on character, and the different ways characters are affected or motivated by sex, is something that could help benefit the wider videogame-playing public. Games would be the ideal environment, for example, in which to explore the idea of consent – what it is and what it means to people. If sex is addressed more directly in this way, it could lead to greater respect for others’ bodies, not to mention greater respect for sex itself.


The post Why are big-budget game developers so afraid of exploring sexual themes? appeared first on Edge Online.






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