Lau and Sebbe having fun with our new favorite “erotic” game.
At one point in the collectives history we were quite keen on erotic games. Ever since some of us created the Dark Room Sex Game we saw the potential for intimate, sensual and erotic content as an interesting mechanic for social interaction in games. However most erotic games are in fact not erotic, but are with blatant graphics, feels like adolescent pandering and mostly fall into the “nerdy teenager appreciation” category. This became evident when we did research in this area for content we could use in our – at the time – bi-weekly erotic game tip. The goal was to give a tip about some interesting or novel ways erotic themes had been used in games, every other week. However, as I mentioned, there just was not enough content to do so. So we quickly abandoned this idea. But that shouldn’t stop us from giving a tip of our hat to a studio for actually creating a game in this area that accomplishes the goal of being “erotic”, when we encounter one.
The game I am talking about is called Fingle and the company behind it; Game Oven Studio. They do not promote it as an erotic game per se. However, it is evident after playing the game and talking to Bojan Endrovski, one of the creators behind it, that intimacy plays a huge role in the game. At the nordic game jam Bojan was giving a lecture about his game and at the pre-party for the game jam, which the collective held, we got to play his game with him and talk to him a bit about the game.
Today, Wednesday the 1st of September, I will be leading a public discussion in Copenhagen at a joint Women in Games and Game Design SIG meeting about sex in games. Here is a description of the theme of the discussion:
Sex in Games – Where Do We Draw the Line?
This summer the Danish political party ‘Socialdemokraterne’ proposed a ban against drawn and animated child pornography – a ban targeting Japanese Hentai and erotic games. Is rape and sex with minors in games morally wrong? Should we ban games that encourage these kinds of behavior, if so, what other kinds of behavior in games do we as a society want to ban? In what ways and to what extent do games affect our behavior? What roles do social norms and culture play in the games we make and interact with in today’s world? What other issues does this potential ban raise, and what larger implications arise for the games industry?
To be earnest, the reason I’m doing this talk is because I was going to write an Erotic Game Tip post about the hentai rape game, RapeLay.
Do you play chat roulette? I think it’s a great erotic game. Before you judge me as a pervert (too late?) let me elaborate a bit on that statement.
One of the pinnacles of good game design is a game that can be played in many ways where the players co-design and shape their own experiences. Especially in multi-user environments on the internet, different player types playing different “games” in the same environment can create an ecology of players reinforcing and supplementing each other’s experiences. A typical example would be MMORPGs, where some players enjoy playing the crafting game, others the high end PvP game, and still others enjoy just playing the auction house, brokering goods. Richard Bartle first aired these ideas in 1996 in the now-classic article “Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players who suit MUDs.” He described the players of MUDs as roughly four different kinds of players: Killers, Achievers, Explorers and Socializers. More importantly, he analyzed the interactions between these types of players in online environments.
Bartle has been used and misused for a lot of stuff, and I am in particularly skeptical about using this theory prescriptively, which easily could lead to a self-reinforcing loop of only designing games that cater to specific experiences that players already expect. Nevertheless, it is always fun to apply this taxonomy, as well as any other theoryofpersonalitytypes, to any social ecosystem in order to model some of the social dynamics happening.
So what games can be played in Chat Roulette?
Some of the content below may be NSFW. We’re talking about ChatRoulette, after all..
As a token effort towards putting the bi-weekly back in the cphgc erotic game blogging, I’ve been asked to do a short post on an erotic game. Since I’m not much of an erotic gamer myself, I’ve chosen to give a short overview of a game that’s, if not erotic, at least containing some adult imagery.
This week’s erotic game tip is a bit different than the last erotic game tip, as it is less sexy and more just plain fun in an “erotic” setting. Super Strip Fighter IV, created by Dōjin, is a hentai fighting game parody of the popular Street Fighter series, with one obvious change: the adult part of the game. Each character has their own fighting style and moves. Rana, for instance, is covered in oil and can rub herself against the opponents and slip them out between her legs.
Getting over the initial juvenile laughs on the occasional nipple slip or the special combo moves like the boobcopter (has to be the roflcopter’s successor), the game actually has an extra interesting element from a game design perspective that gives it added value compared to the normal Street Fighter.
Dark Room Sex Game is going to be on exhibit at the “Playful and Playable” showcase in Vitoria Gasteiz, Spain. The showcase is organized by Proyecto Amarika Proiektua, and takes place from June 24 to September 15.
This is of course exciting news, but to be honest we’re also a little apprehensive. We never quite finished the game. In particular, it’s very difficult to get the Wiimote mode working reliably (we built the game on a somewhat unstable, now-defunct Wiimote API). Well, we hope it works!
For years now, we’ve been meaning to polish the game, or at least make it easier to play it with Wiimotes. Beyond that, we’d like to return to erotic game design some day. We’ve always wanted to re-design Dark Room Sex Game for mobile devices, and we have a number of other crazy ideas. Problem is, it can be difficult to imagine a stable future for such games, at least commercially, when adult content is so frowned upon in these kinds of distribution channels (e.g. Apple’s iTunes store).
Still, immediate sales opportunities or no, it’s clear to me that erotic game design deserves further exploration, especially in non-commercial contexts like game jams, museums, and festival exhibitions. Here’s hoping we find the time – sooner rather than later!
Having designed erotic games ourselves, some of us at the office have a healthy interest in erotic game design.
In this biweekly column, we will show a selection of what we pass around at the office – adult games that are interesting, hilarious, or arousing. If you in any way feel offended by erotic images or text, you may not want to read these posts.
>ask veronica about herself
You gape at her in astonishment. “Surely, it isn’t so bad. You’re beautiful and wealthy, what do you have to want for?”
“And what have they gotten for me? A decrepit old husband and a life of needlepoint. If I am lucky, Lorenzo will manage enough stamina for me to give him an heir to raise.” Veronica sighs. “Do not envy my life.”
>ask veronica about lorenzo
“How did a beautiful woman like you get married to an old fossil like Lorenzo Gritti?” you ask.
Lady Veronica sighs. “This is Venice, and for a woman of my status, marriage is a matter of state. My parents were wealthy enough to give me a large dowry, so I had to get married to a man of similar wealth … regardless of his age.”
The game I will write about today is a short piece of adult interactive fiction called A Lady in Waiting, by Knight Errant. Set in renaissance Venice, the game tells the story of a humble merchant seducing Lord Lorenzo’s beautiful wife, Veronica.
