Wired is reporting that Linden Lab, the owner of virtual world Second Life, is being sued for knowingly allowing copyright infringement on its servers. The object of the supposed infringement? Virtual sex toys! Some company called Eros LLC sells the line of sex toys in Second Life. They’re claiming others are ripping-off their wares and that Linden Lab won’t stop it.
I can’t say I’m too deeply involved in copyright law, and I’ve never tried out Second Life, but dude, this whole case is about virtual sex. Which is sweet.
A while back I looked into Second Life. I never got started because I figured I had enough going on in my first life that I didn’t need a second one. But now that I think about virtual boning, it may just be time to give it a shot. Of course, I have actual boning in my first life, so I’m not quite sure what the point of virtual boning would be. Man, this is confusing.
What do you think? Have you ever tried Second Life? Ever made virtual love to anyone?
Finally, a legitimate use of the PS3′s Sixaxis features. According to The Sixth Axis, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 will use the Sixaxis motion control functionality to make the female characters’ tits jiggle. Shake it and they shake back.
Boi-oi-oing!
This is brilliant. BRILLIANT.
Team Ninja’s girls have had bouncing boobs since the very first Dead Or Alive arcade game. It’s been a staple of Team Ninja games ever since. But this is the first time I can think of a game that gives you direct control over a lady’s jumblies.
I can barely wrap my head around how earth-shaking this is. Don’t you understand how incredible this feature will be? With both Microsoft and Sony working on new motion-control systems it’s only a matter of time until we’ll be making groping motions in the air and virtual ladies & gents will react with virtual glee…or shock! Oh man, I can’t wait to fondle some digital people!
Looks like the legal portion of the “Hot Coffee” uproar is finally over. Take-Two Interactive, parent company of Grand Theft Auto-makers Rockstar Games, put out a press release today saying they’ve come to a settlement in the class action lawsuit. Here’s the important part:
Under the proposed settlement, the class action will be dismissed in exchange for an aggregate payment of $20,115,000 into a settlement fund for the benefit of class members, of which $15,200,000 will be paid by the Company’s insurance carriers, and $4,915,000 will be paid by the Company.
Smack it, Attack it, Hit it from the back
Twenty-million?? Damn, bitch! That’s a lotta dough for a little bit of sex. If you remember, the Hot Coffee scandal involved hidden sex mini-games that people figured out how to unlock in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, way back in 2005. People flipped out and copies were quickly pulled from store shelves until a new no-Coffee version was released.
At the time there was a lot of debate over why Rockstar hid this content in the game. They must have known people were going to find it. But it must not have occurred to them that throwing interactive sex into a Mature-rated game, without telling anyone, would ultimately reflect negatively on the whole gaming industry. GTA was already the public target for everything that’s “wrong” in games. There was no need to up the ante. Maybe Rockstar just like causing a commotion.
As much as I love to see sexual content in games, I still think it should be done openly. It doesn’t need to be hidden away. The only way sex in games is going to gain acceptance is if it’s done under full disclosure and with its head held high. If it’s done any other way publishers are just going to open themselves up to more suits like this one.
Get your naughty on with Adult Swim’s flash game Dungeons and Dungeons. Here’s the official description:
Guide S&M enthusiasts Sadie and Max through a treacherous maze of levels (six in all), fending off attacks from wandering dungeon-dwellers and mechanical pleasure-bots.
Funny idea. Not-so-fun execution. But thanks for trying, Adult Swim!
Straight from Gamescom 2009, Game Trailers captured this cinematic from Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Let’s watch Nathan and Chloe make suggestive remarks to each other!
Hey, I think that’s pretty great. We need more talk like that in our video games. Even if the characters aren’t getting it on, it’s still nice that the game’s creators allow the characters to acknowledge sexuality.
I’m not sure what this trailer’s all about since I didn’t play the first game. But who cares because, dude, it has alien pole dancers. ALIEN POLE DANCERS. See for yourself!
Oh my, a new hentai PC game that let’s you make your own girls! A “3D Custom Girl,” even! Check out this trailer full of loveliness.
I especially like the girl in white with the giant milk sacks. And the girl with the eye patch is a nice touch. I don’t read Japanese, but on the official website it looks like you get to fuck the shit out of your girl once your done customizing her. Swell! Take a look of this selection of fuckables the game lets you create.
Over on Edge, Chris Dahlen wrote an article proclaiming a sequence in Overlord II to be the “Best Sex Scene Of The Year” in a video game. Here is the awarded scene:
I have no complaints about this scene (other than the complete lack of on-screen sex!). What I do have issue with, however, is Mr. Dahlen’s attitudes toward sex in games. With the very first line of his article he freely states “I’m torn as to whether sex belongs in games.” If you’re reading this site then you already know my feelings on the subject. But I’ll state them here for the uninitiated: I feel sex does have a place in mature games, just as it does in film, television, music and literature, as long as its content is targeted at the appropriate age groups. I don’t see why video games should be treated differently than any other form of media. Mr. Dahlen, a pop-culture and tech journalist, obviously sees video games as separate from other forms of entertainment.
In his article, Mr. Dahlen explains that Overlord II’s sex scene is “the best” because it doesn’t actually show the sex. He states:
And that’s the best part. Because even though games need sexuality, I don’t want to watch sex in a game. That man (or woman) on-screen – that’s me. I don’t want to just sit there watching myself have intercourse if I can’t control it. And I definitely don’t want to control it, because trying to steer a sex act using a game controller is as ludicrous as ludicrous gets. Human intercourse already breaks down if you focus too much on the plumbing – and in a gameplay context, that’s all there is. I don’t want to sit there pumping the Wii MotionPlus or banging away on the D-pad. Gamewide, Overlord II goes off the tracks many times, but they got that one thing right: sex in an interactive context is better left to the imagination. We don’t need to see the details.
First of all, I don’t see how Mr. Dahlen can state that “games need sexuality” when he’s already said he doesn’t know whether sex belongs in games or not. Clearly, he has yet to make up his mind regarding the issue. Secondly, even I don’t think games “need” sexuality, just as I don’t think movies “need” sexuality. There are countless games and films and books that are completely devoid of sexuality, yet are still great works of art and entertainment. However, I believe that if we are in a society that allows sexuality to be expressed in its art and media, then games should be afforded the same freedom as all other forms of media.
Next, I don’t agree that the man or woman on-screen is “me” or you. Just as in film, the person on-screen is a character. Games can be, and many are, a tool for telling stories and stories are about characters. When you see Rhett Butler kissing Scarlett O’Hara, you may become emotional, but it’s not you being kissed. And when Master Chief’s Warthog gets blown up, you may get angry, but again, it’s not you being fired upon. There’s a difference between controlling an on-screen character and actually being that character. Mr. Dahlen seems to not know that difference.
Now let’s get to the idea of “human intercourse break[ing] down if you focus too much on the plumbing.” Maybe Mr. Dahlen should ask his past sexual partners if they agree with him. I have a feeling he might find them a bit unsatisfied. And the idea that sex in games needs to literally be controlled by the player is both ludicrous and unimaginative. As games like Mass Effect have shown, the sex in a game can be part of a non-interactive cut-scene used to advance the story. Or even if the sex is part of the gameplay, it’s not necessary to “control” each and every action the character makes. A great example of this is the sex in the God of War games. In those games the sex is handled as a cross between a quick-time event and a rhythm game, which is a perfect (and funny) analog for the act of intercourse.
I’d be very interested to know Mr. Dahlen’s feelings on sex in mainstream film and pornographic films. He may not need to “see the details,” but the popularity of porn and erotic films certainly proves that a great many other people feel differently. Why is sex in an interactive context “better left to the imagination?” This brings me back to my belief that Mr. Dahlen sees video games as fundamentally separate from all other forms of media. If books, film, music, painting et al can be explicit with their sexual content, why not games?
Early in his article he wrote that some people believe “that if games can show relations between consenting adults, we can finally call them ‘art.’” I don’t have any say one way or another whether gaming as a form of media should be called “art.” And I certainly don’t think that putting sex in games will automatically make them into art, either. But I do think having sex in games will go a long way towards making mainstream audiences accept that games can be a legitimate form of entertainment and story-telling for mature audiences. I think that’s something that Mr. Dahlen simply doesn’t understand.
Two Dante’s Inferno posts in a row? Well, I wasn’t expecting it either! But EA just released a new Developer Diary and it’s all about the Lust level. And really, isn’t that perfect for this site? Let’s take a look!
I especially like the phrase “orgy of bodies.” Sounds hot!
Over on CVG they have a piece of an article about sex in games. In it, Bioware’s Greg Zeschuk addresses the controversy of the sex scene in their RPG Mass Effect. Around the time of the game’s release some in the mainstream press freaked over something that was actually pretty tame. Here’s a choice piece from the article:
When asked if games need to contain scenes of this nature, BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk told us: “I don’t think they need to have them, I think that in certain types of games it makes sense to have them.”
Dr. Greg goes on to explain how sex scenes are a good way of establishing an intimate relationship between characters. Well no shit, Gregory! Thanks for clearing that up, but it’s something many of us already knew. So who are the people he’s explaining this to? Allow me to introduce you to what I call “the nerd factor.” This will contain some sweeping generalizations, so hold onto your space helmets.
The only people who don’t seem to know that sex in games can make sense are folks in the mainstream press and nerds. We still have the perception in our society that nerds and sex don’t mix. And for the most part, this is true. I can’t tell you how many nerds I’ve hung out with who totally freak when the topic of sex arises. I can remember hanging with a nerd group in film school and they all flipped when I mentioned I was going to a fetish con. Most nerds simply don’t get how sex can be a legitimate part of their games. For nerds and puberty-age kids, sex in games is titillation, not something that’s emotionally resonant.
This brings me back to the Bioware issue. The problem with putting serious, emotionally mature sexuality in Bioware games is that these games are made for the hardcore nerd crowd. Games like Mass Effect and the upcoming Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins are for the elite nerds. These are people for whom getting laid is either a rarity or not even a consideration.
The Bioware founders, Dr. Greg and Dr. Ray, are leading commanders among nerds and pencil-neck geeks. They’ve got to be commended for bringing serious sex to their audience. Unfortunately, I think a lot of their audience is going to latch onto the titilation and not get the emotional factors. This already happened with Mass Effect and I have no doubt it will happen again with Bioware’s future projects. While I think what they’re doing is great, I also think they’re doing it for the wrong crowd.
Wired is reporting that Linden Lab, the owner of virtual world Second Life, is being sued for knowingly allowing copyright infringement on its servers. The object of the supposed infringement? Virtual sex toys! Some company called Eros LLC sells the line of sex toys in Second Life. They’re claiming others are ripping-off their wares and that Linden Lab won’t stop it.
Hey, I think that’s pretty great. We need more talk like that in our video games. Even if the characters aren’t getting it on, it’s still nice that the game’s creators allow the characters to acknowledge sexuality.
Now let’s get to the idea of “human intercourse break[ing] down if you focus too much on the plumbing.” Maybe Mr. Dahlen should ask his past sexual partners if they agree with him. I have a feeling he might find them a bit unsatisfied. And the idea that sex in games needs to literally be controlled by the player is both ludicrous and unimaginative. As games like Mass Effect have shown, the sex in a game can be part of a non-interactive cut-scene used to advance the story. Or even if the sex is part of the gameplay, it’s not necessary to “control” each and every action the character makes. A great example of this is the sex in the God of War games. In those games the sex is handled as a cross between a quick-time event and a rhythm game, which is a perfect (and funny) analog for the act of intercourse.
