words of wisdom from the Frag Dolls

A couple weekends ago I was playing an online game with some friends (hi Vyxxen and Strix!) and we got to chatting about being a girl gamer. One of my friends had just that evening been chatted up by another player, and things started innocently enough. But before she knew it, he was describing himself and asking her for a description of herself, asking if she was hot, etc. This sucks for a girl. There you are, having fun in a game, chatting with someone who you might be able to trade items with or help out on a quest, and next thing you know he is telling you he has great pecs and likes rockclimbing. If you aren't interested in enabling the world of one-hand-typers, yet want to be friendly and not piss someone off who might trash talk you as a bitch in forums and the game, how do you politely get out of this discussion? Really, if you know, please tell me! I don't feel like I should have to pretend to be a guy online to avoid this sort of thing.

Valkerie over at the Frag Dolls has some words of wisdom, but they are more for the guys than helping the girls out of this situation. Check out The Top 10 Most UNORIGINAL Things You Can Say to a Girl Gamer.

~Elphie

Sex in Videogames Conference

Wish I'd known about the First Annual Sex in Videogames Conference ahead of time... I'd have taken some time off work to personally attend. Maybe next year since the conference agenda topics look pretty interesting from a sociological perspective.

The Sex in Video Games Conference: Exploring the Business of Digital Erotic Entertainment. This unique conference will focus on the design, development, and technology of sex in video games from a national as well as international perspective. In addition, this conference will also have a strong focus on business matchmaking and networking. During the conference's two day run, it will feature numerous lectures and keynotes, a machinima art show (erotic art and movies derived from video games) as well as panel discussions with leaders in video game and adult video game development.

If, like me, you didn't attend this conference, Wired has an interesting writeup on one of the panels and the focus on how to make pornographic videogames into a viable business, what some of the barriers are to success (porn is usually low investment/high profit, while game development is high investment, pre-existing notions of what is adult entertainment) etc.

The Friday keynote sounds like it might have been pretty interesting.

Sheri Graner Ray has been announced as the keynote for Friday, June 9.

Ms. Graner Ray is an accomplished game designer with 16 years experience in the video game industry and is the author of “Gender Inclusive Game Design: Expanding the Market.” She will be speaking on how to make adult games that appeal to women, using her research on creating games that appeal to women to specifically discuss what women would want to see within the adult game space.

According to Brenda Brathwaite, Game Designer and Chairperson of the Sex in Video Games Conference, “everyone knows Sheri as the expert on gender issues in video games. I'm really looking forward to how she applies that body of knowledge to adult games. The same lessons she teaches mainstream developers will apply to adult content developers, too. Who doesn't want a bigger audience?”

Suzanne Freyjadis-Chuberka, President of Evergreen Events, agrees that, “Sheri Graner Ray is a well respected authority on the issues of what attracts women to games and her insight into this area will be invaluable for developers of adult oriented games."

IMO one of the main reasons to have a diverse workforce in the field of software development (not just sex games but any application) is so you are designing and developing products that will appeal to and be usable by a diverse customer base. It isn't about affirmative action, it is about creating the best product for the broadest audience.

~Elphie

are you kidding me? part deux

wow, the post on computer sex games generated a lot of comments. Only one here on the blog, but quite a few more via email or IM. Apparently I'm not the only geek that finds human nature and the intersection of technology and sexuality to be interesting, though that is no surprise really. For decades people have been fascinated by this topic, though typically in a more sex-cyborg to human equation (see Cherry 2000 - Pamela Gidley, Blade Runner - Darryl Hannah's Pris, or AI - Jude Law's Gigolo Joe) than the current technology-facilitating-human-to-human sexual interaction trend.

One reader sent me this link, which is a fascinating article about virtual prostitutes in Second Life (SL), an oft-cited MMO used for college-level coursework in the design of digital spaces, in art and architecture, and in media studies and sociology. SL has over 148,000 citizens.

In the article there is a quote from a guy who has paid real money for online tricks in SL which I think reflects my confusion from my prior post:

"Walking around in a virtual world matters. The girl you meet might take you to a sleazy motel or a scary dungeon, or maybe she'll show you someplace you haven't been before--stuff you won't get on the phone. Nonetheless, language is cardinal; complex computer interfaces often become obstacles to satisfying cybersex."

This last statement makes total sense to me. Netsex has a long text based tradition that started in bbs chat sessions in the early 90's - I know because I was on ISCA bbs a lot and eventually had to put "NO NETSEX" in my profile to keep the creeps away. but interaction was all txt based. Unless you were a killer ascii artist there were no graphics to go along with the conversation besides old school emoticons.

In many ways this is the book vs. movie argument. Some people prefer books to tv/movies because there is a lot left up to the reader's imagination - in movies you have to live within someone else's reality and run the risk of disappointment in their interpretation of the authors work. Ever see a movie after reading a book and think "that was *so* the wrong actor for that character"?

So its the GUI component (yeah, I prefer books) and the fact that people are plunking down $$$ for the games discussed in my prior post that I don't understand. The idea that you would buy a game purely for anonymous online sex (not even a complex virtual world like Second Life) and that would be a worthwhile investment over a free technology like IM or chat rooms just doesn't compute. But Second Life is created to be a robust virtual reality, where people can mingle and share ideas, exchange goods, etc. As such, it has a thriving economy. And like any society the world over, the oldest-profession has a place in this virtual world with brothels, pimps, and prostitutes running businesses that derive real life profit from their services - some SL brothels are estimated to earn $47K (in REAL money) a month. Ah, capitalism. This seems like a viable business model based on proven sociological models of cross-cultural human interaction.

~Elphie

are you kidding me?

Online games replace monsters with sex
Explicit virtual playgrounds give new meaning to 'multiplayer'




This strikes me as strangely funny, in a bizarro-world sort of way. If life has got you down, if you aren't scoring with the ladies (or men) in reality, you can practice your technique and boost your ego with a virtual pick-up scenario. There have to be npc's in it to make up for the gender imbalance in the playspace - because I have a sneaking suspicion there will be more guys playing than girls. If so, I wonder just how 'easy' this game is. Are the npc's programmed with emotional baggage like the real players? Are there npc's who will turn your avatar down if you aren't in their preferred ethnic/age/etc group? If your name is Dan, will that infuriate the rebound npc girl who was just dumped by her cheating bf Dan and will she throw her virtual cosmo in your virtual face?

While certainly a creative marriage of technology and entertainment, I'm not convinced there is a viable (or at least successful) business here. There are a few obvious stumbling blocks to this new 'adults only' gaming becoming a successful entertainment medium. For starters, what woman is going to play this? Sure, there is the excitement of the flirting with someone over the network, the hookup, etc, but women aren't generally known for being avid porn viewers. And I can't really imagine the point of a point-and-click game where you've just taken off your shirt not because you are upgrading your armor, but because you are making out with some other character. Does the shirt disappear into your inventory or get thrown on the floor in a crumpled heap? How much is graphical versus text based? Do you control character climax? if so, how weird is that? Is there a big O button to click? Are the game controls simple enough for one hand operation? (oh come on, we all know you would have thought of that on your own eventually.)

I suppose if you are involved in a lot of chat-room sex this could take things to the next level by adding a visual component - some of these games are already available as text-only offerings. You'll now have a little idealized character you can pretend is you, hooking up with people who are pretending to be their little idealized characters, and the whole world is thin athletic and pretty and there are no repurcussions for visiting the make-your-own porn room with a guy you just met at the virtual bar this evening. I'm just guessing, but I'm pretty sure they won't have virtual gonorrhea or virtual pregnancies in this game, any more than they would have virtual premature ejaculation or virtual erectile dysfunction. Because the beauty of virtual reality in a computer game is that it isn't reality at all - it is an ideal state of being you can project. It is, for all intents and purposes, the Matrix. It is getting to be whoever you want people to see you as. So what if you are home in a dirty sweatshirt and old track pants eating ice cream straight from the carton? The people on the other end of the game think you're a badass hot chick in a vinyl catsuit and long coat.

virtually,
~Elphie