It makes perfect sense. Video games offer a lot of bang-bang, especially if you’re trying to shoot those pesky invaders from outer space. And porn offers a lot of ... um ... banging.
So why not mix porn and video games together?
It’s a great idea: There may be no better match than sex and joysticks. In fact, people have been thinking about this topic since the early days of video games.
But can you think of a wildly popular video game that’s all about pornography? You can’t. And there lies the challenge—and the opportunity for anyone who works in the porn industry.
“There is room for growth more than anything since it’s never been done successfully,” says Brian Bangs, editor of PopPorn.com. “If a gaming company really created an interesting player experience, which also included adult-oriented material that made sense within the game and had great graphics, I think it would have a huge market.”
Not surprisingly, sex and video games have quite a history, going back to the early 1980s.
If you’re 40 or older, you may remember the Atari 2600, one of the first at-home gaming systems. While many of us amused ourselves with Missile Command and Pitfall, about 80,000 people bought Custer’s Revenge, an adult game that allowed players to let the general go wild with Native American women, says porn/video game historian Damon Brown.
Strip poker games kept computer users happy, while Leisure Suit Larry got busy in his own video game and landed in the hands of 1 million people.
As video games became more sophisticated, they began to add more opportunities for interaction. In 2005, the Playstation 2 video game Playboy: The Mansion came out; it was also available for PCs and the Xbox.
“You can even interact with your guests, set up interviews and photo shoots and partake in more intimate activities,” one promo proclaims.
Even more recently, Grand Theft Auto allowed players to have sex with prostitutes, just like in bad neighborhoods in real life.
In general, there are two kinds of sexy video games, says Brown, author of 2008’s Porn & Pong: How Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider and Other Sexy Games Changed Our Culture.
“There’s one set that can be considered porn, like Virtual Jenna,” he says. “The main focus of the game is to get a virtual version of Jenna Jameson off. You use your hands, tongue and other types of accoutrements. The faster you get her off, the higher your score.”
The problem? It’s not very sophisticated to people who live to play video games, at least if they’re feeling serious.
“If you’re an average gamer, you won’t play that game,” Brown says. “If you’re horny, you’ll hit that game.”
The other kind of sex-related video games take place in virtual worlds such as Second Life.
Which one do you fit in? There’s certainly good reason to explore both, no matter what you do in the industry. Virtual-world sex seems to be the hottest area, thanks to sites such as 3DSlut.com and virtual worlds such as Red Light Center. If you want to explore, get in touch with the creators. The best opportunities, however, appear to lie in the old-fashioned video game world—PCs and Macs, xBox and Wii.
If you have a porn site, it might cost as little as $1,000 to hire a designer to create a Flash-based game for users to enjoy, Brown says.
Why not try a variation on strip poker? Or create a simple game that allows users to rack up points and see scenarios if they get to a certain level? And don’t forget the value of competition. Remember how old-style arcade games would list the top scorers? Why not let your users compete to see who’s on top—in more ways than one?
“Update the game every week—that could be really cool,” Brown says. “It may be a good way of bringing people back to your site.”
You may want to go even further and create a porn game for the xBox or Wii. Or even for mobile phones (except the iPhone, which doesn’t allow X-rated applications).
Brown has some advice: Don’t rush into it. “You’ve got to respect gaming. It’s a $25 billion business. They already have an infrastructure in place. If you’re going to penetrate the industry, you have got to do some research.” And if you do decide to design a game, figure out who your users will be. True gamers—those who live for this kind of thing—will want something good.
“It’s easy to make that assumption that if they like video games, they will come if you put in some porn,” Brown says. “That’s a mistake.”
In other words, don’t create a crappy video game. Put some thought into it and you could, as Brown put it, penetrate the industry.
This article originally appeared in the September 2009 issue of AVN.
