The geek community is abuzz; it's May, and that means the E3 videogame Expo-palooza is coming to L.A.! For the pornish reader: E3 is the gaming industry's Internext/Adult Entertainment Expo. Every company even tangentially connected with the videogame industry will be there, hyping their newest/coolest shit to the heavens, and hopefully drawing attention by giving free stuff to journalists and staffing their booths with half-naked bims. Here's a sneak-peek at some of the more interesting product for adult gamers slated for unveiling at E3:
Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude
Larry's back. Full of achingly bad puns and Benny Hill-style humor, the first Leisure Suit Larry adventure dropped in 1991 and spawned six sequels over the next five years. The success of the first seven Larry titles proved the viability of "adults-only" video games, and these groundbreaking titles are still playable today (if you can put up with the sub-sophomoric humor, of course).
The plot of the latest Larry adventure features the '70s style, polyester-flossin' king of lounge lizards going back to college to take his nephew under his wing. Larry teaches the youngster the secrets of getting lots of nookie (or not), as well as how to dress to impress. Looks like a very clever, very funny game, and judging by these screenshots and the preview movie, features more digital bjooblies than you can shake a stick at. Mmmmm... video game babes.
Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude is set for release before the end of 2004.
Playboy: The Mansion
The conceit of Playboy: The Mansion is that every guy dreams of being Hugh Hefner. "Build the Playboy mansion and magazine into a dynamic cultural icon and powerful brand," screams the press release from Groove Games and ARUSH Entertainment. A game about building a brand? Personally, I'd rather be killing motherfuckers with an AK in Halo than pretending to publish an erotica magazine - but Hef does have seven hot girlfriends and a rad mansion, so maybe it would be pretty cool to walk a mile in his old-man slippers.
According to the company, gamers can look forward to "rubbing shoulders with stunning women and stimulating celebrities as you pursue the ultimate Playboy lifestyle. Grow famous and gain exclusive access to the Playboy Archives." No word yet on whether points will be awarded for publishing culturally relevant think pieces by Gore Vidal.
Playboy: The Mansion is promised for a Winter 2004 release, but ARUSH is the company behind that long-delayed Duke Nuke 'Em sequel, so I'm not holding my breath.
For Pointy Heads Only
This interesting report from MSNBC examines the difference in preferences between American and Japanese game players. Apparently, games of the first-person-shooting variety (Doom, Halo, et. al) that are currently the rage among U.S. gamers just don't sell that well in Japan. The Japanese prefer less violent, more roleplay-oriented gaming experiences. As video games become even more complex, look for more of these sorts of cultural differences to be taken into account in game design and marketing.
In a similar vein, a recent article on Reason.com essays the growing inclusion of political propaganda in videogames, both in blatant terms - for example: Game literature included with Legacy Online describes its milieu as "realistic" and goes on to describe its world in terms of "greed, global warming, nuclear and chemical pollution, ethnic wars, new virulent viruses and super bacteria, overpopulation" - and in terms of the mechanics that run the games themselves.
If your idea of a good read is considering the way in which a video game's underlying programming code consciously or unconsciously reflects the political biases of its designers and programmers, click the link, man.
Mr. Ochs is wasting his life playing video games and writing/editing for AVN Online. Write him an e-mail, why don'tcha?
