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New E3-Shown Games Push Sexual Envelope
Thanks to CNN Money for its article discussing the seamier side of E3's videogame selection, as it notes: "It's one thing to see Lara Croft's hot-shorts clad posterior while you play 'Tomb Raider.' It's another thing entirely to see the sagging, slightly lumpy and entirely unclothed buttocks of Larry Lovage streak across your screen." The article also discusses Singles, the Eidos U.S.-published title "best described as a naughty version of 'The Sims.'...[which] doesn't shy away from male or female full frontal nudity", noting that "the ESRB slapped 'Singles' with an AO rating", which is "essentially, an NC-17 or worse... Most retailers will not sell a game with that rating." Tom Marx of Eidos expresses his distress with this rating, arguing for an M rating instead, and noting as part of his argument: "I don't really think someone is going to get the same feeling of attraction in seeing a full frontal digital game character as they would from seeing that in an actor or actress."
This is stupid marketing. If you want to make a game with adult content, sell a PG-13 kiddie version that everybody under 5 can buy, and release the hardcore porn in a patch.
Helps if you don't have a soul, but big entertainment has proved that lack often enough.
The only reason anyone is upset is that it's going to be a bunch of guys looking at naked girls on the computer.
The real outrage is the free ride that women get. I was showing my wife a copy of Playboy magazine. Her reaction was "that's it"? She was expecting some nasty funky stuff or something, based on how bent out of shape people get when you say "Playboy Magazine".
Then, she showed me her Cosmo. The very same Cosmo that is stocked at the eye-level height of an 8 year old. WOW! She convinced me, and I am not a faithful subscriber.
So, the story of the future is this: moral outrage about Leisure Suit Larry, extending into perpetuity. But nobody is going to notice the racy programs that will be marketed to girls in the future.
This is America, damnit. Speak Spanish!
You can find this title readily in Germany, it's been reviewed by every major magazine to one extent or another. You really have to wonder about the Puritanical sensibilities of the US at times. What amused me most was seeing many years ago the version of robocop that was screened on TV in America, they left all the violence in, (even the bits they wouldn't show in the UK) but took all the swearing out, which ruined most of the really funny jokes. Wierdness...
Funny, isn't it.
We've had murder, torture, maiming and genocide in games for ages, but throw in a naked person and suddenly it's a big thing...
Please tell me how it is not sexist to compare a completely unrealistically proportioned female in sexy ass-pants to a middle-aged scumbag trying to get some action, and declaring the latter as beginning to "cross the line"?
This is a lot like all the hubbub people made about the fucking superbowl "scandal". You have sports institutions like the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders or whatever dressed as clad as legally possible for national TV, and then some "racy" pop star busts out her breast for all of America to see and it's an outrage? Come on!
Nudity and sex is all about context, and being an American it seems that too many people get bent out of shape about someone being naked, and it's seriously going to warp the minds of our youth. Nudity is declared as innapropriate, but it's completely OK for every other (if not all) female character on TV to be sporting some sort of cleavage or ass-revealing outfit? Leisure Suit Larry is an ADULT-ORIENTED and sexually themed game, thus I hope we get to see some guys nuts and maybe a rediculously-sized breast getting thrown across our screens here and there. That's the appeal of games like that, right? (I don't play them; someone help me out here...) What I don't understand is why do I happen to turn on some tripe like CSI and see a woman clad in the most "professionally-appropriate" revealing outfit and that's "OK"?
Personally, I think sex is overused in all aspects of American pop culture. But at the same time, the media portrays it as controversial and extreme, and that's why it sells. People always talk about the sexual revolution, blah blah blah, but all the "progress" made in America that ever seems to happen is just allowing women to be able to show more and more of their bodies, and the twisted fools that read magazines like Maxim to oggle over them and continue objectifying, and I think this article only illustrates what kind of a double standard these "journalists" help to create.
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Is it me, or did it just get fatter in here?
Yes!!! Leisure Suit Larry with full nudity! I've been waiting for this since 1988, when I was 7.
fs
"The actions taken by the game industry are an affront to Christians everywhere," declared Mrs. Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian. "I am just thankful that the church's founder, Henry VIII, and his wife Catherine of Aragon, his wife Anne Boleyn, his wife Jane Seymour, his wife Anne of Cleves, his wife Katherine Howard, and his wife Catherine Parr are no longer here to suffer through this assault on our 'traditional Christian marriage.'"
>.>
Nobody's mentioned Rumble Roses, the mud-wrestling game which advertises a 'hands free' cpu-vs-cpu mode.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
So I just started playing the latest (?) Rockstar offering: Manhunt. By far, this is the most violent game I have ever played. It deserves no less than an AO rating, yet it recieves an M because it is just violence and swearing (but no sex). Last night I (virtually) killed someone by ripping out their throat and then punching a hole in thier head - all with a crowbar. Another death involved beating someone with a baseball bat. When they eventually fell to the ground and begged for thier life, I popping thier head with my boot (and hearing brains et al squish across the floor and onto the far wall). Somehow, I think that deserves a stronger rating than an M. Now we have a game with digital (and more than likely, not highly detailed) boobs, butts, and crotches and it's the beginning of the downfall of man. What a sad commentary on our society. Although not surprising in the days of Bush's FCC.
Actually, what's interesting is that both Singles, Playboy Mansion, and the new Leisure Suit Larry sequel _ARE_ getting press coverage from major online sites. The new Larry was even in the "top 10" list of games IGN wanted to see at E3 (posted sometime last week, and which begins today). I've seen coverage of both on Gamespy and Gamespot, and I usually just browse through the front page to see what's new without actually looking in-depth.
The rating systems in the USA are embarassingly broken, and I think need to be re-evaluated.
Movies:
Violence - takes a lot to affect rating, a tiny amount can occur in G rated movies. PG if not gory, PG-13 if tiny amount of gore or lots of violence (e.g. Red Dawn), R if really gory. NC-17 is practically impossible without also having sex (take Passion of Christ, for instance)
Nudity - automatic PG-13, but takes a lot for more than R.
Sex (faked) - R unless excessive, then NC-17
Sex (real/graphical) - NC-17/AO
Drug Paraphenalia - automatic PG-13
Drug Use - PG-13 if brief or implied, usually R.
Games:
Violence - Teen start, can get very gory at M
Nudity - automatic M, AO if not brief.
Sex (faked) - adult situations (romance plots)=Teen, implied sex seems to pretty much get an M, more than brief=AO.
Sex (graphical) - AO
Drug Paraphenalia - nothing, as far as I can tell - at worst it would be Teen.
Drug Use - Teen if effects not shown, M if shown (Gothic is the only example I know of).
Basically, the ratings are fairly close except when it comes to nudity/sex, most likely because of the ESRB's horribly-proven-as-wrong preconception that gamers are all kids. I guess there's still the fear that kids might stumble across the game while playing on their parent's computer or something, but the parent should be responsible enough to either hide the CD or put a password on a user. I mean, seriously - parents could just as easily leave the gun cabinet unlocked or pornography out on the coffee table for their kids to view.