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Sex and the Modern MMOG
My alma mater MMORPGDot has a review of the 'adults-only, subscription-based, independently-developed Sci-Fi Fantasy MMORPG set in London a hundred years from now'. It's a social MMOG, and one with more social options than you'll find in most commercial games. From the article: "Sex is not a mere role-playing concession in Sociolotron; it is a fully-baked and detailed gameplay mechanic. Players can engage in both consensual and forced sexual relations with other players and some NPCs- and believe it or not, sex serves a number of important purposes in the game. (Aside from the whole heir thing, the fluids that are exchanged and spilled during sexual encounters are critical components of some potions, and the game provides a variety of methods for collecting these substances.) Sex is really a sort of minigame in Socio, and before you utter the words 'Hot Coffee,' understand that this is no mere rhythm exercise. It's actually so complex a process that I'll only touch on a few details here."
Umm... doesn't "forced sexual relations" seem in rather poor taste ?
Or is the argument supposed to be that if you can have violence in games then it's fair play ? Ugh.
So I guess the only appropriate question is, when will it support a force feedback "joystick"?
WTB Assblocker 3000 PST.
Now the geeks can see what they've been missing all these years. Level Up! Dildo Upgraded! 50 Pts!
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
You know having sex in a MMO is interesting and could ad a bit to character interactions (now having a wife in a game may actually mean something)> having forced sexual relation may be in poor taste, but I honestly don't see it that much worse then PKing. The thing that I am having a problem with is:
"the fluids that are exchanged and spilled during sexual encounters are critical components of some potions"
That is just getting nasty.
---
Healer: Oh shoot! Leroy is getting low on life.
Healer: Quick get me some components so I can make a potion!
Group: Fap fap fap
understand that this is no mere rhythm exercise.
Everyone knows that the rhythm method doesn't work anyway.
This is just the first time someone bothered to give it graphics. And possibly the first time you were charged for the privledge, but I'd have to check my facts on that one...
You may return to your "robe and wizard hat" quips now.
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This is not "pure" roleplay, you really can be a rape victim within the game and there is nothing you can do about it EXCEPT in the same way that we stop it in real life. The game seems to record all actions and create crimes wich more moral players can solve.
This is an intresting way to do PvP. the most intresting chance however is not that they added the option of rape but that they really seem to try to create a player run justice system.
There would seem to be definite disadvantages to being a griefer in this game.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Fuck Jack Thompson. I am pretty damn sure that this game will strictly enforce 18+. Let the idiot try and bring this before a court and get violently smacked down.
Personally, I love the spat of video game laws that stupid state legislators have tried to pass. Each and every single one without exception has been struck down, and struck down hard. Each time one of these stupid laws are struck down, it just strengthens freedom of speech laws.
Nothing brings a smile to my face like politicians ramming their head violently against the first amendment and looking shocked and confused when it doesn't budge. I welcome this game the legislation that congressmen will attempt to bring about to stop it. It just makes it easier to see which representatives will grow the strength to stand up for the first amendment, and which are pathetic sniveling slime that refuse to take a stand that doesn't instantly sound good in a sound byte. It makes picking who I vote for all the easier.
Fuck'em.
*nt*
I'm not scared of anonymous cowards.
I participated in the beta on 2 different occasions over the course of 4 years, each for a month or so at a time. It was a lark, and my wife thought some of it was hysterical. Honestly, she could watch me play and just laugh. If any of you read "The Sports Guy", Bill Simmons on ESPN.com, you have heard of his Unintentional Comedy Index, or UCI. This game is off the charts. I don't think the game maker nor the players intend for it to be funny, but if you could just be a fly on the wall during "encounters", you'd be rolling in the aisles. In the end, while it was almost morbidly fascinating, I stopped doing the beta each time.
Yes, it was very much suspected that most of the female characters were played by men. It would certainly explain why most female characters role-played being lesbians who loved anal sex. Plus, all the female and male bodies are exactly the same, and the male sex organs are hugely out of porportions to the bodies. You can really tell a man designed everything.
This is supposed to be a MMORPG, but there is little combat and little challenge in the game, overall. It is purely a social game that has combat to taunt people into believing it is a MMORPG. PvP is not something you can turn off after a certain "level" of ability. And, you don't just get killed, but can be raped and then killed. Many "women" takled about the insane amount of fear and adrenalin rush they got when they were kidnapped, raped, and then killed. It was very real to them, as their character was rendered completely helpless.
The game does (or did when I quit the 2nd time) feature PermaDeath as the rule for once you get out of your newbie shoes. You can have children, though, and you or your partner can use that child to be reborn when you are PermaDeathed.
The sex itself... C'mon, that is why you are reading this, right? Don't lie, you pervert! Zip up your pants and read, then!
The sex itself is pathetic. While they give motions and actions you can do, it is mostly poor text (the mispellings are hideous) that drives this show. It is very easy to have 2 characters supposedly going at it, and the guy is laying 2 feet to the left of the girl, but they are both humping air furiously, and the game tells you he is inside her. Many actions require one person to allow the other person to take hold of them. Trust the wrong person, and once that happens, you could be dead.
Roleplaying is a necessity, but the level of the players in the beta was pretty horrible. Most of the male characters were merely sperm donors, and added nothing to their partner's enjoyment by using creative words to enhance the "event". Male characters that could actually type and make it seem more real became sought after. Female characters (probably played mostly by men who had a gift to being descriptive) were usually better at it, but some of them were just as inept.
Character classes are pretty stupid, with not much to offer roleplay opportunities. The exceptions were the Succubi, and the Inquisitors. Succubi had to harvest sperm, and usually harvested it from their own bodies. However, to harvest it, they had to make themsleves immobile, and therefor easy to be killed if anywhere close to public. Inquisitors had to kill sinners, and mostly took on the prostitues that wander about (and are your only real source of combat for the early stages of the game.) They kill them by cutting their heart out.
The beta was constantly plagued by griefers, who were often allowed to carry on, because it was within the design of the game. You want to serially rape and kill female characters, because that is who your character is? Go right ahead! More power to you! And if they catch you and kill you, don't complain. The problem is, these folks took to being a griefer the way a powergamer took to WoW for the first month. They boost characters up fast, and make themselves almost impervious to one-on-one situations. They break into private places looking for toons that are AFK, or not doing anyth
You may be right in that sex has existed in MUDs to an extent - but are they easy to access for younger teenage boys? This is where I see the game's downfall.
Anyone feel like playing a game overrun by hormonally supercharged teenagers? I suppose detailed graphics and potentially quick notoriety won't really support this game well, but I may probably be proved wrong.
Just imagine how bad their typing will be... it's already bad enough but then you add the fact that they're typing it one handed and probably with quite a good deal of physical movement on their part. Ghastly!
Any game that keeps any sort of number of perverted, griefing, wanna-be rapists out of my chosen game is definately a good thing.
Blessed are the 1337, for they shall pwn the earth.
Just look at the responses and posts in this thread. Only one was really informative about the game or subject so far. The rest make jests and jokes about the subject of sex in games. The reason adult content is not found in the US more often is because market research finds these kinds of remarks...giggles, pointed fingers...much like school children who find a torn page of a Playboy issue on the school yard. I for one would love to see sex introduced more in games. While this game seems to revolve around it too much, as a play mechanic, it adds to what we have now. Do you think being able to have sex in games would degrade the game to the point where everyone would be doing it everywhere? If so, what does that say about society? Maybe game rules should enforce sex like real life,ie no public nudity, etc. My point is, until you 'gamers' grow up a bit, this aspect of games will not.
I even considered the topic being worth debating when I first heard it, in the year 2000 or so. Even though it was full of hard to believe outlandish claims (e.g., that you could even perform non-consentual abortions and lob dead foetuses with a catapult; e.g., that the only way to respawn was to be re-born, for example by raping a woman and impregnating her; e.g., that they could support millions of players on a single machine, which no MMO ever could) and the game was every time in a "closed beta" so noone could check those claims, people got in a big debate about it.
Since then, oh looky, there comes again the regularly scheduled PR troll that has just one purpose: to get attention. Complete with yet another claim: this time that you need spilled sperm for potions. Well, gee, that ought to fix crafting.
If MMOs were forum posters, Sociolotron would be the troll/crapflooder posting goatse links in every thread. That's all there is to it. Nothing to see here.
And oh looky, this time a bit down in the thread we even have the ISO-standard astroturfing testimonial post about how lots of women play it (including the poster's wife supposedly), just waiting to be raped and abused, and getting a kick out of it. And no siree, there are no griefers on it, and (unlike what experience showed us on a hundred muds and a few MMOs), player justice really really works here this time. Honest. If that doesn't sound _exactly_ like the astroturfing ads-disguised-as-testimonials for "enlarge your penis" and "find a sex partner in your area" sites, you haven't read your spam mails lately.
So basically I wouldn't take it too seriously.
Then again, _if_ it finally went live, I wouldn't really kill the "worthless fucker signing up to this abomination", as you aptly put it. Think positively. If it gets at least _some_ of the worst retards that plague some other games, and keeps them busy there pretending to rape each other's female character (or ugly sprite thereof), it's a good thing.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Where now is the industry that entertained many's the geek as a lad?
Is it reduced to this? A trenchcoated toilet trader passing out favours for nine pence an hour?
Is this evolution, or devolution? Only one thing is certain. The game will suck....Oh wait.
May the Maths Be with you!
In real life, I can envision situations where killing is acceptable. I can't imagine any situation at all in which rape or child abuse is acceptable. So there's clearly a difference in real life, and I think there should be one in games as well. If you play as a hero killing the minions of an evil dictator bent on taking over the world, that seems to be a case of justifiable violence. However, there's simply no possible justification for rape, even in a fictional context.
I've been playing Socio for almost a year now...I joined the game near the end of the beta phase because of an article I read in Sync and I have to say I absolutely love it! I'm a female in my 30's and I've played both female AND male characters...I love the idea of a game that lets me live my fantasies and explore the darker side of my personality....yes, you can be raped...I have been several times...even had a child by one rapist...I've performed abortions on myself and know of other who were attacked, chained and had forced abortions performed before they were ko'd and all of their possessions stolen....thing is that it's all part of the game....that's the way it's supposed to be but that doesn't mean it happens everytime you walk out of your door....if the act is roleplayed well then even a rape or kidnapping can be fun and interesting... There's such a variety of things to do....harvesting, killing npc's, quests, skilling, rape, sex, marriage, theft, murdering pc's, cults, etc. etc.....the socialization is the best...hanging out in the bar and chatting with everyone is great! Currently I'm a stripper-in-training one of the bars in the city I live in....also a sub in search of the perfect master.... So if any of you who piss and moan about the game without ever having explored it want to give it a try, you can look me up....just call Droxine Cloudminder for a good time!