Leisure Suit Larry's Maker On Wedgies v. Bullets

simoniker writes "Al Lowe, the creator of lounge lizard Leisure Suit Larry, has been talking about his comeback game with new developer iBase Studios, Sam Suede, asking why games nowadays are too violent, and revealing of his new title: "there's going to be guards, but instead of slitting their throats, you'll give them a wedgie." He also asks: 'Let me put this way, the shelf is full of racing games and shooters, RPGs and action games. Where are the comedies?' Well, where are they?"

Comments

Please don't comment unless....

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Don't comment unless you can answer the following question:

What can you get in a "red light" district?

a. in many cases, trouble
b. the Blue Plate Special
c. outdoor lighting fixtures
d. lingerie

I find this game offensive

[hjf]

I think many nerds will think this game is offensive. I mean, they are the main victims of wedgies...

Total agreement about the violence.

[Anonymous Coward]

I've got a couple little kids (yeah, I know - "please think of ....") - and am quite annoyed by the double-standard in gaming and media in general.

Seems like blatently dangerous and illegal activity is endorsed by the industry (shooting people; blowing things up; etc) - while perfectly legal stuff (wasn't the sex in the GTA mod consentual?) ends up being shunned and forbidden.

What kind of lesson is that?

If I were making the rules; game rating should he based on the illegality of the activities in the game -- if there's murder or similar - keep it away from my kids. If it's minor misdemeanors (like this new game sounds like) that's better.

Re:Total agreement about the violence.

[dhasenan]

You know what would reduce the instance of teen pregnancy? Accepting (teen) sex as natural and unavoidable, and educating teens on the use of contraceptives. If we try to hide sex from teens, they'll be exceptionally eager to have it.

And if we want people to use condoms, we should teach girls how to put them on for guys. Guys don't have a stake in the matter; they don't get pregnant. Therefore the decision should not be left to them.

Our treatment of sex is what causes problems. And at any rate, teen pregnancy is easily solved, unlike the products of violence.

Re:Total agreement about the violence.

[esper]

That all sounds great in theory, but falls flat in practice. Trying to suppress sexuality enhances its appeal and incites sexual thoughts far more than treating it as something normal and natural does.

Just grabbing the first document I could find on google which talks about international rates of teen pregnancy, we find that "Adolescent pregnancy, birth, abortion and sexually transmitted disease (STD) rates are much higher in the United States than in most other developed countries" and that Sweden - a country stereotypically considered to be very open about sex - has a teen pregnancy rate of less than a quarter of that in the US[1], despite having higher levels of sexual activity[2]. The rates of sexually transmitted diseases are also lower in Sweden.[3]

So, no, I can't say that the evidence supports your claim that censoring sexuality does anything to prevent people from "having sex and getting into trouble" when the actual numbers show that more open policies substantially reduce rates of the quantifiable forms of "trouble" which you cited. ("Damaged psyches" isn't really quantifiable, but I submit that, when they result from sex, it is due to either feeling exploited or to societal censure (e.g., being seen as "a slut", whether by yourself or by others) - and both of these would be substantially reduced if sexuality were treated in a more open fashion rather than being suppressed.)

[1] "The proportion of women aged 20-24 who had a child before age 20 is a useful summary indicator that reflects the differences in teenage birthrates by country. This proportion is lowest in Sweden (4%)... and highest in the United States (22%)."

[2] "The proportion of women aged 20-24 who had first intercourse before age 20 varies from 75% in Canada to 86% in Sweden, with the United States (81%), France (83%) and Great Britain (85%) having intermediate levels", "Data on the proportion of all 18-19-year-olds who are currently sexually active (i.e., who had sex in the last three months) are available for four countries. The United States has the lowest proportion (59%), with France and Great Britain (62-64%) having somewhat higher levels, and Sweden (79%) having the highest level"

[3] "The incidence of chlamydia among adolescents in the United States (1,132 cases per 100,000) is nearly twice that in Canada and Sweden", "The annual incidence of gonorrhea among all U.S. adolescents (572 cases per 100,000) is 10 or more times the level in the other four countries."

Brevity is the soul of wit

[jbrader]

The difficulty with comedy in games is that jokes tend to get tired quickly, then after they get tired they get annoying. Think about games where there's some goofy voie over or sound effect, it's funny at first, then just lame, then bay the time your in the last third or so you want to strangle whoever pu it in there. S the challenge for a comedy game woul be to continously add new jokes, gags, whatever to keep the humor fresh but also to keep the gameplay consistent.

Comedy is hard.

Comedy is...

[krbuck]

Comedy is hard,

blowing shit up is (relatively) easy.

Replay value

[Killgore9998]

The reason why there are no comedy games on the shelf is simple, IMHO. It's because they offer 0 replay value. When was the last time you picked up Leisure Suit Larry for an additional play-through, or any other game that does its best to be funny? Now, when was the last time you decided to go through the Halo campaign again, on another difficulty level perhaps? Granted, Monkey Island has a lot of replayability - but that's because it's such a superbly made action adventure game that it's impossible not to enjoy it another time. But it's not for the humor. The nature of comedy is such that it gets old quickly, and innovation is everything. Racing games and FPS's don't suffer from these problems.

Re:Overlooked value of the Sierra-era

[Zaphod2016]

Like how he'd get sick and turn colors (eventually plaid) and die if you slept with the hooker and didn't use a rubber. That was funny.

Not only was this scene funny, but playing as a 13-year-old it really helped drive home the point that condom use was a good idea.

I'm not saying it is the duty of video games to teach sex ed, nor am I one of those "video games are the root of child violence" people, however, I certainly see value in this sort of thing. Speaking for myself, I have learned stuff from all sorts of goofy sources, and more often than not, entirely accidentally.

Re:awsome game

[Flyboy Connor]

When the first Leisure Larry game was published, I was working as a programmer for a software house. The game was awesome, especially because it had EGA graphics. But the funniest thing about the game happened just after we got it, when we had a big opening of our new office and all our biggest clients were there. One of the most nerdy of my colleagues used the game to demonstrate the awesome powers of modern PCs to our clients, who were all huddling around his PC while he was explaining to them: "...so there is this hooker, see, who I want to fuck, but first I must get a condom..." No idea if this influenced future business.