|
Sex, Violence, and the Male Gamer
Oh glorious exploitation, how you've brought me hours of entertainment. Whether it be Midway's own Mortal Kombat, the grandpa of the "violence" movement or even the sultry women in Konami's Rumble Roses, sex and violence have been a mainstay in most gamers diets since the beginning. What we're going to look at tonight is a comprehensive listing of today's game titles that elicit both the adrenalin rush of blowing shit up, and the ever present "raging boner" which appears from time to time(especially in 15 yr old kids playing DOA on the Xbox for the first time).
Sex sells?
Yes, that's a question. No, it's not a statement. I know you've heard millions of middle aged old bitches(and senators) saying that "sex sells" since the dawn of man, but in the industry of videogames it only enhances the customers "interest"(pun intended) in the title at hand. See, when we(males, he dominating sex in the game market) go to a local game shop to pick up something new to play, we don't buy the first game with tits on it. That's just a fact. Sure, we'll pick that game up off the rack first...but if it doesn't interest us otherwise, then 99.99% of the time we'll put it back down. Sex ONLY sells if it's the driving point of the game itself, not if it's tacked on as a titilating bonus for the player...and half of the time, the games that are based soley around sex are such a fucking joke that it doesn't even sell to begin with.
Don't believe me?
You mean I can play Volleyball too?
One of a select few titles where the game was all about the honeys, DOA:XBV was marketed, designed, and aimed at the adolescent male populace of gamers(15-18). It had some of the nicest looking female character models in a game ever, and it was built around a retarded dating sim style of game with a sports engine tossed in at the last minute. Anyone who has seen the game knows it's not a "volleyball" game. It's T&A with a volleyball in there as a bonus. You spend a good 2/3rds of the game playing minigames, talking with the other girls, relaxing, buying clothes, etc. It's nothing more than a Japanese version of Barbie's Sun & Beach Sport Whateverthefuck, but this game SOLD like it was rice in China. Why? It was during the summer when games are scarce, it had all chicks, and all the kids during summer break needed to beat off and then tell each other about it on some retarded ass message board.
Boobs and fart jokes go hand in hand
Leisure Suit Larry has become a staple for sophmoric humor based adventure games that revolve around getting laid. They've been around for years, and have been enjoyed by millions of players. But does the aspect of seeing digital tits sell this game? No. It's the game itself and the pedigree it's had as a series(not to mention the copulous amount of dick and fart jokes). When you pick up any LSL game(regardless if it's the first one, or the latest offering) you know you're in for some hearty laughs, outrageous scenerios, a solid adventure game, and in the end...some boobers as a "congratulations" for beating the game.
Now most people consider the LSL series a game that is based ONLY around sex(which is true if all you do is look at the cover), but these are the same people who don't find humor in the way the game plays out(or never even play the game and just lamblast it on their super conservative doucheblag internet journal) and only focus on the actual act of sex (which might I add, rarely actually happens in a LSL game)as if it's a bad thing. Just more of the "sex is evil" crap that these cracked out right wing religious zealots are pushing down the throats of male gamers(and America as a whole) as of late.
The Middle ground...or...The best of both worlds
Now when you talk sex in games, you can't ignore Konami's latest offering to the table. The idea of an all female wrestling game has been on the minds of fans of normal wrestling games(because fans of wrestling are predominantly male, hence the Bra and Panties matches in THQ's latest offerings for the WWE staple), and fans of another genre of entertainment: Anime. See, in most anime all of the female characters are hot. They almost always wear skimpy outfits, and they fight. This produces two vitally important things to the fanbase. Panty shots and titties that are made out of Jello. So what happens when the team that created the female character models in DOA:XBV, get together with the sick mind of one crazy japanese fucker who likes wrestling? RUMBLE ROSES. A game that despite it's glaring flaws in gameplay, melded(almost perfectly) the realms of violence(even if Pro Wrestling is "fake" violence) AND some of the most scantily clad females in video game history. With character model counts that range WELL over the 10k mark(beating out DOA:XBV's previous title of 9k polys per character), this game set the bar for any game that wants to step in the arena of both sex AND violence.
And what a better way to do it than to provide all the perks of beating the crap out of each other, along with the ability to stare at a predominantly super hot cast of bitches? The wrestling engine itself is nothing noteworthy, but throwing in an all female cast that are bent, twisted, and groped against...Konami did one thing that no other company has when it came to wrestling games. It pulled in an entirely different audience of players...anime fans. Now while otaku will vent and rant about how wrestling is gay because it has two roidfreaks grabbing each other, the second this title hit the internet's "airwave" that all changed. Now you have anime fans grabbing up other wrestling products as they have been accustomed to, and now enjoy the wrestling genre of gaming.
Seriously, after seeing the videos here do you need to know why 99.99999% of the people bought this were dudes? Cmon.
The other side of the bridge
Ah GRAND THEFT AUTO, you magnificent bastard. You took violence in the "inner urban" areas and put it out in a perfectly enjoyable title for the masses to enjoy(and complain about). Not 2 weeks after GTA3's official release, there were countless news reports and internet sites talking about how this one game is ruining the lives of "america's children". This game reached MORTAL KOMBAT styles of mainstream fame, regardless of whether or not the people talking about it actually played it. Free roaming, steal any car, kill anybody, kill the police, fuck a hooker(then kill her and get your cash back), this game had it all(if all = everything it takes to piss off a bingo hall filled with stinky old ladies who have bibles) and then some. And with each sequel, the series has upped the ante of both gameplay and violence, to the point where it's become a part of modern society. GTA jokes have been rampant, most noteably showing up on both MAD TV and THE CHAPPELE SHOW. Now whether or not you're a fan of the series, you can't deny the impact this game has had on society as a whole.
But, why do we(the male audience) enjoy it? Easy. We don't like getting assraped by 350lb black guys. So instead of roaming the streets and shooting up local "ladies of the evening", we turn on our PS2 and go fuck shit up there. It's modern escapism at it's most basic example. You get to jump in the shoes of someone else, do anything you want, and when the day is over; you turn the machine off, grab a beer, and watch some tv. It's not like we're actually going to go out and SHOOT people, it's just that we all have that little voice in the back of our heads that goes..."ya know, I could totally get on top of my house and start sniping kids in the park". We'll never do it, but it's there nonetheless. So we turn on the game and start wrecking havoc on all of these little digital innocent people. It's hilarious, fun, and a good game to boot, plus what other game out there lets you get a blowjob in the back of a Yakuza street car?
Escapism 102: The first person shooter
Now this is where violence reigns. There is no such thing as a FPS game without violence. Period. Sure, there's games that give you the choice of being a nice guy, but bad shit still happens in the game and you still see someone take a rocket to the eardrum once or twice. You rarely see your characters face, so you're INSTANTLY pulled into the experience. Whether it's an attack from Hell on a Mars base in the future, or you're waging a one man war against Nazi's in WW2, you ARE the hero. Plain and simple. You get to shoot shit, hide from enemy fire, save people, kill people, and at the end of the game you've done your job, saved the world, and you can sit back and relax knowing that you just killed a good 3000+ people/things without batting an eyelash. Why? Because it's reactionary. How so? Well let's say you walk into a room and out of nowhere you get shot at from behind. You don't crouch down and cry like a girl, you don't wonder if the guy that just took a potshot at you has a family, what do you do? You spin 180 and give that fucker a heaping helping dose of buckshot, take his gun and walk into the next fucking room like a god damn man. This is why these games sell, and why the male audience plays them so damn much.
Gore(no not Al Gore you retard)
Yes, the copulous amounts of red fluid. They've deffinetly seen alot of play on many 'o' televisions over the years. Zombies. Terrorists. Demons. Angels. Bystandards. Player 2. They've all got countless pints of the red stuff, and all you have to do is hit them in the right spot and it's goin everywhere. Now while at first it was a sub-human like visceral shock to the senses, with games today it's more of a "hahahaha wow that's neat" type of novelty that is used to heighten the experience. Some games(such as Rockstar's MANHUNT) took the angle even further by adding a "snuff film" feel to the experience as you singularly stalked each victim with the weapon of your choice. Capcom is constantly tossing the fluid around in it's RESIDENT EVIL series, as are countless others(even THQ and their wrestling titles have had blood effects for awhile now), but nobody has been doing it better than the SILENT HILL guys. Somehow they can use the illusion of light/sound coupled with huge smears of gore on a wall and that will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up as if it was the first time you saw Kano rip out Sub-Zero's (still beating) heart. Now this brings us to another point of conversation; are we as a society of gamers USED to the blood and guts displayed on our tv/monitors? Or is it just that we've been used to seeing it in a specific style? When developers find new ways to use such a simple idea as such a simple effect(read: Doom3), it piques our interest and gives us an adrenalin rush(should I go out into the hallway, or hang back and wait for whatever is making that noise to come into view?). Either way, you can't deny that guys like the gushy stuff. Doesn't matter if it comes out of an Alien, some crazy Hell Spawned demon, or some pissed off North Koreans...if it squishes and squirts, we'll take notice.
There's only one rule about Fight Club...
ROUND ONE! FIGHT! are three words that male gamers perfectly understand. It's the start of a competition between yourself, and a friend(or foe) at a fighting game. Whether it be SF,KOF,TEKKEN,DOA,etc...after those three words are uttered by the announcer, it's on. Plain and simple.
Or is it?
You ever wonder as to WHY guys like us like fighting games? You ever wanted to know why the dude that smells like cheese and beef just picked the 13yr old schoolgirl(actually, that's all on him and his fucking lolita issues, I can't explain that shit)? How about the FOB-like obsession with Akuma? Well, the answer's real easy for any guy out there. These characters are ones that we like, for one reason or another and game developers should be paying alot more attention to the trends that are showing up in fighting games if they really want to market to the male audience. Look, it's simple. Guys like fighting games because it's a simple enough idea. Two people(or sometimes more) roll into an enclosed area...one leaves. Seriously, it's that fucking easy. Now, why do we play who we play in fighting games? The moves the characters themselves perform is a huge factor, but it mostly revolves around the individual. Luckily, there are enough "individuals" playing fighting games that I can lump this information into groups.
Guys like characters that are badass looking. Period. You show me some big badass un-movable force of pain and I'll pick him. You design some suave, badass with a sword and an angsty catchphrase and the local anime nerds in Naruto t-shirts will use him. Design some lavishly hot-ass babe in a thong and EVERYBODY will play her(at least once). It's all about appealing to the visceral needs of a dude. We need shit that looks cool, shit that blows up, shit that looks like it hurts, and shit that gives us a rock hard boner.
Still think I'm talking out of my ass? Don't want to believe the truth? Gonna go back to playing your FEMALE character in some random MMORPG(which you picked because she's hot, and your a dude, so no it's not some big mystery)? Go ahead and open up a new window and hit up any of these links and peruse their message boards for a few minutes. You'll see what I'm talking about is on the fucking money.
TNL
HerV
Pimp-Productions
GameFaqs
TekkenZaibatsu
Madman's Cafe
SRK
Oh, you're back now? Yeah, I know I'm right. I was right when you originally read that shit up there and got all pissy and went to those links. How do I know things like this? Easy. I'm a dude. And I know what we(as male gamers) like. No no no, I know, it was hard to accept that we're just visceral ass bastards like all the fat chicks say we are...but that's the point. We're guys. We like hot bitches. We like explosions. We like violence and gore and bullets and thongs and big titties and special effects. It's a good thing. Now go get a beer, pop in your favorite violent game/t&a fest, and go have some god damn fun.
MrWhitefolks
|
All content, designs, graphics © 2001-2003 Pimp-Productions.com
Founded and created by Edward Veira, Austin Castillo, and Jacob Childs
|
