Sex and Videogames

Weblog entries dealing with sexuality and videogames, including a subcategory devoted to the Tomb Raider - Lara Croft phenomenon.

ARTICLES

Neva Chonin profiles the latest trend in female videogame heroines. Unlike Lara Croft (Tomb Raider series), characters like Joanna Dark (Perfect Dark), Konoko (Oni), Ulala (Space Channel 5) and Claire Redfield (Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil: Code Veronica) are smart, tough and resourceful, not just softcore fantasies for teenage boys. As a videogame player myself, I don't see much difference here. Lara Croft is also smart, tough and resourceful, and these new characters all share the same comic-book standard of beauty. Janelle Brown ripped this article to shreds in Salon later in the week (see next item).
San Francisco Chronicle

Janelle Brown cuts through the hype about the supposedly new breed of female videogame heroines. Game companies are promoting several recent game characters as brainy femmes, not just improbably curvaceous babes in miniskirts--so why do they all look like improbably curvaceous babes in miniskirts? Here at Daze Reader, we like improbably curvaceous babes in miniskirts, especially if they're brainy, but we also like to see gullible journalists uncritically spouting industry propaganda taken to task.
Salon

Suzanne Herel reports on the competing booth babes at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), where high-tech "new economy" firms rely on old-fashioned cheesecake to lure conventiongoers toward their displays. "Sweaty men-boys anxiously snap away with their digital cameras at women dressed like Laura (sic) Croft."
Business 2.0 (Jul 2001)

Wagner James Au argues that the electronic gaming industry will remain a "geek ghetto" as long as companies continue staging embarrassing softcore displays at the annual E3 convention. "And if you're wondering what a stripper's sticky business on a steel pole has to do with video games, well, then you haven't been paying attention to just how big -- and sleazy -- a boy-toy party the computer gaming industry has become."
Salon (May 2001)

Pixis Interactive is developing a virtual porn star game for the Xbox and the PlayStation 2.
Ananova (May 2001)

Videogame maker Electronic Arts has announced the next release in "The Sims" franchise: The Sims Hot Date Expansion Pack. An EA exec says, "Just like everyone, the Sims are looking for love. Hot Date allows Sims to experience the hilarious ups and downs of the dating game."
GamePen (Jul 2001)

Sega is developing a Trance Vibrator peripheral for the PlayStation 2. The GIA reports, "The 'Trance Vibrator' is a small, USB-compatible device that 'greatly amplifies' PlayStation 2 vibration data. The device is designed to be worn with a strap or perhaps placed in a pocket. In fact, during a conference, game creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi told [Fall Tokyo Game Show] attendees with sly wink that it can go 'anywhere you want.'"
Gaming Intelligence Agency (Oct 2001)

LA Weekly has several articles about videogames this week, including a report on the 2001 E3 convention last May. The piece has a snide, hipper-than-thou tone I found annoying, with lots of easy putdowns of "geeks" and "fanboys." But it does have some entertaining descriptions of the pervasive cheesecake marketing at booths promoting different games. "Next to the booth for one game, a California blond with mirrored shades and diamond earrings poses in front of a police car. She sports a provocative new look for the security professional — a gray top tied off above the navel à la Daisy Duke, a black miniskirt and knee-high boots."
LA Weekly (Apr 2002)

Brad King talks to the creators of Playskins, an online anime role-playing game built around mystery, suspense and masturbation.
Wired (May 2002)

Videogame maker Tecmo has won a lawsuit against Westside, a small software company that had been selling a modification to the fighting game Dead Or Alive 2. The now-banned hack allowed players to remove the clothing from the character Kasumi and have her fight naked. You can check out nude Kasumi screen shots from the hacked DOA2 (all dead links removed). (Sep 2002)

LARA CROFT AND TOMB RAIDER

Core Designs, producers of the Tomb Raider series, are cracking down on web sites posting nude Lara Croft images (March 1999).
IGN

Game Revolution responds to thousands of email requests with the news that there are no Nude Raider codes. However, there are unauthorized patches for the PC version of Tomb Raider that allow you to play the game with Lara Croft nude.
Game Revolution

Grrl Gamer editorializes on the subject of "Nude Raider" patches and galleries.
Grrl Gamer

There are "nude" pictures of Lara Croft all over the Internet, but this gallery is more clever than most. The Interactive Nude Lara Croft Gallery uses JavaScript to create a striptease effect.
Adult Game Reviews

Adult Game Reviews maintains a directory of nude game patches. I have no idea if any of these actually work.
Adult Game Reviews

In August 1999, Playboy ran a nude pictorial of Lara Croft model Nell McAndrew. Core and Eidos publicly criticized the photo spread, but it probably boosted Tomb Raider game sales. Two pictures from the Playboy pictorial are online here.
BZ Berlin

Donna Lypchuk declares her love of modern female action heroines like Xena, Lara Croft, Buffy and others.
Eye

BMX XXX

Some videogames slated for release this fall will feature increased T&A and even nudity. The extreme sports game BMX XXX "lets players rack up cash on the circuit, then spend it at the local strip club. Don't expect Duke Nukem-style pixilated strippers, though. BMX XXX rewards players with live-action footage of topless dancers. Teen horn-dogs can double their pleasure by opting to create a female character, with full control over breast size and the option to have that character ride topless." Presumably fortyish horn-dogs will be able to use this feature too.