Games Gone Wild - The Rise Of The Adult Title? 37
Thanks to GameSpot for its article discussing the alleged rise of the adult videogame, despite recent statistics that revealed "sales of Mature-rated titles were on the decline." The writer notes that the ESA "may be spinning the market-share shift as an overall decline in M-rated games demand", but goes on to mention: "The same week the ESA was saying interest in M-rated games was waning, the most-searched-for game on GameSpot was [previously covered M-rated title] The Guy Game." Elsewhere, Game Girl Advance has an article talking about new German-developed PC title Singles: Flirt Up Your Life!, in which "2 out of 12 possible archetypal characters (the eponymous 'Singles') wind up living in the same apartment... Your job is to make them get it on."
Adult videogame definition (Score:5, Insightful)
Age-stratification is essential to product targetting, and as today's first few generations of 'adults' have grown up with the presence of videogames, we should expect this market to be on the increase.
Larry Laffer (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Larry Laffer (Score:1)
Leisure Suit Larry was the ORIGINAL adult game, and on top of that, it was FUN. The bad (But funny) jokes were a bit grating after a while, though.
For a while, they were going to make a 3D version of it... Unfortunately that never made it...
Damn, now I have a sudden urge to replay the whole series... Except, of course, for LSL4: The missing Floppies.
Re:Larry Laffer (Score:2, Informative)
Coming soon (heh heh) Leisure Suit Larry(TM) Magna Cum Laude [sierra.com]
If you go to the downloads section, there's a trailer.
Re:Larry Laffer (Score:1)
Japanese H-Games (Score:5, Interesting)
It would seem though, that usually the Hgames that get translated aren't those with the immersive stories, but rather the best adult action parts, to fit the US culture. (regardless that many of the games include things that are on the boundry of illegal in the US, such as teens and younger)
Not only that, but some games are so popular that a TV anime series is produced and usually very successful, even if it isn't adult oriented.
Re:Japanese H-Games (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.somethingawful.com/hentai/
Re:Japanese H-Games (Score:4, Insightful)
The games that are very popular in japan don't get translated cuz the licensing fees are too high, and the US market won't really buy them as much as they sell in Japan.
Re:Japanese H-Games (Score:1)
One of the first things you must do with Dividead, is play it at night, after you send the kids to bed, with the lights off, your speakers turned all the way up...
Another good hgame is Private Nurse, for it's plot and voice acting, along with it's excellent music. A version has been released for PS2 that removes the 'H' factor from
Re:Japanese H-Games (Score:2)
My God, that game was boring. So was Kana Little Sister, which was probably made by the same people. I hope they figure out that people don't play hentai games for the plot.
Rob
Re:Japanese H-Games (Score:1)
I'm only following Yumeria at the moment, and I can only tell you most of the action is based in a dream world, where all the female characters are dressed in skimpy outfits and undergo one of those Sailor Moon-style transformation (I think, anyway. Never watched SM in my whole life). Bounce is exaggerated a bit, but there is no actual 'H' sc
Re:Japanese H-Games (Score:3, Informative)
* Popotan is very cute with lots of ecchi scenes, not X rated tho...
* KGNE is drama and has some very strong dramatic scenes, very good. Again the originating H source isn't noticed.
* Tsukihime is a very nice and intense story about vampires. If I wouldn't have known it's based on an h-game, I could never have guessed.
* Da Capo is a nice bishoujo (pretty girl) anime, with a guy or two and many pretty girls and all of them
Re:Japanese H-Games (Score:1)
Re:Japanese H-Games (Score:2)
And it's "getting a story out of the game", the game was made with a story, the H parts are there just to please the appetite.
Ofcourse you won't see a TV show or movie based on PORN, but you might see a movie based on a show that has story and once in a while has sex scenes.
It's like movies, that have stories, have sex scenes in them even if they aren't explicit.
Re:Japanese H-Games (Score:1)
God I hate tabloid headlines (Score:5, Insightful)
The Sims has long been perverted/liberated for those who think there is nothing wrong with a bit of nudity. Morrowind has nude skins and missions wich add a bit of spice. Nevewinternights has some sex laden extensions.
So there is enough out there however the main market for games is japan and america. Most of us can not use games made for japan were adult themed games are an established market and so we mostly see games made in america or at least expecting to make most of their sales in the america.
This means games must be censored to be sold on the shelf. Don't like it? Though. Game developers want to make money and not being able to sell it in walmart or whatever hurts their bottomline.
You will note that many developers even go to the trouble of releasing two versions. One for the free world and one for american :P Vietcong comes in clean cut american pie mode and swear mode.
So I doubt we will be seeing more "adult" games. Although I did read that The Sims 2 will again have the potential for gay relationships. Since this was an accident in the originals sims they now seem to have made a conscious decision to leave it in. If the idea survives in the american release then perhaps their is hope after all.
I agree (Score:4, Insightful)
"The Guy Game"...well it's telling that it was IGNCube that reported it; which makes me wonder if this is just another cheap image push for Nintendo. Remember "Conker's Bad Fur Day"? Pathetic sales; we're talking ~1/10 that of Perfect Dark, which in turn is a rather far cry from Goldeneye. However CBFD had a large community of praisers, and gained respect around the Internet. Whether or not all these people had ever played the game was immaterial; it still produced the requisite "good publicity" for Nintendo.
As for this random game made in Germany that's a PC-only release well...first it sounds very obscure, and second I'm kind of surprised this hadn't been done already; PC+hackers with no life+Sims fan = that. All you'd need is for someone to leak the Sims source....
Re:I agree (Score:1, Flamebait)
hed.
Re:I agree (Score:1)
And for the record the few young adults I know that own ga
"Adult" gaming (Score:4, Insightful)
It seems Max Payne 2 et al are Joe Twentysomething's idea of a "mature" game. I find that quite sad. The creators of Lula: Virtual Babe though, strangely enough, seem to want to appeal to people half his age.
ESA huh? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:ESA huh? (Score:1, Funny)
Ever heard about... (Score:1)
This IS the same, it's just not in japanese. Also there where AGI games like "Fuck Quest", etc, that had the exact same theme.
Looking vs. buying: buying loses (Score:5, Insightful)
That's all well and good. I'm sure that when news of them first broke, and upon their releases, games like BMX XXX and DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball were highly-searched items too. But to my recollection, it wasn't reflected in their sales figures.
An actual adult doesn't have to worry about getting a ride to the store from his parents, or hiding a dubious game from them. Conversely, anyone of any age can (and usually will) snoop around for information, screenshots, and videos on said game.
Plus, in many one-dimensional 'adult' games (like the ones mentioned above), the only motivation to buy or even see them is for the dirty bits. When you can find these online for free, why bother with the rest of the game?
Re:Looking vs. buying: buying loses (Score:3, Interesting)
DOAXBV also sold really well... (Score:2)
its all been downhill (Score:5, Funny)
Definition of maturity? (Score:4, Interesting)
And why isn't the AO rating used more? Surely Manhunt deserved it. I think one of the weaknesses of the rating system as it stands is that it allows companies to skip out on using the highest rating as they wish.
Leather (Score:2, Interesting)
Of course, when they created a sequel it was with graphics, and this game was actually very bad. Although the graphics were pretty tame.
Gamespot (Score:4, Interesting)
Here's a taste what this stuff is like... (Score:2, Informative)
The Bar for Mature games is higher (Score:4, Insightful)
If you buy a shitty game for you kid, you probably dont care too much that its shitty. But you do care if the game you bought for your self is Shitty.
END COMMUNICATION
50% of the population has less than average, Duh? (Score:1)
Isnt obvious than games which are targetted just for a part of the gaming audience will always have less sales than games that are intended for everyone?
Anyway the most important mature titles for this year were delayed Doom 3, halo 2 and half life 2 (not in order of importance) it was a much better year for games for all audiences.
Besides lets call things by their name, games
75% below average, oh no! (Score:1)
"Im truly worried than 50% of American Students are grading less than the national average" think about that one for a second.
---------
I know what you're thinking. In a *normally distributed* set of people, you get 50% below the average. Not everything is normally distributed. For a really simple example, consider four people's test scores:
Person 1: 20%
Person 2: 20%
Person 3: 20%
Person 4: 100%
The mean score is 40%. 3/4 of these people are below the mean. It's easy to think of situations wh
Re:75% below average, oh no! (Score:1)
Anyway I must admit you have a point, what I meant was that is obvious that a game that is available and targetted at everyone has (at least numerically)