Are Game Magazines Turning Into Men's Magazines?

KaiEl writes "I was skimming through the latest issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly (April 2004) the other day when I began to notice a recurring theme: pictures of scantily clad women, both virtual and real, kept popping up. Usually it's not surprising to find one or two skimpy outfits in an issue, but this one seemed crawling with them. I decided to chronicle a list of the semi-nudity in a post on my weblog. What does this surplus of sexy pictures say about the direction of the videogame industry? Is it a reaction to the success of 'male' magazines like Maxim and FHM? Is it a reflection of the video game industry's seeming fascination with the barely clothed female form (see: Dead Or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball)? Or am I just a prude who's getting worked up over nothing?"

Re:"Or am I just a prude..."

[Anonymous Coward]

And DOA:X is actually a rather good 'social game', with some rather fun subgames tacked on, even bar the semi-nudity.

True, but the part where Tecmo lost me was the actual volleyball gameplay. Yes, it can be simple and fun, but it's nowhere near as exciting as an oldie like Super Spike V'Ball (Best. Volleyball. Game. Evar!), which is another 2-button volleyball game.

I still gotta hand it to them for creating some damn impressive polygon characters though. Between DOAX and Ninja Gaiden, Tomonobu Itagaki certainly knows how to make some visually amazing games.

Re:Leisure Suit Larry?

[stubear]

Your wish is coming true. Liesure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude [gamespot.com] will be availabe for the the PC, XBOX, and PS2. It appears to be a 3D version of previous LSL games though one major difference is the main character, Larry Loveage, nephew to the previous games main character Larry Laffer.

Re:Prude? It depends...

[narratorDan]

I agree with most of what you said, but if the broadcast bare breast that you are referring to is the Janet Jackson breast, the nipple was NOT covered. Her nipple(s?) is/are pierced and what you saw was a stylized "sun" that was held in place by the bar through the nipple. And the nipple is clearly seen sticking out in the center of the "sun." So for all tends and purposes, the breast was fully exposed. I personally wish that more breasts were broadcast, but the US is too much of a prudish nation to allow that to happen.

NarratorDan

Re:I Noticed the Same Thing...

[superyooser]

About two years ago, MaximumPC started putting scantily-clad models in its articles. It definitely wasn't pornographic. It was just an awkward shock to see seductive women in a geek hardware/game magazine with benchmark graphs and technical articles. Also, it smacked of flagrant manipulation. It was so transparent what they were trying to do from a marketing standpoint, it was insulting and patronizing. They think that inserting sex into the magazine is going to make for more loyal umm "readers"? Sorry, while your readers are mostly young and male, they're also too media-savvy to fall for that.

But the pictures weren't the main offense. It was the filthy tone of some of the writing and the frequent allusions to porn-viewing. In one article, a writer was trying to hype some new video card. When he said that he was "creaming" over it, that was the last straw for me. Grossed me out, especially when I was eating. If I wanted to read that kind of content, I would Google for some dirty web sites. Why do I have to be subjected to some guy's masturbation fantasies just to find out about the new video cards?

I let my subscription run out. I'd been waffling on the issue for a few months, because I really liked the magazine. But it had finally gone too far.

Other readers weren't happy about the magazine's foul direction, either. Some of the complaints sent to the editor were published in the magazine. The editors responded to the complaints in the Letters section. They answered directly, and essentially said: "Yeah, we hear you, but we're not going to change. Screw you." Fine. They lost my business. I meant to send a letter explaining why I was not renewing my subscription, but I never got around to it. I hope they're reading this.

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