by William Dean
(02/22/06)
In a chat room recently, a fast-lane L.A. twenty-something responded to my query about "real people" with the notion that "real people" was so fuckin' old school. Cyberland has turned the world into a sexual theme park, with the codicil sign reading: "You have to be this unreal to go on this ride." It's not entirely a bad thing, when you think about it. Between the online personas, the sex in video games, the pay-per-interface on webcams, no one need ever feel they're not getting any in 2006. The quality and quantity, however, is just a matter of choice and budget. How real world is that?
Over four years ago -- an eternity in Cyberland -- a curious combination of Wassily Kandinsky's abstract painting and synaesthesia (when the senses get jumbled) resulted in Sega producing a game called Rez for the Play Station 2. The game itself was simple. Players just moved up levels, and one's character soared over psychedelic, abstract, futuristic vistas to the hypnotic beats of trance music. What tumbled Rez across the border into sexuality was the addition -- in a Special Package edition -- of a "trance vibrator." The trance vibrator hooked up to your USB port and pulsed to the beat of the game music. Although originally sold only in Japan, the trance vibes -- selling for about $25 US -- immediately began showing up among hip gamesters in the United States. Compared to the $100 plus other USB connected sex toys, the trance vibe was unsophisticated, but who cared? It worked, and floated the boats of players on the cheap.
Synaethesia is a psych term for what happens when a person's sensual wires get crossed. You hear colors, taste feelings, see music. It's not uncommon, but until Rez it hadn't really been applied as both a sexual stimulus and an aphrodisiac. Reverse-engineering efforts to allow the trance vibrator to attach to, and be controlled by, a PC have been successful in Japan, eventually resulting in a device driver for Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP. In Cyberland, you can always have your cake and eat it, too.
But again, we're talking "old school." Evergreen will be hosting a "Sex in Games" conference this June in San Francisco. The panels include Creating Mainstream Erotic Games, Integrating International Success to the US Market, Emergent Sex in Video Games and Video Game Hardware, Creating Successful Online Erotic Games, Investing In Sexually Themed Games, Alternative Distribution Methods for AO Games, and an MMOEG (massively multiplayer erotic game) Panel. You can see these people are way serious, and investors will be throwing heavy cash into the mix. Future sex isn't a tomorrow thing anymore. It's here. It's now. And it's coming to a Play Station 2 in your lap.
Game Daily -- the online "Indpependent Voice of Gaming" -- recently interviewed porn stars at the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas about their reactions to sex in video games. Not surprisingly, the ladies of porn are enthusiastic about embracing the new technology as well as the lucrative market potential. Almost unanimously, the interviewees said that sexy video games should come complete with accessories, ranging from hi-tech vibrators and electrified cock rings to low-tech: toys, lube, a pocket pussy, or "a big fat fucking cock."
Despite the fact that grrl gamers are kicking ass in competitions, and more and more women are playing, most sex games are still directed to the huge male market. For example, NightStud -- which lately released version 2 -- is all about scoring high on the trophy booty scale. Players begin the "night" with a few dollars in their virtual pocket and visit various local bars and discos to pick up babes. If and when players successfully pick up a hot babe and have sex with her, they get "reputation points," as well as a gratuity from the virtual doll herself, depending on their performance. In simplified terms, players are hustlers for hire, and the over-sexed, eager pixel-honeys apparently have to pay over the moolah for their fun and games. Yes, dear reader, it's every geek dude's fantasy, you're right. That's why it's called a game! One of the "testimonials" on NightStud's Web site says it all: "I just wish my real life was like this game." Sorry, testimonial giver, real life sexual activity actually takes more effort than clicking on a keyboard. Oh, wait, there I go being "old school" again.
Old School takes in the general behaviors of guys hiding in the bathroom with a sticky-paged copy of some skin mag and jacking off. On the other side are women reading somewhat intellectually stimulating, sensually-written erotica accompanied by the buzz of vibrators or the slushy sound of realistic dildos and lube churning around in an orifice or two. Slightly less old school -- but still far from contemporary -- comes the interplay on the Web, where people do cam-to-cam masturbation and type out their "instructions," or merely repeat the "aaaa" and "ooo" keys when the climax hits.
Virtual worlds online are nothing new, of course, ranging from simple RPG environments to incredible historical civilizations such as Ancient Rome or Egypt. Red Light Center adds the dimension of explicit virtual sex for VIP members in a virtual environment resembling Amsterdam's famous Red Light District. Other MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Onlines) featuring sex that are appearing this year include: Heavenly Bodies, Naughty America: The Game, Rapture Online, Spend the Night, 3Feelonline, and Sociolotron.
Graphic quality varies for sexy MMOs. Sociolotron, which is a strongly text-oriented game, has pretty simplistic figures in a landscape, with straight-forward "pumping to orgasm" action in missionary and doggy-style positions. Other games get very sophisticated (and kinky) with 3D avatars that players can dress, undress, and use to perform sex activities ranging from vanilla to highly-kinked BDSM scenarios, such as pony play, dungeon play, Master/Mistress-sub/slave play, and even non-consensual sex.
There are even online boutiques and fetish gears "shoppes," such as SecondLife, where you can buy virtual "mature toys," and that slinky outfit designed to entice seduction.
3D designers have created a rich assortment of gear and equipment to enhance the players' sex lives. You can buy anything from a pony girl training "walker" to a fully-equipped dungeon wall or specialized "exposer" chairs and benches. Inexpensive items might include a rabbit-like cyber-vibrator, or a snapping whip.
I'll be checking out Red Light Center's environment in a more detailed article coming soon. In the meantime, if you've got game or are MMO-curious, visit some of the links in the sidebar. Play on!
