Tag Archives: #videogames

Will The Real Virtual Eve Please Stand Up

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Virtual Eve and someone else... I think

For the past few days I’ve been noticing a continuing stream of visitors coming from search engines throughout the world – though mostly Europe. They all have one thing in common: they keep landing on this post in my blog because they’re entering “virtual+eve” in a search engine query. At first I thought maybe there was some researcher(s) out there using the net to gather information. A few moments ago I noticed even more visitors so I figured something else was up. And here it is from the second most popular search engine return:

What is Virtual EVE? Is it a video game? “Not exactly,” says Mr. Sexton. “It doesn’t fit within the tradition goal-oriented framework of what we define as a ‘video game’. There isn’t a specific goal you need to accomplish; it’s something you experience. So in that respect, it’s not a game, but it’s not just another static porn movie either. It’s more of a real-time sex simulator. It features completely real-time 3D graphics which allows for a more interactive, immersive experience. You choose the sexual position, you navigate the environment with a free-roaming camera, and you direct the on-screen action.”

That’s from a press release dated 20 June 2005, so it looks as if someone has recently figured out there’s money to be made from selling… who would have thought… s e x. But I have to wonder if the people behind this “game” even know about sims like Second Life or There (the latter of which I’ve heard is nothing but Socializing). And heck, for half that one-time price people could get a world full of Eves… and Liliths and whatever else strikes their fancy (be sure to say Csven Concord recommended you should you register for Second Life. Thanks.). But if this simulation strikes your fancy, google away.

(Above image is Copyright © 2005 Eve Interactive. And btw, sorry for the excess pixelation. Who knew hiding naughty bits could be so much fun?)

Advergaming Frontiers

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Via Clickable Culture comes this CBS news/Gamecore story (and a critique of the story) on advertising in videogames. I’ve not played these games yet so I’ve not seen the ads, but have to admit I’ll be diving in soon. However, in the meantime I suspect Clickable is on the mark in its critique. After all, isn’t the whole point of advertising to get noticed? Seems to me someone like a McDonald’s executive would pay good money to get their golden arches into a futuristic game like the Mars colony based Doom3 – it’d imply that their company will be around a long time and be a great long-term investment. What other kind of advertising has such potential? You could even have the bad guys hold “future” corporate executives hostage (bet they’re still caucasian males). If we’re lucky we can just shoot them too and end the standoff with the baddies. Hey, some of us aren’t interested in gameplay interruptus.

Maybe someone should show a proper example of “subtle and inconspicuous” advertising. We could start with branded litter on the streets of Grand Theft Auto (oh look, an IGN website).

q, Meet qDot

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If you didn’t read the Wired articles I mentioned in an earlier post, this one may seem to come out of left field. The point of that post was mostly to show how technology seems to be driven by the *needs* of the extremes of human behavior. On the one hand you have the military developing swarming robotic/remote-controlled fighter aircraft (see this early post as well), and on the other hand you have the “pron” industry feeding technology into the public arena – whether it be vcr’s or webcam peepshows. And because they were both about telepresence technology, they were relevant to what I write here.

Now here’s a guy who’s integrating things with videogames (see related post here). From the Wired article:

His fascination with teledildonics — sex toys that lovers can control for one another over the internet, whether they’re in the same room, the same house, or 3,000 miles apart — grew out of his interest in video games.

Well, that does it. Videogames are most definitely eViL.

(p.s. I hope it’s not lost on you that this guy has hooked up a sex toy to a game called “Quake”)

Killer Spore

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About a week ago I posted this entry on a Will Wright interview and also made mention of a link to a video (the Will Wright/Spore one). Well, I tried to watch that video, couldn’t get it to play, then didn’t get back to it. Turns out I had browser issues. So yesterday I made my way back and watched it. Wow. It’s much better than I had imagined. But before you watch the video, check out this speculative article on the future of character design/creation. That way, when you watch all the cute characters shown in the Spore demo, you’ll be aware that it doesn’t have to look “cartoony”. It could look as good as this (mature content).