randomWalks

I know, I know. It's going to be great.

And, did you see this article in Thursday's New York Times?



Here's a chunk:

Sexuality is the newest supercharged element in a small but significant wave of video games that is soon to reach American store shelves. While the sex play in these games tends to be more suggestive than explicit, what is striking, even startling, is how it has moved from the periphery to center stage.



Advances in technology, particularly the computing power that can now be harnessed to generate realistic animation, is helping to drive the trend. But the shift has even more to do with changing tastes and standards in mass entertainment in an age that is less "American Graffiti" than "American Pie."



"Part of it is marketing," said Vinnie Longobardo, senior vice president for programming at G4, a new cable television network dedicated to video games. "How do you distinguish your game from the pack?''



On the other hand, Mr. Longobardo said, revving up the sexual content in new games might be "a cover-up for not having anything completely innovative and new on the game-play side."



Whatever the game makers' inspiration, or lack of it, some retailers are already making it clear that a line has been crossed. Several have announced that they will not be selling BMX XXX.



Sex, of course, has been seeping into video games for years, from the crudely made hard-core offerings sold online and in adult bookstores to far less explicit permutations like the digital dating rituals in hot tubs in the Sims series. There has long been Lara Croft, the original video vixen with impossible proportions. And in Japan, highly sexual video games have long been popular with both young men and women.



As a result of increases in the number of frames per second, the polygon counts in graphics and sheer processing power, however, characters in computer-animated cartoons are beginning to look and move as real people do - sexy real people. That has disturbed some while delighting others.

Getting off the subject of sex in games for a moment, Jane's and Justin's other writing from Japan is also worth reading.

denme