Comments on: Developers aim to lure women to adult games

At the Game Developers Conference, a group of designers discusses several issues facing the adult-oriented video game industry.

[Len Bullard]

Attack Decay Sustain Release: Sex Is Music

The technology isn't at issue. Yes, the avatars aren't particularly good for this activity, but that and how much work the animators do are different problems, and face it, the graphic models they need to emulate are to put it mildly abundant.

1. If you want to make love to a woman at night, you must make love to her all day. That is the single best advice I was given. It it a bit like a well-played note: pay a lot of attention to the Attack Decay Sustain Release curve.

2. Music matters. Enable that to be selectable. Women's tastes there are very different from men's. Women want to dance AND listen to lyrics. A 24 hour feed of rave loops won't do it. Engage solid professional songwriters and singers. The voice is tremendously important.

3. Enable the woman to tutor. Women teach men how to have sex with them if they can. Over the course of evolution, they have evolved very subtle means. Games have to reflect that subtlety. This is particularly important where there are age differences.

4. Women hunt and women choose. Men conquer. Women see men as territory and men see women as appliances. These are not compatible points of view. We are not good at defining that as a game of compromise. On the other hand, note that the exclusively sex-oriented chat sites host online marriage.

It may be the case that a points-oriented persistent database is not the best framework for creating a sexual adventure. The very technology we rely on creates a mindset of design that is inappropriate for the experience.

[Vince66]

in a nut shell

I think if women and men were looking for the same things from their sexuality, there would be no need to retreat into a game for it.

I think this endeaver is doomed.

[Jared White]

What's really sexy

What I find really sexy is one man and one woman together,
married for life. That's why I'm saving my virginity for the one
woman that will be with me for the rest of our lives. And that's
why I'm avoiding video games like these: my wife will appreciate
that I give 100% of my undivided attention and my affection to
her and not to some porn stars on a computer screen.

You might want to check out xxxchurch.com sometime for some
really great info on the porn industry. You may come to some
surprising conclusions.

[Dachi]

Not really

To me being with only one woman in your entire life would be like only ever getting to eat one kind of food.

I am not into one night stands or anything, because that would be like eating good cheese cake without slowing down to really enjoy it.

Maybe you don't think that is natural, but personally I don't think our DNA is wired for total monogamy.

You can still be "serially polygamous" and give someone 100% of your undivided attention.

People who seek total monogamy usually do it because of strong religious belief.

They look down on people like me can call me immoral, but people like me are not the ones tagging alter boys.

[grtgrfx]

You're talking more about a fantasy...

yeah, the perfect girl and you, the perfect boy. Reality may not be
so picture perfect, but if you want to hold out for your ideal lady,
it's your choice. But let's face it...just because you say, "I do"
doesn't mean in two years you won't be saying, "get out." So it's a
gamble whoever you wind up bedding. That's a fantasy.

[larryc92039]

Oh yeah, good luck with that.

If you want women to play this stupid game, you're going to have to pay them.

[fcekuahd]

Good one. Here's another suggestion.

The developer will have more luck finding men who want to pretend to be women than they will finding actual women. How would you like to play this game knowing that "Lulu" might actually be a 300-pound trucker name "Lou"?

[RUNFAR]

luck

I think women would try it.
They wouldnt admitt it, but I bet they would be interested.
I would try it.

[Len Bullard]

Try Listening and Patience

Virgin until marriage: monogamous forever after. Noble goal. Tough shot to make. Possibly the wrong choice but a choice nonetheless.

What women want? Ask them. My experience is that they want the same things men want, but at a different pace. On the other hand, you'll find many reversals of that over a long life. Possibly a problem for the game designers is that they are too young to know the long cycle facts of life. We change. The games need to change with the age demographic.

Spend some time on sites run by women. Listen to what they have to say. Read their chat logs. Above all, quit buying into the 'women are mysteries that men don't understand' meme or 'women are the virgin mother's of our race' meme, or the 'women need a man to be complete and a baby to be a woman' meme.

Acceptance and refusal are the key events. Play for both and remember that games consist of characters, characters have histories and those histories have more to do with those two choices than any other single gameable strategy.

Listening is everything. Timing is everything else.