Thursday, January 02, 2003

Is This Helping or Hurting Games Geeky Image? Video games have historically had a geeky image. From the Golden Age in the 80's through the Nintendo and Playstation years the word "gamer" has been synonymous with "geek." Over the last few years things have changed for the better. Video games have expanded into a multi-billion dollar industry. Games are beginning to rival production costs and revenue of feature films. It seems that the geek image of games has been eroded over time. With the "Atari generation" now in their 30's and 40's with children of their own, the image of a gamer is no longer that of a pimple-faced teenager. Don't get me wrong the geek-factor is still there, it's just not as strong as in the old days.   No matter how much progress the industry makes, something always comes along that makes me wonder if it's going in the right direction. This time it's a game which debuts this month called Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball (DOA:XBV). Up until now Dead or Alive has been a mediocre fighting series that pales in comparison to rock-solid titles such as Virtua Fighter and Tekken. The main attraction of DOA is the outstandingly realistic physics of the female fighters breasts. Let's just say that they have a lot of "bounce" to the ounce and leave it that. Arguably the series would be long gone if this gimmick was not in place to lure in kitten killing teenage boys. Exploiting the success of the DOA fighting series, Tecmo (the publishers) and Team Ninja (the developers) have created DOA:XBV. While it's marketed as a volleyball game, one would be hard pressed to find a screenshot of actual volleyball being playing on any of the preview galleries online. It's safe to assume that the appeal of this game is the scantly clad anime-style characters and their realistically bouncy but unrealistically large chests. Mature themes are nothing new to the gaming industry. There is the insanely violent Grand Theft Auto series and the ultra-mediocre BMX XXX title by Acclaim. The difference is that those titles actually include some form of gameplay in them. GTA3 & GTA:VC are excellent "criminal sims." BMX XXX is a shoddy BMX game, but nonetheless the goal of the game is to perfom stunts on a BMX bike.   DOA:XBV may claim to be a volleyball game but the sports angle is nothing more than a device to strip the woman to their swimsuits and have them jump up and down thus invoking the bounce factor. Is this a bad thing? Looking at the popularity of magazines such as Maxim and TV shows like Baywatch, which are both similar excuses to display half-naked women, maybe it's just an indication that video games have grown up to become like their siblings in media. I personally am disappointed by the exploitive nature of this title. While I am certain it will sell over a million copies (if the pre-orders have not already reached that high) at it's core, the "game" is a just a cheap, PG13 version of porn. I still cannot figure out if it's helping or hurting games geeky image. 1:50:43 PM

© Copyright 2003  Chris. Last update: 8/19/2003; 2:43:11 PM.