Chipmunk Will Smith yelling at a mannequin is better than all the seasons of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air combined.
Tonight, we record Podtoid 63: we'll be weighing in on this month's Musings theme, talking about the future of XNA and XBLA prices, and sex. In videogames.
The sonnet theme for this week comes from taumpytears' gift that keeps on giving -- his idea for Lego Event Horizon. If we can't have an actual game of it, we might as well have some badass sonnets about it!
Anyway, hit the comments and ask a question. If you ask the best one, you'll get $25, which you can use to buy one XBLA game.
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4:02 PM on 07.30.2008
| 
My life got flipped-turned upside down
And I liked to take a minute
Just sit right there
I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel Air
In west Philadelphia born and raised
On the playground was where I spent most of my days
Chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool
And all shootin some b-ball outside of the school
When a couple of guys
Who were up to no good
Startin making trouble in my neighborhood
I got in one little fight and my mom got scared
She said 'You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air'
I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8
And I yelled to the cabbie 'Yo homes smell ya later'
I looked at my kingdom
I was finally there
To sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel Air
This comes down to an american (puritan) cultural thing where politics/religion like to hide and/or vilify sex. It's a shame that something which is a human function is made to be hidden and not explained.
Wear a condom.
Is there even room for sex in today's gaming environment? What does it actually add to the gaming experience? Does the inclusion of sexual content add to a game, or does it take away from the experience? How do each of you feel about sexual content in gaming?
For example, Soul Calibur IV, while an excellent fighter by core gameplay alone, does not contain series frill features like the AI controlled fight Theater or the form katas for each character. The core gameplay is there and polished, but the game feels like it has a little less character by not having the long running features from the previous games.
This could even apply to the upcoming and most recent SimCity games. WHERE THE HELL IS MY RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN SIMCITY SOCIETIES!? WHY THE HELL IS THERE LESS ROAD-TO-LOT DETAIL IN CREATOR THAN IN SIMCITY4?!!!?
Thanks for your time, keep up the great work.
Seriously though: Sex in most games rarely emerges from an emotional, character driven context. In turn, most characters sexuality is usually apparent form the start of a game, and rarely ever develops beyond the static persona revealed at the onset. However, it would seem that given the amount of time a game requires to experience, as opposed to a film, that these subjects could be used in very interesting ways regarding story and character arcs.
Do you think this could be a valuable avenue for games to explore, or could it ultimately fail due to tension between rigid narrative and player agency? Could they be successfully reconciled? Or would it just be boring?
My vote for best use of implicit and symbolic sex/sexuality in games: Silent Hill 2
Where the fuck are the XNA games?
XBLA Prices Question:
MS commented on the quality of XBLA games, but they don't look like they care in anyway. Can anyone find any example of them not allowing a game being released on XBLA? If so, why?
Sex Question:
Chad? Please play on my team. I'll treat you good. ;)
And do you think the gaming masses as a whole would be upset by this addition, or am I out of touch, and most would welcome this new level of fan service?
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/53933
Everyone seems to do alot of bitching and clambers to have ago about sex in videogames, yet they don't seem to want to do anything more than ban it in an uneducated, and prudish fashion.
What do you think of the adult spectrum of the videogames market, marketing stratedgy? Do you think advertisement with games such as manhunt, GTA, resident evil etc, can be marketed better. In effort to show parents that such a game is not aimed at kids, and as such if another douchebag does something horrible the games industry has itself covered, and for once the media can blame the parents instead?
Or will this be something forever doomed to be an:
A horror story is best when the plot
abandons outward threats for internal,
and this philosophy is not forgot
in Event Horizon, that film fearful.
But throw this story in the Lego world,
and suddenly a frozen corpse seems fine.
The yellow square body, with eyes unfurled,
has a cute sad face, as if he could whine.
The Lego men and women meet their fears
with exaggerated despair and fright,
covering their horrors with a veneer
of sugar coated fun sure to delight.
And yet the creepiness of this version
could in some ways surpass the source fiction.
I don't really have an insightful question, but I am on the fence about the Siren episodes which were recently put on the PSN store. Have any of you played them and or heard good things about them?
2. When will Podtoid do a call-in show similar to Podcastle that will allow listeners to insult Tiff in real-time along with Anthony?
-Now, we've all heard the media idiots. Hot Coffee Mods, Mass Effect Sex Scenes, all things like that. What's strange is, while those types of people get their panties in a bunch over small sideboobs, there are MUCH worse. Heck, Illusion Soft alone fits the bill. They made RAPELAY, for god's sake.
And Yes, while those games never made it out of Japan, they still exist, and are easily available if you have the correct sources (So I've heard, anyway). Just why do you think those games are ignored? Is it just a simple case of "I don't see it, thus it doesn't exist", or what?
-When you think about it, one of the main things that can sell games, movies, and other media; is sex appeal. Heck, look at the Dead or Alive EXTREEEME Beach Volleyball games. Nobody buys it for the Volleyball, they buy it for the huge tits and near-nonexistent bikinis. Why do you think this is?
On the Topic of Non-360 things (I lack that system currently):
-We've been hearing about Left 4 Dead for ages now. I know some of you have played it (lucky bastards), and I'd like your opinions. Did the game live up to the hype when you played it? Or was there something in the relentless Zombie Horde that you didn't enjoy?
Man, that's more than I usually type.
It was alleged VERBAL assault. So, this is only feasible if a microphone is implemented.
Also, can I have the $25?
Listening to Podtoid, I've noticed that a lot of the regulars have backgrounds in arts subjects. Hearing Tiff ironically saying how "PoMo" something is or people referencing Harold Bloom is scarily familiar (I'm doing English Lit. at Uni). I know Jim will probably call me a pretentious asshole for suggesting this but if we are to treat games as art, can we apply the same tools we use for looking at literature to games, albeit in some altered form?
Christian Bale TOTALLY Patrick Bateman'd his mother. I watched him do it and he looked at me.
False. If Christian Bale killed his mother and noticed you watching him, you would not be here today to make that comment. Heil Bail!
Well, he DID throw his chainsaw at me.
MISS!
Bale does not miss! BALE DOES NOT MISS~!
Was "animosity" pretentious enough for this podcast? Just checking.
Sure you can have 200 games get through the gate which will let you maim and murder countless people, but if one game has a little bit of PG-13 level sex in it the moral vigilantes of the world are up in arms.
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't sex kind of ESSENTIAL to us as a species?
I was going to write a monthly musing about my personally favorite character from the "All heroes must be angst ridden fucks" era, Raziel, but I got caught up with this whole trying to get a job nonsense.
As for the topic of sex in gaming, I am strongly of the opinion that it should be no bigger of a deal than sex in movies. It can be seen as a facet of the great game violence debate. Personally, I found this article about the film "Dark Knight" an interesting insight into the whole subject. Do you feel that as long as games are not perceived as art, they will be given harsher ratings than movies with similar content?
Also, when will people stop diverting responsibility from the parents?
Bonus question: Why are there 500 MS points on my account that I didn't purchase?