The bunny's name is Lapis.
August 6, 2006 1:19 PM Subscribe
Touch this bunny to make it happy (slightly NSFW). Ubisoft developer Heather Kelley has an interesting Nintendo DS game concept meant to "improve actual sex in the world". I've always wanted to improve that.
I honestly can't really tell if this is brilliant or completely inane. *keeps reading*
posted by jokeefe at 1:23 PM on August 6, 2006
posted by jokeefe at 1:23 PM on August 6, 2006
The final excuse to have my GameBoy and my girl in bed at the same time: 'Darling, I am just checking how to press your buttons'!
posted by homodigitalis at 1:31 PM on August 6, 2006
posted by homodigitalis at 1:31 PM on August 6, 2006
Hooray for sex-positive thinking!
posted by Navelgazer at 1:34 PM on August 6, 2006
posted by Navelgazer at 1:34 PM on August 6, 2006
If this demo is to be believed, the main lesson of female sexuality is as follows:
If you rub a woman's nose, you rise through banana heaven, into the realm of high heels and cupcakes. If you let up for even an instant, you begin to float back down.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 2:03 PM on August 6, 2006
If you rub a woman's nose, you rise through banana heaven, into the realm of high heels and cupcakes. If you let up for even an instant, you begin to float back down.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 2:03 PM on August 6, 2006
I tried rubbing my girlfriend's nose. She threw a teapot at me. Who knew.
posted by Schlimmbesserung at 2:22 PM on August 6, 2006
posted by Schlimmbesserung at 2:22 PM on August 6, 2006
Cool, good to see Lapis finally made the Blue! We're working on a new version today and hopefully will have it posted sometime this week. Changes include flying forward along a rollercoaster like path (no loop-de-loops, sorry) instead of straight up and awesomer art-work.
We're also planning to upload video of a version that was made for the Panoscope. I'll be sure to make a post in Projects when all of that is available.
posted by ddf at 3:28 PM on August 6, 2006
We're also planning to upload video of a version that was made for the Panoscope. I'll be sure to make a post in Projects when all of that is available.
posted by ddf at 3:28 PM on August 6, 2006
I swear this was a double, but I can't find it, so I guess not. It's been somewhere, though.
(alternative comment: bunny bunny bunny)
posted by blacklite at 4:24 PM on August 6, 2006
(alternative comment: bunny bunny bunny)
posted by blacklite at 4:24 PM on August 6, 2006
This would be a potentially great idea in a less sexually schizophrenic society.
Of the four models of child sexuality: the repression, corruption, liberation and the precocious models, it's the repression folks that are going to be up in arms. That is to say, they believe children are inherently sexual and sex is inherently evil, so, yeah, this is a bad, bad thing. The corruption folks have nothing to complain about (although, I'm sure they'll find something) because they believe children are born innocent and it's the world that corrupts them and makes them sexual. So, to the eyes of an innocent, the game is innocent play. Correct?
I suspect the designers are coming from the precocious model: Pleasure is good and children are innocent. Alternately, it could be the liberation model: pleasure is good and children start out sexually curious.
Of course, the game site doesn't state that young women are the audience, but it is somewhat implied. So, expect that if this idea ever picks up any media exposure (and in this age of conservative talk shows and phone trees, it can grow awfully fast.) there will be hell to pay. Think of the worst case misinformation and misunderstanding and triple it. These people come from an alien culture than the rest of us. Thinking that you're safe because everyone agrees children won't know any better and therefore won't be harmed is naive. Off the top of my head, the fear driven anti-sex forces might see homosexual conspiracy or bestiality connections. They'll never actually play the game, so their worst mental image after hearing the 5-second talk radio explanation is going to be the one that sticks.
That being said, it's about time that the pro-sex majority steps up our opposition. Nothing harms children more than abuse, and creating fear, uncertainty and doubt surrounding our own unavoidable biology is psychologically abusive. I think that I'm still working through problems in my adult relationships after growing up in a culture that taught all the bad things about sex and didn't give me one damn hint on how to healthily incorporate my sexual self into the rest of my life.
posted by Skwirl at 6:41 PM on August 6, 2006
Of the four models of child sexuality: the repression, corruption, liberation and the precocious models, it's the repression folks that are going to be up in arms. That is to say, they believe children are inherently sexual and sex is inherently evil, so, yeah, this is a bad, bad thing. The corruption folks have nothing to complain about (although, I'm sure they'll find something) because they believe children are born innocent and it's the world that corrupts them and makes them sexual. So, to the eyes of an innocent, the game is innocent play. Correct?
I suspect the designers are coming from the precocious model: Pleasure is good and children are innocent. Alternately, it could be the liberation model: pleasure is good and children start out sexually curious.
Of course, the game site doesn't state that young women are the audience, but it is somewhat implied. So, expect that if this idea ever picks up any media exposure (and in this age of conservative talk shows and phone trees, it can grow awfully fast.) there will be hell to pay. Think of the worst case misinformation and misunderstanding and triple it. These people come from an alien culture than the rest of us. Thinking that you're safe because everyone agrees children won't know any better and therefore won't be harmed is naive. Off the top of my head, the fear driven anti-sex forces might see homosexual conspiracy or bestiality connections. They'll never actually play the game, so their worst mental image after hearing the 5-second talk radio explanation is going to be the one that sticks.
That being said, it's about time that the pro-sex majority steps up our opposition. Nothing harms children more than abuse, and creating fear, uncertainty and doubt surrounding our own unavoidable biology is psychologically abusive. I think that I'm still working through problems in my adult relationships after growing up in a culture that taught all the bad things about sex and didn't give me one damn hint on how to healthily incorporate my sexual self into the rest of my life.
posted by Skwirl at 6:41 PM on August 6, 2006
blacklite, i had the same double post deja vu (no offense to Drunken_munky, btw), but couldn't find a damn thing in google confirming my suspicion. Perhaps it was on another site similar to MeFi?
posted by shoepal at 7:49 PM on August 6, 2006
posted by shoepal at 7:49 PM on August 6, 2006
Given how many games are highly abstract and sanitized simulations of combat and warfare (including the queen of games, chess) is it really absurd to have a highly abstract sanitized simulation of sex in a game?
posted by KirkJobSluder at 8:29 PM on August 6, 2006
posted by KirkJobSluder at 8:29 PM on August 6, 2006
KirkJobSluder:
As long as graphic violence can be shown on prime time TV, while a stray nipple has people screaming for blood.
I guess as a society we can only take on either Eros or Thanatos at any given time. What a pity we seem to have picked Death.
posted by Jilder at 9:07 PM on August 6, 2006
As long as graphic violence can be shown on prime time TV, while a stray nipple has people screaming for blood.
I guess as a society we can only take on either Eros or Thanatos at any given time. What a pity we seem to have picked Death.
posted by Jilder at 9:07 PM on August 6, 2006
Skirl, I appreciate your concern for our well-being.
Regarding media attention: the game did get quite a lot of attention shortly after the presentation was made. Comment threads on sites that allow commenting on articles had a lot of "this is so gross" and also immature wise-cracks about the designer being a woman (but also reasonable responses like the ones here so far). However, there was no serious backlash in the form of hate mail or anything like that. The most problematic thing is Heather being pigeonholed as a "sex in games" designer, which is not at all accurate.
Meanwhile, you'd do well to remember that society is larger than the US, which seems to be who you are implying with "less sexually schizophrenic society". For starters, the presentation was given in Montreal. Also, I think something like Lapis would go over really well in Japan, for example.
posted by ddf at 7:10 AM on August 7, 2006
Regarding media attention: the game did get quite a lot of attention shortly after the presentation was made. Comment threads on sites that allow commenting on articles had a lot of "this is so gross" and also immature wise-cracks about the designer being a woman (but also reasonable responses like the ones here so far). However, there was no serious backlash in the form of hate mail or anything like that. The most problematic thing is Heather being pigeonholed as a "sex in games" designer, which is not at all accurate.
Meanwhile, you'd do well to remember that society is larger than the US, which seems to be who you are implying with "less sexually schizophrenic society". For starters, the presentation was given in Montreal. Also, I think something like Lapis would go over really well in Japan, for example.
posted by ddf at 7:10 AM on August 7, 2006
DDF, if that is so that the product may succeed in Japan, you should get some people to translate. I think the reason people here forget that society includes the rest of the world is because this is an English-language website, and all assumptions are based on that. Or maybe people are just slightly ignorant.
But, having a Japanese- or Swedish- language version, say, would give something symbolic that says "we're interested in your markets". Even if a surprising amount of people have knowledge of English, something available in their own language says something. Thus, the blue folk here might even be less quick to judge the success of something if it seems like the rest of the non-english speaking world is being included.
Parts of Europe and Scandinavia might recieve something like this well, too.
posted by taursir at 4:25 PM on August 7, 2006
But, having a Japanese- or Swedish- language version, say, would give something symbolic that says "we're interested in your markets". Even if a surprising amount of people have knowledge of English, something available in their own language says something. Thus, the blue folk here might even be less quick to judge the success of something if it seems like the rest of the non-english speaking world is being included.
Parts of Europe and Scandinavia might recieve something like this well, too.
posted by taursir at 4:25 PM on August 7, 2006
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posted by jokeefe at 1:21 PM on August 6, 2006