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Does sex really sell games?
Zindaihas
Member UncommonPosts: 3,662
I read this website's preview of AoC by Carolyn Koh and she mentions several times the game's blatant use of sexuality. Granted, this may be in keeping with the theme of the Conan universe, but I have to wonder if it also has to do with increasing subscriptions. If so, will it work?
For me, it's all about the gameplay. If it's lame, no amount of sexuality is going to hold my interest. If it's fun, it's not going to be the outfits (or lack thereof) that's going to make me go out and buy it. I haven't decided yet whether or not I'm going to play AoC. But I'm definitely going to wait until I hear what other players think of it. And believe me, my first question isn't going to be, "How's the sex?"
Comments
Sex sells period. I think thats blatantly obvious in our age. That doesn't mean it sells to everyone, just a large amount of people. I think they are trying to create a more "mature" feeling to the game, kill or be killed brutality etc feel. Somewhat like you would see in the movies.
That being said, you're totally right that the sex part of it is not the gameplay. I sincerely doubt that AOC will come out as a unfinished Runescape with breasts.
Is there a single MMORPG that hasn't released an advertisment with females in extremely tight fitting clothes, with large breasts in scanty armour and well rounded butts? If so I can't recall it/them off hand since every MMO I know of has used images of females such as these to sell their product.
People don't want to buy products associated with fat andf ugly people, it's merely good marketing to have adverts with atheletic well endowed women and muscle bound men that sweat testosterone.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
Dead or Alive Xtreme beach volleyball really didn't sell that well because its such a good volleyball game...
Sex sells? more like good looks sell! look at games such as The Guy Game, or BMX XXX, Leisure Suit Larry, games like that are based around sex, and all do contain nudity. None of them sell well! And alot of them woman are pretty attractive too ;p
Sex sells.. look at how much money the porn industry is raking in annually. I remember back in the early days of the internet (late 80s to early 90s) before it became mainstream back then you can barely find any porn site on the net at all. You have to look REALLY hard to find porn sites. Nowadays you get porn shoved down your throat whether you want it or not.
You totally missed the point.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games
When you look at lists of best selling games you'll see that sex and nudity is almost completely absent. Sex will get you headlines but not the sales.
Now, maybe a Conan game wouldn't feel right without girls showing skin, I don't know. I've just only seen the Schwarzenegger movies, never read the novels...
I find no appeal in a game which relies on boobies to sell copies. The games I enjoy usually are too cartoony for that, anyway. Games like Smash Brothers, Zelda, World of Warcraft, Gunbound, Starfox, Half-Life, etc etc etc do not need ta-tas in order to sell. Any game (even conan) which blatantly mentions sexuality as part of the game is trying to sell to the lowest kind of internet yuckophile.
The questions which I want answered by devs are usually about innovations and system requirements. At no time to I purposefully look at the female characters in hopes of some stray nipple to excite my fancy.
So we agree.
Doktar - 70 Troll Priest - Perenolde
sexy games sell..
'I've just only seen the Schwarzenegger movies'
those are calssics
Sexuality sells. If someone finds something sexually attractive in one way or another they may consider buying a game. However, some people are for story-lines and game play.
I do have friends who buy games because they think the character is "hot" and that being their only reason for it. I, myself, find that a video game must be balanced for me to play it. Decent graphics and intriguing game play. Something that can suck you in and feel like it has only been moments and has been actually hours.
It depends on the age group for which "sex sells" to. I find a game that is very sexual like Blood Rayne sells more to pre-teen/teenagers. It's that sexual curiosity that brings them to want to play it. It's also an immaturity of "heh.. boobs". At least I found that with the way my friends have acted.
While it is true, yes, sex sells, how many of you are going to regularly play a crappy game because the characters are sexy or you can emote sexy dances and such? When the general consensus is that a game isn't worth playing, are you going to go out an buy it because the female toons have unnaturally large breasts that bounce when they run? For the most part, I think not. Sexuality does not ensure "staying power" Sure it's great to be able to look at attractive characters, but ... they ARE just pixels. I honestly don't care one way or the other if my toon is hot, I've played plenty of games where she's been butt ugly. I do have to say I am a fan of more personal emotes but, I really don't want to play a game where you run through town and toons are humping on the streets.
I concur with what Icesis said about there having to be a balance, at least for me. Give me an interesting game that's pretty to look at and challenging to play any day... add a smidgen of sexuality to that, and it's no more than just a bonus.
"Sex sells" is overrated. Good gameplay & good graphics sells a lot more.
Yeah I agree, people may buy a game because of it's high ammount of sexual innuendo, but they won't play long if it isn't any good, it has to have substance to make gamers keep playing, good examples, DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball and Rumble Roses, people most likely just end up renting them for eye candy, because gameplay wise they didn't offer much, their gameplay is as shallow as their target audience. The same goes for high ammounts of violence.
Don't you worry little buddy. You're dealing with a man of honor. However, honor requires a higher percentage of profit
Sex Sells only if the game is good. Sex can only go so far. Take Risk Your Life for example. Lots and lots of hotty boothbabes as well as obligatory use of sexy characters and a $1 million prize for the best pvper after 1 year. But it rarely ever comes up in conversation because it wasn't that fun.
Yes it does. And as many of the games cited by people in this thread prove - sex can often be used to cover up lack of any real underlying content. Or to distract the player from thinking about poor quality gameplay.
If sex didn't sell games.... it wouldn't be mentioned at all. It would just be included and the player would find it out when they loaded it up. The fact that its explicitely mentioned/advertised is all the proof anyone should need that its a factor in sales.
YES. we all have needs. its human nature. if we like what we see we get it.
I bet if you make a virtual sex MMO it'll sell like hotcake.. then again it'll be rated Mature only and many game store and hobby shop won't carry mature rated titles.
no...no it doesnt
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds
-Solid non level based game
-Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
Don't ever get into marketing.
Heeeeeelllooooooo Tomb Raider
Played so far: 9Dragons, AO, AC, AC2, CoX, DAoC, DF, DnL, DR, DDO, Ent, EvE, EQ, EQ2, FoMK, FFO, Fury, GW, HG:L, HZ, L1, L2, M59, MU, NC1, NC2, PS, PT, R:O, RF:O, RYL, Ryzom, SL, SB, SW:G, TR, TCoS, MX:O, UO, VG, WAR, WoW...
It all sucked.
Sex doesn't necessarily sell, but sexy and sexuality does sell.
It is basic marketing. People buy what they think is good, what they think looks good. By connecting the game to something that people think is good (hot bodies look good) people are more likely to give the game a look over.
So the sex did not sell the game but it did make you look at the game. It was the grabber.
Venge Sunsoar
I personally only enjoy Linneage II for its art direction, and how the dark elf females look.
MMO games played or tested: EQ, DAoC, Archlord, Auto Assault, CoH, CoV, EQ2, EVE, Guild Wars, Hellgate: London, Linneage II, LOTRO, MxO, Planetside, SWG, Sword of the New World, Tabula Rasa, Vanguard, WWIIOL, WOW, Age of Conan
The sexual themes, amongst others are what gives rise to its "Mature" theme. Also included in the game I don't see how they would effect the gameplay in any way. I wouldn' t necessarily say that these themes are in the game based on trying to sell more subscriptions. If you are on your way to truly grasping the in's and outs of R.E.H's Conan universe (75 yrs old) themes like these are second nature in the stories. Its content that is there and doesn't inhibit the reader from some truly adventurous and savage reading. Comics, soft and hardback books on the lore have been selling for decades now, more recently video games, its only now in this more visual social environment that questions are asked more frequently.
When Funcom, set out to make a game based on Conan, a pretty strong and established I.P, I doub't that the first thing on their mind would be "hey, if we are going to stick the original vision and lore we are going to have to include the sexual themes" "Oh, yea, this will get us more subs - awesome!"
It's more about doing the original vision / lore justice. Sexual undertones have always been in 99% of Conan material out there.
Lets not forget that Robert E Howards creation in Conan the Cimmerian gave rise to the entire swords and scorcery concept, some 20yrs before Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.
I think that if people immersed themselves within the lore a little, they would understand more where the whole approach/ direction is coming from in Funcom's interpretation in Age of Conan.
Suffice to say though, a knowledge of the lore background is not an necessity in anticipation or to actually play the game.
For those that will try the game out, please understand that any sexual themes you see in AoC, is really inline with the history and the background in Funcom interpretation, melded with other themes that can be just as controversial. Its part and parcel of the package that is AoC and inlien with the bigger picture. I for one hope they pull it all off together.
For those out there that are really offended by a few demon bosses with breasts then I suggest this game might not be for you.
For those out there who think that these sexual themes are here for subs, I think your misguided and mis-informed.
The game that Funcom are making derives from the original vision of adventure, scorcery and sword play, and low fantasy elements all wrapped in an mmo world. I would hope that these elements aren't overlooked by the public for interest, and I would like the think these are what the gaming community would rather play the game for.
It's definately not about the boobs or about the "blatant use of sexuality" for me, its about the "core" elements of the game that fundamentaly is going to make it how good it is, and how well Funcom can meld those idea's. And so far ableit in Beta still, the game does hold promise and intrigue for elements other than "sexuality"
As for the subject of nudity, lets face facts, this isn't the first time we as gamers have seen this. (depending on your experience)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_controversy
Duke Nukem 3D The 1996 PC first-person shooter game, which features many topless women throughout the game, posters of nude women, strippers and prostitutes, and even a pornographic book store/movie house. The main character (Duke, whom you control) even offers prostitutes and strippers money and asks them to "shake it baby". In the case of the strippers, they will open their top and expose their breasts.God of War featured several scenes of big-chested topless women, including a particular scene where the character could have off screen sex with two half naked women in order to gain red orbs.
Custer's Revenge was a game for the Atari 2600, released by Mystique under the brand "Swedish Erotica" that featured a naked General Custer advancing across the screen, dodging arrows, until he could reach a topless Native American woman who was apparently tied to a pole, and then rape her. The game was controversial for its racism as well as its sexuality, and, while television news coverage on the subject featured game animation, parts of the screen were concealed with black rectangles in order to avoid showing nudity.
Sierra's Leisure Suit Larry computer games were popular tongue-in-cheek adventure games for adults in which the protagonist constantly attempted, usually without success, to convince women to have sex with him. The games did not excite much controversy despite showing partial nudity with increasing graphical quality over the years.
Eidos's Tomb Raider series were action-adventure games which featured a female protagonist named Lara Croft with extremely large breasts. The series did not explore sexual themes at all, but Lara was featured in video game magazines as a sex symbol, and it is generally believed that the success of the series over the years was partly due to the prominence of her appearance in the game's advertising and packaging (the game's appeal also inspired two movies based on it).
Acclaim released a BMX game called BMX XXX in 2002 which included a topless woman as the game character riding a bicycle, and rewarded players with video footage of topless strippers. The game was originally intended to be a Dave Mirra title without nudity, but it is generally believed in the industry that the game was of low quality - its average review in the gaming media was about 55%, while in most gaming publications a 60% score is considered poor — and that Acclaim decided late in the game's development to attempt to create a controversy and hopefully prop up sales by including some nudity. The attempt at publicity was rather successful, although the publicity achieved was of the wrong sort for Acclaim; with television reports that Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, and most major IEMA retailers in the United States declined to carry the game in their stores due to the nudity. Consequently, sales were poor: under 100,000 copies were sold. The game was not greeted with controversy or with much sales interest in Europe, while it was sold with the sexual content removed in Australia.
In June 2005, an entire portion of unused code for an interactive sex mini-game was found within the main script of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The game could be accessed in the PC version via a modification, and through Action Replay codes in the PS2 and Xbox versions. The fact that the scene was left on the disc and could be accessed by altering a few bytes of the game's code via a hex editor prompted the ESRB to change the rating of San Andreas to "Adults Only" on July 20, 2005. The game was pulled from many stores; Rockstar Games posted a loss of $280.8 million that quarter. (see hot coffee mod)
The US version of the game Fahrenheit (re-named as Indigo Prophecy for American audiences), published in September 2005; had scenes depicting sex and other "adult content" removed in order for it to be classified as a "Mature" title, as opposed to an "Adult Only" rating. This was probably done in light of "hot coffee" scandal (above).
The US version of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was re-rated from "Teen" to "Mature" after it was discovered that a topless skin on female characters could be revealed through a Mod.
The Sopranos: Road to Respect-Towards the beginning of the game, the player enters the Bada Bang, the strip club owned by Tony and the gang. During many of the scenes, women are seen topless. There is also an option that if the player walks up to the stripper area, he can watch the show. Also, the player allows a stripper to do a lap dance for him.
Everybody seems to be harping on the sexual content of AoC...why? The movies show skin, the books are in a male-centric gritty world with lots of skin...deal with it!
Yes, I believe that the skin content holds true to the Conan canon (no pun intended), but I also agree that the GAMEPLAY is what will make or break the game.