Adult video game

Adult video games are video games which have significant sexual content (like adult movies), and are therefore intended for an adult audience. Adult games can fall into many genres and have diverse gameplay.

PC and console

In console gaming, the genre can be seen as early as the Atari 2600, such as Custer's Revenge. In PCs, the genre can be first seen in adult text adventures, and later with graphical adventures, including one of the most recognized and mainstream adult adventure game series, "Leisure Suit Larry." Arcade games have received few adult entries in North America.

With CD-ROM and multimedia based games in the 1990s, most adult games featured video clips with limited interactivity. Both pre-rendered and realtime 3D graphics were also used. While most games could be considered nothing more than pornography, some attempted to include actual story and plot. This can be seen in some games with less explicit content, equal to an R or PG-13 rated movie.

Modern console publishers often have policies against depictions of nudity and explicit sexuality, particularly Sony with its PlayStation brand of consoles. Some titles featuring nudity, such as "BMX XXX" and "" for the PlayStation 2 were censored, while versions on the Xbox and GameCube were not. However Sony allowed nudity in the title "God of War", which was also developed by Sony.

A new generation of adult social games has emerged that bring multiple users together in sexual environments. Examples include "Red Light Center, " and "". While it is not explicitly intended for purely adult-oriented entertainment, the virtual world of "Second Life", which is made up almost entirely of player-made content, has a very exotic array of adult entertainment including nudity and full-on sexual activities.

Adult games may take the form of bootlegs, circumventing mainstream publishers who may have policies against such games. Patches or hacks to mainstream non-adult games may add sexual and pornographic themes, mostly for humor, especially when sexuality was never intended in the original game. Examples include the "Tomb Raider" computer games, " Hot Coffee mod, ' (which has multiple such mods) and ROM hacks for console emulators. There is also a mod for "World of Warcraft" showing nude features.

The Internet has allowed adult games to receive wider availability and recognition, including amateur games in Flash or Java. It has also allowed amateurs to create and distribute adult text adventure games, known as "Adult Interactive Fiction" or [http://www.aifgames.com AIF] .

Japanese Eroge

Japanese eroge, also known as hentai games, have their origins in the 1980s, when Japanese companies introduced their own brands of microcomputer to compete with those of the United States. Competing systems included the Sharp X1, Fujitsu FM-7, MSX, and NEC PC-8801. NEC was behind its competitors in terms of hardware (with only 16 colors and no sound support) and needed a way to regain control of the market. Thus came the erotic game. Early eroge had simple stories, often involving rape. It made the PC-8801 popular, but customers quickly tired of paying 8800 yen ($85) for such simple games. Soon, new genres were invented: ASCII's "Chaos Angels," a role-playing-based eroge, inspired "Dragon Knight" by Elf and "Rance" by AliceSoft.

In 1992, Elf released "Dōkyūsei". In it, before any eroticism, the user has to first win the affection of one of a number of female characters, making the story into an interactive romance novel. Thus, the love simulation genre was invented. Soon afterwards, the video game "Otogirisou" on the Super Famicom attracted the attention of many Japanese gamers. "Otogirisou" was a standard adventure game but had multiple endings. This concept was called a "sound novel."

In 1996, the new software publisher Leaf expanded on this idea, calling it a visual novel and releasing their first successful game, "Shizuku," a horror story starring a rapist high school student, with very highly reviewed writing and music. Their next game, "Kizuato," was almost as dark. However, in 1997, they released "To Heart," a sweetly sentimental story of high school love that became one of the most famous and trendsetting eroge ever. "To Heart"'s music was so popular it was added to karaoke machines throughout Japan—a first for eroge.

After a similar game by Tactics, "," became a hit in 1998, Visual Art's scouted main creative staff of "One" to form a new brand under them, which became Key. In 1999, Key released "Kanon." It contains only about 7 brief erotic scenes in a sentimental story the size of a long novel (an all-ages version was also released afterward), but the enthusiasm of the response was unprecedented, and "Kanon" sold over 300,000 copies. In 2002 a 13-episode anime series was produced, as well as another 24-episode anime series in 2006. According to Satoshi TODOME's "A History of Eroge," "Kanon" is still the standard for modern eroge and is referred to as a "baptism" for young otakus in Japan. Although many eroge still market themselves primarily on sex, eroge that focus on story are now a major established part of Japanese otaku culture.

Nudity in games

Games that use nudity and partial nudity while not being considered adult games include "Fear Effect", "Fahrenheit", "Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball", "God of War", "" and others that maintain content consistent with M or T ratings by the ESRB. Nudity may be removed in localized versions, such as the Japanese version of God of War. Nudity may be removed for specific systems, such as Sony consoles which have an anti-nudity policy.

In arcades, adult games are also more prevalent, especially mahjong video games.

The popularity of "adult video games"

Due to the small amount of distribution for games rated Adults Only, there are few adult video games available. An Adult Only title guarantees that some of the world's biggest retailers of video games like Wal-Mart will not buy or distribute that particular title, relegating them to the fringe of retail. Of the thousands of video games created across all consoles, they account for less than 1% of the market share. Still few "Adults Only" titles are particularly famous. Adult video games seem to sell far better when marketed for personal computers (where such content is closer to the norm, as on, e.g., the internet) than for consoles.

ee also

*List of adult video games
*Virtual sex
*Cyber sex
*Pornography
*Video games
*Virtual reality
*Eroge
*Massively Multiplayer Online Virtual Sex Game

Links

* [http://www.mmovsg.net MMOVSG.NET Review and ranking of adult games.]
* [http://www.kaplay.com kaplay.com use first person touch and 3d stereo technology in 3d adult game.]