Gamertell

It’s difficult for the parents of a child diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) to find ways to control their child’s disorder and help him or her live a normal childhood.

PopCap Games recently contracted Information Solutions Group to conduct a unique survey in April 2008 in which 2,728 respondents (of the 13,296 casual gamers surveyed) indicated they or someone they are caring for has a disability…

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The latest Japanese dating-sim (aka bishoujo or hentai) game to be released by G-Collections is Amorous Professor Cherry. Available for PC CD/DVD (Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP, Vista; $39.95), the sexy sim includes English text with Japanese voiceovers so you get to enjoy the essence of the acting while being able to understand what the heck they are saying.

What they are doing, however, is graphically clear in any language.

In the game you are a young school boy named Kouta who has a crush on his appropriately-named and uber busty teacher…

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Check out the gallery: Amorous Professor Cherry screen shots

Time to keep you up on some of the bishoujo games from Japan (see what I did there?)

J-List recently stocked its supply of dating-sim game Snow Sakura released by G-Collections in December 2007. Snow Sakura stars student Tachibana Yuuji who is left to live with an uncle when his parents head to Hawaii for business. There, he meets back up with some cute cousins and childhood friends and enjoys some romantic moments in the snowy countryside…

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Check out the gallery: Snow Sakura screen shots

Text in videogames is a tricky thing. It can either help enrich the experience or slow the game to an agonizing pace. Sure, back in the days of Zork, a text-based adventure was actually a genre, but now it’s often an overlooked element of a larger game.

I’m not talking about MUDs here - I’m talking about the more standard graphic-based games that rely on conversations to progress the game. Forget the talking heads where you button mash to get to the next bit of action. I’m talking about games where text plays a crucial role in the action.

In reviewing Mass Effect for an upcoming CiN Weely column, I realized that there is a rather unexplainable difference between the way American games treat text-based interactions versus most Japanese games. Well, at least the DS and PC dating sim (aka bishoujo) games I’ve played.

In the games Mass Effect as well as Knight of the Old Republic, text-based conversations involve a…

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Product: Bazooka Café
Price: $34.95
System Requirements: Pentium II 300 mhz, 96 MB RAM, Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/Vista
Rating: 6.6/10
Pros: Good erotic art, low system requirements, funny and fairly well written
Cons: Low gaming value, culture shocks, grandma will think you’re a pervert
Overall: Selective adult fans will enjoy, not a good gift idea for Nana

You have to love the Japanese. Why? Because we dropped nuclear bombs on them, and that was rude. This is why we have to react with polite interest when they come up with #### that we think is weird culturally, like sushi or cartoon porn. In our culture, cartoons are for bright Saturday mornings and breakfast cereals. In Japan, cartoons are more likely to eviscerate each other with samurai swords or engage in lewd sexual acts. Which is probably a better way to sell cereal.

Which brings us to our game. Bazooka Café is a mixture of all of these things, except for evisceration and the breakfast cereal, because in Japan they call it “porridge.” I am a certified Japan expert.

Bazooka Café is what is called a bishoujo game, which translates literally as “pretty young girl.” This makes you think that Bungie might have done better to call it “bad-ass cyborg” instead of Halo, and you’d be right. According to Wikipedia a certain online source that my editor has expressly forbidden me to cite, and which I personally believe to be more accurate than the bible, these games will routinely sell a million copies in Japan. They don’t sell in western markets because we don’t do as well with freaky sex ####. There’s an entry for this phenomenon too, under the term “conservative Christian.”

You play Bazooka café by reading the story and then selecting different actions at certain points in the game, kind of like those choose-your-own-adventure novels you used to read as a kid. Each time you play through the game, you can choose a different action and unlock a different ending (read: sleep with a different women).

Seriously, this game has samurai swords. Well, actually they’re called Kendo swords and they’re made out of bamboo, but I hear they hurt like hell. Narumi is a waitress who works at Ariel café, and she also happens to be a Kendo instructor. She used to date Hideyuki, the game’s protagonist, who inherited from his father both the café and its corresponding propensity to attract women with Olympian proportions. Hideyuki soon finds that running the café will mostly involve tenderly contemplating the emotional problems of his staff while occasionally making comments like, “As a bonus, she has a huge rack as well.”

And just as the sensation of chewing and swallowing raw fish wrapped in rice and seaweed is fairly disconcerting at first, the notion of sitting down at a computer to seduce fake women is disorienting, and feels somehow to flout Darwin’s theory of evolution. Shouldn’t I be trying to talk to real women, you ask? But hey, let’s face it, usually that never works out so you might as well play this game where the women are impossible to not sleep with. We’ll learn a few interesting things about Japanese culinary culture as well, such as the fact that a lot of people have their drinks after they eat lunch instead of before. Also, there’s apparently much more restaurant sex than in America.

Design—6/10
Expect the traditional Japanese aesthetic on this one. Big eyes, small nose, ri-god-damn-diculous huge breasts in every god-damn scene. Truthfully, this ended up being kind of a turn off. They looked painful. In almost every instance where they were not barely sheathed beneath some strained fabric, I was thinking to myself that these girls are going to have serious back problems in the future.

There’s a preset number of stills for each scene that let you know how the girls are feeling based on the discussion. The ones for angry and sad are particularly well done, and fans of Manga will recognize these right away. A variety of backdrop scenes expand the location of the game so you don’t feel like you’re always in the restaurant, which can get to be tedious.

The voice acting is haunting. Passion may be the universal language, but dirty talk in Japanese waxes traumatic. A few times I thought I was being yelled at.

Features—6.5/10
This game features a truly exceptional save/load interface with over five pages/screens of save game slots. That’s a lot. There’s a gallery where you can view all of the “artistic cut-scenes” lets call them, for each of the game’s endings that you’ve unlocked.Included on the install disc is the bonus Valentines Day Special, which asks the tantalizing question “What if you didn’t have to choose?” This means threesomes. Lot’s of ‘em. The game also comes with a locker-sized poster that would be a fantastic way to get kicked out of Catholic school if you were looking for one.

Performance—7.5/10
The game runs well, even on my trusty old Dell Dimension, the first computer made in the early Paleolithic period. The game is only 546 MB, a little over 300 of which are the voice recordings. This is why G-Collections (the game’s distributor) makes a desperate plea not to pirate the game right in the instruction manual. They also ask you to call the authorities should you encounter one of the many roving groups of bishoujo game pirates that roam our city streets.

Overall—6.6/10
Here is the essential rub (no pun intended) for bishoujo — is it even a game at all? Some would contend that reading text and pressing the enter key does not a game constitute. After all, there are generally less than ten branch points in the game, and no matter which response you choose somebody is going to end up getting naked somewhere. The game even has an “Auto” feature, which is a polite way of saying hands free.

Barring masturbation, I was feeling fairly left out of the gaming experience until Narumi hit the protagonist with this line of dialouge: “If you’ve got enough free time to dance around like a little freak over there, then get your ass in the kitchen and help out! A bunch of customers just showed up.”

Which, of course, made me fall totally in love with her. And herein lies the real core of these kinds of games. We oftentimes judge games by their ability to establish an alternate reality, a complete and separate world. Admittedly, endowments often flout the laws of physics and physiology, and the protagonist is somewhat of a douche-bag (he would be sued and jailed in our country for sexual harassment, instantly) but there are still real characters there, each with their individual set of problems, desires, quirks, and ridiculously oversize braziers. Bazooka Café accomplishes this by forcing you to tap your way through literally hours of text before any of the clothes come off.

Which is probably why it confounds most Americans. They come to it looking for a game and find pornography or they come to it looking for pornography and find a game. Either way, they seem dissatisfied, generally give up and go get McDonalds. Little known fact: bishoujo is the real cause of the American obesity problem.

Read [J-List] Also Read [Play Asia] Also Read [G-Collections ] Read [Advance Anime Network]

Often when people think of women in gaming, they either think of the digital super cute, super sexy or super barbaric women found videogames often portrayed as the damsel in distress or weak. On October 25, 2007, the Xfire Debate Club logged on for their ninth meeting to discuss issues women face trying to get into the gaming industry or as a gamer.

The eight million strong gaming community, Xfire, invited nine successful women of the gaming industry to speak with the Xfire community on the topic of women in the gaming culture, game marketing, portrayal of female characters in videogames and the online gaming experience as women to name a few. Xfire is one of the fastest growing online gaming platform and community in the world helping gamers to easily connect, chat and play with their friends online

The eight women in the gaming industry who attended include:

• Colette Bennett, Editor, Destructoid
• Amber "AthenaTwin" Dalton, Clan Leader and Founder, PMS Clan
• Robyn Fleming, Senior Editor, Cerise Magazine
• Jasmin Kassner, Founder, PixelTamer Games
• Helen Kennedy, Senior Lecturer, University of the West of England
• Lesley Smith, Freelance Games Journalist

Leigh Alexander, Staff Writer of Gamasutra was unable to make the panel.

"Women play an increasingly important role within the gaming industry as gaming becomes ever more mainstream," said Frederic Descamps, senior director of marketing at Xfire. "We are thrilled to welcome this panel of experts, each of whom brings a unique perspective and approach to issues facing women in the industry."

Helen Kennedy, a feminist researching and writes about women and how they game and play, moderated the event and began the debate by asking the panel about the specific challenges each of them faced as a gamer and as a professional.

"I think most women have had at least a few irritating conversations about whether they really play games," responded Fleming."... and when you do something gaming-related for work, the assumptions just keep right on coming - only now it's about you as a professional as well as a hobbyist. I think there are lots of gaming communities that are ready to take women seriously as players."

Bennett agreed and added, "I know personally (that) people still don't really believe women play games," she said. "Or if they do, they play girl-specific games. Personally I feel you just have to let these stereotypes roll off you. I think women are very much judged because of the fact that we are women; a stereotype that is hundreds of years old won't just go away because a girl shows up and says she can beat you at a game."

During the debate Bennett mentioned that the image of women in general is always an issue to some communities.

"I think the image of women in games versus women who play games in real life is always an issue," Bennett explained adding that to avoid the harassment some women hide their gender when playing online. "Women are still being heavily objectified in most games. Whether we like it or not, it has an impact on how we are viewed in general. Well, the internet gives you the ability to create yourself as you wish (to a degree.) You don't have to identify as female if you don't want to. Hiding your gender seems pointless, but some women will do it so they won't be harassed."

Dalton agreed and added, "Offline is more friendly I think than online," she said. "Online, where people hide behind anonymity, is where women are really harassed more I think."

Kassner disagreed stating that she has been playing MMOs for a long time to include Ultima Online for 9 years and has never been harassed. Kassner added that in Germany women are widely more accepted as gamers than elsewhere.

Dalton was quick to tell Kassner that her perfect gaming experience won't last once the male gamers start see more and more women coming out and saying "look we are here, we play just like you do."

Kennedy asked the ladies if they had experienced any pressure as gamers professionally and as competitive gamers. The panel all agreed, Fleming pointed out that there is even pressure for women to be the right kind of female player to earn acceptance within gaming groups.

"Sometimes there's pressure to be 'one of the guys,' and not remind your fellow players that you are ... a woman," Fleming explained. "And other times, the pressure is to be cute or sexy, or to play the damsel in distress, etc."

Bennett agreed and said even as a female journalist in the gaming industry there is pressure, but not as much as the ugly treatment competitive female gamers often go through just to enjoy gaming.

"I think the image of women in games versus women who play games in real life is always an issue," Bennett added. "Women are still being heavily objectified in most games. Whether we like it or not, it has an impact on how we are viewed in general. Games became important to me when I was 8 years old. I think girls of today may have to contend with what their parents think of gaming and if they believe in the negative media that people like Jack Thompson support. If that doesn't stand in the way, they may be able to discover the gaming culture naturally. It scares me because when I think of what games represented to me, and how they made my childhood and young adulthood so much better, I fear that girls growing up may be cheated out of that because of the media image of gaming."

Kennedy focused on how negative media has scared many potential young female gamers and created the "Pink Poison" most young girls are given as alternative games.

"The pink poison problem (are those) games that are targeted at women (and) are always in pink boxes and advertised as for women only," Fleming explained. "I kinda like the pink ... but I hate the way it's marketed."

Smith agreed and added that "pink consoles are a bane, I personally hate them intensely and yet the major manufacturers continue creating them," she said. "I think women don't really care about the colour, it's the console and games that matter but the industry can't understand they do not need to make special ones just for us."

Dalton agrees the whole usage of color to make a system or game women specific is a lame attempt by the gaming industry to make them feel apart of the culture when it actually separates them.

"We are a viable market companies should be targeting as consumers, employees, etc.," Dalton explained and said although she likes pink consoles but more of a fashion or personalization choice not because its for women. "We are individuals that like all different things, brought together by a love of gaming. I think they all work together, have the games we like and have the way to make it as personal as we like it. It is about personal preferences, and neither is wrong. (It's not just about) color, fashion is a natural companion for male and female audiences ... personalization is key. Women on the forefront is still underdeveloped, and we owe it to the next generation to be able to say 'yes you are a girl' and that is fine to play."

The debate then turned its attention to the new line of girl-specific games from UbiSoft called the Imagine series. The series was released in October 2007 as the first games in the Imagine line for the Nintendo DS system. The game series for girls include Imagine: Fashion Designer, Imagine: Animal Doctor, Imagine: Babyz and Imagine: Master Chef. With an upcoming release of Imagine: Figure Skater to be released in early 2008.

Smith calls this new line a "prime example of how not to do games for women."

Kassner told the panel that companies should stop being gender specific and just produce good games.

"What I really want to bring across is that in front of the PC we are all the same. No matter what color, what gender or what sexual preferences. We have this unique opportunity to be all the same: Gamers," Kassner said. "Why does the marketing still cling on to the old fashioned values of male or female and stuff. Its stupid. By marketing a game to guys you loose females players and vice versa. Marketing peeps have to come into the present and realize that they can just market good games."

Bennett added that she couldn't blame a videogame company because they only produce what the public wants based on a survey, but even the survey needs to broaden.

"Well, the hard thing about trashing the Ubisoft line is that it is based on a survey of what girls in a certain age range wanted (supposedly)," she said. "I don't like the idea that these games are being pushed at little girls, but at the same time how do you market Contra to an 8-year-old girl? I think all PR and marketing ideas are directly linked to the bottom line. Money. Which is what makes it difficult to ever escape these stereotypes."

When challenged by the panel over her Contra statement Bennett explained her opinion further.

"What I am getting at is that when I was growing up, I played all kinds of games, Contra and Barbie games alike," she said. "I got to choose what I liked. In today's day and age, it seems much more important to be marketing at certain groups since gaming has become such a powerful industry."

Smith added that the whole pink issue is purely based on the childhood idea that pink is for girls and blue for boys which is outdated. The panel agreed that this type of marketing strategy separates women and men in gaming and often times turn female gamers into targets.

"I think it's a case of there are no such thing as women or men games, there should be just gamers,"mith said.

The panel agreed that because a lot of women don't have a problem with the sexualized images they use as avatars or screen names which separates men and women gamers, and often open themselves up as targets.

"I've received too many random rape threats just for having a female name on an online game," Fleming said surprising the panel and the audience. "It doesn't happen to every woman, but it does happen to many. When I'm playing a game, I often like to have a female avatar but that's as far as I tend to go and I still get that crap."

The group agreed that the gaming experience is getting better with monitoring to prevent harassment but as far as the gaming industry, they agree there needs to be more women in the gaming industry. At the end of the discussion Kennedy asked each panelist one final question. If they could improve the contemporary game culture what would they change?

Lesley Smith: "Stop segregating women, make games and magazines for gamers not for one gender or the other."

Colette Bennett: "More emphasis on creativity and breaking the mold. We have enough FPS, RPG, Platformers, etc., etc. Try to strive for genre hybrids or new genres altogether."

Robyn Fleming: "More variety of female characters in all kinds of games."

Jasmin Kassner: "Marketing should change to 'Global' in a sense of no sexism, racsim, etc..."

Amber "Athena Twin" Dalton: "Make development groups more diversified, all races, backgrounds, lifestyles to appeal to all aspects of gamers."

Site [Xfire Debate Panels] Read [UbiSoft] Site [PMS Clan] Site [Cerise: Gaming Magazine for Women]

Gamer Help Online recently posted 99 - yes you read that right - codes that will unlock secret movies, game enhancements, practical jokes, humor, mini-games and system tricks.

Have you ever become so infuriated with a game because you just can’t seem to overcome an obstacle. Like the hand-numbing button masher scene in the first Metal Gear Solid when you have to save Snake from getting electrocuted to death by Ocelot? Or maybe you just want to do something funny like give James Bond a bobble head or play as a piece of Tofu in Resident Evil, put your character in god mode or even unlock secret ending movies or minigames?

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Japanese import site, J-List/J-Box, is releasing two new dating sim (aka bishoujo) DVD games: Exodus Guilty Vol. 1 and Tea Society of a Witch. Both are playable on any standard DVD player (or any other DVD playing device you have lying around your house) and played using the DVD remote.

From the descriptions, it also looks as if both games forgo the usual nudity and strong sexual content found in many bishoujo games, though “tea Society” still has a “Mature” rating. As with most Japanese bishoujo, the art is colorful and usually quite wonderful.

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