[18+ GAME] is the measuring stick for which all video games will judged in the future. If you still play console games or PC titles you’ll notice a general overlap in content and features associated with precedents set by titles with successful sales. Gaining experience and traditional “perks” are prevelent in games you’d never guess would hold to that formula. [18+ GAME] bucks this trend by involving the player on a personal level, in an attempt to relate actual real world experience as a meta-commentary on cultivating skill in a video game versus actually becoming skilled in a trade. There’s no greater example than the physical packaging mailed to your house after confirming your purchase on Facebook:
It’s of course comprised of a note pad specifically written by hand for the consumer, a nod to a simpler time when the craftsman and purchaser were on a first name basis. It lists gameplay features, explicit instructions and an exhaustive list of what you can come to expect from [18+ GAME]
The flagrant yet refined eroticism aside once you begin [18+ GAME] you can’t help become enamored with its vibrant future shock world where sex is outlawed by the government, which is ran by police. But who pulls the police’s strings? The only way to find out is by way of sexual subterfuge.
It’s midnight in Portland, and you’re walking around the Predator Drone patrolled streets as an old man plays a harmonica. You think he’s a nice sort, and a context sensitive prompt to turn on your webcam appears. It is at this point that you refer to page 33 of the manual which outlines what to do when Approached By A Musician.
A small upload bar starts filling in sync with the on-screen quick time motions that appear on the webcam feed, as your mind casually associates the act of mouth fucking your banana with blowing a harmonica player at night as drone aircraft traditionally meant for the surveillance of enemy combatants keep tabs on your Night Exploits. This all takes place in the Facebook App’s Browser interface.
About 12 bananas later and you’ll have passed your first series of hurdles, never once questioning exactly where that file upload was heading. Never once questioning the banana cradling motions complete strangers on the street make at you or grocers who demand you step on a watermelon in high heels they provide.
The game really opens up once you start interacting with other members of the player-base, often exchanging tips on how to best thwart the police of Police Corps. Through 45 individualized training sessions and a few dildo purchases later you’re in the mid-levels, handling police and musician dick with ease. You’re fucking ladies, you’re fucking ladies with dicks, and you’re fucking like wild, dying animals.
The stimulation from engaging in simulated coitus aside, the worst thing about this game off the top of my head is the insistence on dildo purchases at an insane markup with little to no progression save tips from your fellow players. For example, the manual is really unclear as to how looking into the eyes of the police while sucking them off will affect a double XP boost. Or how holding a knife to your own throat during the quick time events triple the XP? I feel like more of this should’ve been covered instead of relying on word of mouth.
The exhibitionist nature of the game, alongside its photo-realistic graphics have me rethinking what next-gen means, insofar as the camera peripheral technology that failed in recent years. We more often than not use digitized avatars in the place of our actual selves in shared escapism. The game forces your participation, and the participation in the communal horror of the game.
The fact violence is never introduced as a method of furthering the storyline is cause for concern given the overtones of meeting the police with sexual gratification and nothing else. I’ve tried looking through the context sensitive speech system, and you can’t really speak to the cops the way you would a player character. It only lists really nervous greetings, and kneeling animation prompts.
Even at the higher levels of play, it becomes apparent the subterfuge has a ceiling and the goal of meeting your aggressors with acts of love has no direct impact on the storyline. Your personal relationships erode, and you’re unable to pay simple bills or buy food. The game hooks its tendrils into your psyche, asking more and more absurd demands of you. “Cut open your palm and fist yourself” on camera flashing across the screen on the premise you’ll discover the Head Police Sergeant’s motivations for outlawing sex asks serious self harm of the consumer, which many initially disagreed with until fears were assuaged by a Cliffy B blogpost on the subject:
“The video game industry is just that.
Which means that it exists in a capitalistic world. You know, a free market. A place where you’re welcome to spend your money on whatever you please… or to refrain from spending that money.
Those companies that put these products out? They’re for profit businesses. They exist to produce, market, and ship great games ultimately for one purpose. First, for money, then, for acclaim.”
Further Reading: E3 (Medium Difficulty)
The Playstation Meeting 2013 and Why We Should Be Scared (Medium Difficulty)
