Month: October 2024

PICTURED: The official “PlayOverwatch” Twitter account imploring users to drop a foot emoji in the replies of a tweet about Kiriko’s “grippers”.

Ever since Overwatch‘s closed beta splashed onto the scene in 2015, the web has been inundated with Overwatch porn. It’s not hard to see why – beyond the game’s massive popularity, it boasts a cast overflowing with unchallengingly-attractive caricatures and broad ethnic stereotypes, each carrying JUST enough backstory to serve as the jumping-off point for a million million sexual scenarios but not so much as to bog anyone down in too many details. Add into that the fact that its character models are extremely easy to manipulate with software such as Source FilmMaker or Blender and a constantly supply of new costumes for said character models, and you’ve got all the ingredients you need for a seemingly-bottomless pot of sexual content gumbo that’s sure to keep your highly-derivative hero shooter relevant long past its sell-by date!

Things have changed. Yes, the Overwatch porn spigot is still flowing fast and strong, but the property on which it’s based isn’t doing too hot. Overwatch has, technically, given way to Overwatch 2, but by all accounts the supposed successor to one of Activision-Blizzard’s biggest blockbusters hasn’t been performing like it should. This isn’t that surprising, as the competitive gaming landscape has changed a lot in the near-decade that the game’s been active – no game remains popular forever. Some players will move on to new, similar titles like Riot’s Valorant or Respawn’s Apex Legends. Others might find their tastes drifting to other genres entirely, perhaps becoming engrossed in a roguelike such as Hades or a massive single-player experience like Elden Ring. Others still will simply melt away, becoming fed up with a toxic online player base, running short of time to play between obligations like work, school, or child care, or falling out of touch with their regular gaming group. All of this is perfectly normal, but unfortunately also represents a state of affairs completely unacceptable to Activision-Blizzard’s stakeholders, who demand infinite growth and infinite returns.

Hence, “grippers” – an unsubtle overture to the gooner wing of the player base, cloaked in a wincing reference to a long-running community in-joke about Sigma’s exposed feet. Cringe! Not because it’s somehow Not Done to sexualize the game’s characters (more on that in a moment), but because porn has carried Overwatch‘s Caligulan carcass atop its back year after year, and deserves better than a self-conscious joke from some underpaid intern who, statistically, was verbally and possibly physically chastised both before and after hitting Post.

Continue reading “Grippers, or, If Overwatch Wants Goon Dollars They Need To Hire Some Professionals” →

This is fifth of nine essays contained within the first issue of the Adult Analysis Anthology, an experimental collection of longform writing that seeks to expand the breadth of critical discourse around adult games and adult game culture. I will be re-publishing the web versions of all essays from the first two issues of the anthology to this blog over the course of the next few months, but if you’d like to support the creation of more high-quality writing about adult games the full anthology is available for purchase on Itch! Anthology logo by Pillow!

By: Bud Bear

TW: Mention of sexual assault as a game mechanic and consequence for mechanical failure, sexual horror, and transphobia and racism, untintential or otherwise. Stylized capitalization and improper punctuation for emphasis is also a thing here. I maintain a conversational, meandering tone that really is just the voice I speak with.

I’m gonna be real with these Trigger Warnings, I mean every word of them. Turn back now if you can’t handle those topics, and I do not think less of you. Sit down and help yourself to a nice cup of your favorite beverage, and just have a day for yourself. We could all use a little bit more of that. You’re one hundred and ten percent valid, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

I think that Mainstream fantasy worldbuilding sucks. Full stop. It’s so… sterile. Every big author talks about removing yourself from the writing and letting the fiction speak for itself. It leads to the worlds themselves feeling very sterile and the story mostly ending up character focused. For example, The Stormlight Archive is one of my favorite series of all time.

But the world doesn’t feel alive. Sanderson removed himself from it as much as possible, by his own admission, and it feels very sterile until something pertinent comes up and there’s a lore dump. I think mainstream fantasy could take some really valuable lessons from porn games. Specifically the “Literary Porn RPG” genre. I know nothing about the people involved with Corruption of Champions 1 and 2 and Trials in Tainted Space. I am not a part of their communities and I have not spoken to their authors and writing contributors once in my life.

But goddamn, when you’re writing characters based around specific fetishes it’s hard to get more honest about yourself than that. The worlds of CoC2 and TiTs especially feel incredibly gross a lot of the time, and honestly they’re probably pretty sticky, but they are fundamentally, utterly and completely their author’s work. A work of fetish is by definition going to be a peek into the author’s soul, yeah?

Continue reading “Corruption of Champions & Honesty” →

This is fourth of nine essays contained within the first issue of the Adult Analysis Anthology, an experimental collection of longform writing that seeks to expand the breadth of critical discourse around adult games and adult game culture. I will be re-publishing the web versions of all essays from the first two issues of the anthology to this blog over the course of the next few months, but if you’d like to support the creation of more high-quality writing about adult games the full anthology is available for purchase on Itch! Anthology logo by Pillow!

By: Juniper Angel Theory

The modern era of media is defined by many things, but perhaps more than anything it’s defined by horrifying scale. Games are no exception to this; last year a whopping 12,529 games were released on steam. If you played one hour of each it’d take you almost a year and a half of 24/7 play to try every single one, and that’s JUST games released in 2022. With this much media coming out every day, we usually focus on the few we find value in to sift them out of the rough.

But what if we didn’t? What if instead of looking at only a few interesting games, we evaluated the whole medium to look for patterns? By observing games with similar engines, art styles, genres, or even publishers we can discover specific trends and answer some puzzling questions. It also allows us to find games we might have otherwise overlooked due to the sheer volume of media produced every day.

Continue reading “A Broad Overview Of Steam’s “Adult Only” Category (With New Editor Commentary)” →

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There’s a certain threshold that exists when critically considering any artistic work: namely, a certain standard of that must be achieved before the work can be expected to withstand any level of critical scrutiny. This is not merely a standard of quality, but also a standard of cohesive creative intent – is the creator of an artistic work offering some kind of identifiable vision, such that the steps they took to attempt to realize that vision can be evaluated for their effectiveness? Further, to what extent could the creator be expected to absorb, digest, and respond to critical feedback in their work? And, lastly, to what extent could critical examination be said to be of use or interest to a wider audience?

Continue reading “Good Enough To Criticize” →

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PICTURED: The most SFW crop I was able to acquire from ML’s final full-length sex scene.

Happy October, everyone! It’s been a beautiful month. I had my 36th birthday, the weather was gorgeous, and I made myself a chocolate cheesecake. Let’s get to the update!

Monstrous Liberation Work

It’s been a tough month with regard to health stuff for both Pacha and myself, but we’ve forged ahead! On Pacha’s end, she finished the art for the launch version’s final full-length sex scene, a tiny snippet of which you can see above! As much as I’d love to tell you more about the nature of this sex scene and who’s involved in it, that’s a secret! You’ll have to play the game when it launches!

As for me, I finished the script for ML’s launch version this month! That’s right! The whole thing! The writing I did was focused on the aforementioned sex scene (and surrounding narrative), as well as several short mini-scenes that will occur within the Hideout as the player liberates monsters. Some of these mini-scenes will include extra pieces of splash art! As of right now, the ML launch version script stands at 62,000 words (before edits).

In addition to all that writing, I also finished up the very last bit of 3D reference and asset list work so that Pacha will be able to go full steam ahead on the remainder of the artwork for the launch version. The trailer for the game that I mentioned in last month’s update has been finalized, but I won’t be able to show it to you until the game’s Steam page assets have been updated, so that’ll have to come next month. Also hopefully coming next month: our official launch date announcement!

For the next month I’ll be working on implementing on all the art and writing that hasn’t made it into the build yet, and Pacha will be focused on polishing up the remainder of our art asset list. All in all, it’s my hope that by the time I’m writing the November newsletter, Monstrous Liberation’s launch version should be mostly-if-not-completely sewn up, meaning that Pacha and I will be able to take a little break from development before getting a head start on the first update. Now’s as good a time as any to wishlist Monstrous Liberation on Steam!

Continue reading “October 2024 Update: We’re Getting Close, Folks” →

This is third of nine essays contained within the first issue of the Adult Analysis Anthology, an experimental collection of longform writing that seeks to expand the breadth of critical discourse around adult games and adult game culture. I will be re-publishing the web versions of all essays from the first two issues of the anthology to this blog over the course of the next few months, but if you’d like to support the creation of more high-quality writing about adult games the full anthology is available for purchase on Itch! Anthology logo by Pillow!

CONTENT WARNING: This essay contains discussions and descriptions of acts of explicit sexual violence, particularly within hentai game The Scarlet Demonslayer. Please read with discretion.

Continue reading “The Scarlet Demonslayer and the Anti-Kukkoro Kukkoro (With New Commentary)” →

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This is second of nine essays contained within the first issue of the Adult Analysis Anthology, an experimental collection of longform writing that seeks to expand the breadth of critical discourse around adult games and adult game culture. I will be re-publishing the web versions of all essays from the first two issues of the anthology to this blog over the course of the next few months, but if you’d like to support the creation of more high-quality writing about adult games the full anthology is available for purchase on Itch! Anthology logo by Pillow!

By: Yarrun

In 1982, a company named American Multiple Industries, in a bid to garner free publicity through controversy, got to work on a game designed to upset people. Custer’s Revenge, a simple, poorly-made game for the Atari 2600, focuses on the eponymous Custer’s attempts to sexually assault a bound Indigenous woman, named ‘Revenge’ in the game’s instruction manual. It was decried by feminist and Native American activist groups alike… and it quickly became AMI’s best-selling game, moving at least 75,000 copies at an inflated cost of 49 dollars a cartridge, netting a revenue of over three million dollars. The stunt worked like a charm, but the game would linger in infamy for its blatant bigotry, and for years after, it would be the most prominent example in the West of what an ‘erotic videogame’ is.

Sex sells. So goes the common adage. But when it comes to videogames, while selling normal games via scantily clad female character has consistently been a viable tactic, selling games about sex has generally been more fraught, with most companies unwilling to garner the same reputation that Custer’s Revenge earned. Admittedly, in the East, developers that started on erotic videogames could transfer over to making non-erotic videogames with relative ease. The Fate franchise, after all, went from a visual novel with sex scenes added to increase its value to one of the most profitable gacha games on the planet. But in the West, erotic games and the companies that developed them were kept in their own ghetto away from the rest of the industry, with most success being found in the computer game market with various strip poker titles.

Continue reading “On Patreon, and the Taming of Erotic Game Development (With New Editor Commentary)” →

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