Post by *NormalGamer* on Feb 20, 2006 19:41:47 GMT -5
www.mtv.com/games/video_games/news/story.jhtml?id=1524471
2006-02-16 16:58:00.0
Ladies Behind 'Rub Rabbits' Want Gamers To Make Love, Not War
Romantic Nintendo DS game favors multi-player 'baby-making' mode over multi-player armed combat.
For most of gaming history, the creators of video games have been content to make war, not love.
That wasn't the case for the design team behind "The Rub Rabbits," a new game for the Nintendo DS that's splashed with pink graphics, flowers and romantic ideas. Its plot involves a guy trying valiantly to impress a girl, and it boasts an unusual bonus mode that requires two players to get their hands quite close together on one system. The game replaces features like multi-player armed combat with a multi-player "baby-making" mode.
This is a game designed not just to be played, but to get some sparks to fly. "Couples can definitely enjoy this game," said its lead designer, Emiko Sunaga. "I'd also like to think that those who aren't a couple yet will play together, and by doing so bring the bond between them closer together."
Games are more notorious for breaking relationship bonds than for forging them. For all the romance of Mario trying to save Princess Peach or the real-life love connections made by gamers who meet through massive multi-player adventures like "World of Warcraft," games are better known as instruments of heartbreak, even spawning support groups for "widows" of game-addicted players (see "When The Other Woman's An Xbox: Gaming Gripes Go Online").
Sunaga thinks there's room for games that do better than that. She said that Takumi Yoshinaga, the head of the "Rub Rabbits" team, pushed to make a game "that did not revolve around shooting but instead was a lighthearted love comedy." The resulting game was released in Japan last year with the title "Where Do Babies Come From?" Having just hit America, it's the first romance-themed video game released in the U.S. by a major publisher since Ubisoft published the ski-lodge dating game "Sprung" for the DS in late 2004.
In "Rub Rabbits," a player controls a silhouetted hero who looks like he walked out of an iPod ad, using the DS' touch screen and microphone to win an equally blanked-out girl through a series of madcap mini-games, like making an impression with a tap-able piano or blasting competing suitors out of the air with a blowgun. (The game opens with an advisory, flashed over an image of a guy playing the game as a woman whispers behind his back: "Warning: Continuous stroking, blowing and poking could lead to unwanted attention in public places.")
That's the single-player game Ñ but it's the game's multi-player modes that are most clearly designed for real romance. Sunaga said that the team was determined to find a mode that would allow several people to play with one system. The result is "hullabaloo," a Twister-style game that requires multiple players to press buttons on the same DS. "Accidental" physical contact is likely to ensue.
The baby-making mode asks two players to input their ages, blood types and relationship status before alternating presses of the DS' shoulder buttons in order to cut a wedding cake. The game states that "your teamwork will show your compatibility as a couple."
If that kind of thing does indeed help make a love connection, some credit might be due to the design team's gender ratio. Of the 15 people who developed the game, eight were women, a conscious result of Yoshinaga's desire to create a romance game.
It is unheard of for a game-design team to be more than 50 percent female, but it's something Sunaga and "Rub Rabbits" lead artist Nanako Yarimizu would like to see more of. "With an increase in female game developers, there would be more games with content that are more receptive to women," said Yarimizu. "I'd like to see a time when women talk about games along the same line as they talk about apparel and cosmetics."
Yarimizu's hope has shown a flicker of potential with the success of "The Sims." The virtual dollhouse series was originally popular with guys, but at Electronic Arts' Maxis Studios employees jokingly refer to "Sims" as the first sexually transmitted game. The "Sims" player community is now about 60 percent female, according to a Maxis spokesperson. Not coincidentally, women hold an unusually high number of influential positions on the design teams at Maxis. "The Sims" may have been started by a guy named Will Wright, but his next big Maxis project, "Spore," boasts a female lead designer, two female producers and a female lead character modeler. Wright's right-hand man on the project is actually a woman, the company's head of development, Lucy Bradshaw.
On the other hand, a recent hit with female gamers, the DS' "Nintendogs," was conceived and overseen by a male design team.
The DS has proven to be something of a laboratory for exploring games' gender appeal and women's influence on game design. The 2004 "Sprung" dating simulator was written by Colleen McGuinness, a writer for the TV drama "North Shore." In 2005 designer Heather Kelley, who works for game publisher Ubisoft, created an experimental game called "Lapis," which appeared to be about a cute, touchable blue bunny but was actually, according to Kelley, "a stealthy primer on female sexual pleasure."
The women behind "Rub Rabbits" say they're keeping things a bit cleaner. They just hope gamers, male or female, might use it to find some love. "I don't know anyone who has gotten together through video games," said Sunaga, "but it'd be great if our game provides that opportunity for someone."
Get your MTV News fresh daily as a podcast Ñ in video or audio.
Click on Mac or PC for more info.
- by Stephen Totilo
This report is provided by MTV News
--------------------------------
NG: I wish these ladies the best in doing what they want to do in their goal for making games fun for both male and females(as well as everybody).
2006-02-16 16:58:00.0
Ladies Behind 'Rub Rabbits' Want Gamers To Make Love, Not War
Romantic Nintendo DS game favors multi-player 'baby-making' mode over multi-player armed combat.
For most of gaming history, the creators of video games have been content to make war, not love.
That wasn't the case for the design team behind "The Rub Rabbits," a new game for the Nintendo DS that's splashed with pink graphics, flowers and romantic ideas. Its plot involves a guy trying valiantly to impress a girl, and it boasts an unusual bonus mode that requires two players to get their hands quite close together on one system. The game replaces features like multi-player armed combat with a multi-player "baby-making" mode.
This is a game designed not just to be played, but to get some sparks to fly. "Couples can definitely enjoy this game," said its lead designer, Emiko Sunaga. "I'd also like to think that those who aren't a couple yet will play together, and by doing so bring the bond between them closer together."
Games are more notorious for breaking relationship bonds than for forging them. For all the romance of Mario trying to save Princess Peach or the real-life love connections made by gamers who meet through massive multi-player adventures like "World of Warcraft," games are better known as instruments of heartbreak, even spawning support groups for "widows" of game-addicted players (see "When The Other Woman's An Xbox: Gaming Gripes Go Online").
Sunaga thinks there's room for games that do better than that. She said that Takumi Yoshinaga, the head of the "Rub Rabbits" team, pushed to make a game "that did not revolve around shooting but instead was a lighthearted love comedy." The resulting game was released in Japan last year with the title "Where Do Babies Come From?" Having just hit America, it's the first romance-themed video game released in the U.S. by a major publisher since Ubisoft published the ski-lodge dating game "Sprung" for the DS in late 2004.
In "Rub Rabbits," a player controls a silhouetted hero who looks like he walked out of an iPod ad, using the DS' touch screen and microphone to win an equally blanked-out girl through a series of madcap mini-games, like making an impression with a tap-able piano or blasting competing suitors out of the air with a blowgun. (The game opens with an advisory, flashed over an image of a guy playing the game as a woman whispers behind his back: "Warning: Continuous stroking, blowing and poking could lead to unwanted attention in public places.")
That's the single-player game Ñ but it's the game's multi-player modes that are most clearly designed for real romance. Sunaga said that the team was determined to find a mode that would allow several people to play with one system. The result is "hullabaloo," a Twister-style game that requires multiple players to press buttons on the same DS. "Accidental" physical contact is likely to ensue.
The baby-making mode asks two players to input their ages, blood types and relationship status before alternating presses of the DS' shoulder buttons in order to cut a wedding cake. The game states that "your teamwork will show your compatibility as a couple."
If that kind of thing does indeed help make a love connection, some credit might be due to the design team's gender ratio. Of the 15 people who developed the game, eight were women, a conscious result of Yoshinaga's desire to create a romance game.
It is unheard of for a game-design team to be more than 50 percent female, but it's something Sunaga and "Rub Rabbits" lead artist Nanako Yarimizu would like to see more of. "With an increase in female game developers, there would be more games with content that are more receptive to women," said Yarimizu. "I'd like to see a time when women talk about games along the same line as they talk about apparel and cosmetics."
Yarimizu's hope has shown a flicker of potential with the success of "The Sims." The virtual dollhouse series was originally popular with guys, but at Electronic Arts' Maxis Studios employees jokingly refer to "Sims" as the first sexually transmitted game. The "Sims" player community is now about 60 percent female, according to a Maxis spokesperson. Not coincidentally, women hold an unusually high number of influential positions on the design teams at Maxis. "The Sims" may have been started by a guy named Will Wright, but his next big Maxis project, "Spore," boasts a female lead designer, two female producers and a female lead character modeler. Wright's right-hand man on the project is actually a woman, the company's head of development, Lucy Bradshaw.
On the other hand, a recent hit with female gamers, the DS' "Nintendogs," was conceived and overseen by a male design team.
The DS has proven to be something of a laboratory for exploring games' gender appeal and women's influence on game design. The 2004 "Sprung" dating simulator was written by Colleen McGuinness, a writer for the TV drama "North Shore." In 2005 designer Heather Kelley, who works for game publisher Ubisoft, created an experimental game called "Lapis," which appeared to be about a cute, touchable blue bunny but was actually, according to Kelley, "a stealthy primer on female sexual pleasure."
The women behind "Rub Rabbits" say they're keeping things a bit cleaner. They just hope gamers, male or female, might use it to find some love. "I don't know anyone who has gotten together through video games," said Sunaga, "but it'd be great if our game provides that opportunity for someone."
Get your MTV News fresh daily as a podcast Ñ in video or audio.
Click on Mac or PC for more info.
- by Stephen Totilo
This report is provided by MTV News
--------------------------------
NG: I wish these ladies the best in doing what they want to do in their goal for making games fun for both male and females(as well as everybody).
