Sex and violence in videogames and puzzles

This week's Escapist includes Corvus Elrod's article, "Screenshots and Boobies." Don't worry, that link is safe for work. The article, unsurprisingly, talks about marketing videogames, starting off with some interesting observations of women's behavior in stores that rent videogames.

Elrod also touches on the print ad campaign for the newest game in the Hitman series, Blood Money. Instead of focusing on the pervasive violence, the print ads push the thus-far barely existent sexuality in the game, to the point of pressing the "why glamorize violence against women" button. Perhaps more interestingly is that none of the trailers (NB, that I've seen) for the game include this sexualized violence.

At the same time that I picked up Hitman, I was hoping to snag SimCity 4, as well. Sadly, they were out of the second title; never fear, I shall find a copy yet. However, another game caught my eye, Safecracker; a pure puzzle game. You're the eponymous safecracker and you've got some thirty-five safes to crack. The box text seemed reminiscent of the 7th Guest. It was less than twenty bucks, so I wound up purchasing it.

After a few hours of gleefully working through the first some levels of Hitman, it occurred to me that I was playing a puzzle more than a game. (Greg Costikiyan's definitions, of course.) The game now rewards making the hit look like an accident, and players are punished for being sloppy: being caught on camera, killing innocents, leaving evidence, etc. Yes, each level has more than one solution or tactic (do I go on a rampage or can I pull the level off without getting caught?), but some are clearly more optimal than others, hence the larger in-game reward.

I'm struck by the intersection of these three games:



Hitman: Blood Money, the latest in a controversial game series about undetectable murder. SimCity, the latest in a critically acclaimed long-running game/toy series about creating and managing a city. Safecracker, a semi-obscure puzzle game that's a semi-sequel to a 1999 release.

What do these have in common? Why do they all appeal to me? There's an interesting rock-paper-scissors relation going on here: Hitman and SimCity have a high degree of simulation, SimCity and Safecracker are both abstracted to a certain degree, and Safecracker's safes and Hitman's levels are puzzles to solve.

Expect few posts this weekend; I'll likely be playing games.