- by Amanda "Mandifesto" Orneck
- Posted on September 20, 2011 @ 8:17 PST
In a few hours a friend of mine will give birth to her second child. I thought about what she’s about to go through and what she’s already endured as a pregnant woman when I read Joystiq’s hands on impressions of Mommy Tummy at the Tokyo Game Show. It’s a game that uses what can only be described as a belly peripheral to simulate the joys and just plain awkwardness of pregnancy in a supposed effort to elicit empathy from husbands and baby daddies. What I’m unclear on is if it injects you with hormones and swells your ankles as well. Now that would be a realistic simulation.
As a woman who’s never gone through the joyful nine months of hell that is pregnancy, I think it would be great to see what the sensations were about. I’m not sure a game that simulates pregnancy in the course of an afternoon can realistically replicate what the feeling must be like, but it’s probably a darn sight closer than those pregnancy stomachs you see husbands walking around in on Doctor Oz.
But thinking on the subject of maternity video games (never really thought I would say that phrase) I wonder at the limits of gaming technology – not the physical limits, but the moral ones. Are there any boundaries we shouldn’t cross in gaming? Are games like this going to help society or hurt them? I put it to you fellow Game Geex: What games should we not make in our effort to simulate life? Or do no boundaries exist when it comes to electronic entertainment?
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Video games are all about letting you have experiences you couldnt normally have in real life, be they defending a castle from orcs, smuggling valuables through the far reaches of space, or in this case, carrying a baby to term. I think this is just brilliant.
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Well, a very small group of people did make a simulation game where you play as the sniper that killed JFK, so, I think we're getting to the point where the boundaries of what should and shouldn't be used as video game material is becoming less apparent.
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^
As long as it's not a simulation of what his wife felt at that exact moment or things might get dramatic.
Anyways, I don't think there should be a limit. Like Art said, video games let you experience what you can't, or don't want to for real.. in real life.
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I mean, you look at games like Driving Simulator 2011, and you realize that games are going to be developed for bizarre niches. People who don't get enough driving? Pah.
@Sir Loin, remember though, that game served its purpose rather nicely. That game was made to question a historical date by making the player realize some of the inaccuracies that we've seen in reality. I think, in conversation, we need to separate games that simulate vs. games that simulate to educate. DrivingSim is not remotely there to educate. The JFK game is there to be profound in its questioning.
