This is a digital download.
There’s any amount of sex-bots in science fiction, from Freya in Saturn’s Children to Gigolo Joe in AI. There’s everything from Cherry 2000 to the pierced grey sexbot in Heavy Metal 2000. There’s the sex-recordings from Day Million to the holodeck creepery of Barclay in Star Trek.
Technology and sex have always gone hand in hand. Sex has driven technology and technology has driven sex and this has been true in the real world as much as in fiction. The latex condom and, later, the pill allowed for the sexual revolution – along with safer, cheaper abortion. The VHS cassette and video camera democratised pornography, as did the Polaroid, a process that was later brought to an even greater, higher degree with web-cams and the internet.
Now we’re at the beginnings of new revolutions. Virtual reality porn is now in the hands of early adopters, as are ‘dumb’ robots in the forms of things like Real Dolls – not all of which are designed to be ‘realistic’. Newspapers are already bemoaning a future that isn’t here yet, of sexbots luring men away from real women (and more rarely bemoaning the opposite).
Machinations of the Space Princess isn’t – by default – a very ‘deep’ game and sexbots are likely just to make interesting characters or to provide colour and background to up the sleaze factor in a game. Still, that doesn’t mean you can’t throw a bit of deeper meaning into things, explore the social science fiction implications and the boundaries of the possible.
Push a few limits. Ask a few questions. That’s what fiction is for.
Rough as Toast
‘Rough as Toast’ is my imprint for ‘cheap and nasty’ products. Things that are a bit more experimental, silly or “hit and miss” where a lot of money can’t be spent or risked on a bit of an ‘out there’ idea. If you see that marker, you know you’re getting something a little ‘wacky’ or uncertain, but you will probably get some fun out of it.
Schlocktoberfest
The Pulps were churned out at a massive rate of knots. Strange and silly ideas thrown at the wall to see what stuck. Occasionally some of those ideas turned out to have legs – legs that are still carrying them nearly a hundred years later. My intent with Schlocktoberfest (previously just a sale some years back) is to just throw a bunch of monsters, ideas and other bits and pieces at the ‘wall’ and see what sticks. Maybe something will.