Hitting the Club

Jeff Dunn

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Feb 29, 2012
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Hitting the Club

Strip clubs in gaming allow players to enter into one of reality?s taboo locales, for better or worse.

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thejackyl

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Apr 16, 2008
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Having been dragged to a strip club by friends of mine, I can tell you this much: You aren't missing out on anything. It might be the fact that I had blacked out halfway through the dance, but I just remember coming to and leaving the club... disappointed for a lack of a better word. It's hard to explain, but I feel I would have had a lot more fun at any other club doing pretty much anything else.

Maybe it's just the fact that I find it incredibly odd to be getting a lap dance from someone I don't even know, even more so when my friends paid someone to do it. I like to know someone a little before my dick gets involved.
 

Azuaron

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Mar 17, 2010
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This just makes me think of the Tales from the Trenches about stripping cops [http://trenchescomic.com/tales/post/too-funny-to-fix].
 

sinsfire

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Nov 17, 2009
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The only thing I would say is that they aren't always gratuitous in Video Games. I agree that ME2 was a bit much but in terms of GTA, your character is a seedy individual and as such has dealings with other seedy individuals. THe Strip Clubs provide a nexus for several missions and it helps to bring the world into a more realistic frame of reference.

Ok that was a bit of a soap box. Personally i don't really get titty bars and aside from the 2 i have been to in my life I have no real desire to go back. I don't tend to visit them in video games unless it helps the story (Roman really wanted to go to the Triangle Club), especially given the amount of real pornography that is available on the internet.
 

ascorbius

Numberwanger
Nov 18, 2009
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Strip Clubs in games are not really a staple of the games industry... They're not even that common. Why the issue?
As level design tropes, they're hardly up there with Lava levels or Sewers... I've never been in a sewer but they're nasty places.

You mention Mass Effect.. The clubs with dancing Asari which exist are in Chora's Den and on Omega - Both places represent the more Seedy parts of the Mass Effect Universe. Shepherd is not afraid to get his hands dirty to save the universe.

In the GTA series you play a gangster - Visiting a club is perhaps one of the less disturbing things you can do in the game. Run people over, Shoot civilians, Kill the Police, Partake in the services of Ladies of the Night- but watching girls dance in a Strip Club! For shame!

Duke just loves the boobies and he doesn't have many friends (lately) - give the big guy a break.

Off the top of my head, I can't think of any other game which forces you into that situation but I can name plenty where it's very very difficult not to kill people.

As a person who has visited several establishments where stunning women dance, I can state that the Asari are really very very tame in comparison and that personally my visits were entirely enjoyable, totally innocent and the women dancing earned every dollar purely by being awesome at their job.
 

Darks63

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Mar 8, 2010
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Most people arent missing much all you see is something you can see free of charge on the internet and after you wont feel angry at your member for talking you out of 60 bucks or more for lap dances and tips.
 

RobfromtheGulag

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May 18, 2010
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+1 for actual strip clubs generally not being as nice as the ones in games.
I think this may be part of the allure though. When guys think of strip clubs, they think of spotless exotically lit locations with unfailingly beautiful women dancing, just droves of them. An actual strip club will have.... none of these.

Strip clubs are very rarely the object of the game. It's usually just a setting, or even an optional setting. Again, I think it's a male fantasy to have sexy business going on in parallel with what they're doing. Hey, I have to save the universe, but if I happen to save the universe while nubile aliens pole dance in my vicininty, all the better.

I guess I'd like to hear from the female players on this one -- I don't think I'd be too enamoured to a chip'n'dale joint in an open world game, and would avoid it if at all possible.
 

Verlander

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Apr 22, 2010
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Strip clubs are alright I guess, in America they are insanely expensive (and a bit rubbish), but in the UK it's a laugh. As for the games, I'd argue that anything that added to the gameplay, story, atmosphere or dynamic experience is good... regardless of the questionable morals.

And really, in an entertainment industry where 80% of the releases will involve you to kill something at some point, I think that digital strip clubs are fairly low on the "morality" agenda
 

Clankenbeard

Clerical Error
Mar 29, 2009
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Go to a strip club. See what you can see. It is an event that should be experienced at least once by all redblooded men and women. I believe you have made the statement that they are legitimate businesses. RICK is the publicly traded stock for Rick's Cabaret, so it must be true.

I have been to a few, though I'm no expert. It is a spectacle of people watching. You certainly get to see (and likely touch) more of the ladies than in public venues. But for a drink, you can typically get some very interesting dialogue out of them. They are people and actually prefer to be treated as such. Well, some prefer to be treated as objects while on the clock. Wait. I'm digressing...back on topic.

I can honestly say that I haven't ventured into a video game strip club for my personal arrousal. I WILL say that I am always excited to duck in just to see what the developers have cooked up. How much would the game try to portray? Would it be so ridiculous as to leave me feeling that the devs have never been into a real life strip club? I'm there for the spectacle more than the sextackle.

For example: I spent a ton of extra time in Saints Row 3 exploring the brothel before freeing Zimos. There were a couple of rooms that weren't part of plot line that were hillarious. One had every square inch of wall space covered with dildos. There was a guy seated in a wooden crate that could only be described as a rubber maiden (the crate, not the guy). Another room was dedicated to fisting and had proshetic hands everywhere--a couple mounted motor/flywheel/linkage/piston style so the NPCs didn't have to tire themselves with manual effort.

"What's on your task list for game development today, Bob?"
"I'm working out the mechanics for the linkage on the fisting machine in that back room that maybe nobody will see except Clankenbeard."
"Excellent. It seems like a waste of time now, but I bet we'll get a post about it on The Escapist some day."
 

Yal

We are a rattlesnake
Dec 22, 2010
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My handful of strip club visits were uncomfortable experiences. Clubs in general are not my native habitat, and while naked ladies do make pretty much everything better, the sex-as-commerce implications are right up in your face along with everything else. Not my thing.

Video game strips clubs just don't hold their novelty for very long. She's just pixels, and while that means she comes with a lot less baggage, there's also a lot less excitement there. I think you could do a game where a strip club was genuinely integral to the experience, where it was an interesting and real place, but no game I can recall has ever made that sort of investment.
 

stupenderifous

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Aug 9, 2011
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After my play-through's of ME2, I have noticed that I would occasionally stop by the local dancer to unwind after a hard day of saving the universe (sometimes several times in a row). Christ, I never really thought about it until now but titillation was my way of rewarding myself in game.

Not too sure how to feel about that.
 

saintdane05

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Aug 2, 2011
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Strip clubs are like going off to watch a bunch of slutty Oompa Loompas go around and dance, then you get some horrible disease. Male ones are better.
 

MetalMagpie

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Jun 13, 2011
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RobfromtheGulag said:
I guess I'd like to hear from the female players on this one -- I don't think I'd be too enamoured to a chip'n'dale joint in an open world game, and would avoid it if at all possible.
One female player here. :)

Personally, I'm quite fond of them, because they almost never fail to make me smile. For starters, most attempts by video game animators to make a character model dance end up with a weird puppet-like motion (the dancers in Mass Effect 2 look like characters from The Sims). And the dialogue in such scenes is often so outrageously overboard that it becomes hilarious.

There's such a fine line between sexy and silly, and video games (whether intentionally or not) pretty much always land on the silly side. The introduction of Gloria in Devil May Cry 4 is one of my favourite cutscenes of all time, and continues to make me giggle no matter how many times I watch it. And the sex scene in the original Mass Effect made me laugh so hard I sprayed tea over my keyboard.

At the end of the day, strip joints often make a welcome change of scene from the rest of a game, and can lightened the tone considerably. As someone who gets bored quickly with grit-and-grime settings, anything to cheer up the mood is welcome.
 

Susan Arendt

Nerd Queen
Jan 9, 2007
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Clankenbeard said:
Go to a strip club. See what you can see. It is an event that should be experienced at least once by all redblooded men and women. I believe you have made the statement that they are legitimate businesses. RICK is the publicly traded stock for Rick's Cabaret, so it must be true.

I have been to a few, though I'm no expert. It is a spectacle of people watching. You certainly get to see (and likely touch) more of the ladies than in public venues.
You're not allowed to touch the girls (or boys) in the vast majority of US strip clubs. You will get thrown right the hell out if you try. You used to be able to touch them in Las Vegas, but I believe they were looking into changing that policy. They can touch you all they want, but you have to keep your hands to yourself. It's a safety thing.
 

Triaed

Not Gone Gonzo
Jan 16, 2009
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Well of course we get satisfaction from going to a nudie bar, whether a real one or a virtual one in a game. That is obvious. Gratuitous, like the violence in these games, but obvious.
Jeff, you should try going to one or ten prior to attempting writing on them.
 

NezumiiroKitsune

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Mar 29, 2008
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All the strip clubs I've been to, which is to say, all two, have had some things in common and aspects starkly contrasting what we find in video game strip clubs. The first was reminiscent more of the depictions found in Saints Row and GTA, but the second was much more aesthetically and atmospherically pleasing; very much a gentleman's club in the best of senses, leather armchairs and scotch were the order of the day, rather than sticky old wooden chairs, abrasive music, and watery lager. That's how they differ most substantially I suppose. Reality elicits different memories, from stimuli you can't find in games, or that isn't translated well. The smell, the other people (who in a game are often little more than blank avatars you'll happily mow down with an assault rifle as soon as you look at them), the sounds, the entire experience.

Have I thought about why I do it in games? Yeah, sure. I'm pretty comfortable with accepting I'm not a saint (puns), I'm not absolutely without perversions. I've been attracted to virtual representations of people before, and certainly personalities attributed to NPC's we get to know better, which has stemmed from being much younger than I am now, and getting these outlets wherever I could find them (this was prior to having gotten access to the internet at home, which wasn't till I was around 14). As an adult, I don't need these outlets anymore, and yet I roleplay a little and vicariously enjoy my characters thrill, what I believe is a healthy amount. I can take it or leave it.

I'm playing Saints Row 3 for the first time now, and have yet to enter a strip club through my own volition, but I remember playing Saints Row 2 on my PS3, and finding Shaundi interesting, and was quite annoyed by how she'd been changed in Saints Row 3. Girls with dreads is no bad thing THQ.
 

LazyAza

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May 28, 2008
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The thing I've never understood about strip clubs is say you go there specifically to watch a girl do her thing and before you know it you've got a raging boner, then what? you just sit there? As far as I'm aware its illegal for them to even offer to provide "relief" aka prostitution so I fail to see the point of the entire setup. If I'm going to go out somewhere for socializing and drinking I'm going to do it at a place where I'm not focusing on some pretty girl spinning on a metal rod in a poorly lit rank smelling environment.

So my assumption is that strip clubs exist specifically for old men who struggle to get it up who hate their lives/significant other and the ability to go oogle some younger lady they'd never have a chance with is some kind of mental compensation for their otherwise sad lives? Man the world is dumb.
 

Vault101

I'm in your mind fuzz
Sep 26, 2010
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ascorbius said:
You mention Mass Effect.. The clubs with dancing Asari which exist are in Chora's Den and on Omega - Both places represent the more Seedy parts of the Mass Effect Universe. Shepherd is not afraid to get his hands dirty to save the universe.
.
oggling assari dancers is hardly vital for whatever shepard is out to do

the Mass Effect clubs never really struck me as "strip" clubs specifically...since the asari dancers seem to be EVERYWHERE, even that less seedy citadel place in ME2, the darkstar lounge I think, it seems to be a standard thing alongside alchoholic beverages
 

Arkvoodle

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Dec 4, 2008
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"Strippers are liars. With hookers you at least get laid."


Don't know where I heard that but I think its true.
 

kburns10

You Gots to Chill
Sep 10, 2012
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Darks63 said:
Most people arent missing much all you see is something you can see free of charge on the internet and after you wont feel angry at your member for talking you out of 60 bucks or more for lap dances and tips.
AMEN. I would say go to a strip club once to experience it, but if you're smart, just pay to get it and don't take any more money than that. Sit back and watch. You can decide if you ever want to return from that.