Sex & Games

(Disclaimer: To my knowledge there has never been a rigorous business analysis of this game, so much of what follows is conjecture. I invite discussion from those with alternate hypotheses or more acute knowledge about the situation to respond here or on our forums.)

Lesson 1: Understand your genre demographics.

xXxenophile targeted a market where the majority of players were either under 18, or else adults who regularly played games with kids who were under 18. The number of players who could buy this game and expect to play it regularly was vanishingly small.

Sex games have the unfortunate disadvantage of having to cater to TWO target markets: sexuality, and the genre of the game itself. If you want to make a sexy FPS game, or RTS, or MMOG, or what have you, you had best look at who is playing those games. If most of the target market is kids, then you MIGHT be lucky enough to have found a niche where a lot of adults would be interested if only someone would make a more adult title of that game genre... but more likely, you'll find that very few people who would hear about your game would want to play it.

Lesson 2: Respect your genre.

By the time xXxenophile was released, it was established that CCG players overwhelmingly perferred to not wager or lose their cards in a game. But this game required 'ante' of every card in your deck, and in fact it was practically impossible not to end up with your deck and your opponent's hopelessly mixed up by the end of the game. While this did allow the rulebook to quip that "you're playing with everyone your opponent has ever played with" (and my personal addition, "...unless you use protection in the form of card sleeves"), the basic rules of the game made it unappealing for most CCG players.

If you're entering an established genre with a sexy game, you should have some idea of why that genre is popular among its enthusiasts, and what expectations your players will have of gameplay. If you make a sexy FPS game, you'd better have a variety of weapons. If you're working on a sexy RPG, there should be some form of levelling your character. Otherwise you risk losing the few hardcore genre addicts who would be willing to give you a try.

Lesson 3: Understand how people play your game.

xXxenophile included some cards that required players to remove articles of their own clothing (or forfeit the game). This made the game impractical for casual play with platonic friends, and downright impossible for gaming conventions or even play in a local game store or other public venue.

If you expect people to play your game in a private setting, loud sounds and music on the title screen are going to call attention to the player, who will then proceed to quit before they start. If you need an online (or local) community to form around your game, find and eliminate any aspect of your game that forces people to play privately. If there is a mismatch between your game's rules and the way people play it, you're in trouble.

Lesson 4: Have a good reason for your game's existence.

xXxenophile should never have been a CCG. There's nothing about its game mechanics that were CCG-like -- aside from the forced ante, the cards you put in your constructed deck didn't really matter since all the cards became community property during the game. As such, the "metagame" that surrounds most CCGs was nonexistent in this one.

In fact, it was later reprinted in non-collectible (and G-rated) form, under the name "Girl Genius: the Works" where it continues to do better in the hobby game market than the CCG market.

Don't just take a popular game genre and slap sex on it with the expectation of sales. Don't just add sex to your existing game with the hope that sex will make everything better. Normally, sex will fragment your market and reduce your total sales, unless there's a REALLY good reason why it's in there.