Massively multiplayer online games are great, right? They give us excuses to roam around with elf ears, and to have sex with strangers sporting tails. Okay, they give us a lot more than that (freedom of exploration, new social environments, etc.) but let’s be honest: there hasn’t been much creative innovation on the design side of the MMO genre, despite its recent boom in popularity. Most games are still fantasy romps, casual puzzle collections, or places to hang out and sip virtual cocktails. All of which is well and good, but where’s the art in this art form?

With this Wednesday’s gripe in mind, I’d like to officially join the ranks of games journalists who are psyched about a new game called Lila Dreams. It’s a small scale MMO–like, we’re talking so small it’s being made by three people–that takes place inside the imagination of an eleven-year-old girl. In an interview with Wired’s Game/Life, designer Jason McIntosh explained the “big threat” of the game will be “a darkness which literally surrounds the world, constantly encroaching inward and eating away the landscape. But there is also going to be an array of strange creatures from Lila’s thoughts and nightmares with which to contend and befriend.” So far the game’s concept art definitely delivers on “strange creatures.” When Lila Dreams is ready, hopefully later this year, it’ll be available to play free online from publisher Kongregate games.

It’s hard to tell yet whether such a small game can make an impact on the MMO medium (with a great idea and a creative team, I’d like to think it can). To be honest though, I have ulterior analytical motives for being excited about Lila Dreams. Regular Heroine Sheik readers know I’m a sucker for the figure of the little girl in art. A large chunk of my undergraduate thesis was dedicated to the femme-enfant in French surrealism, and I’ve written about the subversive power of the girl-child in games. From an academic perspective, I’m not only looking forward to playing the game–which follows in the tradition of excellent titles like Odin Sphere, itself set inside the mind of a little girl–I’m also looking forward to picking it apart. Lila Dreams promises to be even riper for interpretation since, as an MMO, it’s bound to involve a lot of “feminine” and “child-like” exploration. In the meantime, let’s keep our eyes on this promising project, and continue drooling over its creepy concept art!

Here in France, I’ve been asked so many times about McDonald’s, it’s disgraceful. One of the first things new students always want to know–after stating unquestioningly “You are American. You love McDo!”–is, “Your hamburgers are very big, yes?” At this point they hold out their arms to simulate a hamburger large enough to house a small family of bunnies. “No, our hamburgers are the same size as yours” I say, shaking my head (who knows where they got that idea), about to deliver the news that really blows their minds. “Besides, I’m vegetarian.”

Just as often as they confront me about McDonald’s–the irony being, of course, that my students love McDo far more than any American teens I’ve ever known–the French go on mini rants about obesity in America. Even if they’ve never set foot on American soil, they insist they know the reason why we’re all so fat (comparatively, it’s true: you see a whole lot less excess pudge here in the south of France). We snack too much; our portions are too large; we live inside fast food restaurants. Granted, we Americans don’t abide by super strict rules about when to eat, like the French, who’ll stop you in the street if they see you eating an apple at four o’clock to tell you it’s not dinner time. But try and explain that American obesity is a complicated issue that involves socioeconomic factors, and all they do is smile condescendingly and eye your love handles.

Which brings me to Fatworld. Fatworld is the newest title from Ian Bogost’s studio Persuasive Games, and it’s all about American nutrition and obesity. You can expect a full article on the subject from yours truly up on The Village Voice site soon, but it the meantime I’ll say this: it’s a sim that lets players experience what it’s like to balance weight, money, food choices, time for exercise, and all the other issues that go into being a stick or having a belly like a bowl full of jelly. Fatworld, like all of Bogost’s games, aims to make an argument: that nutrition as an issue is more complicated than we think. My point is, maybe it’s not just Americans who should be playing the game. International perspectives on U.S. obesity are just as skewed–if not more so–than ones back home. Granted, the French aren’t the ones with the weight problem, but at the least they could stop asking me about my presumed love for enormous hamburgers…

The cybersex addiction Click Me, promised and promptly not delivered last week, is now up at the Voice–honest and truly. Is cybersex addiction an actual risk, or just a bunch of sensationalist silliness? See for yourself!

In Bonnie news this week, I put together a reading list of books on the topic of sex & gender in games. I mentioned last week that I’m thinking of writing a book of my own on the subject–a sort of “games studies meet sex & gender studies” monograph. In the meantime, I figured I’d share my research of what’s already out there with you. If you can think any more titles to add to the list, speak up!

-Brenda Brathwaite’s Sex in Video Games
-Justine Cassel and Henry Jenkins’ From Barbie to Mortal Combat: Gender and Computer Games
-Mia Consalvo’s “Hot Dates and Fairy-tale Romance: Studying Sexuality in Video Games” (from The Video Game Theory Reader)
-Sheri Graner Ray’s Gender Inclusive Game Design: Expanding the Market
-Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky’s Lara Croft: Cyber Heroine

Not surprisingly, the list is shorter than it was for cybersex texts. All the more reason why yours truly needs to get off her butt and write this book!

“Fantasies are a way of rewriting childhood history, sometimes to wreak revenge on abusive or absent adults, sometimes to sanitise memories of them. A woman was attacked from behind as a small girl by her mother, who smashed her head into a glass table. As an adult, her fantasy is about having her breasts caressed by a faceless stranger who reaches over her head.”

This report from The Economist gives us a glimpse at the insights and fascinating accounts waiting in a new book called Who’s Been Sleeping in Your Head: The Secret World of Sexual Fantasies. Based on five years of research into people’s sexual fantasies by author Brett Kahr–including over 18,000 surveys in the United States and Britain–this “sympathetic, witty and erudite” text doesn’t just ask what we fantasize about (apparently intense, violent, disturbing things, surprisingly or not), but also why we fantasize about them. As a sub obsessed with the idea that masochism has power, I’m of course psyched to read anything by a man who understands how the form of our desire can also be a form of our taking control. Seriously, why aren’t I reading this book right now?

Also in the news this week, we’ve got a column by Regina about Kink.com and abbeywinters.com–two “non-fake” porn sites where you can still catch sexy action without all the boob jobs and pretend orgasms of big business pornography. Plus there’s a cool experiment going on Grand Text Auto, i.e. word and game dork central. Blogger Noah Wardrip-Fruin has foregone a traditional peer review for his latest book, Expressive Processing, and is instead publishing it piece by piece on the site, where the Grand Text Auto community can help review it. I can’t say it sounds like the funnest way to spend a Friday evening, but it’s an interesting way to test the relationship between online media and publishing.

When the news came out that the wispy, mildly busty Zelda of Smash Bros. Brawl was sporting brown hair instead of yellow, Joystiq mocked any/all potentially shocked fans. Granted, it seems off to get angry about the color of pixelated locks, but the princess of Hyrule has always been blond. So there! Then there’s the fact that in Twilight Princess, Link was rocking a similarly darkened do. It’s like a hair color conspiracy up in here. Seriously, what’s the deal, Nintendo?

Maybe these hair color changes were implemented just to switch things up, but maybe–just maybe–we can totally over-analyze them and draw crazy conclusion from them. So be it! We could say, for example, that Link’s brown hair in Twilight Princess was supposed to make him look older, more mature than other versions of Link–like Wink Waker Link, who’s distinctly and blindingly blond. Then again, the Link of Brawl is very grown-up looking, but also very yellow-haired. Similarly, Zelda’s brown hair might help to distinguish her aesthetically from Link. Of course, it makes sense that no two characters should look too much alike. But I prefer to think that the shift is really about not having a Zelda and Link who could be brother and sister. That way, there’s always the possibility they might still mack it mid-fight…

My biggest problem with this whole hair dying nonsense though is how–dear God, how–can Zelda’s hair be brown and Sheik’s hair be yellow? Either that’s some serious bad planning, or her cross-dressing outfit comes complete with blond bangs.

This week’s gripe day is dedicated to all the poor Smash Bros. fans of the Western world who have been teased and tortured time and again with the delay of Smash Bros. Brawl. Part of me feels your pain, people, but part of me is content to wait. I know that once Brawl comes out I’ll have to hone my Smash Bros. skills all over again. Years of training will be lost. And when it comes to being a girl playing a game like Brawl, you’ve got no choice but to be good. Otherwise you’re just that chick who can never pick up the Pokeballs in time. Ok, that’s me anywhere, but jeezie creezie they’re small.

Along with the exciting list of new Smash Bros. characters ,Heroine Sheik readers will be happy to see everyone’s favorite princess in drag is back for some ass-kicking action. Zelda is looking confuddling with her new brown (brown!?) hair, but Sheik seems as limber and lithe as ever. Maybe it’s no surprise she’s my personal choice when I play Smash Bros. Brawl should make things even more interesting if I’ll get to expose my cross-dressing crotch to Link like these Smash Bros. Dojo shots suggest…