Move over World of Warcraft and Ultima, there’s a new player in town.
Jolt just announced pre-registration for Playboy Manager, a new “Massively Casual Online Game” (MCOG) title based around the life of a sportscar-driving, big-spending Playboy. In the game, you’ll play a crack talent agent controlling the career direction of Playboy’s newest up-and-coming stars, with the ultimate goal of getting them permanent lodging in the prestigious Playboy Mansion.
Just kidding, World of Warcraft and Ultima. You can resume regular activity.
From the sound of it, Playboy Manager is a thinly-veiled excuse for spending computer time staring at bikini-clad women – the simplest, most thoughtless form of gaming idea ever conceived. With at least half-decent gameplay and plenty of skin, though, I guess Jolt is hoping it can be a potential hit for the same young male demographic that products like Maxim and Spike TV draw their profits out of.
According to the developer, players will work to “drive the finest cars, throw the biggest parties, and encounter the world’s sexiest women” in the game. While many have attempted to bring similar male adolescent fantasies to the gaming platform, implementation for this type of thing is really difficult.
From what we can make of it, Playboy Manager is essentially a SIM game, with the sexy pictures hopefully making up for the lack of battlefield action that makes games addicting. I really have a problem picturing 18-and-over guys playing this in any sustained way – casual games and SIMs just aren’t predominantly male territory.
I’m predicting a bust when the game does roll out during the summer.
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