ON WIRES AND PUMPS: PERSUASIVE GAMES TALKS JETSET, APP STORE OPACITY
G4TV have posted a new interview with Persuasive Games’ Ian Bogost taking a deeper look at the development process of their recently mentioned location-aware iPhone airport security parody Jetset, giving Bogost some air-time to not only express some frustration with the opacity (or lack thereof) of Apple’s approval process (and thusly explaining the late-January appearance of a snowglobe), but also its selectiveness on just what the company deems ‘offensive’:
Their first gripe was about what they claimed was offensive sexual content in the game, which amounted to a couple things that we had included based on these stories.
There was this guy in Chicago a couple years ago, who had this penis pump that he was trying to take in a carry on. Someone asked him what it was, and they thought he said it was a bomb, or he was joking and he said it was a bomb. And there was this kind of international story about this whole thing because it was funny but also it really highlighted the kind of embarrassment of having a personal item exposed to the world. And so that was one that they were uncomfortable with.
We had also included a woman’s underwire bra, because there’s just a whole mess of stories about the underwire in women’s brassieres setting off certain metal detectors when their sensitivity is raised. And this has led to actually quite a large number of complaints about, you know, inappropriate groping by agents. So these are two items that Apple found offensive I guess. And you know, the thing about the penis pump, is that yeah ok maybe it’s a little off-color, but I can also buy Austin Powers on iTunes, which is just riddled with penis pumps and the consumer in that case is given the choice about what to think about that content, Apple’s not making it for them.
Despite the roadblocks Persuasive hit with the game, Bogost also makes note of two more forthcoming similarly news-worthy and “anti-panic” games coming to the platform later this year, via the link below.
The Making of an iPhone Game & Things That Make Apple Uncomfortable [G4tv.com]
Previously:
Touch me I'm slick: Persuasive Games' experimental Jetset – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
