The San Francisco Examiner website gave Porn & Pong: How Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider and Other Sexy Games Changed Our Culture a hearty thumbs-up:

“Porn & Pong is a fascinating look at the history of pornography in video games and modern media… If you have any interest in history, you’ll find Porn & Pong a fascinating and enjoyable read.”

Check out the entire review at Examiner.com.

Popular Science calls Porn & Pong “A surprising gift that will get the video game-obsessed 20-something man in your life away from the TV.” You can catch the whole review at the Popular Science blog.

For the latest issue of the popular UK pub games Magazine, Features Editor Matt Handrahan and I had a great (late-night) conversation about sexual relationships in video games, the importance of iPorn and, of course, Porn & Pong. Click on the pages below to read the interview.

The magazine available at your favorite bookstore through December!

The review is in: Publishers Weekly, the main book industry trade publication, gives Porn & Pong a thumbs up:

Porn and Pong: How Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider and other Sexy Games Changed Our Culture
Damon Brown. Feral House (Consortium, dist.), $15 paper (160p) ISBN 9781932595369
Brown, a journalist for Playboy and The New York Post, maps the course of sex in video games from the Atari era to the present in this slim, fun read. Asserting that video games fulfill the cultural need for “dark sexual thrills,” Brown’s roving (occasionally rambling) exploration looks at the young medium in context and finds that, even in its infancy, video games were already as influential, potentially dangerous, and worthy of dissection as any other art. The first mainstream porno game, 1982′s “Custer’s Revenge” for the Atari 2600, spurred debate over the non-consensual nature of its crudely depicted virtual sex, culminating in crowds of protesters, lawsuits against the publisher, and the sexual assault of a Native American woman by thugs verbally invoking the game. Despite his graphic description of games many may find abhorrent, Brown comes off as neither a libertarian geek nor a moral custodian, and he keeps his history lively with personalities like Toby Gard, designer of video gaming’s all-time “It Girl,” Lara Croft. The talented programmer’s admission that “maybe subconsciously, [Lara Croft] was my sister” is just one of the quirky insights Brown unearths, revealing the digital artistry and skewed lust that fuel the industry’s ever-expanding reach: in erotic content, artistic merit and culture at large. (Nov.)

Pick up Porn & Pong as the perfect stocking stuffer for your favorite gamer, techie or pop culture lover.

The book signings continue! Catch me in Los Angeles on Friday, November 14th.

November 14, 2008

Freddy & Eddy

Book reading and signing, 8 pm

Come by, get your book signed and say hi! Fellow sex culture writer Regina Lynn had a great book signing at Freddy and Eddy there earlier this year.

Also, on Saturday, November 15, Jon M. Gibson – who wrote the awesome Foreword to Porn & Pong – will be having a signing for his annual Nerdcore calendar at Golden Apple comics. Info will be up soon on the Nerdcore website. I will be there as well. I wouldn’t miss it, as last year was a blast.

Finally, PlanetOut/Gay.com has run a hot excerpt from Porn & Pong. Check it out.

Sirius listeners,

Catch me on Maxim Radio today at 2 pm EST/11 am PST for the Level-Up video game show. Host Scott Pitek and me will be talking about – what else – Porn & Pong. It should be a fun discussion!

Sidebar: My critically-acclaimed Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Satellite Radio is still the only Sirius/XM book out there. Whaaaat? Check it out to learn about the best music option available today.

Salon interview

I had a fun interview with Salon.com. Check it out.

There are also some interesting Porn & Pong reviews from Heroine Shiek, Audacia Ray’s Live Girl Blog, Christian blog Covenant Eyes (!) and Crispy Gamer. Thanks for talking a look.

Also, I’m on the road with Porn & Pong! Hitting East Lansing this week and Chicago next. Check out the “Appearances” tab above. Come by, grab a signed book and say hi!

Two clubs. Lingerie theme. Video games. Signed books. Sexy swag. Excellent bar. Enough said.

PLACE: Sugar and The Cellar

LOCATION: 685 Sutter St., San Francisco, CA

DATE AND TIME: September 26th, 9 pm – 2 am

ATTIRE: Lingerie or sexy attire for women, sharp looking clothes for men

On Facebook? RSVP. We’ll make sure you get in!

Not in San Francisco? We’ll be hitting East Lansing, Chicago, LA, New York and more cities very soon – check out a regularly updated list of cities here.

The critically-acclaimed art exhibit i am 8-bit opens tonight in LA! Jon M. Gibson, co-creator of the Nerdcore calendars, is curating the fourth annual tribute to video game-inspired art. (Above is one of my favorites, an ode to Pac-Man by artist Nathan Stapley.)

i am 8-bit
Opening Night Extravaganza
August 14, 2008
8 p.m. to Midnight

World of Wonder Storefront Gallery
6650 Hollywood Blvd
Hollywood, Cali.

More information is available at the i am 8-bit website.

You can also read Jon’s saucy foreword to Porn & Pong when the book hits stores early October.

Thousands descended on LA this week for the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, the largest video game trade conference in America. It is essentially a three day preview of every hot video game coming out in the upcoming year. The best way to describe E3: Imagine Las Vegas, except every slot, stripper and steakhouse is replaced with a video game. It’s also apt that, after two days of overstimulation, you’re ready to go home. (As I, no doubt, will be by the end of today.) 

E3 has changed quite a bit over the last ten years, however. There was a steady build of attendees, blooming from a couple dozen to more than 50,000 in 2005 (composed mostly of industry colleagues and “friends of friends” who managed to sneak in). Like the industry itself, it was male focused: To promote a game, one company had strippers performing at the parking lot across from the convention center. In 2006, organizers the Electronic Software Association banned “booth babes,” and in 2007 turned invitation only, shredding the attendance down to about 3,000. It also relocated the conference to a strange string of hotels along Santa Monica pier. It was a mess, at least logistically.

This year is a return to form, sort of. Attendance is probably around five or six thousand, but it’s back in the spacious Los Angeles Convention Center.

And the booth babes still haven’t returned, so the sex has to be interpreted through the screen.

Lara Croft, Leisure Suit Larry and Grand Theft Auto will all be coming back this fall. I’ll post my thoughts after I get my hands on them.