From seemagazine.com:

The first thing freelance journalist Damon Brown admits is that an entire book about porn and videogames is kind of an awkward sell. Most people don’t think those two industries have much in common, but over his years covering sex and technology for Playboy and the New York Post, he learned that that assumption was wrong. For one thing, the modern porn and videogame industries both started around the same time, in the early ’70s, both grew into billion-dollar operations, and both of them have irrevocably changed North American culture. Or at least, that’s the thesis of Brown’s new book, Porn & Pong: How Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider, and Other Sex Games Changed Our Culture.

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From alternet.org:

The following is an excerpt from Porn and Pong: How Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider and Other Sexy Games Changed Our Culture by Damon Brown, published by Feral House.

The camera zooms in on a perky young woman. She looks to be in her late twenties, perhaps early thirties, and she starts talking to you about her first date: how the restaurant had to kick them out because they talked until it closed, how she looked in his eyes and could tell he was the one for her, about that instant spark, you know, the spark you feel when you click — connect — with someone. The distant strains of Natalie Cole’s "Everlasting Love" — also used in the Diane Lane movie "Must Love Dogs" and other modern divorcee-looking-for-love films — begin to swell in the background.

Her husband (see the ring flashing as he’s gesturing?) is now talking to you about the same incident, but he has a different, complimentary interpretation. A grey-haired, honey-voiced old man begins talking to you. His face seems to take up the whole TV screen. Aren’t you tired of dating, he asks. "Find your soul-mate." He tells you that eHarmony uses scientific data to match people together. There is a science, founder Dr. Neil Clark Warren implies, a science to chemistry, something his company eHarmony analyzes and gives to its subscribers.

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From salon.com:

"From the prostitutes of “Grand Theft Auto” to cutting-edge teledildonics, sex has fueled the gaming industry, as the author of “Porn & Pong” explains.

In 1972, our sexual landscape was forever changed by the release of two pop-culture legends: the skin flick “Deep Throat” and, months later, the arcade game “Pong.” Since then, pornography has greatly influenced how sex and sexuality are explored in gaming, which in just three decades has ballooned into a $18.85 billion industry. From early ’80s sleaze fests like “Leisure Suit Larry” to the porny moans of pneumatic “Tomb Raider” heroine Lara Croft to the teledildonics that are changing the way we have — and think of — sex, video games have evolved with an understanding that humans crave sexual interaction, whether with a virtual character or a fellow human with high-speed Internet."

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From lansingstatejournal.com:

"Old Town Lansing, Michigan ? McDonald’s has “Fast Food Nation”, the fish industry has “Cod”, but no book has successfully weaved the cautionary tales and humorous history of the world of video games into our modern society . . . until now.

In Porn & Pong: How Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider and Other Sexy Games Changed Our Culture, Playboy Magazine journalist Damon Brown spent five years exploring how the $20 billion video game industry traces our evolution in sexual mores, technological independence and personal interaction."

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