Tech Blotter: An Even Sexier Video Game

Dec. 19, 2005 — -- America's video gamers get "Naughty," submarines get personal and a new skateboard gets rid of the board. It's all right here in this week's edition of the "Tech Blotter."

Ready to Get Naughty, America?

As if the video gaming community didn't already have enough lonely men who ogle women in the real world, now they can do it in a virtual one as well!

"Naughty America: The Game" is an online video game world that has traded in the picturesque landscapes, sword fights and blacksmiths of online adventure games like World of Warcraft and Everquest, for a gritty city scene filled with dark alleyways and sex shops.

The game is targeted at the adult gaming and dating crowd, and includes such features as in-game dating and instant messaging, shops where you can buy clothing for your virtual self and -- for the adventurous -- a "sex mode."

"Players can have sex with each other in a multitude of positions and in lots of steamy locations," the game's Web site boasts. "Group sex, public sex, sex parties -- you name it!"

For those players that want to take experience out of cyberspace and into their real lives, there's a Web cam option they can turn on to get up close and personal.

"Aside from having sex and fooling around with others," the site says, "players can also take part in voyeuristic activities and even film their own sex deeds to watch later and show off to friends."

According to the Web site, players can get naughty starting in March 2006.

For the Secret Agent Who Has Everything

Great for making quick getaways from the subterranean lairs of criminal masterminds, or moving around Venice in stealth and style without wrinkling your tux, Exomos presents the personal submarine.

The company's sleek line of nine submersibles range from the one-man "Stingray," which looks like it was plucked right out of a James Bond movie, to the military-grade SPV -- Submersible Patrol Vessel -- built for up to 18 people.

Exomos creator Hervé Jaubert, is a naval and mechanical engineer who graduated from the French Naval Academy and, according to the company's Web site, sees the ocean as man's next great frontier.

"While Hervé envisions a not-too-distant future of submersible mass transit, underwater leisure and transportation systems," the site said, "he is driven to create innovative submersibles that open up an ocean of possibility and deliver childhood wonder to the 21st century grown-up."

Like a fancy restaurant that leaves the prices off the menus, Exomos' Web site doesn't list any prices. Assume they're expensive.

Skateboarding without the Skateboard?

Blurring the line between skateboards and roller skates, Freeline skates could be the next best way to scrape, bruise or break an appendage.

They're made of two aluminum platforms, each outfitted with two custom-made polyurethane wheels. The rider places one foot on each platform like a roller skate without the shoe, and rides it like a skateboard -- weaving in and out to gain momentum.

"We have been Skateboarding, Surfing and Snowboarding most of our lives," says Freeline skates' inventor Ryan Farrelly on the Web site. "We plug into one of these outlets to get charged up. It's a feeling. Freeline Skates bring all of our favorite sports together in an amazing way."

A basic set-up of two skates, "traditional" skateboard grip-tape, 72M custom grade polyurethane wheels and ABEC 5 bearings costs $129.00 at www.freelineskates.com.