Even though Phantasmagoria contains just a few minutes of sex and violence, CompUSA reviewed the game - in which a man possessed by an evil entity sexually assaults the main character - and decided not to stock it.
Regardless, the seven-CD-ROM set sold 300,000 units in its first weeks of release. Roberta Williams, who also designed Sierra On-Line's family-friendly King's Quest series, says she "relished the challenge of trekking through the darker recesses of our minds" when creating Phantasmagoria.
"Violence for violence's sake is bad," says Williams. "But violence that benefits a story is unavoidable. You can't eliminate it from real life, and you can't eliminate it from certain stories." Besides, adds Williams, in Phantasmagoria, "the player can make a choice between an equivalent R rating or a softer equivalent PG-13 rating." If you were a kid, which would you choose? Sierra On-Line: (800) 757 7707, +1 (206) 649 9800. -
Howard Wen
ELECTRIC WORD
Representative Barr Thwarts Louis the Lurker
Roberta's Nightmare
