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Violence is a staple of computer games but sex rarely gets a look in. "Thank goodness", say the moral guardians but as I argue, its absence underlines the adolescence of the games industry.
Considering the demographic of gamers (at least those of the non-Nintendo variety), the lack of sex in videogames is staggering. Males aged 17 to 25 the most sexually active part of the population: their magazines are filled with semi-naked girls, their bedroom walls are plastered with Jordan and Kelly Brook. Movies cater to their hormones with output ranging from the off-colour jism jokes from There's Something About Mary to the gratuitous flesh scenes slotted into James Bond flicks. In contrast, gamers are promised Lara Croft's boobs but all they get is a view of her a**e.
Of course, by its nature interactive entertainment is a different beast to other media. In movies, TV and books, the audience is one step removed from the protagonists - there is a moral distance that is not available when controlling an onscreen character. This doesn't have any impact in terms of how much violence games contain however. Head shots, gore zones, and severed limbs are part and parcel of the gamers' experience and game designers' palette. Extreme violence is a commodity that sells. And while violence is exciting for the player, it makes things easy for developers too. Game pacing can be easily controlled - just vary the number of enemies or their strength attributes to make a game harder. Players don't even have to worry what to do. 'If it moves shoot it' is the order of the day.
Nomad Soul is one of the best examples of the non-exploitative and plot-driven use of sex in a game. Early in the game, the player who has entered the body of Kayl, a man from another time and place, arrives at his home. He discovers that Kayl is married to the foxy Telis, who proceeds to take full advantage of her conjugal rights. This scene had a serious goal to it: build Telis' character and create the relationship between her and Kayl. Later in the game, you will need to save her from death. This initial scene built the player's motivations and reinforces the story.
What some people didn't like about the game was that it showed adults in their intimacy. I think this was more shocking to people than sex itself. Interestingly, both characters remained clothed throughout. Other scenes in the game were set in a red light district, including sex shops and strip bars. These strip bars contained lap dancers who are semi-naked, and just like the Tomb Raider games hackers developed a patch to strip them including Telis in her love scene. Kinky! This simply makes you think that sex isn't the problem, feelings are.
The significant issue is that most of the world has adopted American morality when dealing with computer games content. Violence (to any degree) is totally acceptable but sex, drugs and blasphemy are totally out of the question.
Still, creating games with sexual content is a difficult task for developers. Take Sex N Drugs N Rock N Roll for an example. This was a game which included sexual content and was supposed to be released, but due to gaming difficulties and the lack of effort to create an appropriate look, it was cancelled. Obviously, subtle body movement and language is a lot harder to create than blowing someone's arm off with a Kalashnikov. If you are playing a game where you spend a lot of time chatting up a woman, you have to judge how she is responding to you by the small expression movements on her face. The more realistic the model, the more subtlety our brain will expect.
But as strange as it may seem, perhaps the best hope for pushing the boundaries of the sexual content of games is The Sims. One of the first things you find in the tutorial of the game is that Bella Goth (your character) is rather free with her favours and is easily seduced from her husband. Seeing if you can make the other wives jealous is very much part of the game and this social dynamic was the reason for so many women being attracted to the game.
EA is preparing to release an add-on pack for the game called The Sims' Hot Date in which the standard in game options such as talk, joke and flirt are replaced with those of a more saucy variety. Post-date, the Sims can invite their would be partners back home to experience the joys of cuddle couch, love tub or lover's swing. Sadly, the aim of the pack is limited to getting the Sims to marry or move into together. Procreation remains an unavailable option.
Yet, if computer games are ever going to become a truly mass-market entertainment medium, let alone an art form, developers and publishers will have to radically change their attitude towards sex. And as part of this, they will also have to rethink the importance of the tools of great storytelling such as plot and characterisation. It's significant that many of the games that have been more mature about relationships and sex demonstrate their creators understand the difference between well-rounded characters and those that just have big breasts. Sadly, while its audience grows out of backseat fumblings and one night stands into something more fulfilling, most game developers have yet to make that leap.
Thanks for reading
Rld
Considering the demographic of gamers (at least those of the non-Nintendo variety), the lack of sex in videogames is staggering. Males aged 17 to 25 the most sexually active part of the population: their magazines are filled with semi-naked girls, their bedroom walls are plastered with Jordan and Kelly Brook. Movies cater to their hormones with output ranging from the off-colour jism jokes from There's Something About Mary to the gratuitous flesh scenes slotted into James Bond flicks. In contrast, gamers are promised Lara Croft's boobs but all they get is a view of her a**e.
Of course, by its nature interactive entertainment is a different beast to other media. In movies, TV and books, the audience is one step removed from the protagonists - there is a moral distance that is not available when controlling an onscreen character. This doesn't have any impact in terms of how much violence games contain however. Head shots, gore zones, and severed limbs are part and parcel of the gamers' experience and game designers' palette. Extreme violence is a commodity that sells. And while violence is exciting for the player, it makes things easy for developers too. Game pacing can be easily controlled - just vary the number of enemies or their strength attributes to make a game harder. Players don't even have to worry what to do. 'If it moves shoot it' is the order of the day.
Nomad Soul is one of the best examples of the non-exploitative and plot-driven use of sex in a game. Early in the game, the player who has entered the body of Kayl, a man from another time and place, arrives at his home. He discovers that Kayl is married to the foxy Telis, who proceeds to take full advantage of her conjugal rights. This scene had a serious goal to it: build Telis' character and create the relationship between her and Kayl. Later in the game, you will need to save her from death. This initial scene built the player's motivations and reinforces the story.
What some people didn't like about the game was that it showed adults in their intimacy. I think this was more shocking to people than sex itself. Interestingly, both characters remained clothed throughout. Other scenes in the game were set in a red light district, including sex shops and strip bars. These strip bars contained lap dancers who are semi-naked, and just like the Tomb Raider games hackers developed a patch to strip them including Telis in her love scene. Kinky! This simply makes you think that sex isn't the problem, feelings are.
The significant issue is that most of the world has adopted American morality when dealing with computer games content. Violence (to any degree) is totally acceptable but sex, drugs and blasphemy are totally out of the question.
Still, creating games with sexual content is a difficult task for developers. Take Sex N Drugs N Rock N Roll for an example. This was a game which included sexual content and was supposed to be released, but due to gaming difficulties and the lack of effort to create an appropriate look, it was cancelled. Obviously, subtle body movement and language is a lot harder to create than blowing someone's arm off with a Kalashnikov. If you are playing a game where you spend a lot of time chatting up a woman, you have to judge how she is responding to you by the small expression movements on her face. The more realistic the model, the more subtlety our brain will expect.
But as strange as it may seem, perhaps the best hope for pushing the boundaries of the sexual content of games is The Sims. One of the first things you find in the tutorial of the game is that Bella Goth (your character) is rather free with her favours and is easily seduced from her husband. Seeing if you can make the other wives jealous is very much part of the game and this social dynamic was the reason for so many women being attracted to the game.
EA is preparing to release an add-on pack for the game called The Sims' Hot Date in which the standard in game options such as talk, joke and flirt are replaced with those of a more saucy variety. Post-date, the Sims can invite their would be partners back home to experience the joys of cuddle couch, love tub or lover's swing. Sadly, the aim of the pack is limited to getting the Sims to marry or move into together. Procreation remains an unavailable option.
Yet, if computer games are ever going to become a truly mass-market entertainment medium, let alone an art form, developers and publishers will have to radically change their attitude towards sex. And as part of this, they will also have to rethink the importance of the tools of great storytelling such as plot and characterisation. It's significant that many of the games that have been more mature about relationships and sex demonstrate their creators understand the difference between well-rounded characters and those that just have big breasts. Sadly, while its audience grows out of backseat fumblings and one night stands into something more fulfilling, most game developers have yet to make that leap.
Thanks for reading
Rld
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Stephen Allred wrote:
> Reload wrote:
(at least those of the non-Nintendo variety)
*cough*
> "wrong" *cough*
Just because we like nintendo dosen't mean we are
> like other males!
arn't. sorry
mumble... i never gonna live this down ...mumble
> Reload wrote:
(at least those of the non-Nintendo variety)
*cough*
> "wrong" *cough*
Just because we like nintendo dosen't mean we are
> like other males!
arn't. sorry
mumble... i never gonna live this down ...mumble
Reload wrote:
(at least those of the non-Nintendo variety)
*cough* "wrong" *cough*
Just because we like nintendo dosen't mean we are like other males!
(at least those of the non-Nintendo variety)
*cough* "wrong" *cough*
Just because we like nintendo dosen't mean we are like other males!
Copied or not, it was interesting. Games are all too willing to blow people apart, but sex in games is unheard of - in this country.
Shoddy example, I know, but Primal Image on the PS2. A Japan release only, involved you manipulating girls into positions and taking photos of them. Why did this not get a UK release? Also, Bloody Roar 3. The Jap version had a debug mode that gave you a similar scenario, but it was cut for the UK release.
Why? Are the british regarded as this island of Mary Whitehouses? Do we sit at home and drink tea, watch 'enders and go to bed in seperate beds from our partners? In Father Ted maybe, but I speak for myself and many others that us brits are just as liberated as the best of them (exept the germans).
Cutting games for our land for sexual content is not on. Cutting games for anywhere is not on. If a game is released with features in another country then we should get them too - sexual or not.
Though the gaming community is generally regarded as kids (not just nintys) the games will be made to represent their presumed audience. Violence gets through this, as parents have no quarms about showing their teenage kid Die Hard, but wouldnt dare show them Debbie Does Dallas. What the industry now has to realise is that because the kids who were brought up in the 16 bit era have grown up yet are still gaming, games do not have to be restricted to kiddie themes.
With the event of GTA3 getting an official 18 rating, it might be sooner than you think. In the meantime, SR do a bargain of The Erotic Witch Project.....
:)
Shoddy example, I know, but Primal Image on the PS2. A Japan release only, involved you manipulating girls into positions and taking photos of them. Why did this not get a UK release? Also, Bloody Roar 3. The Jap version had a debug mode that gave you a similar scenario, but it was cut for the UK release.
Why? Are the british regarded as this island of Mary Whitehouses? Do we sit at home and drink tea, watch 'enders and go to bed in seperate beds from our partners? In Father Ted maybe, but I speak for myself and many others that us brits are just as liberated as the best of them (exept the germans).
Cutting games for our land for sexual content is not on. Cutting games for anywhere is not on. If a game is released with features in another country then we should get them too - sexual or not.
Though the gaming community is generally regarded as kids (not just nintys) the games will be made to represent their presumed audience. Violence gets through this, as parents have no quarms about showing their teenage kid Die Hard, but wouldnt dare show them Debbie Does Dallas. What the industry now has to realise is that because the kids who were brought up in the 16 bit era have grown up yet are still gaming, games do not have to be restricted to kiddie themes.
With the event of GTA3 getting an official 18 rating, it might be sooner than you think. In the meantime, SR do a bargain of The Erotic Witch Project.....
:)
I am the Tarrant wrote:
Well done er.. Reload is it? It'd better
> be otherwise this post is going to look real stupid.
It'as all right Tarrant, we're used to your posts looking real stupid....
:-)
Well done er.. Reload is it? It'd better
> be otherwise this post is going to look real stupid.
It'as all right Tarrant, we're used to your posts looking real stupid....
:-)
Mr.Snuggly wrote:
> If I paste this into a search engine, will I get results? Will I? Did you copy
> this?
Search all you like 'cos I know it ain't copied and that's that!
> If I paste this into a search engine, will I get results? Will I? Did you copy
> this?
Search all you like 'cos I know it ain't copied and that's that!
Meka_Dragon wrote:
> Reload wrote:
> No sex please, we're gamers
Speak for yourself.
Just a catchy title with no personal meaning thank you very much!
:)
> Reload wrote:
> No sex please, we're gamers
Speak for yourself.
Just a catchy title with no personal meaning thank you very much!
:)
I started reading. I didn't smile/laugh/crawl into fit of hysteria within 10 seconds, so I stopped.
I'm going to use this rule all the time now. Will make things a lot easier.
I'm going to use this rule all the time now. Will make things a lot easier.
Reload wrote:
> No sex please, we're gamers
Speak for yourself.
> No sex please, we're gamers
Speak for yourself.
Mr.Snuggly wrote:
If I paste this into a search engine, will I get results? Will I? Did you copy this?
Snuggly, that's not the right attitude I want to hear. But like they say, 'Trust no-one' and 'The truth is out there'.....
*Cough* Copied reviews *Cough*
If I paste this into a search engine, will I get results? Will I? Did you copy this?
Snuggly, that's not the right attitude I want to hear. But like they say, 'Trust no-one' and 'The truth is out there'.....
*Cough* Copied reviews *Cough*
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