The Implied Sex Cut Scene Has Got to Go

[Lauren Admire]

The Implied Sex Cut Scene Has Got to Go

Sex in videogames is often a passive experience, but how much would the experience improve if those cutscenes were playable?

Most developers avoid the playable sex scene for varying reasons: public outcry from protective parents, or to avoid an R rating. Michael Deneen, writer for The Escapist's issue 160, also sees another issue with the cut-scene sexplay. It can turn an otherwise emotional, compelling experience into porn.

[blockquote]If the goal is to create a meaningful emotional experience for the player, skipping the relationship in favor of instant gratification closely mimics the porn formula. Instead of a reward, sex becomes happenstance, which has the potential create ridiculous situations. Take away the consequences, and the player's actions become irrelevant to the world and progression of the game. Likewise, omit the character's personal status and you undermine the meaning of the encounter itself.[/blockquote]

Deneen goes on to explain how a videogame sex scene could be created that would avoid the dual pitfalls of being classified as a porn or sexist. Read more in "Pressing the Right Buttons," [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_160/5097-Pressing-the-Right-Buttons] and share your experiences with sex-scene gameplay with us.

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[Cherry Cola]

Oh, please yes.


Sex in video games is never artistic, so just drop the pretensions and be done with it.

Maybe it isn't artistic, but god damn does it show that Kratos is a badass!

Unless you fail... then he seems like a failure of a man who can't preform in bed and only over-compensates for stuff...

Sex is bad!

 

[IrrelevantTangent]

[blockquote]If the goal is to create a meaningful emotional experience for the player, skipping the relationship in favor of instant gratification closely mimics the porn formula. Instead of a reward, sex becomes happenstance, which has the potential create ridiculous situations. Take away the consequences, and the player's actions become irrelevant to the world and progression of the game. Likewise, omit the character's personal status and you undermine the meaning of the encounter itself.[/blockquote]

I agree with this wholeheartedly; honestly, I think the one game that did romance sidequests best was Mass Effect. In Mass Effect, you don't just engage the NPC and begin the 5-second-long cutscene; you have to start building a relationship with either of the two women, starting with basic 'flirting,' then just talking and finding out more about them and their lives, what kinds of people they are, and moving on to eventually making sexual advances.

It's a lot better and more realistic than Dragon Age Origins, where you talk to the NPC for a bit, shower him/her with gifts, and watch a five-second-long cutscene with horrendously Narmy [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Narm] music playing in the background.

 

[Amnestic]

[blockquote]If the goal is to create a meaningful emotional experience for the player, skipping the relationship in favor of instant gratification closely mimics the porn formula. Instead of a reward, sex becomes happenstance, which has the potential create ridiculous situations. Take away the consequences, and the player's actions become irrelevant to the world and progression of the game. Likewise, omit the character's personal status and you undermine the meaning of the encounter itself.[/blockquote]

I agree with this wholeheartedly; honestly, I think the one game that did romance sidequests best was Mass Effect. In Mass Effect, you don't just engage the NPC and begin the 5-second-long cutscene; you have to start building a relationship with either of the two women, starting with basic 'flirting,' then just talking and finding out more about them and their lives, what kinds of people they are, and moving on to eventually making sexual advances.

Really? I found the simplest way to bed Liara was to be nice to her every time a new conversation tree popped up. Didn't have to listen, just had to do the 'Nice' answer every time.

Slap, bang, whallop, three planets later adn we were in bed.

Also, there's the Asari Consort who sexes you if you act like a dick to her. Hardly required a built up relationship.

 

[T-Bone24]

Oh, please yes.


Sex in video games is never artistic, so just drop the pretensions and be done with it.

Hey, what about Mass Effect? That took time to get to know the other party and it was tastefully directed. Certainly quite mature, and yet it could discourage the same kind of thing in future games, what with the inconcievable controversy a tasteful sex scene got.

 

[megapenguinx]

Oh, please yes.


Sex in video games is never artistic, so just drop the pretensions and be done with it.

Correcto-mundo.
It's usually just thrown in as a gimmick that just raises hype for a game.
"Crap-tastic game has a sex scene?!?! DUDE WE HAVE TO BUY IT!"-15 year old child with no real concept of sex.
It's always sad to see developers throw in some sex or nudity to move units.

 

[slabomeat]

Why do they let us kill and steal, and not something that is legal and fun to do in real life?

 

[Wakefield]

Really? I found the simplest way to bed Liara was to be nice to her every time a new conversation tree popped up. Didn't have to listen, just had to do the 'Nice' answer every time.

Slap, bang, whallop, three planets later adn we were in bed.

Also, there's the Asari Consort who sexes you if you act like a dick to her. Hardly required a built up relationship.

Not really the games fault you didn't listen to her. It can't tell if your paying attention or not.

and yeah the Asari Consort "sexes" you if your a jerk, but she's basically a professional prostitute so there you go.

 

[YurdleTheTurtle]

[blockquote]If the goal is to create a meaningful emotional experience for the player, skipping the relationship in favor of instant gratification closely mimics the porn formula. Instead of a reward, sex becomes happenstance, which has the potential create ridiculous situations. Take away the consequences, and the player's actions become irrelevant to the world and progression of the game. Likewise, omit the character's personal status and you undermine the meaning of the encounter itself.[/blockquote]

I agree with this wholeheartedly; honestly, I think the one game that did romance sidequests best was Mass Effect. In Mass Effect, you don't just engage the NPC and begin the 5-second-long cutscene; you have to start building a relationship with either of the two women, starting with basic 'flirting,' then just talking and finding out more about them and their lives, what kinds of people they are, and moving on to eventually making sexual advances.

Really? I found the simplest way to bed Liara was to be nice to her every time a new conversation tree popped up. Didn't have to listen, just had to do the 'Nice' answer every time.

Slap, bang, whallop, three planets later adn we were in bed.

Also, there's the Asari Consort who sexes you if you act like a dick to her. Hardly required a built up relationship.

While you're quite right that you don't exactly have to listen to the characters, the point still stands. It's not a lame gateway to a sex scene - it's a transition where it actually "rewards" the player for getting themselves into the game and learning about stuff.

The Consort is a bit different, but then again it was kind of established that she does that sort of thing. Remember, she helps people in many ways, so if your Shepherd isn't a person that appreciates words, then she'll make him happy another way.

 

[Burningsok]

Oh, please yes.


Sex in video games is never artistic, so just drop the pretensions and be done with it.

Correcto-mundo.
It's usually just thrown in as a gimmick that just raises hype for a game.
"Crap-tastic game has a sex scene?!?! DUDE WE HAVE TO BUY IT!"-15 year old child with no real concept of sex.
It's always sad to see developers throw in some sex or nudity to move units.

sex is art, everything is. but i agree with you mostly about why some developers put nudity into games. But hey what the hell, why not

 

[megapenguinx]

Oh, please yes.


Sex in video games is never artistic, so just drop the pretensions and be done with it.

Correcto-mundo.
It's usually just thrown in as a gimmick that just raises hype for a game.
"Crap-tastic game has a sex scene?!?! DUDE WE HAVE TO BUY IT!"-15 year old child with no real concept of sex.
It's always sad to see developers throw in some sex or nudity to move units.

sex is art, everything is. but i agree with you mostly about why some developers put nudity into games. But hey what the hell, why not

Because it makes games and gamers in general look childish for obsessing over a woman (or in some rare cases, a man) with huge exposed breasts (I'm not sure what they expose on guys).
Having nudity in games, just for the sake of having it brings us down as an art form.

 

[Yumi_and_Erea]

I'm a pervert (and proud of it) but in this case, I'd have to say that playable sex-cutscenes are a bad idea in general. The Japanese can keep on doing it if they like, but the rest of the world shouldn't try to follow their example.

 

[Jon Etheridge]

I don't know how I feel about sex in games. Pressing A to penetrate just doesn't seem at all arousing.

 

[Amnestic]

While you're quite right that you don't exactly have to listen to the characters, the point still stands. It's not a lame gateway to a sex scene - it's a transition where it actually "rewards" the player for getting themselves into the game and learning about stuff.

The Consort is a bit different, but then again it was kind of established that she does that sort of thing. Remember, she helps people in many ways, so if your Shepherd isn't a person that appreciates words, then she'll make him happy another way.

It is though. There's no interaction with Liara beyond "Be really really nice to her." That's the extent of Shepard talking to her. There's no disagreements, no confrontations, no learning about the two characters and their expanding worldview. It's just "nicenicenicenicenicenicesex."

I never felt like I learned anything of great consequence about Liara. I never saw her inner soul, just heard her talk about her life as she would do to any friend and then after I was nice to her enough times she decides we can have sexytime? I'm reminded of the Simpsons episode with Ricky Gervais when Mr. Gervais' character is coming onto Marge and says something like "I can tell by the basic level of kindness you've expressed that you feel the same way." It felt like that to be honest.

 

[Rhade]

Well I'd generally say yes to the idea itself, I'd still say there are scenes or types of story in which the implication fits better than an actual cut scene or QTE sequence.

One example might be when you want to add a non-hetero relationship to a storyline. I know this has changed a lot in recent years but a lot of gamers still find it obnoxious when anything is explicit as opposed to just in background implication, obvious or otherwise. And given some of the cut scenes I've seen myself it can be hard to blame them really. Those ones from Dragon Age remind me of the hetero ones from games 10 years ago, lame, and uninteresting, but I suppose you have to work toward seeing them if you want to, not really tossed in your face.

Anyway, I know it's not the greatest example but I still tend to think implication is sometimes the way to go when something more complete doesn't really fit with the style or storytelling or might be considered lowbow or just-not-what-I-want-to-see by the target audience.

That said, yes, it would be nice to be a bit more interactive in many other (mostly sandbox ones, about crime) games. Or that scene in the first area of God of War II.

 

[IrrelevantTangent]

[blockquote]If the goal is to create a meaningful emotional experience for the player, skipping the relationship in favor of instant gratification closely mimics the porn formula. Instead of a reward, sex becomes happenstance, which has the potential create ridiculous situations. Take away the consequences, and the player's actions become irrelevant to the world and progression of the game. Likewise, omit the character's personal status and you undermine the meaning of the encounter itself.[/blockquote]

I agree with this wholeheartedly; honestly, I think the one game that did romance sidequests best was Mass Effect. In Mass Effect, you don't just engage the NPC and begin the 5-second-long cutscene; you have to start building a relationship with either of the two women, starting with basic 'flirting,' then just talking and finding out more about them and their lives, what kinds of people they are, and moving on to eventually making sexual advances.

Really? I found the simplest way to bed Liara was to be nice to her every time a new conversation tree popped up. Didn't have to listen, just had to do the 'Nice' answer every time.

Slap, bang, whallop, three planets later adn we were in bed.

Also, there's the Asari Consort who sexes you if you act like a dick to her. Hardly required a built up relationship.

Well, listening might have helped.

And the dialogue tree in Mass Effect can always be exploited that way since you always know exactly where the "Good" and "Evil" responses are.

As for the Asari Consort, IIRC, you're not 'just' acting like a dick to her per se; to put things in context, you've just done her a valuable service, and you're asking for a reward- you can choose to be grateful, or say the equivalent of "I want more," and seeing as the Asari Consort knows her way around men, she basically says "If you say so, human."