148: A Wink is as Good as a Pixelated Nipple

[Colin Rowsell]

A Wink is as Good as a Pixelated Nipple

"Games have gotten very good at guns, physics, audio and graphics that leave the real world looking low-res. Off to the side and down a few alleys, they're also pretty good at porn. I like these things, all of them, not to mention bouncing around like a prat with a plastic guitar, being addicted to World of Warcraft and those perverse Japanese cooking sims.

"But someone needs to send out a search party for sex appeal."

Read Full Article

 

[Dom Camus]

Thing is, you're pushing a very specific concept of sexy here.

Personally I find Tifa's level four limit break in FFVII plenty sexy enough. ;-)

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I almost wanted to offer you a tissue after that review...

The main problems are always going to be the Authority and the You factor.

Even if we do get close (And both Alyx [HL2] and Aki Ross [FF:TSW] do get close) there's still the question of taste; there's as many sexual identities out there as there are fingerprints.

The next problem is Big Brother. These things are underground for a reason, because they contain things that many adults find offensive, before you even think about children. A slow news day would mean a crucifying for any tabloid/government minister that found them.

Then, as usual, there's the problem of size. Most erotic fiction is short wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am writing, and it's so easy to do it laughably wrong. To do it properly, you have to build up an entire relationship between the two people and then get them through it. Normally that takes at least a few dates, so if your game is under 60 hours length, it won't be realistic.

You've caught this in the article though; it's the nebulous state of "Will they/Won't they/Is she a screamer/Is he capable?" that intrigues us; and that's actually easier done when it's not mentioned.

Like Horror, Sex is something better imagined from your own experience. And the one sexiest part of most women/men? The voice; and no computer is gonna be able to have the low growl of Elvira unless Cassandra Petersen puts it in herself.

 

[Cooper42]

It deserves a cursory mention, at least, but Fahrenheit's (Indigo Prophecy, if you will) scene where the ex arrives to pick up her stuff came to mind reading this article. Sure, the 'interactive sex' (depending on the outcome of the night) doesn't quite work, but that scene worked to capture the whole bitter-sweetness of the moment really well. Not sexy, per se, but on the verge of that desire for a more mature engagement in that emotional arena.

More generally, I'm gonna have to echo the previous sentiments. Each to their own, sexual identities galore etc. That was my initial reaction; that those ideas of 'sexy' in reference to Hollywood, reference a very particular, heterosexual, commodified, even capitalised sexuality. I'd prefer it if games didn't follow hollywood's suit in those instances.

(In which case, hooray for the 'niche' or 'underground' markets of AIF and Japanese games celebrating that diversity (even if I don't quite get them))

But, when the best we get towards a mainstream game engaging in 'sexy' and sexuality is Mass Effect, where the partner is only ever; always-already female, despite allusions to non-heterosexual encounters (although it is no new argument to say that lesbianism, as a media commdity, is as heterosexual as it gets) is it any wonder how far gaming culture and games are from even Hollywood's limited and limiting notions of sexy? The criticisms of gaming culture as masculinist, homophobic, emotionally immature loom large and are difficult to refute in these instances.

It seems the question is less about sexy, more about affectual or emotional relationships. We can relate and empathise with movie or TV characters and situations (and games such a Fahrenheit, with written, fleshed out characters) but when, as in most games, you play an extension-of-yourself, trying to engage players emotionally with characters requires such a reliance on mobilising cultural dimensions, that it's doomed not-to-work, except for certain people, in certain instances.

 

[sammyfreak]

Great article! But I dont really have anything to add but a request for more characters as charming and independant as Alyx.

 

[Drong]

A nods as good as a wink to a blind bat!

I'll stop there before i go totally python.

Just look at the uproar Hot Coffee and Mass Effect caused, though gaming is mature enough for this now the general daily mail reading, fox watching populas really isn't and we would get crucified for their hang ups.

 

[maantren]

These are great points, and I appreciate you all taking the time to make them. Dom Camus and Cooper42, yes, in the article I'm putting forward a pretty basic, Hollywood-style version of "sexy" (AIF and Japan excluded). And it's a very, very small piece of what's possible. But my argument - at least in my head - is bigger; if games won't even explore Monica Bellucci territory, how will they ever get out into the complexity, diversity, and weirdness of real world sex appeal and relationships?

I really would like to recognise something, anything, of my own version of "sexy" in the games I play; but with rare exceptions it's just not there.

Cheers

Colin

 

[Pseudonym2]

I personally find annoying when they put sex in comic books and video games because I fell like the games/books are mocking me.

 

[General Ma Chao]

I personally find annoying when they put sex in comic books and video games because I fell like the games/books are mocking me.

I agree with that.

I think there will be a growing market for this kind of thing. With divorces on the rise, new marriages on the fall, and more and more people deciding that seeking relationships isn't worth it, more people will want to get gratification from it.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

I'm totally with you on the Monica Belluci factor!

In terms of sensuality and sexuality, while not quite hitting the mark with either, The Darkness features a section that I found mirrored the intimacy of a real relationship more accurately than any other game I've seen. You go up to your girlfriend Jenny's apartment and she has bought you a birthday cake as a surprise, you blow out the candles and she suggests that you relax and watch TV with her. She sits down on the couch and you sit next to her. If you wait a while she leans over against you, nestling her head on your shoulder. If you wait longer your character puts his arm around her and you watch the intro to 'To Kill A Mockingbird' on the TV. Wait even longer and she leans in and you kiss (which they still haven't quite nailed in digital form) and you get an Xbox achievement (just like in real life). This is all done in first person, which adds a sense of realism to it.
Also at other times during the game when you see her, Jenny seems genuinely happy to see you and will talk enthusiastically about this and that. Your relationship with her seemed very "natural" and I think it added to the game as a whole.

 

[Sylocat]

Heh... I got the entire Buffy and Angel DVD box sets this past Christmas (finally got to use those old VHS tapes for something else), and just got to the episode in Season 5 where Spike first realizes he has a crush on Buffy, so that mention really struck a chord. Right as rain about the "angry self-destruction" remark (did I mention I'm a total Whedon fanboy enough times today yet?). But anyway...

As in so many other games over the years, from King's Quest to KOTOR, the relationships were an exact calculus of button-pushing - "if I click this, then this, then this, she'll take off her Star Trek costume!" Not that I didn't click. It's sex with a blue-skinned alien. Normally takes $50 worth of paint and a Real Doll to get that far.

I've always felt that games do combat so well because combat *is* about button-pushing. Our controllers over the years have even morphed to include triggers. Guns have always been center stage because gun combat translates so well to controllers, while something like swordplay doesn't. And as soon as a controller *does* look like it can do swordplay--the Wii--immediately everyone started thinking about Lightsabers.

Exactly, that's why conversation in games is limited. Combat is about button pushing, but conversation is not. Now, in an effort to resist the temptation to go into the whole "this is why women are better at it because men were trained for combat" minefield, I'll just remind everyone about processing limits and all that stuff.

This is the same debate, if you recall, that raged between Razzle Bathbone and Seldon (and me) in one of the endless "JRPGs vs. WRPGs" arguments that have been plaguing us since Yahtzee's Mass Effect review. Razzle complained that JRPGs were too linear and scripted, and Seldon and I said that we'd prefer either the entire thing to be scripted or the entire thing to be unscripted and organically grown.

And as of right now, our gaming software just isn't powerful enough to handle that. We can't create an artificial GM, and until we do, there will be no substitute for the pen & paper RPGs played with real-life friends.

It's the same thing with dating. For the moment, all we can do is the simple dialogue trees and scripted sequences, we can't do more than that because games, for the moment, can't handle an organic storyline.

The alternative is to create a linear storyline with a lot of drama and interesting events scripted and ready to follow... and get trashed for making the game too linear and with too many cutscenes. I believe you mentioned not wanting to make games similar to movies?

But I do hear you. Granted, I personally hate seeing "realistic" relationships in fiction (because that's what real life is for), but I understand the appeal. Keep in mind, however, that gaming is still a relatively new approach. For the first several decades of the motion picture industry (which got started way back in the 1890s), no filmmaker ever dreamed of depicting any "realistic" drama onscreen. This was partially because of the tech limitations, but it was also because movies were considered a very "escapist" (hardee har) medium (ever seen the movie Sullivan's Travels? I highly recommend it, partially just because it's a great movie but also because it really illustrates the rationale behind this method). The first notion of "drama" in movies didn't come along until well into the sound era. The twenties were called the "laughing twenties" because that was the period of comedy, and not just in Hollywood. A lot of Japanese dramatists started out making silent comedies. Yasujiro Ozu, who would go on to direct some of the most depressing movies I've ever seen ("great art," of course) started out making some of the funniest silent shorts ever to grace the art-house theatre in Madison, and I kind of forgot where I was going with this...

Oh yes, I meant that gaming is still a young medium. Full of dumb show and hungry for attention. In time, who knows, it just might come true. As soon as we make computers that can truly handle an artificial GM engine, video gaming might just become the most profound, touching, thought-provoking art medium the world has ever known. In the meantime, we're still in the Laughing Twenties.

 

[maantren]

"For the first several decades of the motion picture industry (which got started way back in the 1890s), no filmmaker ever dreamed of depicting any "realistic" drama onscreen."

Yes, this is exactly where the original (longer) version of the article headed. Films were also hassled for being a shallow, immature medium, with very similar arguments to those brought against penny dreadfuls in the 19th century, pop music in the 1950s and now video games.

I'm not arguing for realism so much as depth, range, and recognition, though others' mileage may obviously vary.

Thanks very much for such an erudite post.

Cheers

Colin

 

[Jakkar]

Well done, Programmed_For_Darr, you beat me to a mention of The Darkness.

The reality of the relationship and the ability to interact with the protagonist's girlfriend in somewhat believable, lighthearted conversation, in however scripted a fashion, induced a convinced affection.

The Darkness made you care for.. Jennifer, was her name? They knew what they were doing and they did it well.

As for sex appeal in games.. Tss. This is something I think will be primarily the realm of the MMO for a while yet, convincing sexual repartee and varied bodylanguages is beyond the grasp of AI presently available to the game industry.

I'm sure we'll see something crop up in the indie realm long before it hits mainstream, though.

 

[Cooper42]

I too rarely come across 'sexy', Bellucci or otherwise, in games. Then again, it's not that often a Hollywood blockbuster hits that spot either. It's a skill I hope game developers will eventually acquire.

Which is where the gaming industry may be too immature, like films and television before. Whilst we are pushing graphics to extremes, and there are some amazing developments in game mechanics, mobilising story telling and narrative, character development, setting in a theatrical sense - the traditional means of emotionally engaging an audience - are skills gaming seems to lack, or at least be poor at integrating them into gameplay (c.f. Levine I guess). Whatsmore, where they have been engaged with, it's largely through borrowing from movie styles.

The Darkness was interesting in this regards, in that it didn't neccessarily rely on movie formats. It was as much about setting as scripting, naturalism and romanticism, Jennifer's couch to Alyx's hand-pressed silently-against-the-glass-of-the-elevator. Both worked on an emotional level, to some extent, sexy or otherwise.

Spike and Buffy's tryst might be possible, and not something out of place in an engaged RPG (Bloodlines?). It the subtle sexuality - the wink - which is going to be the most challenging. I also think (hope) we might see some incredible talent which manages to achieve that with the tools available to game makers. We don't necessarily have those minutae of facial expressions, highly controlled camera movements and finely choreographed, scripted performances. If someone manages to pull of a subtler form of sexuality with the tools of gaming, it's gonna be something impressive. I just hope people keep trying, and that people keep writing stuff like this to show there are people out there who want a bit more than bouncing boobs.

 

[courier]

I think what's most disappointing about video game sexuality is that it's an exception. The range of experience and emotion in games is generally very good. If you name an emotional experience or a sentiment, there's probably a game that's done it -- and done it well! From serene detachment to incoherent rage to tender protectiveness to warm comfort, there is a game that has made us feel that. For all that we sell games short, for all that we feel they can (must!) do better, the proof is out there that games can get these things right.

But this otherwise quite impressive palette is missing an entire chunk of the color spectrum, and I don't think it's unreasonable to wonder why Sex Is Different. Is it just the cultural/embarrassment factor? Is it the ratings organizations and the resultant timidity of the studios? Is it an age/demographics issue? But each of these you would expect to be as much an opportunity for independent developers as it is a hurdle for the big studios. Nor is it immediately clear to me that this is a matter of the medium -- maybe it is, but I don't think that's been proven. I think there's a genuine enigma here.

 

[Ferrous Buller]

Shameless self-promotion: the post which broke my blog nigh two years ago [http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=7162783&publicUserId=5577023]!

[Insert "going out with a bang" pun here]

 

[maantren]

Which is where the gaming industry may be too immature, like films and television before.... It the subtle sexuality - the wink - which is going to be the most challenging.

I agree. I raised a related question a while back in my Escapist 132 piece about Weta Workshop - many game dev studios still seem full of young men with design and comp. sci degrees. Is this a population likely to be good at subtlety, sexy or sexuality? My experience of film production people (and book authors, and comic writers, for that matter) and is that there's a surprising variety of ages, backgrounds, and life experiences among them; my limited experience of game dev outfits is that they seem a lot more monochrome...

Only a thought and I got flamed for it last time

Cheers

Colin

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

subtleness is a lost artform, a certain jenasaqua to just letting the imagination fill int he blanks.

There is nothing wrong with sexyness persay its the overuse and overt tones thats not always needed.

 

[CanadianWolverine]

When I think of "a wink", I think of the Alyx character from HL2 and the following episodes. Because that character managed to rub off just enough a sense of intimacy onto my character, I actually cared when she was in danger or especially at the end of Episode 2, when she cried, I admit I actually teared up. Even now I feel something just remembering it, I think the voice actor (and those responsible for the animations as well) for that should seriously be given some sort of award to represent that her performance had such impact.

IMHO, Alyx is the sexiest female character I have encountered in a game experience so far.