Adult Themes

[Haydyn]

The media attacking the game industry is hypocritical. They are the same people who report every sex scandel, review every movie with random nudity at times, and talk about every shooting they can. Why is it that movies can show tits but if games do it, they get attacked? How come it's okay for people to expose sex scandels that random celebrities have when fictonal characters can't have any sexual drama?

Games should have the same rights that movies do.

 

[shadow skill]

Just pray that what Cage does with Heavy Rain works more than it falls flat people.

 

[The Commissar]

I agree with the points made in the article, however, I'd say the main issue here is that sex is not okay but horrific violence somehow is.

In general, parents would be happier letting young people of say, fourteen, see someone getting shot in a movie or game than letting them see two people having sex. This makes no sense. Surely introducing kids to the idea of hurting another person at quite a young age is bad, relative to introducing them to a way they can make another person *very* happy...

Isn't a desire to find out about sex perfectly healthy, or at least, much healthier than a desire to find out new and interesting ways to kill people?

However, games have dealt with the no-strings-attached versions of "fun" violence for years, and are very good at it, and this is the way they treat sex at the moment. Why should we expect games that treat violence with such a consequence-free attitude to be mature about sexual themes, just to seem more adult? If a game treated all themes with an adult attitude, such as violence, the consequences of killing real people for example, then maybe we should expect "love" rather than sex. It has to come from the RPG world with games like Mass Effect.

Personally though, aside from the genuine feelings I had towards the brilliantly characterised Alyx Vance, ahem, I've no interest in realistic depictions of sex in games, I play games to do things I *can't* do in real life.

My main beef is, if Saw V was in the cinema, *most* types of porn should be too, as they're not so bad, and don't make me feel sick...

 

[Deleric]

Hehehe....sex.

I personally find pixelated pr0nz disgusting. I don't think we're out of the uncanny valley graphical wise for that kind of thing in video games.

 

[The Commissar]

Why not? We allow our kids to play contact sports long before we want them having sex.

That is violence within the boundaries of sport, and to a non-violent end. Even things like boxing are hardly street brawling and murder, though I would argue teaching kids that their problems can be solved by violence is not healthy. However, many adults think that they can, ergo war, murder etc.

I knew about sex long before I started playing sport with any seriousness anyway. I had no desire to have sex then, but I knew about it.

 

[Hakazaba]

This may sound strange to most people but the Japanise have accomplished this long ago.
i find visual novels far more emmersive than western mainstream games and they do this with only pictures, music, text and voice acting.

I fear many people behave as if they have never even heard of them before, and you can't judge this without playing one.

Here ill evan recommend some:
Ever 17 (My favourite)
Tsukahime
Fate-stay night (most common)
Kana (heh heh heh)

Visual novels are the only things that can make me cry.

 

[vxicepickxv]

Compared to other media, video games are still in their infancy. It will take a long time for the rest of the world(non gamers) to realize that some gamers are adults. Once that happens, then topics like this will be pretty much moot. Unfortunately, it seems it's going to be a long time before that happens.

 

[Lexodus]

We need to start with strictly enforced age ratings on games. This will help to show that there is a difference between adult and childrens game.

Child wants game

Game seller won't sell game

Child whines, and whines and eventually screams profanities at the person.

Child is now banned from store.

Child fully believes he/she is innocent, and that the game selling person (here on called bill) is totally at fault and singled him out.

child Whines to parents about games

Parents think wonderfully of the time the child reaches 16 so they can boot him out...

Child starts screaming profanities at parents.

Parents, spoiling their abomination of a child cannot ignore their childs cries and buy the game In an ideal world, parents then beat the shit out of child and leave it scarred for life.

A man can dream. I get held up in games stores so many times, stuck behind the whiny little seven-year-old shits that want San Andreas and are surprised when they're refused (and, on one gleeful occasion, ejected from the store by force after several attempts and a laundry list of profanities screamed at all and sundry), and it has to end. The parents also need to be beaten, because they're almost as bad.

 

[ckam]

Well, I just completely forgot about what I just read. Okay... So I'm going to say as long as sexual themes are used to responsibly, then I won't really be creeped out by it. But then again, gaming industries have never gotten to that point yet.

 

[UsefulPlayer 1]

It's funny to me how I was reading the article and was thinking "I wonder when is he going to mention the attractive girl in the picture." Then when he does, I realize she's the girl that showcased Assassin's Creed so long ago.

And it would always be nice for us geeky guys to be more socially acceptable. But where's there alot of teenagers there will be alot of senseless porn.

What I would love to see is a more emotions connection to the characters. Story telling to that of books and movies but with the interactivity of games. Fable 2 could have done wonders with that.

 

[Sean Sands]

Compared to other media, video games are still in their infancy. It will take a long time for the rest of the world(non gamers) to realize that some gamers are adults. Once that happens, then topics like this will be pretty much moot. Unfortunately, it seems it's going to be a long time before that happens.

I'm not sure we can hang our hat on this much longer. Video games are closing in on 40 years old. Movies, just over a century. Sure, we got nothing on music and literature, but at this point it's just not apropos to refer to games as being in their infancy any longer.

It's funny to me how I was reading the article and was thinking "I wonder when is he going to mention the attractive girl in the picture."

Just as an aside, the pictures are added long after I'm done with and have submitted and locked my article.

 

[AvsJoe]

There is simply a strange bias against visual sex, but stick it in novels and it becomes a tearjerking moment.

Great quote. Couldn't help but lol at that one.

 

[Supreme Unleaded]

Now everyone is saying Mass Effect, i can't say that since I only got about an hour into the game when my Xbox got mad at me and coughed up its RROD blood.

But i'm going to look into the future and say that Heavy Rain will probably stir in the sexual tention area. Since the game developers (who's name has slipped my mind) have put a "strip tease" in it, but [elegedly] it was going to make you feel weird, uncomfortable, that sort of thing. It gives a sexuality to it that progresses the story in a movie like element, but keeps it far from a pornography.

Now what I think is if a game is going to have sexual tention, it better be done corrct and make you feel emotions not hormones. It needs to foward the story and give it a deeper meaning, not a mastubation fest for the sick people out there.

I (being 14, a mature 14 year old beleive it or not) am fine with that as long as it can be done right, and make me feel emotions, not puberty.

 

[Woem]

I failed to gather anything from this article other than that Jade Raymond is hot and that your were a college drop out. Not to be harsh but, what were you trying to achieve with mentioning these things?

You can rest assured that 80% of the readers have initiated a google image search for 'jade raymond.'

I hate being predictable

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

There is simply a strange bias against visual sex, but stick it in novels and it becomes a tearjerking moment.

If a video game has sex in it in a way that actually contributes to story in a meaningful way it can have the same effect, but if it has sex just for the sake of seeing 2 naked people roll around, then it's no longer a game, it becomes a dating-sim.

For years we have been saying we wanted more mature themed content in games, but we have to be patient. Change must be gradual, you have to give people time to adjust to the new ways. Bioware took and continues to take the first steps towards a more immersive experience. Now other developers are starting to do the same, the fear of doing something new and possibly failing (or getting in serious trouble) is no longer there.

Chronic Angina, Tee Hee!

 

[TheBluesader]

Adult Themes

If you giggle any time sex is mentioned, read this article.

Read Full Article

As I and many others keep saying over and over again, games need better stories and characters in general, and that would solve the "OMG! SAX1NESS!" problem. Until devs start routinely taking elements other than graphics and quicktime events seriously, the stories and characters are going to continue to be low-functioning pastiches of marketing boobs to teenage boys and faking drama with contrived NPC death scenes set to "FEEL SAD NOW" orchestral music.

Until this story problem is fixed, any attempts to put "mature sexuality" into games is going to be nothing BUT shoehorning it in. Others have already made the point, but look at JRPGs. Did Devil May Cry 4 really need to give Nero a girl to emo over? No. He was fine emo-ing all on his own. And the problem here is not that the so-called romance was underdeveloped. The problem is that Nero and his emo-ing were underdeveloped.

If gaming characters continue to be genre foils and game stories continue to be "the kids will think it's rad to the max," everything dependent on those characters and stories is going to continue to be flaccid and immature.

 

[001648]

your totally right in this aspect...
not just the sex thing that has caught my eye, but the fact as gamers we are looked upon as kids, immature or even people who have failed to have a life, this is bullshit, if games had some content that separated the kids from the adults it would be awesome, I wouldn't have to hold my head in shame at work anymore for being a gamer!