BioWare: Sex Scenes "Tasteful" in Dragon Age: Inquisition

[Revnak_v1legacy]

Wh-wh-why is she still wearing pants? Why is she still wearing pants? WHY IS SHE STILL WEARING PANTS?!?

OT- Bioware, I don't care. You have never make a good sex scene, you may never make a good sex scene, but as long as the rest of the romance is okay, I'm fine with it.

 

[Machine Man 1992]

Hahahahahahahaha... NO.

The games are rated goddamned M for Mature, I expect to see some goddamned mature content.

The Witcher 2 had more as much full frontal nudity as an episode of Game Of Thrones, and everyone loved it!

And you can take your "emotional connections" and shove it; if they're anything like the relationships in Mass Effects 1-3, then hardcore nudity is the only thing you've got going for them right now.

 

[Nurb]

You mean "Grinding in their undies"?

I don't give a damn what the sex scenes are if they don't return gameplay back to "Origins"!

 

[1337mokro]

It's about the story and how we get to the sex scene that would be interesting. The scene itself is utterly pointless unless you are 13 or you have a polygon fetish.

 

[hazydawn]

In my humble opinion these scenes are even important in creating the illusion of a working relationship in any game. Either that or some dialogue which hints at a sexual relationship. Without that characters appear to me like children or sterile beings, totally oblivious or devoid of any kind of sexual desire. And that makes them artificial to me.
That's one of the reasons to me why The Witcher games have such a realistic feeling world. Because it has these kinds of emotions and notions in it that other fantasy worlds lack. And that is not just sexual desire but also racism, sexism, bigotry and everything else that exists in our world. That being said, sometimes it can be refreshing to see a fantasy world like Skyrim where sexism and homophobia are practically nonexistent.

And like Screamarie said, they are not really sex scenes.

Hahahahahahahaha... NO.

The games are rated goddamned M for Mature, I expect to see some goddamned mature content.

The Witcher 2 had more as much full frontal nudity as an episode of Game Of Thrones, and everyone loved it!

And you can take your "emotional connections" and shove it; if they're anything like the relationships in Mass Effects 1-3, then hardcore nudity is the only thing you've got going for them right now.

So true xD
Mature and tasteful seem to equal boring in Bioware's mindset ^^
I think they just don't want to let their games appear childish or piss off the ultra conservatives too much and that's why they pander to their idea of a "meaningful releationship"

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

Bioware's idea of 'romance' is having four to five conversations with someone you work with, mostly about their childhood, making a professional decision that they approve of, and then sleeping with them because of plot-convenient downtime.

 

[seule]

Bioware's idea of 'romance' is having four to five conversations with someone you work with, mostly about their childhood, making a professional decision that they approve of, and then sleeping with them because of plot-convenient downtime.

^^Truth

Honestly at this point, I think Bioware talk about it simply for advertising purposes. That's all it is, a cheap grab for the "OMG SEX!" headline. I'm married, so the bioware romance's seem so far removed from my experience's with relationships to be a comedy side game really. For the most part they seem to be forced in there just to say they are there.

 

[aozgolo]

Frankly I don't think this is a good solution, I mean it's like trying to do violence more tastefully, whether you shot someone's brains being splattered over the wall or do a camera cut with some fancy shadow work to allude to brains being splattered on the wall you're still going to offend the same people.

Basically they need to do an all-or-nothing approach. Some people didn't like the romance subplots but fortunately they are always optional, and the "sex" scenes while yes approaching softcore porn... what's the problem? Really I mean I don't get how people will bang their war drums in staunch defense of violence in video games but lord forbid we show sexuality. Violence in video games has always been gratuitous, unrealistic, and over the top, to suddenly complain that a game that has all that in it isn't realistically depicting relationships? Give me a break please.

Doing anything realistically in a video game, especially when it deals with social interaction is going to be very difficult to pull off, at least we can applaud that Bioware is TRYING, I mean Mass Effect and Dragon Age's courting system are far from perfect but at least they're not Harvest Moon level of gifts = love, you actually have to talk to them and somewhat conform to their expectations.

I rather enjoyed the love scenes in ME and DA and yes I'm a male who has no shame in being explicitly upfront about sexuality, I don't see it as shameful and needing to be hidden, but that's besides the point. If you invest in a relationship in a game, a game that's all about rewarding player investment, then shouldn't it make sense to have a pay-off? I mean what else would you expect them to do? Have an innocent G-rated kiss on the cheek and sing the Barney & Friends theme song? It's already a mature rated game for adults, what's the harm in showing a little *gasp* sensuality? I mean realistic or not, you expect some level of intimacy to form, and what higher form of intimacy is there?

 

[DSK-]

You mean "Grinding in their undies"?

I don't give a damn what the sex scenes are if they don't return gameplay back to "Origins"!

My thoughts exactly. Thank you, I thought I was the only one

Captcha: heebie jeebies

 

[DarkhoIlow]

I don't think Bioware will go the full mile and give us good sex/romance scenes that will not fade to black and/or last 2-3 seconds.

The Witcher franchise holds that crown so far and looking forward how they will top themselves with Witcher 3.

Regardless of any of that, the gameplay that I've seen looks samey as DA2 which only lowers my hype for the game even more.

 

[hazabaza1]

The Witcher 2 had more as much full frontal nudity as an episode of Game Of Thrones, and everyone loved it!

Not really. It had a lot of boobs and the occasional lower half for the ladies but (speaking as a straight male who merely noticed this) it was really missing dicks.
Like, all the sex and you never see a single penis. Equal opportunity flaunting guys.

 

[Godhead]

You know BioWare, I remember this game that you guys made called KOTOR. I loved that game, especially the characters. When I first played that game the only two characters that I didn't like when I first met them was Bastila and Juhani. Now while I didn't like Juhani ever, I began to enjoy Bastila's presence and loved the arc with her mother on Tattooine.

After awhile I had been able to create a healthy relationship with Bastila, and then there was a fade to black and I could fill in the blanks on my own. So basically BioWare, maybe you should make me care about the characters and enjoy the relationship that I was able to build up without throwing out any major reward instead of tossing up a dry humping scene for us.

 

[BoogieManFL]

I thought the ones in Mass Effect were pretty tasteful and well done. I never romanced Jack but I watched them all on youtube and I thought the romance scene between her and male Shepard was pretty touching. Especially coming from such a hardass person as her. I'll be honest, I had a tear.

The Dragon Age scenes (Origins anyway- never finished DA2 so I can't comment on that one) were decent, but not as good as those in Mass Effect.

 

[Machine Man 1992]

The Witcher 2 had more as much full frontal nudity as an episode of Game Of Thrones, and everyone loved it!

Not really. It had a lot of boobs and the occasional lower half for the ladies but (speaking as a straight male who merely noticed this) it was really missing dicks.
Like, all the sex and you never see a single penis. Equal opportunity flaunting guys.

Eh, whatcha gonna do? You can't show flaccid penis on TV for more than a few seconds without the FCC throwing a ***** fit, and an erection is right out.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

Did someone complain that the other bioware sex things were too explicit and tasteless? Because I don't understand how they could be made more "tasteful". I've never been a fan of bioware sex scenes, but the reason has never been because they're tasteless. They just treat it as the end reward for a connection with a character. Act nice to someone and they win sex! I'd love to see a romance where sex happens around the beginning, and there's more of a relationship to pursue afterwards. Rather than just acting nice to them so you get a generic underwear scene with them at the end.

How generic they were was the biggest problem I'd say, there was absolutely no character or personality put into them. To the extent that if I remember correctly, Mass Effect had the same scene for every character, just with the half nude love interest swapped. This word gets thrown around a lot, but the scenes feel like they're just straight up objectification. The characters are stripped of all their personality so they can dance around nude with you. What the sex scenes need isn't tastefulness, it's character

EDIT: Just to confirm I looked up Jack's sex scene, and I take some of this back for ME2, her scene actually had some character to it. I'd still like to see it taken farther though, particularly if they got some dialogue in there and turned it into more than flashes

 

[hazabaza1]

The Witcher 2 had more as much full frontal nudity as an episode of Game Of Thrones, and everyone loved it!

Not really. It had a lot of boobs and the occasional lower half for the ladies but (speaking as a straight male who merely noticed this) it was really missing dicks.
Like, all the sex and you never see a single penis. Equal opportunity flaunting guys.

Eh, whatcha gonna do? You can't show flaccid penis on TV for more than a few seconds without the FCC throwing a ***** fit, and an erection is right out.

I seem to remember talk GTA IV and V and RDR having a lot of dicks. So yay for Rockstar.

[sub][sub][sub](totally straight)[/sub][/sub][/sub]

 

[Animyr]

Bioware's idea of 'romance' is having four to five conversations with someone you work with, mostly about their childhood, making a professional decision that they approve of, and then sleeping with them because of plot-convenient downtime.

Their problem is that character interaction generally only takes place between major missions/ story beats, not during them as well (much less BE a major story beat all of it's own, much less a beat whose nature and place in the story changes depending on your actions). When they do, it's generally a setpiece clearly designed to center around said character (ME2 loyalty missions, etc) so it feels kind of forced and predicable. "Oh, this is the part where I have to nice to them." I suppose the same thing applies to "romancible" characters in general. This tends to lead to both the players and the game classifying characters (and interacting with them) based on whether or not you can and want to screw them, rather then letting the relationship and its dimensions developing organically.

So yes, a more organic approach to character arcs (romantic or otherwise) is just about due. From the sounds of it, Bioware's approach to character interaction hasn't changed a great deal since KOTOR ten years ago.

Also, I hope they allow me to be friendly with a romancable character this time around without them thinking I want to screw them (unless that misapprehension fits the character's personality).

As for those calling for nudity, I'm not against it, but I don't think the Witcher's more pornographic take on sex really fits Bioware's style.

I seem to remember talk GTA IV and V and RDR having a lot of dicks. So yay for Rockstar.

So did Amnesia, but that's an indie game and Rockstar has a well established "suck on it" attitude towards the more puritan side of society. I'm not overly familiar with the reaction back during the release of the original Mass Effect, but I got the impression that Bioware is more self-conscious about drawing such ire. Plus, there's EA.