ESRB Dishes on Dragon Age 2 Sex

[Falseprophet]

DA2 is a sword and sorcery story, and sex and romance have been important foundations of that genre for over 500 years, that's why they should be included.

In my first playthrough, I romanced Alistair, made him King of Fereldan, and became his queen. So in my case, I'd say the sex and romance was pretty central to the story, and not tacked on. But even in a different playthrough, the Warden and his/her companions are on a life or death mission to save their world from destruction. It is perfectly feasible that people in that situation might try to find a brief moment of comfort in each other's arms. It happens in real life. (I would have liked to see other companions hook up with each other, too.) But if you didn't want a romance, you didn't have to pursue one.

I think the uncanny valley and underpants dry-humping look silly too, and would have preferred a "fade to black" a la ME2 rather than scenes that compare with Team America's, but I consider romance and sex essential to the genre as a whole.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

Gawd~ Black screens turn me on sooo much. I'm getting hot at the blackyness of the black screen.



xD What's the point? It's not really sex. Nothing's happening, just the idea that sex is occuring when it isn't. Basicaly the same as someone moaning behind a black curtain as they read a book.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

SNIP

Looks like he (or the forum) just screwed up the quote, the guy two posts down from yours made that post. I don't think he was attempting to troll you.

If that is true, then my bad/apologies.

 

[Swaki]

i thought "the other f-word" would be incredibly homophobic and insensitive, or possibly a side quest you get if you have same sex sex where you would have to deal with homophobia, which would either be very moving or very satisfying if it involved some of that violence previously mentioned .

 

[Kakashi on crack]

If you look at a storyline it isn't always clean, look at old time fairy tales. The hunchback of notre dom (or however you say it) states that the gypsy ends up getting raped by that minister dude, and everyone dies. Except the corrupt minister guy.

I have no intention to play Dragon Age 2 as they've made it look like rubbish in my eyes, and most of their games have gotten a bit out of hand since EA took over. But the thing is, I don't mind if a game has sex in it as long as it has STORY!!! I'm a tabletop games kinda guy, I like my video games to have a little RP in them when they have the words RPG in the title

 

[matrix3509]

what's metagaming.

Ask and ye shall receive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metagaming_(role-playing_games)

 

[Swaki]

If you look at a storyline it isn't always clean, look at old time fairy tales. The hunchback of notre dom (or however you say it) states that the gypsy ends up getting raped by that minister dude, and everyone dies. Except the corrupt minister guy.

I don't remember frollo raping esmaralda, i do recall her passing out though, admittely i kinda skipped trough most of it as i read it 5 hours before i had to deliver a paper about it, and actually one of the only things Disney got semi right is how frollo dies (there where no lava floods in the novel) also the hunchback ends up with the girl in the original version, except that shes dead and he dies of starvation while "being" with her...

i kinda like the disney version better despite them missing the point.

 

[Nova Helix]

Good for them.
If you don't want to see the sex scenes, you can skip them or avoid that dialog. Whether a character is having sex with another character or is gay is a large part of character development.

Besides sex is part of humanity, everyone has it. America needs to grow up and stop freaking out every time something involves sex.

 

[mattag08]

Yahtzee already covered this didn't he? Nerds + Sex = Millions of dollars

 

[Super Toast]

If it isn't uncanny valley-like this time, why not?

 

[AcacianLeaves]

I've never really understood the appeal of sex scenes in videogames but somebody must like them because BioWare [http://www.bioware.com] keeps doing them, over and over and over again. Which leads me to wonder: why is it always about sex with you, anyway?
Permalink

Imagine movies with no sex scenes in them. Imagine music without sexual lyrics. Imagine if we lived in a society that banned, censored, or burned books that had sexual content. Sex is a part of life, a very important part in fact. Without sex there is no human race. So maybe we, as a society, shouldn't hide from sex and sexuality as if it was a shameful crime. Maybe we should explore sexuality in our fiction in order to better understand ourselves.

Then again maybe you were just being facetious.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

Humans tend to have/enjoy sex. Most people who play games tend to be human.

I think it would be a reasonable question if it were a focus of the games (note: a reasonable question, not a foregone conclusion), but it isn't here at all. At most it's one of the defining parts of a romance subplot which tends to encompass a lot more than just sex. It makes sense for sex to be part of it given that sex is a big part of most romantic relationships. Leaving it out would be weird. And any more-casual sex in Bioware games? Guess what: people have casual sex too.

The weird problem people seem to have with sex in games seems to me to boil down to two issues. First, these comments are almost invariably in response to a game that allows "deviant" sex like same-gender sex or, GOD FORBID, BLOWJOBS (what a fucking twisted game). All this because same-gender couples don't have sex in real life and only sex-crazed maniacs ever give blowjobs. Second, these comments always seem to be couched in a sort of "sex is gross/cheap, we shouldn't need to resort to sex" attitude that seems pretty immature to me. Sex isn't (necessarily) gross and can be a very complex topic worthy of address. It can also be a very enjoyable topic and I don't necessarily see anything wrong with that side of it either (though I don't want to derail the threat with a debate over the merits of pornography).

TL;DR: Sex is a large part of being human (asexual people may disregard it, but it's undeniably big for the species as a whole). Every other medium routinely deals with sex, why shouldn't video games?

 

[BarbaricGoose]

I don't really think sex scenes add anything to a game, but I LOVE how people get so upset about it. LOVE that.

I hope Bioware keeps putting sex scenes in their games, and I hope Fox keeps overreacting... and lying... and falsifying news footage to further their agenda... and... well I hope Fox keeps being Fox.

 

[iLikeHippos]

Asexual characters aren't relatable; They're just generic. And generic characters doesn't fit into Biowares frame.

Every GOOD writer knows this, and they would never trade sexuality for a "PG 13" shit.

 

[Kikosemmek]

I can't wait to be sucked into a universe of awkwardness when I play this game, and I will, and I will hate myself...

I still think the way they did them with Baldur's Gate 2 was best- just have the dialogue, then flash forward to next morning for the reaction stuff. It's not like they could have had animated scenes in that game, but it turned out for the best; no weird, inhuman animations taking everything out of immersion. Bioware's dialogue >>> sex scenes.

 

[nipsen]

..so the entire "you need to pursue it actively in order to get to the sex-scene" thing didn't discourage the ESRB folks in any way, basically..

Pervs..

 

[nipsen]

Good for them.
If you don't want to see the sex scenes, you can skip them or avoid that dialog. Whether a character is having sex with another character or is gay is a large part of character development.

Besides sex is part of humanity, everyone has it. America needs to grow up and stop freaking out every time something involves sex.

Can I fuck your girlfriend?

Good example. That really is the only way to talk about sex in the US after all.. :/

 

[JackKrauserFtw]

Dragon Age tries very much to be a 'mature' game, but it ends up being childish, with its blood splatters and sex scenes... Seriously, BioWare should stop pretending that having a 'sex' scene makes your game more mature. It doesn't. Sex is everywhere nowadays, and the kind of sex that they showed in Mass Effect can be found in most 12+ Hollywood movies.

Your very ignorant and very misinformed if this is what you truly believe, its not the sex that the players like, its the relationship between the 2 and how they relate to it. How they got to the sex is just as important as sex itself if not more. The sex isn't what is making them mature, its the fact they are willing to do it despite criticism from the media and cool kids like yourself