Should sex be in video games?
- Thread starter cobrausn
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Sex throw in to a game simply to be in there for example, say god of war on the psp is meaningless except for the xp you gain and really had no place in the game.
But if the sex scene is used to convay the love the characters feel for each other or for some other plot related purpose used to drive the story?s forward or give depth to the characters and is done tastefully why not?
But if the sex scene is used to convay the love the characters feel for each other or for some other plot related purpose used to drive the story?s forward or give depth to the characters and is done tastefully why not?
Sex in Videogames, well this falls prey to sex in any other kind of media, our largely victorian attitudes to sex have their roots in Christianity, prior to the Christian "re-education" of the globe sex was viewed entirely differently in most cultures, though there was a much wider variety of views on it.
In much of Roman architecture for example there are clear depictions of sexual acts, but the Romans were by no means alone, sex was a out in the open kind of topic & in my view had a far healthier attitude towards it, something sexual health experts can tell you is how much easier it would be to educate, treat & prevent sexual diseases if our attitudes weren't so repressed.
Getting back to games, well until sex becomes more widely accepted as part of society's mainstream then the attitudes to it being in games wont have a hope in hell of changing, whilst sex in films is largely acceptable, though preferred if it is relevant to the story being told, a videogame is interactive & not merely a passive experience & that makes it a thornier topic to deal with, watching a cut scene of sexual behaviour, however explicit, is the same as a film, passive....however add in videogaming elements such as the manipulation of those scenes, & you open a unique can of worms, it's one thing to win a strip poker game, another to actively play a character's role in a complex seduction scene & have an outcome based upon how successful you were at carrying out all of the things the game asked you to do, or made available for you to do, a gaming element whereby you were manipulating your character in order to elicit a response from the other (or even others) characters in the scene/scenario, whether this was done via multiple choice question & answer methods, correctly choosing a path through prior parts of the game, directly manipulating the character via the keyboard, & then taking it as far as current tech allows, "touching" your intended sexual partner(s) by use of peripherals such as the Wii controller......
It's actually a bold largely uncharted frontier, someone will cross it at some point, I agree with earlier posters that any sexual content in a game should fit the story, but whether the world is ready for that yet is another matter, it could be done today, but it is subject to the same things that affect sex in any other media, some of it will be tasteful & thoughtfully done with a sensitivity & tenderness, some of it will be brutal & uncompromisingly animalistic & some of it will be unashamedly gratuitous.
But attitudes to sex, especially in the west are very hypocritical, it's ok to enjoy it, but it's also noy ok to talk about it let alone display it, most everyone does it, but it's perceived as a corrupting evil power more & as many pointed out, it seems strangely more acceptable to blow someone's face off with a shotgun than to try to get lucky with the hot woman/man in the corner of the bar, or with your sidekick that you just came through a wild adventure/horrific experience/alien slaughterfest with.
In much of Roman architecture for example there are clear depictions of sexual acts, but the Romans were by no means alone, sex was a out in the open kind of topic & in my view had a far healthier attitude towards it, something sexual health experts can tell you is how much easier it would be to educate, treat & prevent sexual diseases if our attitudes weren't so repressed.
Getting back to games, well until sex becomes more widely accepted as part of society's mainstream then the attitudes to it being in games wont have a hope in hell of changing, whilst sex in films is largely acceptable, though preferred if it is relevant to the story being told, a videogame is interactive & not merely a passive experience & that makes it a thornier topic to deal with, watching a cut scene of sexual behaviour, however explicit, is the same as a film, passive....however add in videogaming elements such as the manipulation of those scenes, & you open a unique can of worms, it's one thing to win a strip poker game, another to actively play a character's role in a complex seduction scene & have an outcome based upon how successful you were at carrying out all of the things the game asked you to do, or made available for you to do, a gaming element whereby you were manipulating your character in order to elicit a response from the other (or even others) characters in the scene/scenario, whether this was done via multiple choice question & answer methods, correctly choosing a path through prior parts of the game, directly manipulating the character via the keyboard, & then taking it as far as current tech allows, "touching" your intended sexual partner(s) by use of peripherals such as the Wii controller......
It's actually a bold largely uncharted frontier, someone will cross it at some point, I agree with earlier posters that any sexual content in a game should fit the story, but whether the world is ready for that yet is another matter, it could be done today, but it is subject to the same things that affect sex in any other media, some of it will be tasteful & thoughtfully done with a sensitivity & tenderness, some of it will be brutal & uncompromisingly animalistic & some of it will be unashamedly gratuitous.
But attitudes to sex, especially in the west are very hypocritical, it's ok to enjoy it, but it's also noy ok to talk about it let alone display it, most everyone does it, but it's perceived as a corrupting evil power more & as many pointed out, it seems strangely more acceptable to blow someone's face off with a shotgun than to try to get lucky with the hot woman/man in the corner of the bar, or with your sidekick that you just came through a wild adventure/horrific experience/alien slaughterfest with.
Maybe not, but I don't think there was quite as much need for Billy Crudup's blue wang in that film as perhaps we saw. I went to see it at the IMAX with my girlfriend and we both commented on the amount of sexual content when compared to the laughable "Pirates II", a so-called porno which we thankfully had found for free online which had about the same nipple count as Watchmen, but was miles less explicit in most other ways.ShotgunSmoke said:
The Romans had a healthy sex attitude? You a fan of rape or something?Zamna said:
The Greeks were well educated about sex but estimates on STDs for them were a bit high...
And I had almost forgotten about that horrible Indigo Prophecy sex scene. And now it's back in my mind. Sigh.
Actually, the more I think about it, I may concede that the romance in Mass Effect was good as a storytelling device. By pursuing the romance with either Ashley or Liara you ended up possibly caring a little bit about them. And that made it difficult to choose when it came time to choose who to rescue if Ashley happened to be your choice. The sex scene itself might have been too much (implication is usually fine), but I'll concede that one as well.
If it's a drive in the story then yes 
but if it's just "stick sex in it so people will want to it play harhar"
but if it's just "stick sex in it so people will want to it play harhar"
I don't really see the need for it in video games. They've been going strong for 30 or more years without too much of it and so it's clearly not needed to make a good game. That said, I'm not going to get in a huff when it's featured in video games (for example Mass Effect) but as soon as it becomes "Repeatedly Tap X to thrust", the industry has reached a low point.
That sums it up. I think what little facination I have left in gaming might die if it ever happens though.madbird-valiant said:
Nope. Looking for blood me. Nothing like a good few serial killings to put your minds off things.Vrex360 said:
there should be sex in game as much as in any good book; there, but not in bad taste. It should not be thrust away because it is deemed 'bad'
Right, well I'm not averse to people putting romance into a game, especially as an RPG. This being because on my opinion the whole point of an RPG is to adjust your character to however the hell you would if you were in that position, or to allow you to progress someone and watch them succeed in a sort of parent to son/daughter type of way(in some strange universe).
But to address the former point, if it was a game like Mass Effect with enough dialogue to fill a very large library. I want to have any options to do whatever I want. I'm not to bothered about whether the sex is visual or not, it may not be morally right, but after all if you believe that(an opinion to which I'm inclined) it is immoral, due to the usual depiction of the woman as a sex object. But the answer is as usual you mention it being in the game and if you disagree with it abstain from the game.
But I take issue with either half-showing the sex, obviously don't turn it into a session of overly explicit viewing, but either show something or don't. If it adds something to the game include it properly, or not if it doesn't.
But don't complain as a gamer if it isn't explicit enough, it is a game not a sex movie. A game must contain gaming or it becomes a sexual version of Metal Gear Solid.
But to address the former point, if it was a game like Mass Effect with enough dialogue to fill a very large library. I want to have any options to do whatever I want. I'm not to bothered about whether the sex is visual or not, it may not be morally right, but after all if you believe that(an opinion to which I'm inclined) it is immoral, due to the usual depiction of the woman as a sex object. But the answer is as usual you mention it being in the game and if you disagree with it abstain from the game.
But I take issue with either half-showing the sex, obviously don't turn it into a session of overly explicit viewing, but either show something or don't. If it adds something to the game include it properly, or not if it doesn't.
But don't complain as a gamer if it isn't explicit enough, it is a game not a sex movie. A game must contain gaming or it becomes a sexual version of Metal Gear Solid.
Well Sex already is deep in video gaming and the Japanese are leaders in that field, but the problem I see here is why people say no to it straight away??
The ever used argument because its not needed for the game or plot is easily destroyed by the most basic thing one may require from a game - for it to be diverse.
I, myself, am entirely fed up with plain story-lines and simple game mechanics. I demand multiple story lines and game to have us much shit to do in it as possible.
Imagine this. Would you prefer a game where, lets say John wants to get out of town that is infested with zombies or Nazis or space mutant super alien robot hybrids. and imagine you can only run and shoot from a simple weapon and that you have only for instance 4 weapons total in game. ow and the plot does not give you the explanation who are you or why you need to kill all that shit in the streets or why they are there. Which is little like left4dead just skip the multilayer part.
Now imagine a similar game but with more expanded story that you may not entirely unveil making it a mystery that you have the possibility to find out. and that you may use different objects as weapons or modify your own to be more deadly or use some vehicles to reek disaster and that there are actually more people to it that our simple John. and lets give the player the opportunity to act like a simple human being while taking shelter in a safe room with a nice chick and a horde of monsters outside to act like a simple prime ape and have sex for the last time.
The main thing here is possibility. a game is better if it has as many as options as possible. So if somebody says that you can have sex in this game don't say but its not for the plot or that its childish but either embrace it or not same as you can decide in GTA to run over a pedestrian or not.
Its like saying that you can't use a minigun or a rocket launcher in a place where you can easily be ok with a six-shooter. If you have the bigger weapon and it will give you more fun just go and blow the shit up along whit half a city just to kill of 2 guys that's what games are for
The ever used argument because its not needed for the game or plot is easily destroyed by the most basic thing one may require from a game - for it to be diverse.
I, myself, am entirely fed up with plain story-lines and simple game mechanics. I demand multiple story lines and game to have us much shit to do in it as possible.
Imagine this. Would you prefer a game where, lets say John wants to get out of town that is infested with zombies or Nazis or space mutant super alien robot hybrids. and imagine you can only run and shoot from a simple weapon and that you have only for instance 4 weapons total in game. ow and the plot does not give you the explanation who are you or why you need to kill all that shit in the streets or why they are there. Which is little like left4dead just skip the multilayer part.
Now imagine a similar game but with more expanded story that you may not entirely unveil making it a mystery that you have the possibility to find out. and that you may use different objects as weapons or modify your own to be more deadly or use some vehicles to reek disaster and that there are actually more people to it that our simple John. and lets give the player the opportunity to act like a simple human being while taking shelter in a safe room with a nice chick and a horde of monsters outside to act like a simple prime ape and have sex for the last time.
The main thing here is possibility. a game is better if it has as many as options as possible. So if somebody says that you can have sex in this game don't say but its not for the plot or that its childish but either embrace it or not same as you can decide in GTA to run over a pedestrian or not.
Its like saying that you can't use a minigun or a rocket launcher in a place where you can easily be ok with a six-shooter. If you have the bigger weapon and it will give you more fun just go and blow the shit up along whit half a city just to kill of 2 guys
that's what games are for 
This. Romance may be important to your story but showing a full on sex scene is not. The only reason they'd put sex in video games is to attract gamers through promising gratuitous sex. Although many here would be fine with that, I think that that is an insult to my intelligence for them to think that sex scenes will make me buy a game.ph3onix said: