Forward: The following feature discusses sexual situations in video games and handled in an appropriate and tasteful manner. Most links are safe for any environment save for one or two that specifically explain the inappropriate material.
Going into 2010, console gaming has crossed a new barrier as the medium continues to mature – nudity in games has become more commonplace. Not only that, but the occurrences don’t seem to be as immature as we’re used to in gaming. Sure, Saboteur’s breasts are exploitative and serve little if no purpose in the actual game, but the inclusion seems to be more about creating a vivid world than showing off some digitized breasts. Heavy Rain released today and was only banned in one country for its heavy sexual content and nudity – which begs the question: is it possible games have matured to appropriately include sex?
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Some of the first movies containing references to sex and nudity like Urban Cowboy and Bonnie and Clyde were attacked by various morality groups. Games suffered the same fate with attacks on Mass Effect for content it didn’t even have (Fox news story) and Grand Theft Auto for poorly removed sex games (link contains small screen shot/no nudity). Since games fall under that shroud of being seen as a toy by older generations, the concept of sex and sexuality in them is also viewed from an adolescent perspective rather than an adult one. Many developers are to blame in most of these cases for handling sex and nudity as a young adolescent would.The kind of stuff that gets you labeled a pervert if a random person were to walk in. On the other hand, other developers are clearly trying to overcome the stereotypes of past exploits and create a gaming experience for adults that my be a little harder to achieve .
Shameful Beginnings
Sex in games started off as a comedic taboo that found itself only on the shelves of collectors . Custer’s Revenge is an excellent example of early sexual gaming (link contains adult content and nudity on an Atari 2600). It’s crude, involves concepts that resemble rape, and all in all is just in extremely bad taste. I can’t see most gamers having the slightest interest in the title, save to get together in a room and destroy all aspects in a Mystery Science Theater style afternoon (1up already did this in a hard to find episode of Dead Pixels). Later on, the Leisure Suit Larry series would do the same with low brow humor, but at least it was self-aware of its immature nature. For a brief moment, the Sega CD saw some adult situations with Japanese ported titles like Snatcher and Rise of the Dragon, but it was still a cold, lifeless portrayal of sexuality in a grungy future-scape. One of the first games to get attacked for sexuality was Night Trap for the infamous “rape scene” (no nudity, no sex), which I still feel was more because it was full video and not in-engine graphics since this doesn’t look like rape, especially in context. Given that all major console manufacturers – Nintendo, Sega, Sony, and later Microsoft – all took a stance that strongly attacked any form of nudity or sexual content, it’s no wonder we didn’t start seeing any real sexual situations until late in the Playstation (PSX) era with Fear Effect. Even then it seemed to pull from all the wrong circumstances because it took place in a cyberpunk reality, it had no time for intimacy and the sex scene was a lesbian experience. While it may seem like games were breaking barriers with one of the first homosexual experiences in gaming, it was more for the taboo and titilation associated with lesbian acts. With these kinds of examples, it’s no wonder senators and parental groups wanted to target sex in games because it lacked the tact to handle the subject.
Rockstar Turns Up the Heat
The next significant jump with sex in gaming came with the introduction of Grand Theft Auto III. For all the great things Rockstar did for sandbox gaming, its cartoon parody of the world today struck fear in every parent who got their eyes on it. Violence has always been more accepted in American culture than sex (you’ll notice Rockstar’s Manhunt got far less attention and is a much easier target), so of course the biggest issue in GTA was sex related. While the news media felt that executing cops and pedestrians in alleyways was business as usual, they took major issue with the concept that your character could hire and have sex with a prostitute. The scene would involve you driving with her in your car to a dark location and then the car would bounce around and you would hear sounds suggesting sex. In addition, the news just couldn’t help but mention that after the deed was done, you could then beat the prostitute to death and steal her money. While I must admit this is a fierce and cruel act on all counts, it seems to pale in comparison to the carnage you can create in any GTA title. The reveal of the aforementioned “hot coffee” mod, which allowed gamers to jump through various hoops to unlock a sex minigame that looked like two Barbie dolls going at it, got GTA: San Andreas re-rated and pulled from shelves along with a hefty lawsuit in Rockstar’s direction. At the end of the day one has to ask both gamers and protesters alike if it was worth it. After all the lawsuits and protests, it’s still on shelves today with little of the hated content removed. It’s almost as if Rockstar completed the parody on contemporary America by releasing such a violent title and the only thing parents chose to attack were the sex jokes.
Moving Forward
Rockstar was basically the end of the golden era “sex as a joke” atmosphere in gaming and since then sex has found its way into various games for various reasons. Some games try to take themselves seriously and have the player working on relationships with an NPC while others still prefer to make sex and women a collectible, like a health pack or special item. Either way, it seems that in most video games fall back on the commodity model of sex*.
First, the easy one, women as a collectible. For as great and fun as it is, God of War is still one of those games that I can’t tell whether the nudity in it is appropriate or not. It may have something to do with the fact that having sex with women in the sequel’s minigame substitutes a bonus round in other games. Either way, this seems like the concept of a seventeen-year-old and not a mature adult who wants to bring style and immersion to the game. Kratos has no relationship with these women, they’re basically faceless and may all be the same character model, and having sex with them just grants him perks for gameplay. This suggests that when you’re on an epic quest and the chips are down that having sex with some nameless, faceless woman is the key to success. As a result the women are objectified and the act is trivialised because it serves no greater purpose than opening one of those colored chests in the game. To think that opening a chest and having sex are equal is an immature concept and proves that some games are straying in the wrong direction. I’m not quite sure how to feel about Saboteur in this context since all of its nudity comes from women in a burlesque house and therefore are objectified by the location they are in. Additionally, the protagonist talks to them and greets them with charming remarks, but in the end they serve the soul purpose of seeing naked breasts in a virtual strip show. I guess it’s more like reality in that regard – you go to a specific place for a specific reason and everyone involved knows the score.
On the other hand, Indigo Prophecy (or Fahrenheit for those in Europe), developed by Quantic Dream (who also made Heavy Rain), tackled love and intimacy and sex in a realistic fashion. It was full of relationships beginning, ending, and trying to maintain, which in most adult lives also involves sex. While there is a degree of sex and nudity in the game’s US release, a scene involving two characters making love was cut to prevent issues with American audiences. You can see from the scene (warning: nudity and sex involved) that it is more mature than games that came before it, but it is done tastefully and with the same degree of care as the PG-13 sex scene in Titanic. Not for nothing, but Indigo Prophecy was rated M for sexual situations so I don’t really understand why Quantic Dream pulled the scene. I am willing to bet it had something to do with conversations from publishers or console manufacturers. In this title sex is just another part of the story, some will find themselves going down that path and others will not, but there is no gaming benefit or hinderance to sex. Quantic Dream’s titles appear to be alone in this type of maturity towards sex simply because they don’t really make games but rather interactive stories with gaming elements. Most games still fall under that grey area that Mass Effect found itself in during all the Fox News controvery.
The aforementioned commodity of sex becomes a great issue in most games to date. It may not be as blatant as it was in God of War, but there’s no question that having sex in most games comes with its own sense of prize. It may be true that you are developing a long term relationship in Mass Effect and that the final step to this intimacy is sex, but it gets tarnished by the fact that an achievement unlocks. Is sex supposed to be an achievement? An even greater question would be to ask gamers if they are developing these relationships for the well being of their main character or for the sake of having sex as a final reward. This holds as great a truth with young adults growing up in the real world as it does with fictional characters and NPCs in the gaming world. I can’t think of many games since the whole achievement/trophy concept came about where you don’t get some unlock or bonus from having sex (unless it’s in Heavy Rain, which I have yet to complete). It’s possible that perhaps we’re not ready for this just yet in gaming and that achievements for sex is the first step. I will admit myself that I had sex in the second Mass Effect for the achievement (not to see the sex scene but to increase the gamer score) and I would have never kissed a boy in Bully had it not been for the points.
Aside from this concept of sex as a prize, there’s also the issue of how games portray human relationships. While I must admit I can’t think of a better way myself, is getting the correct conversation trees in a BioWare game or giving your partner enough presents in Fable II really the way we want to reflect relationships? Real people don’t interact that way and while I have a good idea of what to say to my wife to generate a specific response, there are all types of variables that can affect the outcome. Maybe that pickup line she found so charming in the past isn’t so charming today because some random guy used it on her at the bank. Games should include variables to calibrate for this reality otherwise a gamer may feel like a partner is a formula they need to discover or God forbid “beat”. The Darkness had one of the best moments for true human interaction that I’ve ever seen when you simply sit there and hold your girlfriend while the two of you watch television, that’s reality. The timing of sexual situations comes into question as well. My Shepard in Mass Effect flirted for an obscene amount of time and chose the just before a major event to want to get hot and heavy. Just before a critical mission may not be the best time or circumstance to deal with all these emotions and sexual feelings you’ve had bottled up. In Metal Gear Solid 3 when Snake and Eva have sex it’s completely appropriate for the moment and helps to explain the relationship they’ve developed, as one could argue also happens in both major BioWare titles. In Dante’s Inferno sex is used in a number of situations to enhance the concept of tarnished purity and even made me whince once or twice when I thought about the circumstance.
There will always be games that objectify women and are designed and programmed for that purpose. Dead or Alive: Paradise is all about watching scantily clad women run around and doesn’t make any apologies for it. I feel there’s just as valid a place for a game like this as there is for Heavy Rain provided that they all fall under the same guidelines. Sex and nudity still need to develop within video games to prevent this concept of reward because sex should be a demonstration of intimacy rather than a prize to be won. Thankfully the fear and controversy surrounding sex and nudity in video games seems to have tapered off despite the onslaught of sexual situations in recent titles. In the meantime, try to be conciencious of some things when you come across a sex scene in a game – why did the developer choose to include it, does it make a reward out of sex, and is it portraying realistic intimacy? Sex is a part of life and should not be disregarded by any mainstream medium, including video games. At this point I’m just thankful that we’ve come a long way since Custer’s Revenge and that I can finally play a game like Heavy Rain without pretending that everyone in society is asexual.
Spydersvenom
