Sex and Video Games
You always hear about how violent video games are but how often do you associate sex with video games? Unless you are that poor kid who got caught on video expressing his deep desires for his female WoW character, it's not something talked about much. Movies and magazines are usually where someone would be able to enjoy adult entertainment, but in the last few years, video games have become more explicit in their use of sex and sexual themes to sell games. Do Lara Croft's breasts really need to be that big to search for treasure and save the world?
Sex is ever present in most everything we see these days, from ads for clothing to car ads to adult movies and, now, adult games. Some games use sexual inuendos and sexy female characters to draw people in while others go right for it and actually have naked women and sex simulations. A few games have even started controversy that ended up in legal battles and changing the way some games are rated. There was even a "sex in video games conference" in June 2006 that 150 publishers, developers, programmers, writers and marketers attended.
Sex in video games really came to the forefront with the Hot Coffee scandal regarding sexual content in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Someone found a way to open code that allowed players to see full sexual exploits. The minigame was made notable with the release of the Hot Coffee mod, created for the 2005 personal computer port of San Andreas. When installed, it enables access to an otherwise inaccessible part of the game which involves a sexual intercourse minigame (fully clothed and in a variety of positions) with any of the main character's girlfriends to try to improve the relationship between the two. The name of the mod is derived from the girlfriends' offer for the main character to come into their homes for "coffee" a euphemism for sex.
Sex sells. More and more companies are using sexy, half clad, big-breasted women to sell their games. I thought the game Tomb Raider had nothing to do with sex but the lead character oozes sexuality and has real life men fantasizing over a bunch of sexy coded pixels. Sex also gets people talking. When I posted this in the News Staff forum, most of the news staff commented on various games they had played with the theme being overtly sexual. Gortok mentioned that Tomb Raider does go naughty and has an add-on which brings Tomb Raider into the next level. "I loved the Nude Raider Mod for Tomb Raider. Polygonal Breasts, for the win." Bigblue even brought up an older game from 1986 - The Leather Goddesses of Phobos - which has some interesting levels: "naughtiness levels", offering the player a choice between a sexually explicit ("Lewd") game, a merely titillating ("Suggestive", the default) game, or a family-friendly ("Tame") game. Here are some other games that are of or have suggestions of an adult nature:
The U.S. has tighter restrictions on sexual themes in video games than other countries. We are still a bit repressed when it comes to this area. Japan is one of the countries leading the world with many of the games made and sold are of a sexual nature. Per Wikipedia, "in Japan adult games have received greater popularity and appeal, similar to the adult manga and doujinshi market. Games are often heavy on CG artwork or 3D graphics, and all manner of sexual niches have been represented in both mainstream and amateur markets. Many of these titles are in the form of dating sims, and are available for the PC and as DVD games." The internet helps make some of these games and mods more popular and lets us decide if we want to play the game or not.
As with violent video games, adult themed games are now being reviewed and attacked. Young minds are being corrupted by sexy pixels!! Jack Thompson, Hilary Clinton and Senator Joe Lieberman are three high profile people lobbying for tighter restrictions on video games. Hilary's website lists "fighting the culture of sex and violence in the media" as part of her platform and Jack Thompson's crusade is widely known amongst video gamers. The San Andreas episode led to stronger restrictions on games and forced ratings to change. The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) reviews and classifies the content in games before they hit retail shelves. After the San Andreas/Coffee incident, the ESRB president Patricia Vance gave an interview to IGN, explaining ratings on video games of an adult nature.
Patricia Vance: We're always looking to make improvements wherever we feel they need to be made. The ratings system is not perfect. We did add a new category last year, E10+, we continue to add content descriptors when we feel that our raters just don't have all of the tools they need to accurately inform or to thoroughly inform a consumer. So we'll always look at that and we'll look at definitions and make sure that the definitions we have up for rating categories and content descriptors are as informative as they can be. We have a redesign of our website going on to better explain to consumers and to add more functionality to consumers. We continue to work on those types of improvements to provide better and more thorough information; more usable information. With our enforcement system we continue to be praised for the level of diligence that we practice in enforcing the system that we have. We'll continue to make improvements where we see fit with the enforcement system, but we have a great system.
I took a poll of a few clan members on Ventrillo asked the following question: If there were two games on the shelf, one showing half naked women with no real plot and the other a finely crafted war FPS, which would they choose? One said he wanted both, and another said he would buy the finely crafted game, but the rest said they would all buy the one with the half naked women on it just because. Let me hear what you would say.
Sex and sexual themes in video games are not "the devil" as The Waterboy's mamma would say. Yes, some of the content can be unnecessary. Yet, at times, a little eye candy can be a big draw such as those polygonal breasts for instance. Gamers in general aren't given enough credit. We are not being corrupted by a bunch of sexy coded pixels. Or are we? That picture of Lara and Duke is hawt.
Would you like to come in for some coffee?
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