How SHOULD sex scenes in games work?
- Thread starter Zechnophobe
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Meh. I don't really care, nothing two explicit for sure, for multiple reasons:
-It's a game, no matter what you do it won't look right.
-You don't want ESRB to throw a fit
-I honestly don't want to have to picture every protagonist I play naked.
And please please please no quick time events... or interactivity. It just seems wrong to me.
-It's a game, no matter what you do it won't look right.
-You don't want ESRB to throw a fit
-I honestly don't want to have to picture every protagonist I play naked.
And please please please no quick time events... or interactivity. It just seems wrong to me.
Mass effect 2 had it right. Make it short and sensual. A little interaction to the scene on my part would be nice too... or maybe just a cutscene, depends on the game.
But if you're gonna do a sex scene, show some skin too.
But if you're gonna do a sex scene, show some skin too.
Goddamn ninjas, I swear...Jelly ^.^ said:
I'm kinda against the idea of interactive stuff like that. Sex scenes are great if you want to tell a story but as I believe the Extra Credits team pointed out, playing through an interactive one feels a little gratuitous.
But if you're asking for suggestions, what about:
Rhythm games. (after all, a sense of rhythm is necessary for the real-life act) Throw in a "sex mix" on the stereo (which could be classy or crass depending on the context) and you could have a unique game of XXX Hero going.
Timed Multiple Choice (like conversation in Alpha Protocol)- to give a vague feeling of control without making your action to explicitly analogous to what happens on screen and it's still possible to go horribly wrong
Agreed with this and others that said mostly the same stuff.Trivun said:
Until games (and gamers) can get more mature about the medium, as well as when the general public has a more lenient tendency towards games like what happened for films in the 60s/70s I think? Then games can start to explore sexuality/sex scenes as a theme or plot-device.
I disagree that plot should ALWAYS just enhance the gameplay. I think games like heavy rain (while Heavy Rain is not a great example, it had a lot of negative things, mostly game-related) that are driven mostly by the plot, where the game is just there to enhance the experience, is a great thing and should be pursued further. That being said, games that are the other way around, that are there for awesome gameplay and the story is just to tie stuff together, have their place too.
But yeah, when gamers and society in general get more mature about sex in general, and sex in games particularly (plus when the graphics engines become sophisticated enough to realistically portray sex scenes); this is when gaming can start to implement sex more frequently/with less "weirdness" from everyone involved.
Why do games have to be this deep learning experience? Fuck why can't they just be mindless fun?! I'm tired of people calling it "art" or "a medium for learning." Hell i just want to have fun, I don't want people shoving their opinions down my throat. Put sex in games and make it awesome.
Lots of interesting opinions flying around here. I also notice we seem to be having a few different discussions here, about whether sex should be in games at all, about how the mechanics of sex scenes in games should work, and about the relationship between sex, story, and character interaction.
So, should sex be in games at all? Yes. Sex is a part of the human experience, and games, as an art form, should examine that experience, as has every other medium before games. Actually, the Extra Credits guys said this better than I ever could before they got picked up by The Escapist, so I'll let them do the talking (you may have to sign into YouTube for this to play, since it's content-flagged):
Next, assuming there is sex in a game, how should it be handled? Well, I think that depends largely on the game's art style. A JRPG with anime cutscenes, for example, could easily use that route to show an explicit sex scene without it looking ridiculous. Likewise, if you're willing to pre-render the entire thing instead of using the game engine, that could work too. Inside the game engine, though, it's going to look ludicrous; the technology just isn't up to it yet. The sex scene from the first Mass Effect is about as far as you can go using current game engines. It also depends on a game's tone; an explicit sex scene would be completely tonally appropriate for a Duke Nukem game, while something like a Final Fantasy game is better suited to implication.
Lastly, sex should contribute in some way to the game's world. Not necessarily the story, but the world. There should be a reason the sex is there, even if it's just to say, "yes, this game contains all the things that can garner us an 'M' rating: violence, profanity, and sex." God of War is a good example; "gratuitous" pretty much defines the game, and even if the sex didn't make much sense in the context of the narrative, it matched perfectly with the over-the-top-machismo and testosterone-fueled tone of the game.
Also:
So, should sex be in games at all? Yes. Sex is a part of the human experience, and games, as an art form, should examine that experience, as has every other medium before games. Actually, the Extra Credits guys said this better than I ever could before they got picked up by The Escapist, so I'll let them do the talking (you may have to sign into YouTube for this to play, since it's content-flagged):
Next, assuming there is sex in a game, how should it be handled? Well, I think that depends largely on the game's art style. A JRPG with anime cutscenes, for example, could easily use that route to show an explicit sex scene without it looking ridiculous. Likewise, if you're willing to pre-render the entire thing instead of using the game engine, that could work too. Inside the game engine, though, it's going to look ludicrous; the technology just isn't up to it yet. The sex scene from the first Mass Effect is about as far as you can go using current game engines. It also depends on a game's tone; an explicit sex scene would be completely tonally appropriate for a Duke Nukem game, while something like a Final Fantasy game is better suited to implication.
Lastly, sex should contribute in some way to the game's world. Not necessarily the story, but the world. There should be a reason the sex is there, even if it's just to say, "yes, this game contains all the things that can garner us an 'M' rating: violence, profanity, and sex." God of War is a good example; "gratuitous" pretty much defines the game, and even if the sex didn't make much sense in the context of the narrative, it matched perfectly with the over-the-top-machismo and testosterone-fueled tone of the game.
Also:
That sounds . . . phenomenally interesting, actually. It doesn't seem like it would be that hard to implement--you're basically just mixing-and-matching various physical traits and personality archetypes. The hard part, as you pointed out, would be gauging the player preference while maintaining immersion. If you could get that down . . . damn, I'd certainly play it.Housebroken Lunatic said:
How? Please explain why you think this. It's a bit extreme or are you just trolling?http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-tEYNUrGRv8/TS2oETrnq3I/AAAAAAAAAEY/mECqRMELOcY/s1600/troll-face1.png&imgrefurl=http://starevents.pl/12.php%3Fq%3Dyou-mad-troll-face%26page%3D2&usg=__TLe275e7lx5amC6_4vdSk6x4qqM=&h=428&w=469&sz=93&hl=en&start=57&zoom=1&tbnid=P6zvpS7GDZ7yUM:&tbnh=117&tbnw=128&ei=kgWITeObFILLgQf50oC1DQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtroll%2Bface%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D1264%26bih%3D851%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1AnythingOutstanding said:
Zechnophobe said:
Put simply, There shouldn't be any.
To elaborate: There should not be the need for sex scenes in games. Sure, I can take the occasional boob in a game, and up-skirt shots, no problem. But when a game needs to put in sex scenes just to attract customers (why anyone would be attracted by it is beyond me) then something is seriously wrong!
I can't stress that enough, something is wrong!
Most of these games are, quite frankly, shit. And then instead of making the game atleast bearable by changing some aspects of it the developers take the oh, so easy shortcut by making some polygons do the nasties. And they end up with sales but no-one appreciating the actual game, just a bunch of teenies knocking their junk around.
The good games that put sex in-game, (to a certain extent Dragon Age can be counted as a good game so I will let that one fly and use it here) mostly RPG's do it to incorporate some kind of relationship spectrum (read Hentai Dating Sim). At least that's what they say.
The end product is nothing more than a Hentai Dating Sim. It's clumsy, easy to navigate, fast and over just as fast, and often locks up parts of the game if you don't do it when the planet's align under a parting blue moon and play your cards just like you would in an IRL commited relationship (HAH! Who am I kidding, that doesn't exist anymore, does it?).
So the conclusion I end up at is that the developers make sure to put it in at the last minute without testing because they are insecure about what they are doing. Then atleast someone will buy it even if it ends up being a mess.
No good game have the need for sex scenes, And I don't think they ever will have, I sure hope this is some kind of faddy "because everyone else does it"-thing that will soon blow over.
In terms of the on screen sex itself, I think it's better to just imply it ( like the Tali scene in ME2). Having cartoon characters naked would just be too awkward, because the animation wouldnt really capture all the etails to make it believable.
What I think is a bigger issue is what OP mentions about relationships in games. Romancing a character is fine, but wouldnt it be cooler to be able to on missions or quests with your characters "gf/bf" to get special dialogue or something?
What I think is a bigger issue is what OP mentions about relationships in games. Romancing a character is fine, but wouldnt it be cooler to be able to on missions or quests with your characters "gf/bf" to get special dialogue or something?
What do you mean, how should sex scenes in games work?! Now that every console has motion controls I don't think that's going to be an oft-asked question anymore ;D