Is there too much sex in video games?

[joshuaayt]

There is "Too much" sex in real life, and so it naturally spills over into our media.
Sex IS human nature, as much as that sentimentality and love being shoved at us by the types of idiots who would mask truth. What would you have if you took the humanity out of the characters? Robots, that's what.
Uhm... so, my answer is no. That there are people who get angry over it means that there is still a relatively small amount of it (Just enough to be incongruous, see?) and this is innacurate.

 

[Omnific One]

actually no. Its incredibly sparse compared to other mediums like movies or music.

Exactly. Every single movie (ok, almost every one) has a romance subplot. More devs need to look into this kind of interactivity. I'm not going after it for the inevitable sex cutscene, but because it adds an additional layer of interest to the game's plot.

The industry still needs some maturing to do. There's a plethora of games involving macho meatheads blasting away baddies left and right, but almost none of those have any sort of romantic subplot that isn't corny or too crass. Any sort of sexuality in games tend to resemble the wet dreams of a sexually frustarted person than an actual attempt at creating some emotion centered around sex. There have been recent exceptions of course, but overall, there has been little progress. It's not that games need more sex, but rather, I think games need more sex done right.

Very true. More sex is not the answer; more romantic-focus is. When I say having in game relationships is a positive step, I mean relationships that develop over the course of the game and have real meaning. A shameless "look, it's sex" situation is arguably one of the worst things that could happen. Honestly, I would prefer no sex in games until the devs get the concept of character development right first. Bioware, in my opinion, is the only dev that has ever handled sex/relationship mix well in games. Others have done relationships well, but the mix of these two explosive elements is quite a difficult goal to achieve.

 

[TiefBlau]

Game developers like nothing more than to solidify the notion that gamers are awkward, sad virgins, and gamers, in return, lap up all the sex they see in games, further solidifying the notion. I think David Wong of Cracked.com best puts it in one of his articles about gaming:

I'm no prude; I'm the guy who made my publisher use a font where all the T's look like uncircumcised dongs. But I'm also an adult, with a wife. A homeowner who works very hard to maintain something that looks like dignity to people who catch a glimpse of it from passing cars.

But it's hard for me to maintain my self-image as a mature, upstanding member of the community when I sit down to enjoy my favorite hobby and see stuff like this (WARNING: massively Not Safe for Work). That clip is from God of War 3, one of the best-reviewed titles of this generation. This "Rated 'M' for 'Mature'" title features a minigame where you, the God of War, come across Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and boning. You walk in on her in a giggling naked lesbian threesome:

She then casts aside her two female lovers to invite you to her bed. You crawl in and the camera pans away. We hear moans and ooh's and ah's as button prompts appear, walking you through the process of thrusting your gray and red erection in and out, bringing Aphrodite to orgasm. Meanwhile, the camera focuses on the two rejected topless females across the room, who are now watching and fondling each other's bodies while mewling admiring phrases like:

"Such power!"
"If it's this good watching, just imagine!"
"Is he going to...."
"By the gods!"

Eventually they get so aroused from the spectacle that they turn their lust on each other, and start having lesbian sex on the floor.

Again, "Mature" is the rating, and I've come to learn that "Mature" in video game land means "teenage male." So here we are again with the stereotype, the games themselves selling the kind of sex fantasy that appeals to specifically to males who have never actually had a relationship with a female.

When you're in your mid-teens, hormones thundering through your system, popping wheelies and doing donuts in your brain, you tend to think of women as giggling titty support systems who exist only to give you something to masturbate to. Then we actually get to know some real women and grow out of it.

Gaming has never grown out of it. I pop in Street Fighter IV and my very first match is against a grown woman in a Japanese schoolgirl fetish costume.

But hey, what about games where the female is the hero? You know, like Bayonetta, the woman who seductively sucks on a lollipop during cut-scenes, whose special moves require her to get naked.

Again, I have no problem with putting sex or sexuality in entertainment. Sex is part of life, so it should naturally be part of our movies and TV shows and games. But these are the digital equivalent of inflatable sex dolls. It's embarrassing and insulting, not because I'm a staunch feminist, but because I don't like the assumption it's making about me (that I'm an emotionally stunted, sexually frustrated teenage male). It's like even award-winning video games have the sensibility of made-for-Cinemax B movies.

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_18571_5-reasons-its-still-not-cool-to-admit-youre-gamer.html#ixzz0tRXWXbsH

The problem with sex in video games isn't its existence. It's not even the amount of it. It's the way they handle it. It's the transparency of their intentions to win us over with tits as opposed to anything remotely resembling mature conduct.

I do, in fact play Japanese visual novels like Fate/Stay Night and Tsukihime, and can say with great confidence that the sex scenes in those games are awkward, if not completely out of place. You have an engaging plot with unexpected, brick-shitting twists, and you cram sex in there as if you're actively trying to alienate your audience. But then again, I guess it makes sense, because any visual novel like Ever17, regardless of plot quality, can win only so many fans if there isn't any sex in there.

 

[gamer_parent]

you mean isn't there too much video games in sex?

I don't know about you, but I like to play video games while having sex. Nothing like trying to multitask and end up doing both poorly.

You haven't lived until you've done the naughty whilst playing an online fps. Trying to consentrate on headshots whilst all the muscles in your body are contracting and your blood being rapidly pumped down to the fun zone. Philatio is equally as entertaining.

I've actually tried that. Unfortunately, there are two things that prevent me from enjoying it.

1. I get crazy motion sickness from FPSs. the only one that I can play without getting it is counterstrike

2. When I play games like FPSs' I also tend to get hyperfocused to the point of ignoring everything around me or even ignoring bodily discomfort. Let's just say that I had to put the game away lest I hurt her feelings.

LOLs

haha I'd also imagine an intense pong battle would be interesting

I think this [http://www.gamegirladvance.com/archives/2002/10/26/sex_in_games_rezvibrator.html] is about as close to sex during videogames that I can get without being horribly bad at doing both.

 

[Hiken no Ace]

I'd say...no. It's just normally unnecessary. Most of the game's that have 'sex scenes' would be just as good without as with em. Sometimes they are so poorly done that I'd actually prefer it that way. I will say that Dragon Age did a fairly decent job with it though.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Snip

Just to let you know, there is a difference between sex and sexual content, sex is the act and sexual content is the jiggle physics. While is undebatable that their is a lot of the latter, there is very little of the former. Outside of pure porn games (which are actually rare here in the west since the Ao rating kills sales of any game since most retailers won't hold it), the only sex has been off screen (leaisure Suit Larry), in a car (GTA), implied (Dante's inferno) or barely there at all (Mass Effect). Other mediums have had sex quite often without any kind of relevent rating system banging on it (films and books). The amount of sex is miniscual compared to these other mediums. Sexual content, however, has choked gaming to the point that the old stand by of Ninja Gaiden has used the six axis to let the player jiggle the women's breast (that wasn't just an escapist news, that actually is what they did). Is their to much? Well... possibly. We aren't getting that many women that aren't a D cup by default around here are we?

 

[gamer_parent]

Ha!

What will they make next. No doubt thats japanese?

I think so. I'm actually surprised this didn't come around sooner.

but this is getting way off topic.

 

[fozzy360]

actually no. Its incredibly sparse compared to other mediums like movies or music.

Exactly. Every single movie (ok, almost every one) has a romance subplot. More devs need to look into this kind of interactivity. I'm not going after it for the inevitable sex cutscene, but because it adds an additional layer of interest to the game's plot.

The industry still needs some maturing to do. There's a plethora of games involving macho meatheads blasting away baddies left and right, but almost none of those have any sort of romantic subplot that isn't corny or too crass. Any sort of sexuality in games tend to resemble the wet dreams of a sexually frustarted person than an actual attempt at creating some emotion centered around sex. There have been recent exceptions of course, but overall, there has been little progress. It's not that games need more sex, but rather, I think games need more sex done right.

Very true. More sex is not the answer; more romantic-focus is. When I say having in game relationships is a positive step, I mean relationships that develop over the course of the game and have real meaning. A shameless "look, it's sex" situation is arguably one of the worst things that could happen. Honestly, I would prefer no sex in games until the devs get the concept of character development right first. Bioware, in my opinion, is the only dev that has ever handled sex/relationship mix well in games. Others have done relationships well, but the mix of these two explosive elements is quite a difficult goal to achieve.

I agree. The challenge here is how to have sex that doesn't feel like an exploitation flick. I get kind of tired with the games that trivialize sex or the notion of it as "OOOOO, more boobs!". Devs can't seem to understand that there's more than just actual sex when it comes to sex. They don't understand the implications it will have on the characters in their games, so it all comes off as the projection of shut-in adolescent boys who view it in only one way. Without proper character development, as you say, there's no point to it. It's a problem because then the people who want to denegrate games and gamers have more ammuntion to do so.

 

[Caligulove]

I think theres too much of it shoehorned in there. There are some where it makes sense to have it but its just executed so horribly.

That, and its still not SEX, really. Its the same as people saying that theres sex in TV and Movies when it is still just tempting or implied sex, at most some softcore nudity and more sensual imagery to fill in the gaps and think about sex. But its not pornography.
The same goes for all games havent suddenly become Japanese hentai games

 

[Akai Shizuku]

Actual sex, I wouldn't say so. Sexuality, yeah; I think it's gotten to the point where it's just retarded and nonsensical. I don't want to play a FPS because there's big boobs on the cover, I want to play a FPS because I want to murder tons of dudes.

 

[chuckman1]

I for one think there isn't enough. WHO IS WITH ME?

MEEEE!!!!!!!

 

[thenoblitt]

there are actually very few videogames that have sex in them that are not rated Adult only, and if sex is in the game it is usually very mild with hardly any shots that are not just looking at their faces, so no there is not to much sex cause there is hardly any to begin with

 

[Paksenarrion]

Heavens, no! On the contrary, we need more! When I first learned that we could breed our own pokemon, I was sorely disappointed at the reality. It was equal to giving one of the girls in Harvest Moon their favorite item, expecting something raunchy in return, only to see a bewildering cut scene where you win the derby with the horse she gave you.

"Aha!" I thought, "surely, this hints at a future tryst with her, the horse, and my character!"

...but alas, it was merely a Great Expectation.

Miss Havesham, you tricky devil, you.

 

[Feste the Jester]

No, Sex (particularly direct depictions of it) along with much of anything else controversial in society is fairly sparse in games. Some games do put it in mention and very very few non pornographic games ever show anything, and even then it doesn't show much.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Hum. Oddly, no. The problem I have is that sex is always flaunted to titillated. If you must have sex use it to establish some point or contribute to a greater good. Don't treat your audience like horny little teenagers (even if they are). If developers learn to take there head out of there ass about the issue then its okay with me if they have more of it, otherwise yes, there's too much sex.

 

[mad825]

I would say that there is too much teasing (*cough* *cough* FF) however what sex? you mean whats in mainstream titles such as ME? Fahrenheit? or knock offs from japan such as rapelay?

regardless there is too much in mods....just look at the adult mods in FO3 nexus.

 

[Dfskelleton]

Um, not really. Either there isn't much, or I don't end up playing many games that do have it. IMO, I thinks it depends on the game. It makes sense in Heavy Rain, where you're a normal person with normal problems (aside from a serial killer), but I think a Love Scene in a game like Dead Space would slightly take away from the dismembering fun and clean the crap out of your pants moments.

 

[JacobyPAX]

I always thought tetris would be better with sex. It could be called Sextris.