Poll: Do people even WANT sex in their video games?

[dreng3]

I think implying that two characters are having sex is considered a way of showing that their relationship has reached a climax and that they are now officially a "thing", I personally don't feel that way about sex, but it is an efficient way to get the message across.
Fade to black seems the best way to resolve it, as long as you manage to make it clear what is going on.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

I am fine with sex in my games and I imagine there are games where sex might be integral, but for the most part I'd rather it be taken off screen. Now, if I was playing a game about someone's first sexual encounter or a game about being a prostitute or whatever, the sex would probably have a place. However, in most common fare games, it tends to just feel like a distraction. The best I can say is that the sex scene in Wolfenstein: The New Order was tasteful and appropriate for the circumstances and that the sex scenes in the Witcher 3 weren't completely awful.

As with most things, if you find a way to handle it well it will probably work in the games favor. Right now the games industry is not at that point however.

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

I don't, but not for any puritanical reasons or worry. Simply because they're always terribly written, horribly acted and animated like that scene from Team America.

Its just embarrassing, stops the game dead and gives those R34 channers too many ideas. And I think we can all agree, those are bad things.

This. Though, the scenes from Wolfenstein: The New Order were fine. They served a narrative purpose and didn't go over the top or show too much of the rigid bodies, unlike in the Witcher series, where you have sex with lots of random women and it's always there for fanservice.

Until developers animate the muscles and all the flesh (Never going to happen.), it's going to remain quite crappy for the most part.

I'd rather have sex games that are able to dedicate all their resources to the bodies and actual sex. But that's not going to happen either because no talented developer is going to go into the niche porn business.

the sex scene in wolfenstien is so unnecessary that it break the immersion of game. Can you imagine sex in RTCW? wolfenstien was once respected old school badass FPS series which they ruined it. it also break BJs character.

back on topic, No I dont want sex, nudity or valguarity in any of my games. useless.

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

I don't, but not for any puritanical reasons or worry. Simply because they're always terribly written, horribly acted and animated like that scene from Team America.

Its just embarrassing, stops the game dead and gives those R34 channers too many ideas. And I think we can all agree, those are bad things.

This. Though, the scenes from Wolfenstein: The New Order were fine. They served a narrative purpose and didn't go over the top or show too much of the rigid bodies, unlike in the Witcher series, where you have sex with lots of random women and it's always there for fanservice.

Until developers animate the muscles and all the flesh (Never going to happen.), it's going to remain quite crappy for the most part.

I'd rather have sex games that are able to dedicate all their resources to the bodies and actual sex. But that's not going to happen either because no talented developer is going to go into the niche porn business.

the sex scene in wolfenstien is so unnecessary that it break the immersion of game. Can you imagine sex in RTCW? wolfenstien was once respected old school badass FPS series which they ruined it. it also break BJs character.

back on topic, No I dont want sex, nudity or valguarity in any of my games. useless.

The New Order isn't RTCW.

I know and new order suck. RTCW not

point is. sex in FPS games is so unnecessary and useless..

I dont want sex scenes and nudity or even romance in any of my Game!!.

 

[Zhukov]

Eh.

If I want to see people fucking on my computer screen then there is a virtually unlimited amount of porn of every conceivable flavour a scant few clicks away. I don't particularly need video game developers to mash their poorly animated, dead-eyed character models together for my amusement.

"What about sex for story purposes?" I hear you say? Yeah, sure, but I can count on one hand the number of developers out there who can come up with a remotely good romance/sex scenario, let alone bring it to life convincingly.

Games are in this odd place where 99% of developers either cannot conceive of using, or do not dare use, sex for any purpose other than making the player feel like a hero. "Ohh, yeah, that lady with the hot polygons wants your pixels inside her, you go champ!" The same can be said for game narratives in general.

 

[veloper]

I usually just want to solve puzzles or shoot at stuff, but if the game has to be about simulating a world or telling some romantic story, then I guess the babies in the setting have to come from somewhere.

Imply that stuff then. No appeal in polygons woodenly representing the deed on the screen, but no need for being overly protective of the kids either. It's just something that the characters and NPCs also do in that game.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Not fussed to be honest, if the dev wants them there then I'm in. If they don't, well the old tasteful fade to black is always and option, along with the hilarious fade to black from Fable.

 

[Goliath100]

This poll need a "some kind of gameplay" option.

 

[veloper]

This poll need a "some kind of gameplay" option.

Would going through Quick Time Events make it any better?

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

Er, yes? Videogames are culture/art, sex and sexuality is important to human beings who create culture/art, ergo sex and sexuality must be included in videogames. In principle it's as simple and clear cut as that.

Each medium has their strengths and weaknesses relative to others, however, and clearly sexuality is a tricky thing to build effectively into an interactive and still fairly low-tech audio-visual medium.

It's a tangential issue, but games and society in general has no issue with commodified, normalised pop-violence. Gore and murderous aggression is acceptable - nudity and sex bumps ratings up and causes 'controversy'. That nonsensical bullshit - ideally - needs to be addressed as sexuality is brought into gaming narratives.

 

[Goliath100]

Would going through Quick Time Events make it any better?

QTEs aren't gameplay if you ask me.

But. you have to agree: Don't make it just a cut scene. If you're going to do it. go all out (without using QTEs).

 

[veloper]

Would going through Quick Time Events make it any better?

QTEs aren't gameplay if you ask me.

But. you have to agree: Don't make it just a cut scene. If you're going to do it. go all out (without using QTEs).

How do you even make good gameplay out of it? Could be because I'm being very uncreative atm, but I can't envision it as a puzzle or a shooter or an RTS for example.

What I'm pretty sure of that given no choice but to include some, most game developers would then default to QTEs or mashing some button repeatedly.

 

[Weaver]

If visual novels are video games then yes. A lot.

 

[kiri3tsubasa]

I very much would love to have a AAA budget release of Corruption of Champions with all of the sex, transformations, and fetishes included and more.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Got no problem with it being there, but I usually roll my eyes if I have no option to avoid it. I get nothing out of watching people shag in whatever various forms. It doesn't really have anything to tell me that I care about. Yes, we know these people feel lust for each other (Or love! [small]through the medium of lust[/small])...Therefore they must be real, right? Yes, they enjoy happy fun bang time, don't we all? Yes, they are acting experimental, pity the modelling/animation team weren't. I guess if you were really interested in certain character's anatomy in a "totes not perving kind" of way, it will educate you on such matters.
I see it like watching somebody else eat a rather succulent meal; if you're already hungry, it'll just make you more hungry and desire to seek the real thing, if you're not hungry, then why are you watching this person eat this damn meal anyway? Now I'm hungry and it's everybody elses fault! Where's ya'll White salmon at??

 

[Alma Mare]

I wonder what people would think of a female witcher who has as much promiscuous sex as Geralt in TW2.

EQUALITY!

Honestly I like the Witcher series because the sex in those games isn't like a reward for X amount of goals achieved. Especially inn the Witcher 3. It is no reward, you can just go have sex whenever you want. Like the game doesn't make a big deal about it. It's there if you want it, but it doesn't direct you too it. I think you can even beat the entire game without ever getting laid, but I would never do that.....chaste Geralt is angry Geralt and angry Geralt kills people. Well.....more people.

I don't get why all those incredibly sexy women even fall for this stoic, emotionless mutant. But yes, TW3 was slightly better at this, thanks to his lover Yennefer.

Pheromones, consequence of the trial of the grasses. The books are very explicit on this, apparantly Eskel is even worse (better?) than Geralt in that regard. That combined with their sterility and overdrived testosterone makes them a jealous husband' worst nightmare. The books stablished that accounts for a lot of the hate most peasants default to when they see a Witcher approach.

OT: I don't mind the concept of characters banging in the game, if it makes sense. Considering most games deal with human beings, it often does. The execution is tipically so cringe-worthy that 99 times out of 100 I wish they had left those scenes off-screen.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I don't really care one way or the other. If it makes sense to have sex in the game then it's fine. I just want it to be done well, which is true for every aspect of the game. But I wouldn't care it if it wasn't a part of the game at all.

I don't get why all those incredibly sexy women even fall for this stoic, emotionless mutant. But yes, TW3 was slightly better at this, thanks to his lover Yennefer.

Aside from pheromones, which I think is a lousy excuse, everybody loves a good fuck without consequences. Especially if you've got nothing better to do like so many village girls in a medieval setting. Witchers also have a reputation for being great in bed, they're sterile and immune to disease so there are no potential downsides.

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

What role does sex have in a story about defeating lots of people and accomplishing tasks?

That's a rather narrow, leading question. You might as well have asked 'what role does sex have in a game of Pacman'.

Violence is gamey. It can move a game along even when there is no story.

Gaming is an incredible diverse medium, and violence clearly is not the be all and end all. That it usually is reflects poorly on us and of writers and designers.

Witcher 2 is clearly a very violent game, but I always admired the choices it gives Geralt and the player in what was built as the final major showdown.

I've not played Watch Dogs 2 (yet), but I also admire the apparently robust options for a more pacifist playstyle. Action and gameplay systems can be enjoyed without casual, consequence-free murder being a primary gameplay loop (I feel it would've been more brave had Ubisoft ditched firearms entirely from the story - make a disdain for murder part of his character and the gameplay the player takes control of).

I see it (very rarely) used effectively in cutscenes, but I think cutscenes are far too overused and would prefer more minimalist stories that rely on environmental storytelling, the way only games can. Games don't need cutscenes and dialogue as much as the AAA publishers would have you believe.

That's fine for your own tastes, and I can certainly understand them; most major games are forever trapped within a thickheaded identity crisis, flip-flopping between passive and interactive - between simply sitting there watching filmic scenes and then actually 'playing' the thing. It's arguably a rather lazy form of design - relying on the ease and simplicity of passive sequences to flesh out what a dev's unable to do through mechanics, structure, other concepts, or environmental narrative, and so on.

But on t'other hand; gaming is a unique mishmash of passive and interactive media. A film cannot ask for your input, neither can a book or sculpture. It's natural for gaming to take advantage of all that's available to it. That it's generally done lazily doesn't impact its essential merit (or potential).

Depending on the game, and what it's setting out to achieve, passive cutscenes are just fine.

For now, and this stage of the medium technologically? I think stuff like BioWare's 'sex' scenes get the job done; DA:I was a variously awful game [that I still ended up hugely enjoying when I sussed just how much of its vapid filler 'content' could be willfully ignored], but I felt the romance arcs were excellent (at least the one's I've seen so far). They represent progress in the right direction in terms of how relationships and sexuality's presented in a game's story (games very rarely even acknowledge that their cast members have sexual orientations, preferences, opinions on sex, etc).

People pour scorn on some of BioWare's LI scenes, but frankly I'm more personally proud of the medium and its fans when people enthuse over empathetic emotional entanglements (which sex can be a part of) in a game as opposed to mindless violence and aggression, so, again, they are a step in a positive direction[footnote]...and no, to anyone who may get triggered by critique; empathetic emotional entanglements need not 'replace' mindless - typically masculinist - violence and aggression, but broader exploration of the spectrum is important for the medium's health.[/footnote].