Hiphophippo said:
I hate to break it to you, but that's not love at the start of God of War.
I'd assert that it matters little what emotion fuels Kratos at any given moment (here's a hint however: it's all a variation on rage, including anger, malice, animosity, and even wrath). The trouble is that God of War has already crossed every conceivable line save one. What's more, it is little more than the most juvenile of power fantasies.
Kratos has already murdered his family. He has slaughtered the innocent for the most minor of personal gain. He has slain gods and goddesses. What's more, he does all of this in a brutally personal way with rivers of blood and mountains of entrails left in his wake. What's more, he sleeps with the available harlots as they arrive and the game decides at this
most crucial of moments to draw the line.
Again, the trouble often comes to the "but think of the children" logic that plagues modern man. The problem with such logic, is that such protection cannot be strewn about haphazardly. I, like most males, fantasized regularly about sex. When that was not enough, I was known to go to significant lengths to acquire pornography. To put it bluntly, short of hovering over your children each and every moment of their lives until the age of 18, there is no conceivable way to prevent them from witnessing an explicit act of sexuality. And even should one be successful, what has been gained? Such action results in an adult that almost certainly has limited understanding of interpersonal relationships, no real knowledge of sex (or its potential dangers), who is almost certainly unsuited to live a life on their own.
The simple facts of the matter are this: sex is an important part of social interaction. At some level, sex drives most human interaction. What's more, the simple act of sex is hardly evil unless one finds a continuation of the species some sort of mortal sin.
I don't expect a game to include hardcore pornography. Regular cinema has grappled with the same problem for decades. One can display sex directly without being lewd about it. Beyond simple "tricks of the camera" (easier when the camera only occupies virtual space), it falls to the game designers and writers to create a relationship where a sexual encounter seems fitting. Look at Mass Effect or Neverwinter Nights 2 - by the time one reaches the culmination of a relationship they have marched to the very gates of hell together and stand on the precipice of annihilation. It seems to me that the unlikely scenario given such conditions is the two parties would choose to abstain in the face of oblivion. There are plenty of other examples but the point is relatively simple: if you allow the player to build a relationship that culminated in the
implication of sex, what good does prudishness do to draw the line at even a brief cutscene?
