In defense of adult content?

 

So, in the last blog post, Philbo quite rightly pointed out two things:

 

1: Sex in games is not “new”

2: So far, it has been handled with all the subtlety of a stick of dynamite.

 

Thing is, I don’t find that very surprising. Sex has always been a bit of a difficult subject to portray, and if video games had managed to “get it right” in their short lifetime THAT would be the major story. The existence of the Guardian’s “Bad sex award” for books demonstrates that even people working in a more controlled, mature medium are struggling to approach this topic.

 

However, I think that like movies and books and every other facet of the human experience, sex is too large a subject to just exclude or ignore. There must be a balance, if games are meant to inspire emotions, then you can’t just ignore the most basic of desires.

 

Before I can give examples of sex “well” handled in games, I want to briefly discuss sex scenes as an idea. What is the point of a sex scene? In a film, or a book or a story, describing or discussing the physical act of sex is one of the best ways to inspire a wide range of emotion quickly. It can build relationships between characters, it can shock, and it can cause anger or feelings of disgust. It is on par, if not better than death in this regard. Sex scenes are usually confronting and difficult to ignore. Done well, they force an audience to react. This type of plot device is too powerful to simply throw away in gaming.

 

So, who does it “well”? Who are our Casanovas or Don Juan’s of gaming? Well, truth is there aren’t many. Maybe it speaks to the difficulty of the topic, or the immaturity (in the sense of timescale, not maturity of content) of gaming but there aren’t many sex scenes in games that come off as more than cheesy, appealing to young horny men or embarrassing. There are a myriad of factors as to “why” this might be the case, most of which have already been discussed by Philbo.

What games have increasingly done well, however, is deal with “sexual themes”. While the actual scenes themselves are often crude, creepy or dull, the idea of characters having sex is no longer so taboo. Games now have characters who talk about sex, or have it, without it simply being a “wink wink nudge nudge” Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball moment. 

 

Persona  4, a Japanese game for the Playstation 2, explored the theme of homosexuality without being condescending (compare with EA and Bioware’s ham-fisted but well-meaning attempts) . In the “Witcher” series by Projekt CD Red, the protagonist comes off as a very convincing womaniser and is as “active” as the player desires. While the actual graphics of sex are still awkward, the inclusion of it as a natural part of the human experience is gaining ground.

 

 I think this is important. If games are going to be a respectable medium for storytelling, then they need to be able to cover all aspects of life, including sex. So, bang on you dead-eyed uncanny valley dwellers. As long as the character development is there, I can stomach Mass Effect’s “attempts” at being sensual.

 

Though, I am never upset to learn I can skip those cutscenes.

 

What the hell am I watching? Oh god. No.

Sorry for the delay guys. In the last two blog posts Moif and I discussed what can make or break a game’s story. This time we’re talking about what everyone really wants to hear.

SEX IN VIDEO GAMES!

I suppose the earliest games that had sex (if you can call it that) that I can remember are Custer’s Revenge and Beat ‘Em and Eat ‘Em. Fair play to the creators of the latter, fantastic name. These games were made and became notorious, but mainly because of how ridiculous they are. And I suppose at the time the graphics were much too close to reality for people to handle. And the rape aspect of Custer’s Revenge I suppose, that ain’t great either.
Nowadays though? You gotta work for this shit. Because now this is meaningful stuff.

The best modern examples of this are Bioware’s games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and its Hot Coffee mod is a classic too, but more in the style of Beat ‘Em and Eat ‘Em. It’s just… hilarious. Bioware are into making story driven games that also give players choices on how they want the story to go. Character interaction is especially important in these games, and fair play to them, they can do it well. But guys, chill out.

There was a hell of a lot of controversy surrounding the sex scenes in Mass Effect. Did the people who were complaining about it actually take a peek at these scenes. Talk about a disappointment! As the camera fades to black and comes back again, zooming on the characters’ dead eyes, typical of Bioware games, as the awkwardly animated characters jerk… around, it ends up becoming a farce. At least the Mortal Kombat creators Netherealm studios are ridiculous but they don’t try to make it meaningful! Is that a good thing? I don’t even know. No it’s not. They need to wise up, too.

Still, these games teach you so much about life and relationships. No matter how much of an evil prick you are, if you occasionally agree with someone they will sleep with you or, in the case of Dragon Age: Origins, give them one or two wee presents and you’re in there.

Anyway, point is, when a sex scene in a game comes on, put on some porn instead.

Philbo

What makes a "good" story?

In the last blog post, Philbo looked at what makes a bad story in a game. I’m going to try and look at what makes a good story.  I guess I'm more positive than him. My beard's less impressive though.

 

Games are a pretty unique platform, and the best stories in games are usually built around the game's mechanics. This makes sense, because the ability for the player to actually  take direct action is what sets games apart as a medium. Multiple endings, variable paths to success and the real potential of failure are common elements in the best storylines in video games.

 

To help illustrate my point, I am going to look at two games. The Mass Effect series (technically three games but shut up it is only one story) by Bioware and Ghost Trick by Capcom (of all people). Both of these games make use of gaming-specific actions to further the story.

 Mass Effect in an interesting mix of game and film. The story is primarily relayed in cutscenes and dialogue, like in a traditional medium. What sets it apart is the player's capacity to affect changes in the progression. Did you ever shout "do it! It'll be Awesome!" to Luke when Vader asks him to join the dark side? Well, even if you aren't as mildly evil as I am, you can appreciate Mass Effect giving you the player the choice to either be either the "good cop" or the "bad cop". 

 

While Mass Effect is not totally unique in giving a player a choice, it combines this choice with a compelling enough story that making those choices are often hard. Unlike in Fable by Lionhead, where the choices often boil down to "Help orphan" or "Kick puppy", Mass Effect's decisions are often less black and white. The mix of decent storytelling in a traditional sense, coupled with the control that games can give a player makes for "good storytelling".

 

 While you have most likely heard of Mass Effect if you follow gaming, Ghost Trick is a relatively unknown Nintendo DS game by Capcom. It tells the story of a man, killed under suspicious circumstances, who in death gains the ability to investigate his own demise. I won't ruin the end for you, but if you get the chance to play it, I would reccomend it wholeheartedly. 

 

 While Ghost trick does offer choices, it is not like mass effect in that you can't progress until you figure out the "right" choice. There isn't a moral element to the game. However, what it does give you is another game-only mechanic: the Game Over.

 Game Over, or failure, is a perfect example of game play and story telling intertwining. In a film, you don't really get to see what happens if the protagonist fails. If Jeff Bridges had killed Robert Downey Jr., we still don't get to see a evil army in iron man suits. In books, we don't get to know what happens if heroes had lost hope at any given moment, if Frodo had just given the ring back to Bilbo.

 In Ghost Trick, the game over is used extremely creatively. If you fail to accomplish a task in time or in the right order, you see the immediate results of your mistakes. A thug might catch a little girl, or a loose branch might fall on the hero's helper, preventing her from saving you. This is used to show the player how they should advance (gameplay), but also builds urgency by showing the consequences of each action. The "game over" mechanic  serve to evoke an emotional response from the player.

 

This mixture of gameplay with good writing is vital. It helps to explain why, for video games a traditionally "good story" can seem silly or overwrought. Games like the newer installements of the Final Fantasy series, or the Metal Gear series have fairly decent plots by all accounts. However, the relative inability to influence the story in a meaningful way means it is hard to feel invested in the medium. Unlike a movie, or a book where delivery or verbage can create this investment, a lack of integration into player action in a game causes what should be serious and emotion scenes to seem silly or boring.

 

In short, to have a good story, a game must allow the player to feel involved. It is not enough to have good dialogue and stunning cutscenes, if the story isn't interwoven into the game play. If the story and the game seem to be two distinct elements, then you have failed to create an engaging plot.