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.