Chi Kong Lui has written an article over at Gamecritics.com on sex in games. That is, actual intercourse, not just mere sexiness or what not. He excludes non-mainstream games, although the boundary is vague. Of course I immediately thought of some titles not mentioned, and they are all games Rockstar Vienna was involved in somehow – a coincidence, I swear. I think the sex in GTA3 and especially GTA: Vice City is graphic and overt enough to merit inclusion, and if I’m not mistaken there is some sex in Max Payne 1, although I still haven’t played that myself.
Anyway, given that this article is volume 1, there will probably be a volume 2. I hope there will be some analysis – what is the conclusion drawn from this list of games, and what does it mean about the medium or the industry? Love, sex, romance, etc. are a popular topic among game designers, only slightly less so than “when will games make people cry?” Case in point: the GDC session on romance in games (with Eric Zimmerman, Warren Spector and Will Wright) was apparently one of the better ones. (Sadly, I missed it.) It remains a fascinating topic, worthy of a deeper blog entry.
Comments 8
Frankly, I’d rather the games industry focus on more interesting human interactions: friends, enemies, and the spectrum of relationships between those extremes. At this point, it’s little more than cardboard dolls shooting at each other. Having sex in a game is, likewise, just cardboard dolls rubbing against each other. Ultimately, that model is just not very interesting.
Posted 07 May 2004 at 14:54 ¶I agree that social interaction is THE major missing point in games today, and something that is irritating me more and more, as a gamer and as a developer.
On the other hand, a) romance and sex are forms of social interaction, b) I think a broader range of subject matter would be a Good Thing for games.
Posted 07 May 2004 at 16:02 ¶On a side note, one thing bugged me about Chi’s article: “Non-mainstream underground X-rated (Japanese or otherwise) games aren’t eligible because they aren’t accessible to the mainstream and consequently their cultural influence is nominal.”
In which “mainstream” should be swapped with “North American / European” mainstream, as Miss Chi probably didn’t sample the eastern market for her survey. For example, the sheer size of the erotic and amourous games sections in Akihabaras Software-stores made me change my mind about the amount and presence of Sex- orineted games in Japan. There’s also a surprising number of female customers, at least as many as boys.
Posted 07 May 2004 at 16:46 ¶I believe Chi is a he and not a she. At least, that was the impression I got from the bio page.
Posted 08 May 2004 at 3:41 ¶http://www.gamecritics.com/aboutus/bio_chi.php
Whoops, must have misread the initial blog entry there :)
Posted 08 May 2004 at 9:11 ¶I agree with Tobe that I basically copped out of covering Japanese hentai titles. There’s even domestic X-rated stuff that could be covered. I didn’t know how else to phrase it. I was trying to avoid hardcore pornography, but I couldn’t find the right way to justify it. I guess it just more interested to me to see what gets allowed in the mainstream. I think that says more about us as a culture.
Thanks for reading and commenting everyone.
Chi
Posted 09 May 2004 at 20:03 ¶Hey, shooting someone in the face is ALSO social interaction! Sex and death have always been popular subjects in art, so I guess killing somebody is the opposite extreme of fucking someone. But as pointed out, it’d be nice to see more of the inbetween. “The OC: The Game”, or something.
Posted 09 May 2004 at 20:46 ¶i want to download this game
Posted 18 Oct 2004 at 20:06 ¶