I never did understand what the problem with having sexual content in a video game is, and why these games always tend to get pushed to a mature (18+) rating. Free, easily accessible internet porn has been around since the early 2000s, perhaps longer -- point me to a 13-year-old who hasn't ever seen a porno. Why work so hard to "protect" kids from something that they will inevitably encounter through a different medium?

Interesting how all our 16 to 24 year old posters are convinced that sexuality is the most deeply inherent part of human psychology. I've personally never been convinced over the whole Freudian thing myself; even if sexuality is inherent in all sexually reproducing creatures, my no means is it the core of survival or being. If sex was absolutely the most gratifying thing bar none, I see no reason why we should want to play games in the first place, or have any ambitions to do anything but have more sex. Certainly, gratification is inherent, but sex in only a facet of that. Personally, I see gender as even more essential to character than sex (that is, masculinity is more defining than male).

As far as incorporating sex into a game, ultimately the answer I suggest is tastefulness. Imagine, for example, if you were tasked with reworking Harvest Moon to include intercourse and nudity while staying as true to the original feel as possible. In that case, you'd simply have to ignore the kids who insist that sex must be in the form of a hot steamy orgy and rather pursue a tasteful, romantic relationship.

What's with all the stereotyping? You don't really know who you're arguing with.

Who was that directed to? You're talking to a forum full of people who play videogames a lot and are confused about how sex can be made to not feel like a shock factor gimmick. The entire forum is a living, collective stereotype. No need not to as far as I can see.

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Original post by Portugal Stew Interesting how all our 16 to 24 year old posters are convinced that sexuality is the most deeply inherent part of human psychology. I've personally never been convinced over the whole Freudian thing myself; even if sexuality is inherent in all sexually reproducing creatures, my no means is it the core of survival or being. If sex was absolutely the most gratifying thing bar none, I see no reason why we should want to play games in the first place, or have any ambitions to do anything but have more sex. Certainly, gratification is inherent, but sex in only a facet of that. Personally, I see gender as even more essential to character than sex (that is, masculinity is more defining than male).

You assume too much...

Nobody has expressed a conviction that sexuality is the most deeply inherent part of human psychology.

I see you all have lots of valuable input on the core point of my reply. I'm glad we're all able to focus.

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Original post by Drathis Quote: Original post by MeshGearFox Sex in videogames is mostly there because, face it, most gamers are still males. Fixed.

So females don't like sex? oh yes they do. so that can't be it, it's not fixed :P

Maybe it's more like "most gamers are still infantile males amongst infantile males". That'd be true and nicely polemic haha.. but I don't think it's the cause for sex usually being portrayed as cheaply as it is: It's just still a very young medium, with a rather high barrier to entry compared to others. I think you'll find it took movies a while until they got the sex right, too. Or literature etc. It takes time.

There is sex, and there is sex. There is boobies and sticking your pee pee in a warm soft spot, and there is SEX between two adult human beings. So this debate, to me, is not about sex being "dirty", and it's not just the church frowning upon certain things ( haha.. and he's 100% correct, too)

But you can't talk with blind people about colors, you just can't.

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Original post by JohannL But you can't talk with blind people about colors, you just can't.

Actually that depends.

You're assuming that
a) They have been blind since birth or early childhood
b) They have no color vision

This is not actually true for the majority of blind people.

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Original post by Storyyeller Quote: Original post by JohannL But you can't talk with blind people about colors, you just can't. Actually that depends. You're assuming that a) They have been blind since birth or early childhood b) They have no color vision This is not actually true for the majority of blind people.

so?

"You can't talk to people who have been blind since birth or early childhood and have no color vision about colors". Is just too long to type out, especially since everybody it is aimed at understands it perfectly well on first sight.

Besides, nope. What you're refering to is half blindness, colour blindness or whatever -- BLIND, in the daily use of language, as opposed to the world of medicine, means "can't see anything".

Are you trolling?

I wonder if our sensitivity to detecting the gimmicky nature of sex in TV and/or movies has been dulled by having so much of it over the years. The sex scenes in many movies can seem, if you pay attention or analyze it, very tacked-on (at least, to me) - maybe we just tend to expect them, so they don't stand out.

Maybe we just haven't had the years of exposure to these things in games?

Also, comparing the Fable-sex to Mass Effect-sex seems like comparing different things. For a story-driven game (ME), sex is a natural consequence of the romance aspect (as an aside: whether or not you connected with that particular piece of the story/characters may say something about the overall writing itself, not necessarily the sexual aspects...)

The Fable take on it, being more "sandboxy", seemed more of a game mechanic. Much of the story or romantic aspects of the encounters would have to be provided by the player's imagination, if they so wished.

Which way is better? Surely subjective, and we are probably approaching the age-old argument over what role role-playing should have in games.

Then there is the GTA-sex, which I would argue is incredibly gimmicky - but look at what 80% of TV advertisements give us, or 80% of 'reality TV', or just TV in general. Gimmicky sex can be, apparently, entertaining to many people, or it would cease to be lucrative.