http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/why-are-games-so-terrified-of-sex--672547
Sex in games.. post Heavy Rain (and real girlfriend by illusion)
Given the examples in the article of hyper-stylized sexual stereotypes.. I'd much rather them in video games than more true to life soap opera/thrillers like Heavy Rain.
There's a fine line between making a soap opera though and grand theft auto. GTA has more a generally more innocent take on sex than does Heavy Rain.
Which is more perverse? Heavy Rain. imo going so far as to add horror violence to the a game feature true to life sexual encounters makes one wonder if the director means to combine them.
GTA at least doesn't get that close. You can't brutally rape and murder any given NPC even though the uninitiated would expect it from GTA.
I can't say for sure that Quantic Dream is putting the best foot forward.. and I have no idea where they are heading next. Will they continue to be responsible, or with Sony as the voice of reason, will they do whatever it takes to capture an adult audience that can't find it's fix anywhere else. They'll have to turn to games and increase demand for truly distasteful entertainment.
Enter Real Girlfriend and Illusion. They are the makers of several lines of adult video games. Thankfully locked to the Japanese market and PC, but they can be imported and through a very devout fanbase have all kinds of translations and mods.
I personally appreciate what Illusion does because although they lack responsibility for what ends up in their games and who the people are that buy and play such games, at least they are honest about what they are doing. And frankly they do a good job considering the very limited audience of Japanese gamers who pay to play such games.
I'm looking at Quantic Dream though, and Sony, and wondering if Illusion type games can make it to PS3 in Japan. If so they'll end up getting ported to other markets.
Would it be a bad thing? Illusion certainly deserves the extra business that would come from toning down what they do to a Heavy Rain level. It would open them up to much more revenue for developing their studio and technology. That would be awesome.
I mean it would be awesome to see a company that's taken so much heat recently thanks to those idiots at Amazon (who didn't do anything wrong but were irresponsible).
They would be more responsible in putting forward games for adults that ARE games and not soap operas which Cage explains isn't even supposed to be a fun experience. Idiot.
Instead Illusion has a very loyal fanbase, rabbid even, not because of the sex in their games, but because they put extra effort into making video games that are as fun to play as they are explicit and for adults only.
It's been many years, since PS2 and Xbox that Illusion could have crossed over from PC to console and toned down their games to suit that audience. But as mentioned in the article, adults who play on consoles just aren't able to consider actual sex in their games. Certainly it would be difficult to have those games end up in the hands of children.
But considering the amount of money that goes into gaming these days, it won't be long before they start taping into adult games for the mainstream. I'm only surprised it has taken this long for Microsoft and Sony to cave. Heavy Rain is enough of a gray area though that I'm really wondering how long it will take Sony, who do movies and TV shows with far more racy content than Heavy Rain, to allow it in Japan. Whatever they end up doing Microsoft might be forced to match it. They're just not the most responsible bunch though. Given Xbox had not only topless games but ones with video of people topless and striping as cutscenes.
You know what would be funny though? If Bioware took EA's cock out of it's mouth and actually made the game they wanted to make.
I'm sure they wouldn't jump on explicit pornographic zero-g space sex with all kinds of alien races.. just because.. but as a game for mature audiences first of all, the game can at least feature those things. How to go about it without offending people?
It would be very easy for them to step over the line and introduce a sex scene that actually goes too far. Obviously in this day and age it wouldn't be black henchman on white female commander shepherd. No we've grown beyond that. Obviously we've grown beyond human alien coupling too.
Is the problem a pregnant commander shepherd? putting children and animals into the game..
no, but it is about the children.
Obviously console games can't have actual sex because children play those games. GTA crosses too many lines in my opinion as do all games with too much bloody violence and weird situations and language.
But violence and bad language.. kids can't help it. Does it break them as much as encourage young males to make sexual advances on young women?
Again, I'm not going to get into violence between children.. gun violence particularly... but obviously kids playing Mass Effect, even though they shouldn't be playing a mature game, shouldn't be exposed to material which would encourage them to role play based on sexually explicit themes.
Where the game practically makes it a requirement to befriend if not get you henchmen to be loyal to you. It almost encourages romancing them into sexual relationships... isn't that stepping over the line already?
You can't be successful unless you can romance and or manipulate people into loyalty without sex entering the equation. It might be great in real life, but what place does it have in a game? One that goes so far into relationships which don't even matter since you aren't getting anything from those henchmen other than an extra pair of hands and more guns. Personally they should have a bigger impact on story progression but whatever. The main replay value of the game is bedding almost all of your henchmen.
So on the other hand, mature audiences demand that Mass Effect do something about the lake of mature content. Odd. Having gone their twice already.. what's in store for the 3rd edition? Most are up in arms over how tame the 2nd game is. They'll be floored if the next game doesn't have interactive scene like Heavy Rain.
I'm of mixed opinion because as a space game.. game play is so lacking that any more focus on the relationships and sex will basically make the game a soap opera. Meaning it will be unplayable. For chrissakes they cut the vehicle parts.. which you weren't even able to drive in first person.
Mass Effect is only so far removed from Heavy Rain imo because it at least allows you to have direct control of your character. Where being able to play each character in ME would have extended game play much more. But that isn't the point of the game. It's all about the relationships and sex. That's not sex. That won't evolve into explicit sex... because it doesn't need to. It's a safe marketing point for the franchise because there's nothing substantial to complain about. Nothing like late night TV shows. Or anything on the internet.
Gaming is in a very real way the safest form of entertainment available. That doesn't need to change.
But again.. I'm not sure how long that will last if Heavy Rain is a drop in the water. Where sex scenes sell.. why shouldn't MS and Sony make moves to have adults only explicit games published and broadly distributed? If that's what people want. At least in Japan, Europe and maybe Canada.
Sex in games.. post Heavy Rain (and real girlfriend by illusion)
Given the examples in the article of hyper-stylized sexual stereotypes.. I'd much rather them in video games than more true to life soap opera/thrillers like Heavy Rain.
There's a fine line between making a soap opera though and grand theft auto. GTA has more a generally more innocent take on sex than does Heavy Rain.
Which is more perverse? Heavy Rain. imo going so far as to add horror violence to the a game feature true to life sexual encounters makes one wonder if the director means to combine them.
GTA at least doesn't get that close. You can't brutally rape and murder any given NPC even though the uninitiated would expect it from GTA.
I can't say for sure that Quantic Dream is putting the best foot forward.. and I have no idea where they are heading next. Will they continue to be responsible, or with Sony as the voice of reason, will they do whatever it takes to capture an adult audience that can't find it's fix anywhere else. They'll have to turn to games and increase demand for truly distasteful entertainment.
Enter Real Girlfriend and Illusion. They are the makers of several lines of adult video games. Thankfully locked to the Japanese market and PC, but they can be imported and through a very devout fanbase have all kinds of translations and mods.
I personally appreciate what Illusion does because although they lack responsibility for what ends up in their games and who the people are that buy and play such games, at least they are honest about what they are doing. And frankly they do a good job considering the very limited audience of Japanese gamers who pay to play such games.
I'm looking at Quantic Dream though, and Sony, and wondering if Illusion type games can make it to PS3 in Japan. If so they'll end up getting ported to other markets.
Would it be a bad thing? Illusion certainly deserves the extra business that would come from toning down what they do to a Heavy Rain level. It would open them up to much more revenue for developing their studio and technology. That would be awesome.
I mean it would be awesome to see a company that's taken so much heat recently thanks to those idiots at Amazon (who didn't do anything wrong but were irresponsible).
They would be more responsible in putting forward games for adults that ARE games and not soap operas which Cage explains isn't even supposed to be a fun experience. Idiot.
Instead Illusion has a very loyal fanbase, rabbid even, not because of the sex in their games, but because they put extra effort into making video games that are as fun to play as they are explicit and for adults only.
It's been many years, since PS2 and Xbox that Illusion could have crossed over from PC to console and toned down their games to suit that audience. But as mentioned in the article, adults who play on consoles just aren't able to consider actual sex in their games. Certainly it would be difficult to have those games end up in the hands of children.
But considering the amount of money that goes into gaming these days, it won't be long before they start taping into adult games for the mainstream. I'm only surprised it has taken this long for Microsoft and Sony to cave. Heavy Rain is enough of a gray area though that I'm really wondering how long it will take Sony, who do movies and TV shows with far more racy content than Heavy Rain, to allow it in Japan. Whatever they end up doing Microsoft might be forced to match it. They're just not the most responsible bunch though. Given Xbox had not only topless games but ones with video of people topless and striping as cutscenes.
You know what would be funny though? If Bioware took EA's cock out of it's mouth and actually made the game they wanted to make.
I'm sure they wouldn't jump on explicit pornographic zero-g space sex with all kinds of alien races.. just because.. but as a game for mature audiences first of all, the game can at least feature those things. How to go about it without offending people?
It would be very easy for them to step over the line and introduce a sex scene that actually goes too far. Obviously in this day and age it wouldn't be black henchman on white female commander shepherd. No we've grown beyond that. Obviously we've grown beyond human alien coupling too.
Is the problem a pregnant commander shepherd? putting children and animals into the game..
no, but it is about the children.
Obviously console games can't have actual sex because children play those games. GTA crosses too many lines in my opinion as do all games with too much bloody violence and weird situations and language.
But violence and bad language.. kids can't help it. Does it break them as much as encourage young males to make sexual advances on young women?
Again, I'm not going to get into violence between children.. gun violence particularly... but obviously kids playing Mass Effect, even though they shouldn't be playing a mature game, shouldn't be exposed to material which would encourage them to role play based on sexually explicit themes.
Where the game practically makes it a requirement to befriend if not get you henchmen to be loyal to you. It almost encourages romancing them into sexual relationships... isn't that stepping over the line already?
You can't be successful unless you can romance and or manipulate people into loyalty without sex entering the equation. It might be great in real life, but what place does it have in a game? One that goes so far into relationships which don't even matter since you aren't getting anything from those henchmen other than an extra pair of hands and more guns. Personally they should have a bigger impact on story progression but whatever. The main replay value of the game is bedding almost all of your henchmen.
So on the other hand, mature audiences demand that Mass Effect do something about the lake of mature content. Odd. Having gone their twice already.. what's in store for the 3rd edition? Most are up in arms over how tame the 2nd game is. They'll be floored if the next game doesn't have interactive scene like Heavy Rain.
I'm of mixed opinion because as a space game.. game play is so lacking that any more focus on the relationships and sex will basically make the game a soap opera. Meaning it will be unplayable. For chrissakes they cut the vehicle parts.. which you weren't even able to drive in first person.
Mass Effect is only so far removed from Heavy Rain imo because it at least allows you to have direct control of your character. Where being able to play each character in ME would have extended game play much more. But that isn't the point of the game. It's all about the relationships and sex. That's not sex. That won't evolve into explicit sex... because it doesn't need to. It's a safe marketing point for the franchise because there's nothing substantial to complain about. Nothing like late night TV shows. Or anything on the internet.
Gaming is in a very real way the safest form of entertainment available. That doesn't need to change.
But again.. I'm not sure how long that will last if Heavy Rain is a drop in the water. Where sex scenes sell.. why shouldn't MS and Sony make moves to have adults only explicit games published and broadly distributed? If that's what people want. At least in Japan, Europe and maybe Canada.