Now, we seem to be approaching some amount of maturity concerning sex in video games. Games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age treat sex in video games with a certain amount of reverence. And I ask why shouldn’t they? If sexually charged themes are enough to motivate entire plays of Shakespeare like Romeo and Juliet, Othello and even the hilarious and bawdy Mid Summer Nights dream (and keep in mind Midsummer is a play where a Fairy Queen is broadly hinted at being fucked by a dude with the dong of a donkey) , then why can’t a video game, with its cast of SAG/AFTRA voice actors, writers, programmers, story board artists and producers not treat sexuality with the same amount of respect as a 1400’s sitcom writer?

I, for one, think it’s ridiculous that nerds on message boards taunt people who enjoy romance and sec in video games that feature “rag doll physics for all intestinal based slaughterings”. What is more pathetic? While many of you will see posts of people claiming that anyone playing a game with sexuality just “need to get laid” what does that say about the countless millions who get to murder thousands upon thousands of realistically slaughtered digital victims? Why is murder and death viewed as normal but virtual sexual narrative viewed as lame or pathetic? I don’t get it.

Sex is crucially important to almost all life on planet earth and as a result you would think that sex would be a common theme in entertainment. But as we have seen, sex treated with maturity, intimacy and respect, is the exception to the rule in most video games. Game makers have a literal powder keg sitting under their laps that they rarely explore. That is until rpgs from game makers like Bioware came along…

Continued in Part 4…

-Andrew DeWitt

However, recently companies like Bioware have figured out that sexuality can actually be used to assist in story telling! How shocking?! Do you mean to say that the same techniques that authors, artists, and filmmakers have used for decades to centuries have some merit after all? Well consider the fact the all humans, regardless of gender or sexual preference think about sex all the god damn time then I would think that someone who is creating some form of narrative experience would consider sex as part of the many different potential plot lines to entice people into enjoying the experience.

Role playing games were some of the first video games to treat sexuality with a paintbrush other than that of a snickering adolescent obsessed with seeing boobies on his computer. The problem with this approach is that it takes time. You cannot simply shoehorn in sex into a video game or it becomes sophomoric and juvenile. This is immediately apparent in games like God of War where your character can run up to topless chicks and bone them for in-game bonuses.

…more continued in Part 3.

-Andrew DeWitt