Why games rated "Mature" are anything but mature
- Thread starter Tinman
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tehNihilist
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Unlike violence in media, they cannot take sex as far as they would like. You know, like more convincing sex scenes.
It is fine to see someones head blown apart - watching it in HD (soon 3D) as the eyes, the jawbone and whatever unrecognizable mushy stuff land all over with a tangible squelch. However watching an equally graphic sex scene is not acceptable. Shit, they have not even gotten past 'bewbz' in conventional games, let alone proper sex.
But maybe I miss the point here. Do we possibly need more emotional response in the form of the sex in game? Something less graphic but more connective? Either way sex is always a tricky beast for censors and society to deal with. Graphic violence is fine, but sex is not!
It is fine to see someones head blown apart - watching it in HD (soon 3D) as the eyes, the jawbone and whatever unrecognizable mushy stuff land all over with a tangible squelch. However watching an equally graphic sex scene is not acceptable. Shit, they have not even gotten past 'bewbz' in conventional games, let alone proper sex.
But maybe I miss the point here. Do we possibly need more emotional response in the form of the sex in game? Something less graphic but more connective? Either way sex is always a tricky beast for censors and society to deal with. Graphic violence is fine, but sex is not!
hideinlight
New member
Just remembered mafia and fahrenheit had sex scenes. They were more "mature" and less PG13 like.
phoenix
New member
How would you go about implementing such content in games in what you would consider
a mature way?
An aside: why is something as natural and potentially beautiful as a relationship between consenting adults [which, somewhere along the line, may involve nudity] seen as somehow less acceptable than reducing other people or their virtual counterparts to slabs of organic matter in varying degrees of intactness? Why the taboo?
Why the fuss? When last I checked nobody had a problem with viewing other mammals in the nude.
a mature way?
An aside: why is something as natural and potentially beautiful as a relationship between consenting adults [which, somewhere along the line, may involve nudity] seen as somehow less acceptable than reducing other people or their virtual counterparts to slabs of organic matter in varying degrees of intactness? Why the taboo?
Why the fuss? When last I checked nobody had a problem with viewing other mammals in the nude.
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ChimeraTheory
New member
This was my first thought after reading the article: it's fine to bash the current occurrences of sexuality in game so how about explaining what would be deemed "mature" in future titles?
I agree with tehNihilist and phoenix - strange society that adores gratuitous violence but abhors something as natural as breasts.
Stefan9
New member
The problem is the biggest gaming market is the US so developers have to cater to that society's views on the matter. In the US nudity/sex in video games is taboo and taking it to far will get the games slapped with ao rating from the esrb. What that would mean is the games can't get sold in stores like wallmart which is basicly a death sentence for the games sales.
Its more acceptable in european markets. Hence we had the different version of the witcher. With the US version having the sex cards sensored and the eu version not censoring them. This was later changed but initially the publisher was so scared of getting an ao rating in the us they decided to do this without even testing the esrb first.
Personally I rather have sex/nudity than over the top violence, probably in the minority but that's how I view it. I see violence as much more of a problem than nudity/sex.
Its more acceptable in european markets. Hence we had the different version of the witcher. With the US version having the sex cards sensored and the eu version not censoring them. This was later changed but initially the publisher was so scared of getting an ao rating in the us they decided to do this without even testing the esrb first.
Personally I rather have sex/nudity than over the top violence, probably in the minority but that's how I view it. I see violence as much more of a problem than nudity/sex.
Azimuth
New member
Lose any sort of interactivity, as in God of War, for example. That's just so... desperate. And ridiculous. Beyond that, I'm not quite sure. Perhaps simply keep sex as cutscene stuff? It's not just the sex, though. It's also the artificial situations in which sex is occurring in games, as I described in the article. I mean, seriously. We're supposed to believe meaningful relationships are made through a couple of superficial dialogues? The fact is, in the case of both Dragon Age and Mass Effect, those so-called "relationships" are really just a quick means to a marketing end - a sex scene. Because it's so edgy and everything.
I guess I don't think sex should ever be an objective in a game, but rather just a narrative event.
I don't know about that, I see lots of lots of boobies in games, and nobody's complaining. Tell you what I don't see much of, though - penises. What's up with that?
ChimeraTheory
New member
I don't know about that, I see lots of lots of boobies in games, and nobody's complaining. Tell you what I don't see much of, though - penises. What's up with that?
I think that's up there with full-frontal female nudity. If you really want to see penis, I heard there are some full-frontal male shots in Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost & Damned
Raven Gold
Local Boy Hunter
The problem with the theory of gamers being adults is that it's simply not true. The market where 75% of the cash comes from is still the Halo pwn noobzor kidz. Real gamers are the minoroty and aren't being targeted anymore.
powderbucket
New member
There are boobs and ass's out everywhere on TV these days so I really don't know why people are still edgy about it in games - probably because people still think that children are the ones playing these games... not that anyone is really stopping little Johnny from watching late ETV movies every Saturday.
Even if it's not boobs, even if there are serious elements of, say, homosexuality in games, the conservatives would have a field day trying to ban the game or at least give it the highest rating while TV programs like Grey's Anatomy are spewing it out with hardly any rating at all. And that is American and it's one of the most famous shows in America.
As for interactive sex in games, I'm not sure... Being a girl gamer I still think it's something targeted predominantly at the male species (cough God of War 3 cough) and it doesn't quite do anything for me and I'd rather just skip it altogether. But hey, developers are trying to sell and that is one sure way to get things sold.
Even if it's not boobs, even if there are serious elements of, say, homosexuality in games, the conservatives would have a field day trying to ban the game or at least give it the highest rating while TV programs like Grey's Anatomy are spewing it out with hardly any rating at all. And that is American and it's one of the most famous shows in America.
As for interactive sex in games, I'm not sure... Being a girl gamer I still think it's something targeted predominantly at the male species (cough God of War 3 cough) and it doesn't quite do anything for me and I'd rather just skip it altogether. But hey, developers are trying to sell and that is one sure way to get things sold.
