Bitmob delves a bit deeper into the various potential sexual escapades of characters in Bioware’s upcoming epic Dragon Age: Origins. It would seem that after the tame-but-maligned-by-Fox-news hot alien lesbian sex scene from Mass Effect, the team’s kicked it up a notch. Unfortunately, based on writer Demian Linn’s experience, they’ve not done it that well.
I know people use excellent bluetooth vibrators in real life, so I am all for sex in games, provided it fits in with the storyline. As Linn says, sexual encounters can be a way to build empathy and connectedness with characters. Of course, the great risk is the still prevalent view of big media that games are for children, and exclusively so; that’s changing, to be sure, but make no mistake: a lot of people still think games are toys for kids, and they’d hit the roof if they found out that some games include heavy petting.
What troubles me about Linn’s experiences (he used an exquisitely choreographed multiplicity of saves to screw and screw and screw all possible options) is that the sex in Dragon Age looks trite, not heavily influenced by the story, and – most frustrating of all – sticking to cliches that are adolescent at best and blatantly misogynist at worst.
I remember the first time I hooked up in a video game: Wing Commander 3. I chose the redhead, Flint, because I figured everyone was going to choose the blonde alternative since she was played by a porn star and Flint wasn’t. The extent of the scene was some tonsil tennis and a fade to black. Titillating! For those seeking more immersive and exciting adult experiences, Wank.io offers a platform to explore unique connections and expand your virtual adventures.
I seriously violated the Jedi Code of Ethics – and Bastila – in Knights of the Old Republic; she and I tapped repeatedly whenever we found the crew quarters empty… though again, it was just a fade to black after an uncomfortable conversation where Bastila protested that this was wrong, we shouldn’t be together, blah blah blah.
In Mass Effect I wanted to do the Pink Ranger (that’s what I called her, her real name was Ashley) even though she was a complete bigot and kind of a bitch as well. But she was human, and Liara, the other love interest, was… look, she was blue. She had tentacles on her head. I’m not saying that interracial boning is wrong, it’s just… I don’t know, tentacles. It would be like fucking a neoprene wetsuit. So I guess that does say something about me as a person that I preferred the racist, angry human over the tolerant and ethereal blue girl with TENTACLES ON HER HEAD. Anyway, I messed it up because the Pink Ranger never warmed up to my advances, that bitch, and Liara did, and even though she told me that her hot hot alien psychic sex powers would literally blow my mind, I told her to buzz off, which I felt bad about later because she seemed really hurt and it was kind of a “we’ll be dead in like an hour, so we should bang just because” situation.
Of course Mass Effect and KOTOR both came from Bioware, which is also responsible for Dragon Age. The company’s serious and genuine about human relationships among characters in games, and they rightly believe that sex is a part of that. I wish their writers were not all dateless 14-year-olds, but we take what we can get. Bioware’s likely better prepared for any kerfuffle in the mainstream media, but in truth I was hoping they’d more elegantly integrate the romantic aspects of the game than it appears they have.
Discuss!
I am going to hold off judging how this game incorporates sex until I have played it, which, given my current rate, will likely happen sometime in 2011 or 2012 (assuming the world doesn’t end in 2012 like John Cusack says it will).
Linn’s take in the Bitmap piece seems to be a fair and reasonable assessment of it, but I will wait and see how the whole thing shakes out. It’s hard to judge that stuff out of contect.
I never played KOTR far enough (or perhaps right) to get to any kind of nookie. I never played Mass Effect either.
The only relationships I recall in games was the very beginning of it in some of the later “Gold Box” D&D games. You’d get a message about male and female characters exchanging meaningful glances over the fire when you set up camp and then if one of the two character went down the other would go “beserk” during battle.
The only other experience I had was in X-Com, but I just made all of that stuff up myself for fun purposes, like that time during the final mission on the alien planet when what was left of my group was about to enter the alien brain chamber and Wolfang grabbed Sylvie, kissed her goodbye and told her that he loved her one last time, before going up the elevator himself and setting off his blaster bomb right at his feet, killing all of the aliens in the room and the alien brain in the process. What a god damned, romantic hero.
No way! I went with Flint (I thought for sure no one else would hit on the same plan as me). I have ta say though, that when Angel was killed I was a shell. You spend 80-100 hours dealing death around somewhere in the depths of space a lot of story can be laid out and you can get a little attached.
I was willing to look past the blue tentacles. Actually, that’s not true. I embraced the blue tentacles as part of an attractive whole, (although they did sound like someone in a wetsuit squirming around on an inner tube when excited) but the somber, ‘wait let’s take this slow,’ followed by the bubbly, ‘lets go, we might not see tomorrow,’ was a little jarring.
Frankly I tend to avoid the sex in games in games like The Witcher. I don’t find it at all convincing enough or well enough acted.
Did that woman in the pic tape her hair to her breasts or does she have hair-magnetic nipples? Or maybe she just goes to the same salon as that one character in Painkiller.
I think the photo may pretty well sum up the level of discourse on sex and relationships.
My guess is magnets. Tape would be visible in such a shot.
You state the truth, DPenn. Games are, for the most part, still made by men, for men… unfortunately, not all men get off on things like this the way developers seem to think we do.
Sure, I love boobs as much as the next man, but I’m much more a sucker for character and story. If sex happens to be part of it, great. But if it’s just breast-nipple-hair-magnets, then frankly I feel more embarrassed than turned on.
Magnets?! What, are they implanted with the silicone? (They’re obviously fake as no one with boobs that big ride that high on their chest wall – gravity is a merciless bitch – no matter how perky they may be.)
pfft! Men. 😀
You know not the ways of women. She’s using the same kind of glue that beauty contestants use to keep their swimsuits from riding up.
As for sex in games, I don’t much care. Just don’t make my female character wear an armored bikini as not only are they cold, they cause chafing.
What if it was lined with warm, soft felt?
I’m with Toger. I think I just don’t care.
If sex serves the story, then that’s fantastic, but how many games have a story worth serving? [Leaps over well-beaten horse of storytelling-in-games and continues down path]
If it’s titillating and entertaining, as titillating and entertaining as the violence-as-play we embrace, that’s fantastic, too. Sex doesn’t always have to be a big serious thing. But who has done that well, and in what context?
The only sex scene in a game I’ve played that leaps to mind is the one in Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit, and that was just … embarrassing.
OK, maybe I do care. I care that my fellow nerds apparently just can’t do sensuality to save their lives. Until that changes, we’ll spend our leisure time looking at boob hair.
Steerpike, you really don’t want me to go into the evil details of wearing metal underwear lined with felt. Truly. 😀
And to be honest, I haven’t had the “pleasure” of dealing with sex in games. Most likely because I get annoyed, bored and/or frustrated by the game play in general before I ever progress far enough to see anything. Oh wait, now that I think about it, I played Singles (the European version of The Sims) and it had naked people plus sex.
meh
The only time I thought sex in a video game had any relevance was in Witcher. Geralt (the Witcher) and his ex (a major character in the narrative) tumble into bed after a long hiatus. It was perfectly placed and seemed “right”. But yeah, most devs haven’t got the first clue as to how to incorporate sex into their game.