Video Game Ethics: Part Four - Sex
It's kind of tough to talk about video games, ethics, and sex, because I don't think humanity has completely defined what appropriate sexual ethics are. I mean, sexual issues seem to wax and wane with each generation. For instance, in America, just thirty years ago, homosexuality was almost unheard of on TV or film. In that thirty years, however, we have seen Will & Grace, The L Word, and even the Crying Game. So, morals swing a lot over time.

Rather than try to determine where games stand on the right or wrong of sex, let's look at where they stand on individual issues within the realm of "sex".

Before I get started, let me point out that I'm drawing a distinction here between sex in games, and sex games. The first group is personified by games that you can buy on the shelves at any Best Buy or Electronic Boutique (Leisure Suit Larry, Tomb Raider, Grand Theft Auto). The second group is usually bought over the internet or downloaded (Hentai games, strip blackjack games, stuff like that). Without trying to offend anyone, I'm going to call the first group "Normal" games (games that revolve around gameplay), and the second group "Hentai" games (games that revolve around sex).

Who's the Boss:
I should point out that there are very few games out there that have courtship or sex, and of those few, they all feature a male courting a woman. This doesn't count "The Sims" of course, because you don't really have a single main character. But you won't ever see a strong female lead striving to convince a male to love her. In this, at least, art imitates life. : )

Monogamy:
Of the entire range of "Normal" games, there are almost no games that support monogamy. Whenever courting is represented in a video game, it is almost always a man courting a woman; and in all of those situations, the man is allowed to court as many women as he wishes. Every episode of Leisure Suit Larry was about the player trying to have sex with as many girls as he could. In Fable, a man can marry a woman in a grand ceremony, then walk to the nearest town and marry again. In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, there are six different women who are designated "girlfriends". It is quite possible, and apparently pretty common, for people to co-mingle in "The Sims".

Now, there are several games out there that have a woman as a goal ("Save the Princess" to receive a chaste kiss on the cheek), but in those games, there is never an alternative. You can't get to the end of the game and say, "Actually, I think the evil witch is more my type." Because there's no choice, it's not really monogamous (was Adam monogamous with Eve?).

In Hentai games, monogamy is not even a consideration. Most of the game is involved not with which woman you should sleep with, but rather details about how you sleep with them.

The Act:
In Normal games, showing the act is very rare, and usually involves creative editing. GTA will show a car bounce up and down if you hire a prostitute. Leisure Suit Larry will show some suggestive imagery, but put black "Censor bars" over the private parts of the couple. Probably my favorite example of this was in the first LSL, where the Censor bar was the exact same size as Larry, so it looked like the bar was bouncing on top of Larry's date.

A more common form is to fade to black, or show an exterior shot of the room, while you hear the moaning coming from inside.

Either way, games apparently don't think it's necessary to show much in this situation. Why, you may ask? Because it's got nothing to do with gameplay, and gameplay is king.

In Hentai games, you rarely see much of the act, because in most cases, it's just a series of images with lurid descriptions. However, in the games that show animated sex, they rarely shy away from showing any part of the act.

T&A:
Given how much it's been covered in the past, it's almost not worth mentioning that body styles in video games have grown unbelievable. Every leading man has a 22-inch waist, washerboard abs, four foot wide shoulders, and rippling muscles. Every leading lady fits a 36-24-36 DD format, and in some games, you can even set how much they bounce when she moves. This section is obviously tailored to the lowest common denominator. Why? You may ask? Because there's a lot more people in the lower common denominator than in any other group, and they spend money the same way anybody else does.

And, of course, it's even worse in the Hentai games.

Re-cap:
So, games seem to be physically and emotionally immature, either incapable or unwilling to commit to one relationship. Also, they seem somewhat chauvinistic in their portrayal of men pursuing women. However, they seem to be pretty prudish when it comes to nudity in the games. That seems kind of odd, that they are okay with multiple partners, but unwilling to show naked people. But when you think about it, it's not that odd. They have to sell games in areas that censor not on content, but on images.

I can't think of any other issues that are brought up regarding sex in video games. Can you?

Next up - Gluttony and Envy

- posted by BrandG @ 11:45 AM