GameTopius - The Geeks Paradise.

Forwards Compatible is a weekly roundtable discussion about thoughtful and interesting topics involving videogames.  Each week a spearhead topic will be put forth and several Gametopius writers, as well as other contributors, will give their thoughts.

 

SnakeLinkSonic, Misanthropic Gamer

 

A timeless, but much less overwrought, discussion in the realm of videogames lies around the notion of general sexual differences. Most of us have probably seen this subject literally spilling its way over bikini tops in titles such as Dead or Alive. Because of how most women are portrayed however, a lot of focus is unnecessarily placed on them and turns the whole discussion into a counter-productive practice amongst gamers. So, where exactly are our stances on this matter as a whole? Videogames are going to be around for the long haul and with time this simplistic depiction of sexuality will hopefully, wear itself out. Between men and women of various sexual orientations, most of the open ground for exploration hasn't even been scratched yet by developers. Sex is a very basic human desire and we spend most of our time trying to downplay it more than we should. Because of that, it often manifests itself in odd and/or perverse ways. Gaming is not immune to these perverse manifestations, so it's no surprise that we've ended up in such an odd state with the portrayal of sexuality in games. The question and purpose of this is to find out how we can and are meant to perceive sex in our games, in the most general sense.

 

Listening to the latest Critical Distance Podcast inspired me to revisit the basic 'sex in games' topic. I've concluded that my problem with ‘sex in games' is not so much the lack of sex itself, but the filtering it takes across the process of artistic consensus, marketing, and design. Also, when I say 'sex', I'm just referring to any of the remote sensual tastes that a game can conjure up amidst multiple viewpoints. For example, the way men and women are meant to be seen through the eyes of different variations of sexuality; not simply who he or she is as a character in relation to their appearance. The way we're being trickled tasteful female characters is simply the most obvious by-product of this issue. In reality, my complaints simply stem from there being many gender and sex orientations that aren't played with or touched in any fashion (it's like watching a child use only one crayon out of a box of two hundred Crayolas). Of course, we have to face the reality that marketing has a lot of power over these problems, but that doesn't mean we can't obey a time old favorite quote of mine:

 

"The system can't be beaten, but it can be broken."

 

One way to break this "system" is by using visuals, which are the typical living area for most sex appeal. Aesthetics govern a default amount of how we see any other human being, even if it's on the subconscious level. The way both men and women are depicted in games can be seen on both ends as a bit of a joke. Stylized engines and artwork are more than welcome, but the fact that so many still rely on common aesthetic clichés (*squeezes his imaginary big breasts*) leaves much to reason. As an example, the way that breasts are depicted are not sensible at all when viewed in a general context. Most articles of clothing are not specifically meant to enhance the bust of a woman's endowment (or even lack thereof which doesn't even get seen enough in its own respect). Rears and Phalluses are often not the focal point of men when they should be (more accurately, can be). Who specifically designed how Dante (one of my personal favorites) would look? If I had to guess, there wasn't much to it beyond: "Make him look cool, make him look cool!". I've spent more time than I'd like to admit drawing nude art models, both male and female, so I can attest to the fact that realistic or not, there's much more to the puzzle than meets the eye (in fact, games are missing more than half of the pieces to the damn puzzle). Even if one is going for straight sex-appeal, it can now be achieved in far more variations (not to mention far more subtle ways) by factoring in the modeling, density, and material of the clothing. Sex appeal is not contingent to just flesh and other common representations of sex (e.g. "tits and ass"). We could even pay more attention to how not only stereotypical sex-attractors function but the uncommon ones as well (i.e. the breasts in comparison with the hands). The fact that Bayonetta has twenty foot long legs for example, is a testament to a premature evolution in visual sex-appeal for gamers.

 

Something we should also consider is how we internalize and propagate the ideals in question. A good example of that would be how I myself have attempted to find more female (not feminine) writers for games. In the end, it's just a futile quest and can be solved at best by simply welcoming what we do manage to find out there. I also think that the image is spread far too thin now for a simple "gender shock" (e.g. we're not gonna get any ‘yonic messiahs' to reinvigorate how we see women in games). We've already screwed that up for the most part. It's now at the point where the image will have to be subtly redesigned and that will require both gamers and developers to accomplish. As far as games go, I'd also love to see more of an increase in people of different sexual orientations. Homosexual, transsexual, bisexual, I don't really care (e.g. I'd rather see a homosexual man as the main character for a Silent Hill game). I'm simply looking at them as colors to create far more effective titles. Even whether they're as serious, progressive, or sophisticated enough is irrelevant here because the gaming population hasn't even been presented with the right landscape to make that judgment yet (and we obviously can't look at it in hindsight yet either). I also hope somebody else can pick up on how the racial/national thing intertwines into this (which it does), because I'm far too lazy to do it right now.

 

The argument that we shouldn't take this as serious as we are can simply be viewed as a convenient loophole to attain a horrifically compromising moot point. If games are going to thrive and continue to flourish, we have to be willing to suffer the growing pains of its adolescence. After all, we are raising it as much as it raised us (which is something we should be more proud of). If you want to sit games in a cryostasis to never wake up again, then you've probably watched Vanilla Sky far too many times.

 

Lewis Denby - Resolution Magazine Editor / Will Write For Food

 

Okay, remember Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines? Its box was covered with the uncompromisingly sexual image of Jeanette Voerman, a character embedded into the lore of the game in its first area. She strikes me as a perfect character to discuss in relation to this topic, as despite her appearance as the typical hot-goth-chick-with-videogame-chest, Troika admirably wrote all this into the fiction. She was a witty commentary on the nature of the female in videogames. There was a reason she was like that, y'know? That's a clever thing to do, especially when she was already a remarkable enough character to stand head and shoulders above most game NPCs without that added extra. Or, ahem, added extras.

Sexualising characters in videogames is fine, as long as it makes sense in the context of the game lore. Indeed, including more sex - or, at least, sexuality - in games seems to make perfect sense, as we continue to strive towards plausible situations within our games. People are sexual - it's inherent, it's in our nature. The only problem is learning not to exploit this in using it as a marketing tool, and understanding how we can embed it more deeply into high-quality character design.

That said, the former led to Lara Croft, who's been an incredibly important character in bringing videogames over into the mainstream. Along with Mario and Sonic, she's one of the pillars of iconic videogame protagonists that have seeped through into everyday culture and helped people understand gaming a little bit more. Would she have become such an important figure without those supersizers? It's doubtful - so it's difficult to assess whether her blatantly attention-grabbing image is helpful or counter-productive.

 

I suppose it comes down to how we want videogames to be seen. And I'm sure none of us want them to be seen in a negative light. But would we rather be seen in a negative light by some than not be recoginsed at all? I'm really not sure.

More on this when I've read others' responses, I suspect.

 

 

Lauren Jacobs - New 1UP User / Peter Pan & David Bowie Fanatic

 

First of all, I'd have to question whether this is really a device that is used so often anymore, "sex in games" that is. I'm sure that someone will help me out with this, but I'm struggling to think of a character in a recent game designed to be specifically sexy (Okay, I've just thought Of Ivy from Soul Calibur, but I wonder how many people actually find her particularly attractive...) Anyway, thinking back, you have characters like Lara Croft, Joanna Dark or anyone from Dead or Alive, which were purposely aimed at males, with the enhanced figures and stunning faces, designed for pure marketing purposes. However I no longer think characters are purposely designed in this way. When it was first done, I feel that people were just early adopters, because it was now acceptable to have a ‘sexy' character, people bought it. Nowadays it has become so mainstream that it has little, to no affect on it's audience, people aren't buying the games for the sex in it, not anymore---They're buying it for the quality of the content, well that's what I get from the gamers I know anyway.

 

At the moment, media is stuck in a vicious circle. Game developers are playing it safe and sticking to the motto that "sex sells" and are creating characters that fit their desired segment. However, the perception of people's notion of "perfection" has been undoubtedly influenced by the media, TV, and Newspapers (and I'm sure I don't need to explain that). I am not in the slightest bit offended, put off, or have a lower self esteem due to the characters in a game (you know, the typical arguments about how other forms of media promote beautiful women). Sure, this may be because I'm so used to them being there; it's become a given that there will, more than likely, be a huge breasted woman somewhere in any game I pick up now. This also makes me question whether some game developers have moved away from putting ‘appealing' characters in to games to attract consumers, and are more putting them in there simply for their own pervy amusement. I am beginning to think this is more likely.

 

Maybe one day, there will be a revolution in game design, where normal people are put in to games (unlikely?). I don't however, quite think that's the point. I, for one, don't play games for the "reality" in them, I enjoy the escapism and unlikelihood; again, maybe that's why I'm not bothered by "stereotypical beauty" in games. For a completely different point, what I find interesting is the general lack of ‘enhanced' male characters in games. You often get the enhanced female, supposedly there to cause a stir among male gamers, but there is little ‘eye-candy' for the female population of gamers. I'm not complaining though, I don't really feel that there is a need for male sex characters, but there may be a gap for 'passion in games'. I think the perfect example of what I mean is the "Macalania Woods" scene in FFX (the lovely water scene with Tidus and Yuna, just to clarify). I think Final Fantasy is the best game franchise I've played to make the sensual relationship between characters actually believable. If anything, I think this is more of what the game market may need, more believable relationships in a wider variety of games. It may be because this is coming from a girl, but I do think it's something worth looking in to.

 

Lewis Denby - Resolution Magazine Editor / Will Write For Food

 

Sorry to chip in again so quickly, but Lauren's asking about recent overly sexualised female characters leads to me thinking about Velvet Assassin. Turning a real-world victim of war torture into such an obscenely obvious sex symbol - skimpy nightgown, nipple-slips and all - is some of the most disgracefully gratuitous nastiness I've seen in a game for some time.

 

Sorry. Someone else take the floor.

 

Jeff Grubb - Managing Editor, Gametopius

 

I just don't know if videogames have the emotional fidelity to accurately imitate intimacy to a degree that is required for something like sex. I mean, how do we integrate sex into gameplay? Is it something that is represented by Elite Beat Agent game mechanics? We should probably be okay with that, because we use those same EBA mechanics to represent dancing. And rubbing your stylus on the screen and tapping to the beat is about as analogous to dancing as it is to boning. It seems like videogames will be faced with taking one of two paths. Simply put: God of War or Mass Effect.

 

God of War treated sex as a mini-game. You appropriately perform the onscreen commands and the women are pleased and you get some health. Crude, but so is sex. Mass Effect allowed you to walk through all the steps of the courting process and eventually you were rewarded with an artfully lit sex scene. You were in control of everything up until the sex. I guess Mass Effect could have given QTEs or something, but the point remains the same.

 

Is sex the game or the reward?

 

 

If it is a game, well, games are about facing a challenge and overcoming them. By platforming, shooting, or talking in an RPG. We fit the real-life metaphors to the gameplay mechanics that are available to us. Even if a developer figures out several interesting gameplay mechanics that are fun and accurately depict sex, the game would immediately face the issue that Matt pointed out in the spearhead: the marketing. What company is going to market Sex: The Game? Glenn Beck's head would explode. The first time the game was found in a child's bedroom, Joe Lieberman and Hillary Clinton would meld together, travel back in time, and destroy the founders of Rockstar, the lab that invented Computer Space, and the entire nation of Japan. Americans, and a lot of other people, just can't handle the idea that in order to win you have to stimulate the clitoris, and if the game was for the Wii... forget about it.

 

At the same time, if sex is only a reward, it is pointless in terms of videogames.

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