Recently IGN wrote an article about the foursome with Aphrodite and two of her handmaidens (oh, there are so many jokes right there) the player character Kratos can engage in. This inevitably led to a discussion about the depiction of sex in video games, more specifically: how it seems to offend everyone that likes the game for the creative ways to decapitate, disembowel, eviscerate and otherwise graphically maim enemies. Severed head: goooood, boobies: BAD!
Allow me to share some of the more relevant parts of the discussion (read: the parts that I wrote.)
the_Willard:
Phillman21 posted:
Ok so they go on about one little sex mini game. But not the thousands of boobs you see in Dante's inferno or the devils dick at the end. People need to stop hating lol.
psh, that's because the boobs in Dante's Inferno are purely gratuitous while the sex minigames in GoW have always been used in a more humorous, tongue-in-cheek way.
OK...that seems kinda backwards.
Well at least sex/nudity isn't the only thing that garners attention or controversy while the excessive violence is pretty much ignored.
Oh...alright. I give up, people are just f*%#ing stupid.
(please note: I own and love the first two God of War games, will be buying the third and Dante's Inferno was a big steaming pile of mediocrity doing anything for attention)
KennedyX8:
Yeah, developers can get away with a lot under the "M" rating. I wonder why they don't utilize it? I won't complain about more boobs in games.
LemonOut:
If you want more boobs, go watch porn. There are people who actually want to play a video game, and not watch some dialed up pixelated sex scene. Save the nudity for the movies, nobody needs to pixelated private parts. Violence fine. Nudity isn't necessary to tell a story or play a video game.
the_Willard:
KennedyX8 posted:
Yeah, developers can get away with a lot under the "M" rating. I wonder why they don't utilize it? I won't complain about more boobs in games.
Actually the video game rating system is far more strict than the rating system applied to movies. You can't get away with half the stuff in an M-rate game that you could in an R-rated movie, especially when it comes to nudity and/or sex.
For example...
Movie: Hostel - first half hour or so is all boobs and casual sex. Rest of the movie is gratuitous, over-the-top and extremely graphic depictions of violence, i.e. holes drilled in legs, achilles tendons sliced, fingers chainsawed off, eyeballs popped out with blowtorch, etc.
Game: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - majority of game is violence related to gang activity such as gunfighting or "fisticuffs" with very little graphic depiction aside from the occasional showing of blood. There is one possibility for sex and the depiction of boobs that not only requires significant technical knowledge to modify the game and a considerable time investment to develop a relationship with the chosen female partner but also remains entirely optional for the player.
Let's review: Movie - Gratuitous nudity and violence throughout. Extremely graphic depictions of violence. Numerous depictions of bare breasts, but no truly graphic depictions of sex acts. Minimalist story used as vehicle for "torture porn."
Rating: R (supposed game equivalent: M)
Game: Violence and sex integral to story of main character being dragged back in to a world of violence and the effect each has on affected character(s) and their relationships. Limited graphical depiction of both.
Rating: A-O (Supposed movie equivalent: NC-17)
Seems kinda uneven, don't it?
And anyone that says sex and/or nudity has no place as part of a story (movie or video game) is exceptionally delusional. Sex is an important port of any developed adult relationship and is a definitive sign of the status and importance of that relationship. Knowing certain characters have a sexual relationship changes the view of what those characters mean to each other and has a greater effect on sympathy when that relationship is threatened and even how it is threatened.
Sex is also effective in displaying the amorality of a character. Chuck Palahniuk's book Choke, for example (let's ignore the movie for now). This is a story about a sex addict, how he got to be the way that he is, what effect it has on his life and what effect it has on the lives of others. The story doesn't really work without sex and is considerably handicapped without a graphic depiction of the sex to show the depravity of both the acts and the lengths the character goes to in order to accomplish his sexual goals.
As for God of War...the nudity/sex is completely gratuitous. As I said before, it's tongue-in-cheek, it's played for giggles. Just like numerous scenes in every sex comedy ever made. This is a game that has spent much time touting the new technology the creators developed enabling realistic depiction of disembowelings, but digital boobies are a no-no? If it really bothers you that much to see some boobs and an off-screen depiction of sex...don't do it. As with the first two games it is entirely optional, all you have to do is...nothing. But if you're really perfectly OK with, and even cheer, impaling a guy with the arm you just tore from his torso, pulling an eyeball out of a cyclops's head or slicing a monster open and watching its organs spill out but the site of a pair of bare breasts makes you cry...well I think we've just found a new topic you should discuss with your therapist.
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