James Portnow, a Game Designer at Activision, follows up on the outrageous Fox News “coverage” of sex in video games with a passionate, rather poetic rebuttal and a call for rational adult discussion of sexuality in what he considers the hot emerging field of video game art. His objective? Not only to see video games treated with the respect accorded to other forms of art, like film and animation, but also to shatter to nerdy gamer image of the “sweaty teenage boys or geeks who live in their parent’s basements.”
Says Portnow, “Sexuality treated as a normal human trait would go a long way to shattering this image. It would demonstrate the falsity of the stereotype and add a little bit of edge and glamour to the industry. Sex is seen as one of the defining characteristics of adulthood and willingness to address it is one of the things that separates adult’s entertainment from children’s pastimes. If we’re ever to cease being marginalized and correct the horrible misconceptions about our audience, our medium will have to embrace this part of our nature.”
Unfortunately, Portnow notes, “sexuality in a game will buy you an M rating faster than chainsawing children. No game has ever been given an AO rating without including “strong sexual content.” Ever. Period. Sex in games is taboo, and that’s where we stand.”
So why do we keep pretending that sex is so scary? Isn’t sex one of the things around which all adult life revolves? And if the increasingly sophisticated video game is to be taken seriously as an artistic medium, rather than as mindless lowbrow entertainment, shouldn’t video game designers and critics actively present the realities of adult sex in games with the same enthusiasm that they bring to getting the chainsaw violence just right?
In presenting sex unapologetically and realistically in video games, game designers and marketers would be working toward more serious recognition of their field. They’d also be doing their part to bring frank, honest discussion about real sex into the mainstream, something I wholeheartedly hope for.
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Prob is they would have to hire people who actually has sex to begin with and get them to work with the game designers/programers, which would in turn prolly decrease their overall productivity.
February 19th, 2008 at 4:40 pmISIL : OH SNAP!
February 19th, 2008 at 4:43 pmAh, now now Isil, that’s just the kind of negative stereotyping we’re trying to overcome here, hmmmm?
February 19th, 2008 at 5:21 pmWith the evolution of “continual boyhood” (didn’t you post an article on that recently?) and lots and lots of people no longer in their teens playing games, you’re seeing a lot more nods to sexiness in games, if not actual sex. Check out this amusing video about the Witch Elf class in the upcoming MMO Warhammer Online:
http://warhammervault.ign.com/View.php?view=Movies.Detail&id=22
(High res concept art for the Dark Elf race can be found here: http://neurophyre.livejournal.com/461325.html )
What’s interesting is that a lot of the overt sexiness or “on-display” sexuality displayed in games is female sexuality. Note in the concept art link that the male sorcerer class is wearing full robes, but even the heaviest armor for the sorceress reveals “large tracts of land” in the words of the developer. There aren’t really any rippling male pecs to be seen.
As far as user generated content, people have been busy having virtual weddings in MMOs for years, which is about all one can do given that the games have to appeal to a mass market, and they have been creating sex-related content in mass quantities in Second Life. There’s only more of this to come.
February 19th, 2008 at 6:17 pmIve 4 friends in the gaming industry
February 19th, 2008 at 6:32 pmI love that photo btw.
February 19th, 2008 at 6:43 pmfrankly? i’ve met more game developers and programmers who have had more sex (and sex partners) than most “normal” people would in the same timespan. me included. tho, i’m bordering between the two stereotypes. and i’m also unsure if that’s a good thing. :}
April 7th, 2008 at 7:36 pmGod I miss the days of smoking at the computer. I think that is why they used to be beige.
June 12th, 2008 at 3:14 amLeave a reply :