Sex in Games: Chasing Maturity?

SCAD student Danial Floyd, inspired by insipid coverage of sex in games discussions and by the rambling rants of Yahtzee over at Zero Punctuation, put together a rousing Flash presentation as part of a Media Theory class that looks are the past, present, and Floyd’s suggestions for the future of sex in video games. Have a look:

Floyd calls for game developers to portray sex, rather than exploit sex and then proceeds to remind his viewers that the gaming industry is still a baby relative to other established mediums like film. Therein lies the key in my opinion, as the fine line between portrayal and exploitation is currently non-existent. Even though the odd game, like Custer’s Revenge, has included overt sexual material, the number of games containing what films label as “adult situations” is miniscule, and generally geared towards teenage boys. We’re still toying with the idea, we’re still trying to figure out what to do with it, and as a result, we’re still, more often than not, a bit clumsy with it. Like storytelling, sex in games would seem to be a natural element that seems to have developers oddly baffled.

As the gaming audience matures however, and people start to pay attention to the fact that a lot of legal adults, men and women are getting into gaming, you would hope that the use of sex in games becomes a) more frequent, b)more diversified to appeal to all segments of the gaming community and c) more mature. That’s not to say that we have to be rid of all things of a gratuitous sexual nature (hell no!), but there has to be that added element of a sense of purpose and place in additional games to give a better rounded experience.

My two cents.