A friends wife complained back then that there was only one romantic option for female characters and that he was an utter bore of a paladin. I'm not sure if it ever managed to got that far..

I didn't. It's not my fault that you made a statement that sounded more like an assumption than a personal opinion.

It's not upsetting or anything. I just wanted to know why you made that assumption in the first place.

it depends whether the game itself is good. if so, i don't have any problem with it. not like "bmx xxx" or something like that.

Could it be that it would feel odd simply due to the fact that you see it so rarely, rather than the subject itself? For me, it feels odd when sex isn't part of stories, as it seems conspicuously missing. I really dislike all the permanent underwear that games give characters, as that really stands out to me, much more so than an orc army, a starship, or a wizard casting spells. The Better Bodies mod which added genitals to Morrowind was a breath of fresh air to me. It wasn't because it turned me on or served as wanking fodder, but because FINALLY I could see normal looking people. The underwear, and the censorship it represents, detracts from games for me personally.

In a similar vein, never mentioning sex, never making sexual jokes or comments in dialog, never having anybody express sexual attraction to another NPC is a constant reminder to me of the politics and pedo-paranoia and censorship that dominates US media, and inhibits my suspension of disbelief. Because I can't really immerse myself in the game world, it is less enjoyable to me. Still enjoyable, don't misunderstand me, but less than it could be.

Sorry, you make a good point, but that was a delightful phrase :)

Did it... excite you? : p

Linguistically, semantically, dialectically, etymologically, lexically and syntactically, yes :)

Still they have no problem selling this:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/209340/
Here's how the game thinks sex looks like:
- Character beats the hell out of some guy (like, stabs him, breaks his neck or something like that)
- Wife \ lover \ victim of that guy takes your character to bed.
- They make out, still fully clothed, making awkward faces. Often in the same room where her former partner's corpse is.
- The girl disappears, your character continues the level like nothing happened.

At least you´d have to continue the level with a quarter stamina :P

You mean you played it? :)

That's exaclty the things I despise. Sex as a reward (as awkward and out of place as it may be represented) and not as a plot element or intrication of characters on an affective level. In my opinion, sexual relations between characters is so more complicated than dialogue trees that I don't think any company would make the effort to create something of good taste when they can go with the gratuitous approach and please the masses with it.

Art versus business.

A sexual relation is not just sex ;)

Should show up at a bar here sometime. lol.

I really liked how Downfall handled a sexual encounter. I felt so shit about that quick sex with a stranger it forced me to reload. All it took was a single line (memory of a kind) of the character.