Very good post, though it's not just America, I would argue that here in Australia it is actually worse. Buying pornography is technically illegal (though never enforced) but any instances of sex in interactive media is treated like it'll cause the apocalypse. You just don't try to put sex in a video game here.

The flailing, screeching 'won't somebody please think of the children?!1" cries of puritanical ignorance run rampant, and the average Joe's mentality towards sex is staggeringly immature. Our previous government was on the verge of implementing a mandatory, ISP level internet filter that was going to be governed by conservative Christians.

Would you believe that in Australia, female ejaculation is considered illegal on the grounds of abhorrence, or that you can't have a woman with an a-cup in porn because they claim it promotes child pornography?. I mean holy shit, what IS this world coming to?

Anyway, as for my own opinion on sexy times in games? If a dev wants to do it, I say bring it on. Sex is good, sex is fun, sex should not be taboo and I think it has just as much a place in a game designed for mature audiences as any other content.

I'm fairly sure you don't pick up the first person you encounter, completely disregarding their looks, charm and general presentation. Or you do, in which case you just reek of desperation :-P

Lol When everyones drunk, standards get lowered. lol. Though none of my pick ups weren't TOO bad. Nothing supermodel either though.

Umm.. lol?
That is weird.

I agree. Good post!

My point was that it should have a good reason to be part of the game, or story. And even then there are lots of shades of grey, ie. is the actual sexual intercourse shown, or even a minigame in itself. For example, there was obviously sex in Baldur's Gate 2, but no sexual intercourse was shown, nor was there a QTE minigame for it where your character is banging Aerie. Should there have been? Not sure how well that would have worked, maybe it would, but I feel the current way was good (ie. the sexual relationship was part of the game story, even if no actual sex was shown).

So if there should be a sexual intercourse minigame in any game just because sex is part of relationships, should there always also be a shitting minigame, as every on of us has to do that daily (or at least several times a week)? What exactly would it add to the game, beyond "It has to be there because it is not realistic that your character never has to go to toilet"? Or how about masturbation? Should that be also part of all games, especially those where there is no relationship involved?

I think defecation and sex (in games) are a good comparison also because for most people they are very personal things. Most people don't want to do either in public, hence they feel it may feel out of place that the actual deed is shown in detail in a game, unless it is specifically a defecation or a sex game, or there is some other reason for it to be shown in detail.

I am unsure if the "underwear on Morrowind characters" is really about the same thing. That has more to do with realism rather than being anti- or pro-sex, in my mind. It may be unrealistic in the same way as iron bikinis on female characters. But maybe to someone else it also may partly in the personal territory. Not me though, I've seen countless naked people (especially men) in public saunas, and seen their willies (non-erected, though).

And just to be clear, I wasn't saying that there shouldn't be sex in any games. After all, I'm somewhat interested to see Seduce Me, and in it showing sexual intercourse in detail probably even makes sense. Not sure if it does, and/or how realistic or laughable it seems..

To be fair, I also think most people prefer not to behead a gang member with a chainsaw in public. Probably not even in private, in most cases.

Nope, but I recall going once to a worker in the Wastelands for the healing :D, while away from the Vault.

So....that explains why Australia is an isle surrounded by flesh eating sharks, poisonous medusas, creeped over by even more poisonous snakes, tarantulas which size would put the ones in "Arachnophobia" movie to shame, centipedes..............................even the birds must attack people like in the Hitchcock movie.

YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO LEAVE........ :P

I don't think they're a good comparison - when you go take a dump, it doesn't at all influence how your surroundings see you, unless you have a bunch of friends who record you farting and then make a video out of it. (You're an ass, Steve.)

Sexual intercourse on the other hand directly reflects your personality in the eyes of your partner, especially if you don't happen to know each other for all that long - so, for example, being selfish in bed might in turn lead to your partner being frustrated, which would then have some impact on your future interactions. It's a very common form of expression, as opposed to taking a shit, which too can be used as a form of expression in many weird ways, but it's not common at all with this purpose :-P

I'm not even asking for showing the intercourse itself TBH. I'm not sure how sex could be done interactively so the only way I can see currently is 'branching tree' working similarily to dialogue, and even a choice of 'Be a selfish bastard', 'Do whatever' or 'adhere to your partner's every wish!' would be better than nothing. Reflecting foreplay in a bit more detail would be even better, with the option to skip it altogether. This kind of stuff.

Of course, it would need to fit the game properly. This would work in games which are heavily focused on character interactions, like Mass Effect for example - and even then, implementing it would be difficult as making scenarios like this work would require extremely good writers.

I agree for the most part. So as I said, I am not saying that sex should be a taboo in games. For instance, Baldur's Gate 2 obviously had sex as a story element (and you made choices related to it, e.g. when exactly you choose to have sex with your love interest, or do you at all, all which affect the game, even up to pregnancy and your relationship with your love interest), but it didn't show the deed at all. GTA San Andreas was similar, you hear some make out sounds and that's it. For it's purpose, I think it worked fine for both games, but I am unsure if those two examples qualify as "mature/sexual content" or not. Maybe someone else feels those two games were being too prudish for not showing it or making it an interactive mini-game.

I guess my opinion stems from not seeing so far good or meaningful sexual intercourse scenes in any game, but then I haven't played all the games that are mentioned here (like Mass Effect). But at this point I feel I'd rather see actual (soft) porn parts mainly in sex games (like maybe Seduce Me), where to me they seem more appropriate.

Since there are comparisons between violence and sex (in games and movies), to me showing the actual intercourse in a game is closer to a very (realistically) graphic and gory violence in a game. Shooting someone and him collapsing neatly like in a 60s James Bond movie is more akin to implied sex in Baldur's Gate 2, or showing affection between two people without showing sex. But if there is a good reason to add (soft) porn to a game, or make it so graphically and realistically violent that it'll turn your stomach, I guess go ahead.

Funnily enough most of the real spiders used in Arachnophobia are Huntsmans, a common spider in Australia. :p

I don't have any strong opinion on games including sex. I would rather see better written characters than budget spent on how to make copulation moves more realistic.

I have played alpha/demo years ago. It was surprisingly good considering it came from 4chan; I expected fan service. I need to catch up on that.

My opinion of sex in games is the same as in any other media like books or movies. As long as it helps tell the story and works with the characters its fine. Were all adults here. But if its gratutious and treats the male viewers as horny idiots then ya its bad.

A lot of Visual Novels (love them) would probably be included in the "sex game" game category and if people want to play porn games why not let them. Nobody forces you to.