Sex, Nudity, and Censorship

Hi everyone, this is my first post so errr... yeah. excuse the crapiness, I'm no writer...

So earlier today I was working on a little project it seems like I've been doing forever, a somewhat amateurish graphic novel, that I can never seem to make too much progress on, and I was thinking about how I would tackle a sex scene, how much to show, tastefulness, and the impact on the overall story.

Now I showed my best friend some pictures, and she was asking why there are none of the girl naked, if I'm going to include sex then really, it seems necessary. and not having any nudity may decrease the intensity of the story and completely change the tone. plus, she says, 'Who doesn't like fun-bags?' from there the conversation got irrelevant, as we went off chasing the topic of fun-bags.

Later, sitting here drawing in front of my computer, my thoughts turned from the story I was trying to tell with my graphic novel to games, (destructoid being on-screen and all....) so I decided to make an account and share some thoughts.

Now being in Australia, yeah censorship. However something I would like to point out, though recently it feels far too many games are getting banned from their violent content, something Australia seems more lenient on is sex in games, I feel that we are far more European in that sense. I have been surprised to notice that some games in the past have had scenes meaningful to the plot cut for an American release, because of sexual content.

Case in point: Fahrenheit, or Indigo prophecy. (spoilers!!)
Now I'm unsure of how many of you would have played it, I personally thought it was flawed, but at the same time brilliant, but in the European and Australian versions of the game this actually contained nudity, and two sex scenes, one of which actually had you controlling the motions. Now this may sound tasteless, however it was actually quite important to the plot, re-establishing the relationship between Lucas and Tiffany, which served to heighten the emotional impact of later events midway through, would I have cared about tiffany as much without that back story? also late in the plot a sex scene between Lucas and Carla, which I found to illustrate the desperation of their situation. The world is about to end, and you're with the unlikeliest of companions. what would any human do? Now I haven't played the edited version, however I think that it would actually negatively effect the story if these scenes weren't present because I would have less knowledge of the relationship between the characters.

now after much meandering, my point. I want more sex in my games, and I want it handled in a mature way, I don't want fun-bags for their own sake (pleasant though they may be) but I believe by including more sex, they emotional investment in relationships in some stories may be greatly increased. I want to care not just about the characters, but about the relationships between them. sex is a fundamental part of human existence, and I certainly think games designers should be more open about approaching it. Simply put, take a break from the gibs, I think they've got the violence pretty much down pat, spend some time working on the other elements and crafting other ways of crafting a narrative. I'm not saying in all games, but in the ones where it is appropriate the shouldn't be afraid to include some action. I'm intrigued as to what will happen in heavy rain, and if it will make it to the states unchanged.

Heres the thing though people, I'm not sure how that would go down stateside if games were to include more sex. we may be currently getting our games slammed for violent content, (Damn you why take away AVP!!!) but even if games began tackling this most fundamental element of human interaction, even if in a mature fashion, would your lame ass media grab hold of it, and scare developers out of including it? Currently we may be denied our blood, but it seems our fellow gamers over in America are getting denied sex, and I ask you, which is more dangerous? leaving out any religious relevance, I see far more problems which wanton violence then I do with people getting down and dirty. And in general thats something I find fascinating about American culture, is it due to the large impact of Christianity in their society?

Anyways, I guess my rather disjointed point was this: I'd like to see deeper relationships in my games, and I think sex is one way to go about it, tackled in a mature fashion and without fear of the media, (seriously dragon age? artistic choice my ass) I think that it could greatly enhance the stories games could tell, and elevate the medium to a more mature level, besides, as my friend said, who doesn't like fun-bags?

Oh and... fuck you Atkinson.


peace out, and also interested to hear thoughts on this, feel free to call my an idiot for my lengthy and pointless spiel.