[Editor's Note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware that it may not jive with the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.]
Sorry about the title. Apparently my creative juices don't run so hot when it comes to silly anecdotes about sex.
Hot juices . . . in a blog about sex . . . get it?!
Ungh.
Sex fills a wide variety of needs. You can do it to relieve stress, make children, show appreciation (and likewise, withhold it to punish), you can do it just to have fun, to connect on the most intimate of levels with your partner, to show Uncle Reg that you really do love him, etc. It also fills a wide variety of needs in literature and film, most prominently it demonstrates a tangible connection between characters. That, or you're just watching/reading porn to get off.
With all of the above examples, however, you are either directly involved in the act, or you're completely removed from it, observing, but not participating. In all of the examples above, I don't get that feeling of "this is f*cking weird" triggered by similar scenes and situations in videogames, and I think I know why.
Sex in videogames seems to occupy a space somewhere in the middle of "involved and doing," and "removed but watching." I'm not having sex with Miranda. Shepard is. I'm watching ... but I MADE him do it. It's creepy, and it's the sort of creepy that makes you want to keep it hidden. Unlike telling one of your friends that they have to go watch this one porn flick, I kinda-sorta don't want anyone to know that I actually pursued a relationship with these fake people, and then manipulated the situation so they could have fake sex so I can watch (so I'm posting it on the Internet!).
Most of the "intimate" scenes in ME2 are actually tasteful, and they concern themselves more with the connection of two emotional characters who want to share themselves with each other, rather than the physical aspect. I explored them because I care about the characters and wanted to form those lasting bonds between "myself (Shepard)" and my squad-mates. But if Miranda dry-humping Shepard through clothes makes me feel weird, then any other player-controlled sex scene will, invariably, make me feel this same way, all be it to varying degrees of intensity.
Now, I'd be remiss not to mention the Uncanny Valley component, but I don't think I really need to do much else than acknowledge it so that we don't have an elephant in the room. However, the main thrust of this blog isn't how real the sex seems in games, or how believable it is, but how neither fully participating, nor being completely removed from the goings-on, as a player, is a sort of limbo state that just doesn't feel right.
The Uncanny Valley does contribute to other feelings of weirdness, but it deals exclusively with a factor of believability in relationship to how "real" any given artificial person seems, and our subsequent harsh criticism as a result. But I'm already willing to concede that these emotions, no matter how heavily criticized in our collective sub-conscious, exist, but it would be impossible to force this phenomenon completely from my mind, so there, I said it. It's there.
Incidentally, neither Tali nor Jack made me feel this way. Tali was cute, and Jack was vulnerable, and the touching was kept to a minimum, but the intimacy was still palpable. This sort of character interaction should be applauded. It's really very strong, without being hokey or silly or just fucking weird in any way, shape, manner or form. It establishes the intimacy without overt sexuality, though sex is still very present, albeit by way of assumption. This, the assumption of physical intimacy, is much more powerful, and a metric ass-ton less weird than any sort of physical sex I can actually influence, manipulate, or otherwise witness in a game.
Madison and Ethan are right out.
I'm not talking about tits and dicks in Dante's Inferno, either. Likewise, I'm not talking about sexual behavior that I have no direct influence over (Satan + Beatrice). Give me character relationships with the potential for intimacy, yes; however, I don't think I need to watch them being physically intimate. Let me assume as much. The weirdness it fosters creates a mental disconnect. I want to watch them warm up to one another, and physical signs of affection are certainly appreciated, but for the love of Pete, I can do without the dry-humping.
This promoted blog was written for our March Monthly Musing assignment, "Write something about sex." You too could get promoted if you write something about sex in videogames over on the Community Blogs.
Contest:
6:20 PM on 03.10.2010
| 
Good blog though. D'you think you could expand on that middle ground idea? It feels like it's right, but I can't figure out for myself what the difference between manipulating a game and hitting play on the VCR (does porn still come on VHS?) really is. I mean, I get the rest, but the emphasis on "making him do it" is throwing me.
With porn, you push play and watch. There is no first-person involvement. You aren't doing anything. With sex, you're doing something as a first party participant.
With the Miranda Situation (tm), you certainly aren't doing anything as a primary party to the act, but you aren't just watching it, either. In fact, they're engaging in the sexual behavior because you willed it, and then crafted the situation. It's an expression of your will. With porn, if you choose not to push play, the sex is still happening, but in the game it will never happen unless you tell it to, and more than just saying "go" and watching the characters have at each other, you are given the reins, and you develop the situation.
You established a vested interest in the goings on. You nurtured the attraction, and you watched as sex became an ever more apparent piece of the equation, and if you hadn't crafted the conversations and events in specific ways, it never would have happened. It isn't an essential part of the game, nor does it provide any sort of tangible benefit. The narrative contained therein is negligible, and it isn't like you get a special gun or biotic power for laying her . . . yet you did it anyway.
I did it anyway . . . excuse me. I have to go shower this filth off my sinful body.
*shudder*
... and who's awesome butt is that? Is that from Heavy Rain? If so, I apparently have something to look forward to! :)
(and yeah, I'll probably feel like a peeping tom at that point in the game, but still.... nice butt!)
:-D
O_o
That is rather weird. Rest assured it wasn't intentional. My pic is a slight nod to Alice in Wonderland, one of my most favorite works of literature.
I'm all about a Bunny War, though.
Nice post.
<a href="http://www.suredelights.co.uk">London Escorts</a> are the best <a href="http://www.suredelights.co.uk">Escorts</a>
<a target="_blank" href="www.simplypleasure.com">sex positions to make her squirt</a>
<a href="http://www.simplypleasure.com">Sex toys</a>