Nexeus Fatale

Sex and video games is a very loaded subject.  Sex and MMO’s is even more loaded.  It seems when the topic of sex arises, the media gets into a frenzy, parents begin uprisings, and everyone begins to treat it as some sort of taboo thing.  We all seem to forget that most people have had sex, even more have seen the act in one form or another.  The reason sex is so difficult to discuss (while at the same time one of the most discussed subjects) is due to its nature of being a highly intimate act that creates and revolves around very important moments in our lives.  With that said, the conversations that are had on the subject are not always the most compelling ones.  There are very few intelligent, mature conversations about sex in the video game and MMO market arenas that do not revolve around legislative nature, or revolve around some sort of scandal.  Most media cover the topic much in the same way Britney Spears is followed by the paparazzi.  Then there’s items like this on YouTube, this presentation by Daniel Floyd does a great job in starting the conversation and making comparisons between sex and video games to film.  Some very valid points are made, such as the way sex is used in video games.  While it does seem unrealistic, immature and derogatory at times, it does sell.

I agree with Daniel on the topic of how “sex” (read: women) are portrayed and used in some video games.  While most of it appeals to my male instinct, there is no real balance.  Between the big bouncing breasts that have their own separate and dynamic physics in Dead or Alive’s Xtreme 2 to the big firm breasts barely covered by a woman wearing leather while fighting an opponent with weapons, to Lara Croft (a well endowed woman wearing shorts and a tank top while exploring caves), sex (i.e. the female image) is not presented with any sort of reality.  It’s the same argument hip-hop videos suffer through, how many half naked women shaking their butts in the camera do you need to show before you begin to use sex in a more mature way.

While this video focuses primarily on the female figure while concerning sex, the male figure is it is portrayed sexually undergoes the same sort of criticism and exploitation (even in the hip-hop example I’ve used).  Every man has the body carved from the hands of Michelangelo, well endowed, and suffers from one ethnic stereotype or another.  While in cases like Second Life, this representation is more self-afflicting (avatars are often created to represent an idealized version of the user), much of what is discussed does apply to the virtual world (except for the comparison of MUDs and Second Life.)

Yes, there is a time and place for this unreal depiction of sex but video games and MMO’s are unfairly attacked about the topic.  As Daniel states part of it is due to the young nature of the medium, another to the unbalance nature of it’s depiction, but I feel that most of it deals with the media coverage.  I feel that media should be more responsible about the topic rather than placing blanket, scintillating coverage on the topic.  No one major outlet is any less guilty than the other.