Original Post
i''ve been thinking about this topic mostly because of an ongoing argument on the Morrowind boards. For those who aren''t aware, Morrowind''s an RPG by Bethesda, the sequel to Arena and Daggerfall. Now Daggerfall gave you the interesting ability to take the clothes off your character in the item screen, leading to lots of fun staring at pixelated dark elf breasts. Also there were various naked women standing around in towns for no apparent reason. In Morrowind, they decided there would be no nudity. Many people are outraegd, claiming that Morrowind is now aiming to please the kiddies, and not the "mature" audience that daggerfall was allegedly aiming for with its gratuitous elf porn.
Now, in my opinion, I see their decision of no nudity as being MORE mature. I admit, back when i was 14, nudity seemed very adult at the time, probably because it was always behind labels that said "Adults only". But i feel that games that are filled with nudity or almost-nudity *cough* *cough* *Everquest* *cough* are really just pandering to the hormonal teenagers. The romances in the Black Isle games (Baldur''s Gate 2, Planescape...) seemed much more mature to me, and were actually enjoyable, as opposed to the random scantily clad girls in most games, which mostly make me feel like everyone was right when they said video games are for kids.
Also, in my life, I generally try to uphold such Chaotic Good beliefs as feminism and gay rights; but games sometimes seem to be developed by a horde of homophobic chauvinists. Then again, I suppose most of the suburban teenage male population is a horde of homophobic chauvinists, and developers are just catering to their audience. I for one, know a lot of gamers that would have a fatal heart attack if they found out their battle-hardened space marine was going around kissing boys, though I myself would be thrilled to see something like that in a game. Back on the Morrowind boards, with the nudity issue, there was also the general consensus that it was only really important that attractive naked women be in the game, as "no one wants to see naked guys". Also in games that have had nudity, the female form is generally pretty anatomically correct (well except for the fact that they''re always shaped like barbie dolls), while the male form generally has a suspicious blurry looking splotch between his legs. Now, I''m not saying we should all release games with lots of naked guys running around, I''m just trying to make a point that nudity in games isn''t actually there for "realism" or "artistic reasons" as some people want to believe, it''s really just some naked chicks to keep the teenage boys interested.
So, ideas? Can nudity and sex be included tastefully, perhaps even artistically, into a game? Should we, as designers, even try, or should we not bother including it at all? Or maybe just put some porn in to help the game sell (not an option for me persnoally) ? Would gamers in general even play Killfest 6000 if the main character was acting suspiciously gay during the opening sequence? By the way, I''ve noticed that some games do in fact have lesbians, as i guess they''re more accepted by the gaming audience than gay boys. Still, most of the portrayal of such is still very porn oriented, except for the great lesbian couple in The Longest Journey, which is one of the only games that I felt actually had viable female characters in it.
Well, could this post be any longer?
Its all depending on how you use it.
