Sex & Games

If someone thinks sex is wrong, don't have it! (ya right!). If one doesn't want to play a game with sex in it, don't play it!

Americans in general have become slaves to fear and are very immature. The reason for this is obvious; if the people don't talk a thing it is easier to control the image of that thing and by proxy the people.

You can bet that anyone not making money off our industry will cause as much noise as they can. But who can blame them, senate, congress, presidents, after all it’s not like it is something harmless like war! (What percent of games? I guess they must make money from wars somehow...)

I have been designing a game that is sex centered but handled in a thoughtful way, and so far everyone, women and men, love the idea and said they would love to play it! So the question is does Congress, the Senate, President, Church leader think Americans are disgusting creatures who do things they would never do? If that is the case then why are they leading us....

I think someone (IGDA, publishers, media) needs to be there to remind people what the nay sayers are saying when they spew negativity - "We are not like you, we are better than you, we shouldn't be leading you, fire us!" or "We are bad parents!" When put in the proper light how many people will "make a stand for the people" when the people are shown that we aren't the people they are standing for!

With people dying in war, starving, being abused in prison, and homeless (just in the USA), is the simple god given pleasure of sex so bad?

Cheers,
Patrick
CA, USA

This issue is always going to be a loser politically because politicans demagogue it and voters respond to that - even if it restricts their own freedom and restricts what they otherwise would enjoy. If it was up to a vote, x-rated movies or even Playboy wouldn't be legal, or possibly even R-rated content. That took Supreme Court rulings from a liberal Supreme Court.

And that leads me to my point. The Supreme Court is slowly becoming more and more right-wing. That may be good in some ways (because liberalism is wrong on some issues), but its bad for the 1st Amendment. And its about to take a huge lurch in that direction with two Bush appointments and possibly even more. If you had liberals or libertarians on the court there'd be no reason to worry, they would protect an expansive view of free speech for video games. But with the way the court is moving I think the outlook is dim. And theres no way you'd ever get legislation passed by politicians to help; they'll do just the opposite - and pretty soon the court won't do anything to stop them.

People assume the kind of rights we have today will continue on forever, but thats not the case -they only last as long as there's a supreme court to enforce them. The clock can be turned back by a more conservative court, and will be. Theres alot of very smart, very saavy activists that are just waiting for a more conservative court to do that. And it may not be just sex thats banned in the future, I could imagine restrictions on violence as well.

So I guess I'd say what you should be concentrating on now is Supreme Court nominees. Nobody else in the entertainment industry seems to be, and their the ones that are going to end up deciding the issue.

There's a lot to say about this topic. I may be totally wrong but I'll try to explain this theory.

Sex is something very natural and should be seen as such. Also, most of our energies and motivations come directly from our sex drives. It all comes down to our reproductive instinct.

Why sex is promoted as a “bad” thing is, in part, to ensure that all that energy is not wasted in what could be seen as “futile hippie free sex practices”. Instead, governments and church try to focus the energy of the people in something “constructive” for the community. To achieve this, they make the people feel bad about these practices so they can all keep that frustrated energy inside of them, building tensions and strong frustrations that can be unleashed, for instance, in a work environment. (Moreover, governments need to find an enemy against which to rally people. This time they decided it was sex, but I digress.)

In a way, creating taboos can be all very productive and useful but on the other hand, it can create sexual deviations and some very bad use of the “built-in” energies that might ultimately explode in violent acts (which seems to be a popular way of expressing ourselves nowadays, see Hollywood movies and most popular video games).

Bottom line is, we should talk about sex more freely. My beliefs are that parents are the one who should educate their children about what sex is and should be, not anyone else. Taboos are dangerous things. Being clearly informed and conscious of our sexuality could help us understand ourselves and better focus our energy in, for instance, a work environment (that's the paradox here). There's always two way around a problem. To focus our sex energy, being conscious instead of frustrated is more effective and it has all the advantages without the disadvantages (less energy is lost in the feeling and stress of transgressing social taboos).

So YES! Sex should get more publicity. But it must be done in a subtle and respectful manner. It's not about transgressing taboo and trying to shock people with naughty pictures and stories, it's about giving sex it's real place in our lives; a natural act.

Kevin
Québec, Canada