Sex & Games

I think that games that ADD sexual content are inherently more appealing, at least considering the games already in the market. For example, Playboy took a sexual idea, and produced a game from it. But the game lacked the atmosphere that the Playboy Empire carries.

On the other hand, simple games like Strip Poker and Strip Mahjongg take something not even remotely linked to sex, and dollops them with excitement. It's almost as if that coupling of sexual with non-sexual heightens the appeal.

I've decided that I don't like either. Or at least there is a more fundamental problem -- at least for me -- that neither approach specifically addresses.
Both the 'Take game, add sexual content' and 'Take sexual content, add game', at least judging by the games you've linked on the blog that I've had a go at, seem to encourage designs where the sexual content part is the reward for performing well at the game part.
This leaves me pretty cold sexually and irritates me from a gaming perspective ('surely getting a high score should be it own reward!')
This means that the 'games' I've actually had fun with (Dreamstripper etc.) even from a gaming rather than sexual perspective, are the ones that sidestep the issue by not really having any game at all and sticking to pretty much straight up sexual content.
I would much prefer it for the sexual stuff to be part of what you do in the game as you move to towards the gaming goal.
For instance, a whodunnit game where your actual goal is to solve the murder, but along the way your get to flirt/romance/have sex with various NPC characters. Or a swords and socerty RPG game where you win the game by defeating the usual big bad, by the traditional means, but you have the possibility of encouraging all your party members to jump into bed with each other and the possibility of *literally* seducing some of the bad guys over to your side. Or potentially more explict, 'Orgy Manager', 'The Porn Movies', 'Uncivilisation'.
You get the idea :)

You've seemed to forget a third strategy: that is a situation where sex would have been obvious, but left out of the game, because the creator does not want to insult parts of his audience. Many Sim games lack sex for instance.

Sex can be a motive in a game (Lazy Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards, that was fun), but it can also make games more realistic. I've not come accross any sexual related game that realy turned me on. If I want that, I hhire a DVD (or download one).

If you look at Japanese games with sex, there's an interesting spectrum there.

On the one hand, you have romance-type adventure or sim games which may or may not have sex. If they do, it typically falls into one of two categories:

1. The point of the game is to deliver a touching and (somewhat) interactive romance narrative. There is one sex scene per game trace, which occurs during one of the "happy endings". If the player makes too many wrong choices, they may get a "bad ending" (no sex for you!). The player's efforts are directed towards achieving an ending with his favourite character(s); players of this type tend not to be completists.

Or:

2. The point ("meta-point"?) of the game is to deliver sex scenes. Endings are largely immaterial, except insofar as each one delivers a different "ending" sex scene. The player's efforts are directed towards seeing all the sex scenes.

Occasionally either of these types may be shoehorned into a different genre (e.g. RPG).

What I think is a little more interesting, though, is Illusion's "Artificial Girl 2" (www.illusion.jp). This is pretty much a sex simulator, except that (point) the sex is a gameplay element. The female character's affection for the protagonist is altered by his behavior during sex; finishing the act whilst leaving her unfulfilled, for example, will make her unhappy. Raising the character's affection level unlocks different costumes for her to wear (and remove), as well as introducing the possibility that during the sex act she may (randomly) offer to perform acts over and above straight sex, such as oral sex. Whilst the criticism could be levelled that the game treats sex as a performance, at the same time one must note that the 'difficulty' of the game is minimal - that is to say, after the initial 1-hour learning curve, it is difficult to inadvertently displease the female character.

So the question becomes, if a gameplay element no longer hovers at the edge of the player's regime of competence, does it still qualify as a gameplay element, and is the game still a game, or merely a chimeric blend of Tamagotchi and blow-up doll? Certainly making the sex "hard" would be of questionable value...