Ben and Rob discuss the blow-up surrounding the Fox News editorial on Mass Effect and debate over sexual content in games.
 
Watch Video: http://www.tomsgames.com/us/site/f [...] games.html
 
Is sex an issue in our culture as games become ever more mainstream?  Do you think they will become a bigger part of game narratives? Is the ESRB doing enough, or is it the parents' responsibility to police what is appropriate for kids and teenagers to play?
 
-Ben

All your boners are belong to us

Well the Japanese have a multi-billion erotic game industry known as H-game or Hentai-game industry basically since the 90s in the era of SNES.
Currently it's mainly concentrated in the PC area.
 
Those games are a bit different to conventional sense here by the genre. There are genre like turn-base H-games but they are few and far in between. Most H-game types are adventure games where basically like an interactive e-book (with route options presented to user) which focus mainly on story, static CG artwork and voice-acting.  
The appeal of the almost alien genre and a different cultural perspective, means that those games are hardly ever ported to overseas market. There were some, that's all.
 
3D games are also present but again very few companies in Japan have the expertise in this area (3D graphics in PC is a niche market due to success of consoles in Japan. ). Doing a search you can quickly see however, many overseas fan sites have centred around these Japanese made 3D style, basically polygon sex, type H-game. I wouldn't say the appeal isn't there.
 
So basically, my point is, this sex in 3D game is well not unheard of in the far east. Due to recent development and events, e.g. Hot Coffee, Mass Effect the topic has risen. It's facing a cultural barrier.

I think I would rather the world be shown pictures or videos of "artistic" sexual content in games than allowing headshots, knife stabbing, robbing, stealing, destruction of a continent/country/etc in a game.
 
Definitely we got some things backwards.
 

I've seen worse stuff on network TV than I have in most games. Besides, like a teenager needs a game to see sex when they have access to the internet.

Yeah, either way, the Mass Effect scenes are barely graphic. You'd think they tossed it in because fans complained that the romance in Star Wars KOTOR didn't go anywhere  
 
It's the standard media frenzy over something that is even slightly controversial, which is intensified by the "omg video games are the spawn of evil" mentality that some people take. There are much bigger things to worry about than two female (technically, one's monogendered) humanoids kissing. For all you know, they just cuddled

The so-called grown-ups need to grow up. It is OK to chop off limbs but no nudity. Ridiculous!

There is a three-word reason for this kind of stuff:

IT'S ELECTION SEASON. (That's me talking, not Turpit )

Everybody wants to "think of the children"- it's VERY politically popular and an unwinnable solely emotional debate if you dare to call any of it in question because if you do, you'll be branded as a "child-hater" and be persona non grata in any kind of a position that is public or deals with policy for a loooong time, if not permanently.

Wow.  Great show.
My favorite by far.

ha ha ha -- puritan Americans, ooh oooh sex it's is so evil, now lets go beat the crap out of some in Boxing at Las Vegas live...
 
Is American society ever going to evolve.
 
Sex -- so what?  And??
 
What's next, the Christian channel?

THERE IS WAYYYYY TOO LITTLE SEX ANS SEXINESS IN VIDEO GAMES. THERE SHOULD BE WHOLE TITLES WITH JUST SEX. IT IS A CONSTANT SOURCE OF AMAZMENT TO ME THAT ALL WE HAVE IS LIESURE SUIT LARRY AND THATS IT. IF YOU WANT VIOLENCE, YOU GOT IT. ITS OK TO KILL, BUT NOT PROCREATE?!?!? WHATS UP WITH THAT? ARE WE SUICIDAL AS A PEOPLE? i WOULD MUCH RATHER MY KIDS SEE SEX OR NAKEDNESS THAN MURDER! COME ON PEOPLE!

 
There are more games and other associated programs that are rated AO by the ESRB and do have a lot of nudity (the Girls of Playboy screensaver series comes to mind.) But that AO mark generally prohibits them from being sold in retail stores, so it's less likely you'll know about them.

It's not about fox news being "ill informed". It's that Fox news is employed as a tool to create common perceptions of various subjects to conform to whatever agenda their corporate and political sponsors wish to convey. (much of whom are religious zealots and nutcases) They are not some fair and honest free-standing organization, but rather a political/industrial outlet designed to serve the agendas of such.
 
The problem these days is that people STILL think the press is a credible source of information, when they are not. And no, they are not.
 
"Here at Fox News, we don't endorse sex, we were all grown from test tubes". Fox Network as a whole uses more sex on all their stupid shows and less intellectual material, than any other network. I encourage people to take a look what shows they are responsible for. None of these shows contain ugly people one might notice. They are all attractive women with pleasant anatomical features. Why? Because people like it! Young people like it and old people like it.
 
And truth be told, sex is a fact of life. There is not one normal human being who does not think about it. It's encoded in our DNA and it's part of the core of our existence. But if you listen to the wrong people, you could be led to believe that "sex is bad". How many times have you heard that already? We all know it isn't! These idiots made it look bad because of what they associate it with.
 
As far as "sex" being employed in a video game, heh, where else is it not employed? It's used to sell everything. It's used in humor, and it's even become a huge focus of the drug industry.....all of which are represented by FOX News Ironically. It's all over TV. So why is a video game any different? Oh! because Fox News and some self proclaimed intellectual expert (like they always try to employ for a semblance of leverage to their arguments) says so!
 
So please, take their junk with a grain of salt, because you're getting nothing more factual watching fox news, or anything on their network as a whole than you are from watching spongebob on cartoon network.....of which is gradually employing more and more sex in the form of these "hot teen" shows. lol
 
So basically the view being conveyed by Fox is that "Our sex is the only sex you should be watching". Holy double-standard batman!
 
Food for thought.

 
I have to salute the Japanese for accepting human sexuality and bringing their society past the point where everyone is so uptight about a subject so fundamental to being human.

I also find it outlandish to suggest that anyone playing this game has not been subjected to countless sexual depictions on the internet.
 
I figure that we're just in a new era and that the only thing a parent can do is just be completely frank with kids about sex so that when they see a video clip of a woman dressed in leather stomping on a guy's crotch, they can understand it in context.  Actually, that's probably a bad example as most porn is, let's face it, not exactly uplifting for women.....
 
As for games, I figure that, sooner than later, the U.S. will be inundated with a tidal wave of sex game imports from Japan.  Maybe Sony or MS will release an "adults only" console or some other such nonsense.

Gaming is a big business, just like any other big business, it's going to make headlines easy.  Microsoft/Yahoo, ExxonMoblie/another record profit year, Tom Cruise/scientology gibberish, Britney/crazy.. etc.  Gaming is now in the media's corporate sights, and they are gonna sensationalize it just like they do everything else.  They barely let Geoff (or Jeff, whatever) get 3 words in without cutting him off, this is just what the big news channels do.  Watch local lol.. as long as it isn't owned by "the man" (Murdoch, i'm watching you..)
 
Anyone wanna play some Duke Nukem 3D lol?

Meh.
This is silly. Sex is all over.
Including games.
Have a look at the tv ! Have a look at the movies
made today. Gay, lesbian, bi-sexual content all over.
 
This is a AMERICAN reaction. (Sorry, but some of you are so
retarded sometimes.)
 
If games have sexual content, describe in in the
game manual or on the game box. For the "parent" to
see and deicide buy or not.
I myself live in Sweden and have NEVER seen these
retard reactions. Again. Its all american reactions.
 
thank you.
 
 
dlb

 
It is not an American reaction- it is a reaction by a few Americans that have a very public profile coupled with the fact that quite a few Americans put on a "public face" of being against such things but really aren't when nobody is looking. If these things ACTUALLY were such a big deal to the majority of the country, do you honestly think that they would sell well enough for somebody to go through the expense to market there? Stop to think about it for just a second rather than jumping to the stereotypical holier-than-thou European "America sucks!!!" conclusion.

It's because Americans still live in Rules of Christianity! Wake up America (them who take this as a problem) and learn that Religion is ridiculous.!
 
It's a GAME by the way!.
 
A Freaking **** game! She just have to complain over something, because she is bored.
 
Please be Atheist over there! and vote for Obama.
 
Sorry the stronge language but I have my freedom of speach and if you censor my words I don't! sue you like some Americans whould do
 
We can handle the swearwords (normal people can!). Because it's words!
 
Back to the subjekt. IT's a game! A game! and again it's a game. Who cares? This whould never happen in Europe! by the way.
 
And if there is a sex scene that chould make some small kinds HORNY just whatching ANIMATED SEX SCENE IN A GRAPHIC ENGINE!, they are mental sick? and it could be funny to see in the news that kids i US begin to masturbate in the age of 6-9 and it's becoming an epidemic in the land. xD
 
The land of wankers! OMG! haha  
 
PS. I'm from Denmark