“You saved me, hero! Wanna bang?”

Video games are an incredible medium. They let us interact with worlds and characters we would never see in our usual day to day. They allow us to become the lead in a fictional story of our choosing, be it the hero or villain, or maybe just some Joe Bloggs trying to get by. They’re a space for narrative exploration and interactivity like no other. 

So of course, when people realised you could use them to get off, they did just that. 

Sex and sexual content have been in video games since the early days. While not appearing as often within the mainstream ‘til much later down the line, even the retro Atari systems saw high levels of sexual content appearing occasionally, with games like Custer’s Revenge becoming notorious and very convincing arguments for video games corrupting the minds of our children. Keep in mind that games at this point were still seen more as toys for kids as opposed to a pastime for all ages to enjoy, so any content of the hyperviolent or sexual variety was a big no no.  

But we’re not here to talk about the disgusting garbage that is Custer’s Revenge, we’re here to discuss MY thoughts regarding sex in video games, because this is my article, not yours. 

When I was eight, I played the original God of War (2005) on PlayStation 2, an amazingly fun and violent spectacle which saw main-man Kratos carve a path across ancient Greece on his quest to destroy the titular God of War, Ares. Being one of the edgiest games ever, it was full of gore, angry shirtless men screaming, and of course a heaping pile of objectified nameless female characters. It’s a game which was made to appeal to the teenage boy market, not eight-year-old Aiden. So, you can probably imagine my shock and surprise when after beating the first level I was given the option to perform a sex minigame with two women for upgrade points. Seemingly knowing the majority of the player base would perform this minigame, out of horniness or comical shock, the developers made the number of points you’d earn from it the exact amount you’d need for the first weapon upgrade. 

Being eight, I threw my controller down and ran away ‘cause nudity was not what I had expected that evening. I don’t think I even picked up God of War again until the age of 12, having been slightly scarred by my initial playthrough when I was a young’un. 

But now we get to the meat of this article – whyyyyy? From a narrative standpoint it doesn’t make sense, as Kratos is doing everything to try to avenge the death of his wife and daughter. He’s meant to be a family man, yet he’s having the most sex possible whenever he can. From a narrative design standpoint, it’s just plain creepy. You beat the first boss, CONGRATS! Have a threesome for your efforts. It serves nothing, it’s just there as stimulation for the player.  At best, the average player would get a chuckle and some points out of it, but we all know that it wasn’t put in to just appeal to someone playing. Its literally there so teenage boys can feel a sense of gratification and satisfaction for doing good at the previous level. It’s porn; comically overdone moans, and all. Keep in mind you don’t see the act itself, but you hear everything while watching a vase shake about wildly.  

I think when done correctly, sex in a narrative can work. This is not correctly,; this is literally just TnA for the lads-lads out there.  

While linear games like God of War have it, it’s the more open ones that tackle sex in a… variety of ways. 

Classic example: Grand Theft Auto! Strip clubs full of women who are there for you and you alone, with the player being incentivised to break the clubs ‘no touching!’ policy to increase their chosen stripper’s LIKE meter. Get it high enough, you can take her home for some off screen-sex and ask for her number so you can engage in off-screen sex whenever you damn please.  

Games would only continue to realise that sex could be forced in whenever the developers wanted. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, saw Geralt be rewarded with sex from an elf lady for saving her from a fire. A very graphic sex scene that is essentially shot like porn. What purpose does this serve? It’s a cutscene made to stimulate the player. You could argue there’s a roleplaying aspect to it, but if you’re arguing that then I personally think you should stop talking. 

While Witcher 3 toned down how graphic the scenes were, reusing the same animations and moans in nearly every sexual encounter, that didn’t stop the player base creating their own fantasies. While we can’t hold developers responsible for the creations of independent modders, they did leave all the tools there for mods to be made. It’s the same with Skyrim, a game made without ANY sexual content in mind, but due to Rule 34 (where there is something, there is porn), people of course have gone to hell and back to sexualise and degrade the NPCs, especially the female ones, as much as they can. 

While bad, these games aren’t even the worst offenders. I want to make it clear; sex can be done right in video games. Mass Effect features a variety of tastefully shot sex-scenes for both the binary male and binary female player customisation options in the game. Your character can be gay, straight, bi, even have interspecies relationships with the alien cast. These romance scenes, however, occur near to the end of the main story, and only after hours upon hours of relationship building with the character you’ve chosen to chat-up during that playthrough. And the scenes aren’t graphic, just kissing with implied nudity from both parties, before fading to black. They’re made to be appealing to all players, not just a patriarchal fantasy of deserving a reward for saving a woman’s life. 

Honestly, I’m at a loss here. Games should be a medium for all players to enjoy, out of place sexual material included, yet the content present seemingly always fall into nasty, misogynistic, and overly sexualised. I think games just need to do better. Like it or not, sex is going to be in games as long as games exist. And it CAN be done well. Like in film, it can be used to show love and connection, even be used for comedic purposes to relieve tension. Even the most testosterone-fuelled game on Earth, Wolfenstein: The New Order (amazing shooter, please go play it, one of my favourites), features an incredibly touching, amazingly shot, toned down sex scene between the two leads. One where they’re out of focus in the corner while main man William ‘BJ’ Blazkowics narrates about sometimes when everything’s terrible, you just need to feel human again. Later in the game there’s a rather graphic, clothed scene between the two leads, played for laughs initially with the other characters overhearing and essentially going “what, again??”, before cutting to the act itself, with the leads stopping mid-sex to talk about how they want a life together once the world’s back to normal. Graphic, but not shot for any gaze, just storytelling purposes, showing humanity surviving in a Nazi controlled post-WW2 world. Not every game is trying to be a narrative masterpiece, or commentary on the nature of our species. For every Wolfenstein, there is a GTA, and for every well-shot, emotionally evocative sex scene, there is a piece of misogynistic, digital pornography. 

But hey, the next Grand Theft Auto is meant to feature a female lead so who knows? Maybe we’ll start to see even the biggest offenders in the industry make a change…