There’s Just Not Enough Sex In Video Games — Seriously

Politicians are always bitching that video games are too adult for kids, but social critic and SCAD grad student Daniel Floyd correctly dumps all over that stupid conventional wisdom in this essay better than any treatise I've seen on game sex in some time.

His bottom line: There's not enough sex in games. Amen, and amen. This video is one of the best rundowns ever on the history and controversy of sex in games, and he explains perfectly why it's a bad thing there's very little sex in games. Everyone should take notice of this essay, from parents to game developers to the ratings board.

The truth about sex in games is this. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo generally refuse to release games with sex in them, because they fear backlash from idiotic groups of people who apparently hate sex, because they're stupid if they hate sex. But game distributors also fear retail corporations, because the board that rates games, the ESRB, will give an "M" rating to any game containing massive amounts of random murder and bloodshed. An "M" is like an "R" rating. But if a game features any basic sex act, a game gets an "A" for "Adult," which is like an "X." Then Target, Walmart and game stores won't sell those "A" games. (And how many "A" games have there been ever? Two? Three?)

So, if Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo decides to spend millions developing or distributing a game, then risks putting one minute of sex in that game, then the game receives an "A" rating that kills all sales, and the game dies without hitting the shelf. Yet, the Top 10 sales and rental lists are stacked with shooters where you slash people to death with swords and blast them in the heads with scope rifles, and those games are often given a "T" rating for "Teen," which is like "PG 13."

Daniel Floyd here points out some true consequences. To make games sexy within guidelines, game makers draw in slutty women wearing very objectified clothing, like itsy bitsy leather outfits or thongs, because that can net a "T" rating. So male characters are all very macho. Female characters dress and often act like prostitutes on crack. This Maxim formula sells games partly because it's the only sexual content games can display.

But if the system were to change, and we could get sex in games, then women could transform faster from mere objects into fleshed-out characters in story-based games. Why would that happen? Because that's what happens in all forms of art. When movies couldn't show sex, you got women characters dressing like tramps and making insinuations. When sex was introduced more easily in mainstream films, you got stronger women roles where character more often had to be established to get to the sex.

So if we just have some sex in games, this would, oddly enough, probably lead to stronger female characters in games, less objectification, it would flesh out games with the most basic emotional and physical motivation for character and plot, the bulk of gamers (adults) would get what they desire, and the world wouldn't end, no matter how much those groups of people who hate sex because they're dumb try to tell you it would.

You can see Daniel Floyd's video essay here.