BioWare Talks Sex In Games
CVG sat down with BioWare co-founded Greg Zeschuk to talk turkey, but more than just turkey popped up during the interview. Zeschuk defended the role of sexuality in BioWare's plot-driven games, saying they'll include sex scenes as long as they make sense to the plot:
CVG: There was controversy over the sex scenes in Mass Effect, and now there are some in Dragon Age. It's common in films, but do videogames need scenes of this nature to portray a story?Zeschuk: I don't think they need to have them, I think that in certain types of games it makes sense to have them. It's interesting because I think the Mass Effect thing was completely over-blown.
There wasn't even really nudity; it was like the side of a leg. I think some of the press took huge advantage of the situation. The reality was that it was the kind of stuff you'd see on evening television.
That said, I think from our perspective we want to reflect real human relationships. If you're trying to have a relationship with a character we want to reflect that and the impact of the connection with that character. And if that involves some sort of intimate scenes, we want to provide those for the player.
Really, if you read an interview with Quentin Tarantino about why he puts sex in his movies, wouldn't you get an answer that's a lot less intelligent/intelligible? It's a shame the head of a company has to almost publicly apologize for the fact that romance is a classic storytelling element.
Now, BioWare: give us men making out or so help me I'll go on Fox News and denounce you as the peddlers of heteroflesh that you are!
BioWare interview Pt. 1 [CVG]
tiny dancer
Posted to Miscellany, Video Games on 9 July 2009
· Comments (10)
Other stuff like this: bioware, greg zeschuk, sex in games
I really hope that scene in Dragon Age will be avoidable.
I'm sorry, but I don't need to see that (not meaning sex, just the hetero kind).
Mass Effect 2 better have some man on man action. Why did lesbians get all the fun in Mass Effect 1?
That's why it's so important to support studios like "Lion's Head" that DO include the option of same-sex couples.
I once dreamed I was playing a medieval themed RPG where an important game mechanic was ensuring that two of the burly male characters in the group regularly made love because a wizard had bound them with a spell that caused the, um, product of their love to form a kind of magical armour that boosted their defense in battle. At some point in the game one of the two characters was captured and separated from the group by a rival army bound on enforcing strict and obscure rules of appropriate coupling. Part of the game was spent rescuing the other half and reuniting them. It was very emotional for me.
Technically, Asari are not exactly females.
I think sexuality in games is part of the natural progression for the medium, since this debate, approximately 15 or so years ago was about red pixels on the SNES. It's ignorant, purely ignorant, on the part of anyone that protests sex in video games, since the only arguments I've seen them make revolve around harming children.
Most gamers know that the majority of all video gamers world wide, by a pretty big margin, are over the age of 18. We also know that the depiction of violence or sex against children is largely frowned upon, even by us shamelessly evil gamer sociopaths.
I'm all for realistic depictions of sexuality in gaming, if nothing more than to acknowledge that it should be the consumer's right to decide what's safe for them, and not the government's. I should stop now before I start drawing gestapo parallels.
"Technically, Asari are not exactly females."
I hate it when people go into this...
They all have female voices, they have breasts and feminine bodies, and the chief Asari are called "Matriarchs".
Really, Matriarch should be the end of the discussion.
I was only repeating what Liara said. I can accept that they are a monogendered species. Transgendered people call themselves and are often called "she", even though they mostly look like women but are in fact technically male (the transgendered people that still have their male parts).
I suppose it's all perception, but again, I was just saying what Liara said. If that upsets you, take it up with her/him... whatever.
Dragon Age has bisexual characters and man-on-man action (if only implied); it is definitely possible to have a homosexual romantic relationship. So what's your problem?
Do you have a source on this definite possibility?
Dragon Age has bisexual characters and man-on-man action (if only implied); it is definitely possible to have a homosexual romantic relationship. So what's your problem?
You sure? You can have homosexual romance with either gender?
I'm sold. Bioware didn't impress me with Mass Effect (no male/male, and rather bad female/female option) but maybe they are shaping up now? I hope so!