Nudity in Games

[EldKatt]

You must admit that it's a very arbitrary presentation of that feature, though. How about depicting it as actual practicing or sparring? Or am I old-fashioned?

[zabnat]

In the God of War games, I didn't understand why the breasts were modeled after implants. This was obviously a purposeful (though anachronistic) design decision.

Obviously because the modelers have never seen any real breasts

[Ghost]

I haven't played Gods of War, but the idea to have a sexy minigame as a training element sounds... odd. It's like, I dunno, reading the Playboy to learn how to beat the Spider Mastermind.

[big brother]

How about depicting it as actual practicing or sparring?

I guess they assume that, as the ultimate deity of all forms of combat (and the son of the King of the Gods), he wouldn't need to practice fighting. Sparring would make him less badass, unlike having threesomes with fake-tittied women.

The minigame isn't framed as training, it's just that the movements are the same as the ones you encounter in later boss battles. As a result, it feels more fair than if they just sprung all these new commands on you in the heat of combat.

As for the Spider Mastermind, Hustler is the preferred weapon.

[EldKatt]

What a flimsy pretext to have some smut in the game.

[MrColossal]

The story is also a flimsy pretext to have some violence in the game but, so it goes!

[lo_res_man]

Western society seems to allow violance more then sex. We have had bloody balleds andslaughtering sega for eons but sex didn't enter into it on them same level. I wonder why? maybe its the climate for northern europe.

[Ponch]

Nudity in games doesn't bother me in the least, and can even add atmosphere to the story if it's done properly -- Gabriel Knight 1 comes to mind in that regard.

That being said, however, if nudity is the only real selling point for your game, perhaps a little redesign might be in order... unless it's one of those wacky Japanese games, then, by all means, the more the better, I suppose.

I'm guilty of putting nudity in more than half of my Barn Runner games (the laziest form of Easter Egg, I know, but I like what I like). Most people never find it and the few who do (and e-mail me about their discovery, at any rate) are usually amused. The only two exceptions that I can recall off hand are a woman who said it was "tacky" (oh, the irony!) and a guy who unlocked the boobs-a-poppin' secret ending to Barn Runner 2 while his little boy was sitting there with him. That letter was hilarious and father and son really bonded over the moment, but of course, junior just HAD to say something to mom about it later that evening. For some unfathomable reasone, she did not find it as amazing as her son did. Nevertheless, the dad thought the whole thing was funny enough to share with me.

Still, packing your game with boobs just to pad it out and distract from the lackluster design will probably ensure more sales than a well-designed, but low-key adventure game. But good games can use copious amounts of boobage as icing on the cake. Leisure Suit Larry wouldn't be quite as enjoyable to me without the racier bits (and Love for Sail had the most awesomest Easter Eggs of the entire series), but everyone has different opinions about this sort of thing.

Well, I'm beginning to use words that don't exist, so I'll wrap this up. I need to get back to my new Barn Runner game, Wreck The Halls, and finish it up in time for its super-secret limited Christmas release (don't tell anyone!). Hopefully, I'll find a way to hide some boobs in that game too. Because, really, is there a better gift for Christmas than the gift of secret boobs?

Just my two cents,

Ponch

[lo_res_man]

ever see "the meaning of life?" that had christmas AND boobs, dozens in fact, at the same time! If those geniuses can do dozens, I am sure you can stick at least one in there.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapelay

If this is possible, then so is everything else.

(but notice the unusually short length of the article...)

***

My two cents, even though it's nothing people haven't said already:
Nothing against nudity, if it's there for a reason. In fact, I've nothing against anything, if it's done tastefully and conscienciously. And I shall now give a non-nudity example:

In the "Cabaret" musical, there's an act, called "If you could see her". The guy's singing to the audience, saying what a great gal the monkey he's with is. She reads music, she's smart... if you could see her through my eyes, he says, she wouldn't look jewish at all.

In the context of the whole musical, this is ok - it's set in germany, in the appropriate time-frame.

But hearing this song out of contest, in - say - a concert with many songs from many musicals, that last line ("If you could see her through my eeeeeeeeeyes... she wouldn't look jewish at all!") would make me cringe.

Context, context, context. With taste and care, everything's possible. The beauty of a free world, right? It means "I get to do what I want".

Mind you, it also means "I get to be punished if I do something overtly wrong, because everyone else gets to do what they want too".

[LimpingFish]

Interesting point, Rui.

But, as I've said in past debates, to bring commercial Hentai, in this case Rapelay (MobyGames has more info), into the mix, you would have to examine Japan's approach to pornography as a whole, a multifaceted debate far too complex to engage in any meaningful manner without devoting an unhealthy chunk of bandwidth to it.

Nothing against nudity, if it's there for a reason.

Some would argue that to arouse a sexual response in the viewer is a valid reason for nudity. Of course this will vary from person to person, which is why most nudity/sexual content in games is so generic.

On the other hand, such stimulation of the viewer is a transient response, and once satiated, the viewer is left without the "need" for such material.

Which means a sexually explicit game, of the basest nature, is nothing more than a masturbatory aid. And, as such, requires little in the way of subtlety or depth.

Rapelay, and the like, go way beyond simple nudity, artistic or otherwise, though. Even the inclusion of an explicit consentual interactive sex scene in an otherwise mainstream game would be lightyears from what Rapelay is, and the reason it exists.

The way such scenes are depicted, in God of War, Fahrenheit, etc, shows that attitudes to interactive sexual content among western developers is limited to mild titilation of the most generic kind, and not as a form of pornography.

[ShiverMeSideways]

The problem I have with nudity in media is that people are so self-rightous hypocrites who say there's nothing there. Sex sells. Proven fact, but admit it! I mean, if you want to make a game that is intended as a wank fest, then state that. I also hate people who say that hentai games have powerful stories and that's why they're played. Last time I checked, hentai meant deviant in Japanese, not intelligent human being who values story over the ammount of cream that comes out of his small and blister-covered penis.

Ahem. The moral is this, if you make pr0n, say you make pr0n and be proud of it, it won't affect the number of downloads you get, I'm sure.

[ManicMatt]

Three pages of this thread and no boobies! 

[LimpingFish]

(.)(.)

Enjoy.

[ManicMatt]

  ( )
  | |
  | |
(.)(.)

Hooray!!

(How mature of us!  )

[Haddas]

Mine is way bigger than that.

[Tuomas]

's true, i've seen it

[vertigoaddict]

Stay on topic people, before the moderators come......i actually like that size....cute.

[m0ds]

Indeed, lets stick to conversations rather than diagrams people

[WarpZone]

Personally, I have the aesthetics of a 14 year-old, and I don't care who knows it.  If I was going to use nudity in my game for tittilation's sake, I'd pack the game with it, put a warning on the game's website and make certian everyone who downloaded the game knew what they were getting into.  Whether it's a comical throwaway gag game like Leisure Suit Larry, or a "serious" sex sim, or a facetious project designed to underscore the fact that sex sells, no matter how bad the game, I would want to make sure that if the nudity's there, people know it's there before they even load the game.  I certianly wouldn't sneak that sort of content into a game.

Now, if "Hey, look-- SEX!" wasn't the objective of the game, then I probably wouldn't use nudity at all, or if I did, I would use non-explicit, tasteful, hinted-at nudity like in 6 Days a Sacrifice.

If the game's not built around tittilation, AND it's not a raunchy comedy full of sex and toilet humor, AND it's not artistic enough to justify artsy-fartsy shaded figures... then it actually sounds kinda boring.  Why would you think adding nudity to the game would save it?

That said, there's no good reason why a regular normal adventure game would HIDE nudity from the player, if the player does something like peep through a hole into the womens' locker room.  But again, that implies a comedic slant.  The content in your game should support the theme of the game, be that theme love or suspense or action or mystery. 

So yeah, I say don't tack on nudity, especially not as an easter egg, but do feel free to use nudity in your game if you think it helps you express your ideas.

If you must do it, though, at least do it right.  Make it deliberately arousing or deliberately disgusting, but don't just throw any old nudity up on the screen and expect riches and fame to follow.  At the very least, you should be trying to elicit some particular response.  And if you make the model, and it doesn't ellicit that intended response, then maybe your game is better off without it.  The Uncanny Valley is a clever foe.  Always be wary.