Nudity in Games

[Madea]

Hello

I agree with the other people who say that if it supports the game its okay.  But depending on the mood you are going for, tantalizing glimpses of a naked curve here and there is more sexy than full frontal.  This is a woman's point of view, of course.  If you were trying to catch both men and women players attention.  Show the flex of a bicep, the curve of a breast, the bunching of muscles under skin (if possible). All that is more sexy then just the whole in your face thing.

[lo_res_man]

I agree it is more sexy, granted its probebly not more titilating for most guys but its still more SEXY. its like a virtual old style burlesque without LITERLY being one. A good TEASE can be very effective.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Hey, a tease is always more tintilating.

Following on the lines of what has been just said, you have to decide whether you want tintilating or just titilating.

[Madea]

With the right music, you can change the mood from erotic to sexy to sleazy and use the same graphics.  Done right, that could be a powerful part of the game.

[lo_res_man]

With the right music, you can change the mood from erotic to sexy to sleazy and use the same graphics.  Done right, that could be a powerful part of the game.

or it can seem like an ad for AXE

[Madea]

Those AXE commercials are funny sometimes. Imagine how many disappointed teenage boys out there are dousing themselves with it in the hopes of getting attacked by adoring girls and women? lol

[vertigoaddict]

It's often the opposite :

[Radiant]

Those AXE commercials are funny sometimes. Imagine how many disappointed teenage boys out there are dousing themselves with it in the hopes of getting attacked by adoring girls and women? lol

Actually, yes. Turns out that this has lead to a minor but significant increase in sales. My brother works for the competitor and they did a survey on such things...

[Tuomas]

So you don't want them to be the main reason people download it, don't put a warning. Just put in some nudity and forget about the exclamation marks and the woohoos about something that no-one cares about.

[Ponch]

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.

Well, for the record, I don't put anything in my games that you couldn't show on the Simpsons or a similar venue, and I always tie the egg into the story -- in the case of Barn Runner 2, the cutscene was clearly going in that direction, but it cut away before comedic nudity ensued (unless you unlocked the rest of the scene, of course).

Everyone has a different idea of what constitutes doing it "right," but since I make my games for myself first and foremost, I tailor them my own shamefully juvenile tastes. Quite a few downloads later, and I've only had one complaint regarding it. Even if they came pouring in, I'd still keep hiding all the things I like as eggs in my games because those are just the sort of things I like to find in games.

I should grow up, I know. But there you are.

Your mileage may vary, of course.

And the Axe commercials always get a giggle out of me, I'm also ashamed to admit.

- Ponch

(And, lo res man, I wish I was a quarter as clever as the Monty Python guys were! But rest assured, what I lack in funny, I can make up for in boobs!)

[WarpZone]

So you don't want them to be the main reason people download it, don't put a warning. Just put in some nudity and forget about the exclamation marks and the woohoos about something that no-one cares about.

But if you keep the nudity a secret, uptight people who weren't expecting nudity will play the game with their kids, get shocked, and get on your arse about it.  Maybe even try to sue you!  At least, that's the way it goes in the states.  You're very lucky if you still live in a country where you can just post whatever you want on the internet without worrying about who might download it.

[ThreeOhFour]

Well, if you plan on loading the game onto the AGS games database, it has indicators for you to fill in stating whether there is violence, coarse language or nudity/sexual content.

Perhaps instead of going "THIS GAME HAS NUDITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!" put a note that says "Please note - game not suitable for minors. Please do not download if under 18" or something similar.

[Nikolas]

Well yes.

A "tag" like "M" rating or something, should be fine. After all, all porn sites have this stupid "are you above 18? Then enter!" thing at first, which doesn't stop anybody, but works fine in the legalities I guess...

[Radiant]

Anyone remember those really stupid questions at the beginning of Larry 1 and 3, that were apparently meant to "determine" whether you were 18?

[WarpZone]

I scrounged up an old copy of Larry 1 the other day, myself.  I told it my age.  Then I was baffled by the fact that all the questions were about celebrities of yester-year.  The questions felt more apropriate for someonequite a bit older than me, heavy with nostalgia... then I realized that the game itself was more than 10 years old. XD  I guess this is why people keep buying Trivial Pursuit.  It seems the sum total of popular knowlege doesn't keep for very long.

[Gilbert]

It's also unfair to non-US players too...

But but but...

Spoiler

Alt-X

[close]

[mätzyboy]

Argh! Bollocks to pretending there is a need for a reson to show nudity and sex in game! If you make a game and it fits with the story, fine. If you make a game for the purpose of engulfing in sexual content that's fine too. Most of the time I actually find it annoying when sexual content is "justified". Why not just make a game that is intended to arouse (or amuse)? It's called pornography (well, maybe not in the amuse case...) and is atually nothing to be ashamed of! I think it would be quite nice with some creative pornography as an alternative to the photographic/filmed/sleezy/sterotypical stuff generally available.

I can't wait for the games that will spring from this discussion! 

[ThreeOhFour]

(well, maybe not in the amuse case...)

Whyever not? 

[paolo]

I really don't know why we are having this conversation. I can only reiterate what other people have said:

* If it's relevant to the game, then go ahead. Ben Jordan 6 had breasts in it. Big deal. No one made a fuss over that, as far as I am aware. Just make sure you set the ratings accordingly when you upload it.
* If you want to make a porn game, then go ahead. Just make sure you set the ratings accordingly when you upload it, and make it very clear in the description that it's a porn game.
* Like lo_res_man said, no one turns a hair if a game is full of gore and death (and many computer games are based on maiming and killing). I'd far rather a game showed the naked human body in a natural context (which, of course, includes sex) than suggested that massacring 1000 people is somehow a good thing to do.

Ditch the "modesty stripes" across the characters. We all know what's underneath them anyway.

[lo_res_man]

Oh really? Oh no, My raging teenage fantasies have been about black bars and pixilated boobage. I thought that was natural! You mean girls boobs aren't REALLY made of blocky squares?! (if you can't tell I'm joking, no "lol" is gonna help that.) Now I think the ultimate in pointless censoring is the stuff on some older Japanese hentai. (Yes, I've looked with lust at hentai, shoot me now) I mean they show gratuitous nudity, the weirdest sex on the planet, and then get in a piffle if a strip like a black shoe lace across the base of the glans isn't there, oh no think of the children!