That’s not the impression I got? In a way, that sentence sums up the weirdness here - you have two actions, one legal and enjoyable, and one illegal and mostly unpleasant for everyone involved. The former is taboo in games, and the latter very common. Isn’t that somewhat bizarre?
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I probably should have said sarcastic rather than ironic although the irony is that a relatively harmless sexual act is perceived by so many to be more harmful than a relatively dangerous act of violence if that makes sense. 
Sensible enough for me, at least.
You could step back the sex on this, and build out a social circlefriendship / tolerance plate-spinning type game. As mentioned above we like video games because they allow us to have comprehensible but ultimately stressful situations and use a skillset to navigate them…
Imagine a game which is like a dating sim but real time, at a party or somesuch. You have to keep moseying around and interacting with different tools, like rumor-quenching or small talk or soul searching admissions of your feeling, etc, to keep a number of people, or a specific group, or as many people as possible on your good side while the rumor mill churns and the entire party is slowly imploding into a drama-filled friendship destroying hellscape.
That would actually be pretty awesome.
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I’m a level 85 Rumormancer dualspecced as an abuse-tank with extra points in thick skin.
You know, that does sound promising.
This is the video game equivalent of Dungeons and Discourse but might actually be playable someday. The idea of it being a group game where you need to manage this stuff is even more appealing.
“Someone needs to come clean up all this Drama-Over-Time from the Cheerleader’s freakout. Can someone go get crowd control on that dudebro showing off his Facebook stream before he hits that passed out varsity volleyball player’s pictures?”
World of Wordcraft?
I’ve played many forms of this game, including
Also, aren’t forums this game…? Like, right here, right now?
I do not mean to imply that Alter Ego is not a cool idea, but while it’s a cool game about exploring actions with consequences and playing a character, it isn’t the Monaco-With-Party-Drama-Instead-Of-A-Heist I keep imagining for this real time format… Although I suspect the way it models interactions might be a useful one to study. It’s a little closer to choose your own adventure text adventure formats than a WoW raid, only with harsh words instead of fireballs.
What’s wrong with games that have great mechanics without sex or violence? Myst and Portal (mild violence) come to mind.
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Allow me to answer with a question: What’s wrong with Sex And/Or
Violence? Both are very much integral parts of the human condition -
perhaps even more so than anything else. Sex creates life; Violence
preserves life. There’s no way around it.
The issue is not whether or not media depictions of Sex and Violence
disturb our children’s feeble minds (Spoiler: They don’t), but rather
if said depictions are artistically worthwhile. And yes: Most (but
most definitely not all) video games are about as artistically
worthwhile as a direct-to-video movie starring Steven Seagal. But that
fact doesn’t automatically devalue the entire medium.
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I’m not advocating for a bubble-wrapped world. However, I’ve been playing video games for about 35 years, and I’m still waiting for the industry to grow up. On occassion, there’s a glimmer of maturity. They are too few and too far between.
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you nailed it - just look at Mr. Seagal’s box office takings over time.
You may see this and say to yourself “I can’t fap to this!”
Yes. Yes you can.
I think sex would be an incredibly difficult thing to make a game around and do it “right”. I mean the point of games is to get the high score. A sex game sounds like some contest at some asshole fraternity.
Getting sex can be easy or hard. One can find a like minded individual and hook up for a night or two. Or one can invest in a relationship and involve things like love into the equation. The problem is that most of us can agree that love driven sex is “good”, but not all casual sex is.
Simulating love driven sex or incorporating it into a game I think would be difficult. I can see some people cry out that there is stereotyping, that women want XYZ in a relationship, when real women and relationships are much more complicated. Or that women are just like a computer, push the right buttons and she puts out.
On the flip side there is the more casual sex. Casual sex can be “good” or “bad”. For sure women get lied to and used. Others have sex for the wrong reasons - to cope or act out due to something else. I’m not saying casual sex is necessarily harmful - but it isn’t always healthy.
I guess my point is: if a woman wants to go out and get laid, she can go out and probably find a willing partner. When this happens a lot of times the man is objectifying, and in his mind, using this women. The women is usually aware of this, and she is OK with it. She may not want to be treated like a casual play thing her whole life - but for the night she wants some fun.
Now try taking that scenario and not have it labeled as misogynist objectifying and using women. Tell the story from the man’s point of view and its portrayed as a sleazy douche trying to score with some easy chick. Tell the story from the women’s point of view and she’s a slut. And this doesn’t even take into account the inevitable stereotypical portrayal of the hot, big titted chick and the buff, hairless dude.
I guess I see sex as something bigger than a game. And it’s one that is waaaaaay more interesting to participate in than watch or play some game simulating it.
I am aware of some Japanese games where the object is to try to get a girl to have sex with you. And not that I would know - but I heard there are ads for MMO 3D games where you can have sex with other people. I personally don’t find any of the appealing and I am pretty sure the female characters have the personality of a Real Doll.
Some more atypical video games:
Gone Home: Uncover a love story set in a house more well suited for a horror game. Slow, unconventional gameplay, with great sound design.
Catherine: The main character is already in a relationship and explores some of those themes. However it’s a very Japanese game, and thus ends up being misogynistic, because Japan. Zero Punctuation Review
Any Bioware relationship simulator game. As a man or woman, collect your harem team members, and learn to get to know them well, or else they’ll die horrifically at the end. Surprisingly, there’s some character growth. If you like them enough you can try to romance them and are rewarded with an awkward cut scene where people have sex with their pants on. In particular, see examples of: Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Also, FemShep is the one true Shepard, as she is the far superior voice actor.
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