in video games is not really that big an issue. In truth, very few games ever address in the most rudimentary of ways. So, what is the problem then? Well, generally, it’s the way games handle .

The above posted video is one of those weird meetings of the mainstream media with the gaming media. These never tend to go well, as the mainstream media is hopelessly ignorant of games and the gaming media is hopelessly ignorant of everything mainstream. We end up with arguments such as, “Games are evil!” countered with, “No game is ever wrong!” Both arguments have some merit, but both are far too simplistic.

The continuing hoopla raised by centers around some brief and nude scenes within the game. The game actually allows for lesbian sexual interaction, though not gay interaction. This is likely an issue for some, but most gamers seems to turn a blind eye to this in their rapid defense. Instead, gamers focus their argument on the notion that it’s simply a game, and rated M (for mature audiences) as well. Of course, they’re right. All kinds of claims have been made against , including that it’s essentially a simulator and offers full-frontal nudity. This, of course, is not true. So gamers are in the right on this one? Sort of.

They are right that is certainly getting a bad rap. They’re wrong when they say is not being marketed to kids. It certainly is, in the same way that a film such as Saw is marketed at kids, despite its R rating. And just like with Saw, kids will find a way to play if they want. Beyond that, gamers are wrong that there is nothing, at the least, odd about the portrayed in gamers. offers lesbian fantasies for young men, but no gay ones? I wonder why, except that one is more of a selling point than the other. Not that film is innocent of such pandering, either. Was it a coincidence that in the middle of V for Vendetta, a film aimed at young males, that there’s a lesbian scene? Had the film really wanted to be as anti-establishment as it claimed, it would have certainly made the scene between two unattractive females or two men.

Additionally, in games always has the black cloud of hanging over it. Picking up a prostitute may be “realistic” to its mafia setting and theme, but virtually haphazardly killing a woman after to steal your money back is a little on the grotesque side, even for adults. As the video game market matures (both in complexity of games and age of audience) will become more and more a persistent theme in titles. Developers, and the gaming community, will have to be careful in how they present this to an outside audience if they ever hope to receive the respect for their hobby they obviously so deeply desire.


Related posts:

  1. Video games are not quite as mature as you might think
  2. Why gamers don’t deserve respect, yet
  3. Sly reporter infuriates gamers by questioning their literacy
  4. Gamers go nuclear on commentator and vandalize Amazon listings
  5. Five things that video games get right