It’s no secret that American culture is a little touchy when it comes to nudity of the female variety. Funcom was taken aback during “Nipple Gate,” and it hasn’t been that long since gamers were taking Fox News to task about “Mass Effect.”
Games usually avoid sex. It’s largely an American taboo, however, so it doesn’t necessarily follow that developers don’t want to explore it. We asked Michal Kicinski, CEO of CD Projekt, the European studio behind PC’s “The Witcher,” to discuss his experiences designing a game with sexual elements and bringing it to the US.
“The Witcher” isn’t a very sexual game — it’s about chopping up monsters — but it does allow player to have sex far more often than the singular encounter in BioWare’s tale.
“In Europe we are quite used to see many forms of sexual expression in fine art, books, films and even on television,” said Kicinski in an e-mail interview with Multiplayer. “The games are not seen much differently then. In order to see sexual references or various forms of sexual acts (although softer ones) we never had to cross over into pay-per-view TV or head off to the seedy part of town.”
“If we stay within the limits of good taste, without being explicit, we had always known that whatever we showed in The Witcher would be acceptable for our target, mature audience without banning us to some kind of ‘porn’ games ghetto.”
Game developers preparing a game that includes sexual content for release in America face difficult options. On one hand, they could produce the sexually explicit content and hope it sails through the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, but that’s risky and potentially expensive. On the other hand, they could practice self-censorship and accept the nature of American culture. CD Projekt tried a little of both with “The Witcher” and produced a unique version for the US that removed full-frontal nudity.
The US isn’t the only place that requires censoring, however. The version of “The Witcher” released in Germany, for example, featured toned down violence. The demands in each territory are different, as well. “The European version was less censored and in Russia, for example,” said Kicinski. “Journalists were demanding even more nudity!”
Gamers probably wouldn’t argue with that kind of logic, but read on to find out why Kicinski believes more censorship may be in store for “The Witcher.”
Rumors suggest “The Witcher” is coming to consoles. Kicinski wouldn’t confirm that, but warned a console version brings additional challenges he was ready to take on. “‘The Witcher’ is a mature title and we definitely don’t want to change its feeling, so there’s no chance that console players will get a fluffy Barbie-like world. We may change a few things if we decide to hit consoles but the overall feeling of this game must remain the same as in the PC version.”
CD Projekt isn’t the only studio that has found themselves scaling back sexual content for the US. Quantic Dream famously removed an interactive sex scene and visible nudity from “Indigo Prophecy” at the request of their publisher, Atari. “Indigo Prophecy,” however, was released just a few scant months after the Hot Coffee “Grand Theft Auto” incident made waves, and an uncut version was later released exclusively in download form.
The ESRB’s “Adults Only” rating is a kiss of death. Console manufacturers won’t approve such games and retailers like Wal-Mart refuse to carry them. “It’s definitely unfortunate that games that retailers generally refuse to stock AO-rated titles, though it probably doesn’t help that, aside from a couple of exceptions, all of the AO games released to date have essentially been porn simulations,” he admits.
“We just want to let mature gamers - the audience we created the game for - play the game they want to play. At 18 years of age, you can walk into a store in the US and buy movies, magazines, etc. that have much more objectionable content than what you can see in The Witcher.”
Though Wal-Mart won’t stock AO-rated games, they do sell “unrated” versions of movies to customers, which typically include violence or nudity cut from the theatrical release.
In order to purchase an M-rated title, consumers must show an ID. Kicinski approves of the industry’s commitment to practicing self-regulation. “I hope that the American model will eventually come to resemble the European one. For now, I think the ongoing dialogue concerning censorship in the US is not going in the best direction. The main argument against nudity in games is that it has a damaging influence on young people, who make up the majority of the audience for these kinds of products.”
If “The Witcher” comes to Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, CD Projekt could very likely become an active part of that dialogue.
[Photo Credit: 'paso' from Ataricommunity.com]
March 8th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Why don’t porn manufacturers make porn games. I mean, for example: You could have a game that allows you to make choices.
Here’s an example. Imagine you are an 18th Bow Street Runner (the first English Police). You are investigating a case. You go to various addresses. According to your choices you get to see hot hardcore porn recorded by real actors and actresses.
It would be great, because you could cram the disk full of hot real porn - not 3D cartoons like in normal games - but real actresses like the famous Laure Sainclair, Tera Patrick, Devon Stryker, Jessica Girl, Elinor Gassett, Lenka Gaborova and Alexa May etc - getting @@#?#@ by all sorts of blokes, sometimes group sex, like gangbangs etc.
Surely this would be fantastic entertainment - true Pornogames. Man that would be great.
March 9th, 2008 at 7:13 am
I would love to make an RPG Hentai game with a good guy saving Anime style girls from those tentacle monsters….
Sadly because of the content that tentacles usually do to anime girls in Japan Hentai movies, I can’t really make a game if I am supose to sell it commercially.
So perhaps I will have to stick to the old, Save the girls from the tentacle monsters that are trying to “Steal their Souls”….
Also I really want to make it like when the hero saves the girls, he has to also get to know the girl, learn about her emotional problems and also find a way for her to have trust in herself again and not to be afraid of those monsters that tried to take her soul away.
Then after you have ‘restored her soul’ though talking to her and solving her personal problems with her, you have a choise of either giving her a hug, give her a kiss, or make love to her…
That is when the ‘under to bed covers’ sex action will take place.
Any responces to my game idea????
TBoneTony
March 12th, 2008 at 4:51 am
i’d love to see a proper hentai game, tentacles et al
March 12th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
I think you guys are missing the point. Sure, it would be great to see the industry mature enough to produce games with porno in them that would actually be like a game of any other genre. But that’s not the point. The point is, sadly, we here in America are not mature enough to handle proper nudity and sexual themes (parts of everyday life) in our gaming world. Think of the children. God forbid the children see a naked body besides their own.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not proposing that we start putting gratuitous nudity in children’s games. But as an adult, I should be allowed to see things in a “mature” game the way they are in life. If Geralt is about to have sex with 2 women at the same time, we should be allowed to see a little bit of it without it being “porno”. Think of the shower soap commercials on normal American tv. You see everything except the genitalia. And think of what we see on MTV music videos. So why can’t we see some tastefully done nudity in a “mature” game without everyone freaking out?
March 13th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Christ, what the ?%*? is wrong with men? Why do you need to see graphically portrayed sex in videogames or otherwise? Games or films have usually toned-down sex scenes because the fact itself is in some way important, whereas seeing actual intercourse is not. Just get a life, get laid, or wank off to a porn movie if you’re too pathetic and stop bitching about.
Re: jiminy
I understand your point, futhermore I think the portrayal of nudity (or sex for that matter) is less explicit than graphical violence because the acts leading to the latter are considered unconditionally wrong in todays politically correct society.
My point, then would be that I, myself don’t see the same need for sex in games as for violence. Mainly because kinky sex is something you often encounter (unless were talking about tentacle monsters which, btw sound raunchy, lol) and also since it’s shown usually to satisfy the male gamer. I hope someone understood something from my useless, pseudo-feminist monologue.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Re: Mia+kiss
It would seem that we agree on several points. So I’ll take this opportunity to expand on what both of us have said. Games seem to exist because we all need some kind of escape from our world. And since perpetrating violence in the real world would cause all kinds of problems in any given person’s life, we can use games to exact said violence without actually exacting it. So it’s more like a release than anything else. At least for me it is. So that justifies the need for violence in gaming. Besides, it looks cool.
I just wish that in America our escape worlds could be a little more in tune with the real world. We’ve only just recently started hearing “adult” language in mainstream games, (since 2002 or so) and it’s time we move up to the rest of reality in our games. For instance, if you’re in an RPG and you’re in a strip club to talk to a quest related person, shouldn’t the girls be naked in the strip club? I don’t know too many strip clubs where everyone keeps their bras on. And it wouldn’t be nudity for the sake of nudity, it’s for the reality of the game world. So that justifies nudity in the gaming world. And besides, it would look cool. But as you said, it has to be relevant to the game.
But we have some serious growing up to do in America before that can happen. I’m waiting on the day when it will be ok to show the whole human body in a shower ad, like they do in Europe. The naked body is not necessarily sexy in and of itself. It’s what you do with said body that turns things sexy. So as I said before, it’s time for more normal nudity in America.
March 16th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
ur guys are bunch of pussies, especially Mia. What the $?#* is the problem? Release a game with +18 rating or “adults only”. It’s not the developer’s or publisher’s fault if some children happen to get games they’re not supposed to play! Grow up people, you’re being very illogical here.
March 25th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
have you not looked very hard? there ARE hentai games about saving girls from tentacle monsters. with actual strategy wargame combat. look up ‘Pretty Soldier Wars’.
April 4th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Well, I wouldn’t want Mia to be the only woman speaking here, so I’ll chime in.
I’m an American, but I think my country’s attitude towards sex is ludicrous. Kids can watch murders on TV all day, every day, but anything to do with sex is bad for them? What twisted mind came up with a value system like that? I guess this is what happens when the first settlers of your country are religious wackos.
I’m old enough to remember when feminism was partly about helping women to reclaim their sexuality — feminism was pro-sex in those days. After all, feminism is about letting people have the full range of choices, regardless of gender.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with men for wanting to watch sex in a game, because I want to watch it, too. I like a bit of sexual content in games in general, and I’d love to see it in The Witcher in particular. I have kind of a crush on Geralt, so I’d LOVE to see him in action. *smile*
There was an RPG I played — I think it was Baldur’s Gate — that had an option that you could check: Gore or No gore. Check “gore” and blood sprayed around and heads rolled; check “no gore,” and the bad guys just quietly died. Maybe the developers of The Witcher could make something similar: Sex or No sex. That way, no one who would be offended by it would have to see it, but grown-ups who like sexual content in their games would have a choice.
And before anyone anti-sex accuses me of being a horny teenager, I’ll tell you that I’m 50 years old and married. No, life doesn’t stop at 50.