This article is really misleading. There is nothing explicit whatsoever with this in Starfield. You never even kiss. You just get the regular loading screen after sleeping except that your romantic partner appears to have woken up next to you, and you get a slightly better version of the Well Rested xp buff. It’s not a “huge XP boost” over the normal Well Rested buff
Maybe I’m in the minority here but I’m not a huge fan of the recent trend of sex in mainstream video games. Besides the janky awkwardness of polygons, there’s something off-putting to me about my character having sex. Am I supposed to be pretending that it’s me as I watch the animation happening? When I play a game (esp. an RPG) I can get really immersed in the experience and feel like the mouse/controller is an extension of my hand, shooting fireballs and whatnot. So is it also supposed to be an extension of my penis when my character starts having sex? Am I supposed to be jacking off for maximum immersion?
In movies it’s different because when a character in a movie has sex, the audience understands that they’re watching someone else do it. I’ve never seen a movie where I’m supposed to pretend like I’m the main character and I’m the one having sex. (Hardcore Henry notwithstanding)
I have nothing against porn or adult games as their own thing, but encountering it in a regular game always throws me out of the immersion. Coming from a mainstream studio, it also just feels like a desperate cash grab aimed at horny teenagers more than anything else, even if it’s nothing more than a short fade to black.
Am I supposed to be jacking off for maximum immersion?
What? When my character die am I supposed to kill myself or else it takes out the immersion? How’s sex different from all the other stuff your character does?
I find sex scenes awkward to enjoy, I kinda like the fade to black where it’s implied but not delved into. That said so many novels that are aimed at a similar audience with sci Fi and fantasy have always had sex scenes (Necromancer, Hyperion, Expanse all have sex in them) When we were playing text based games back in the 80s we wanted a cinematic experience. What’s the result? Games with sex in them. A new Leisure Suit Larry game is probably about due now that I think of it heh. I just click through and continue on.
It may be partly connected with the fact that an R rated movie can have sex in it, but video game sex has been mostly a taboo subject (GTA as an early example), even for an R rated game. So it may be an example of the movement towards sex being included in games as it is in movies. Agreed about the immersion, but depends on how you “play” your character. Depending on the game, you can avoid the interactions you don’t feel fit with your character, but not every game.
You don’t control what happens in a movie. Everyone knows it’s in most movies. And most movies don’t show mych. But if you play a game and someone walks into the room and thats on the screen they are 100 gonna ask or wonder wtf you are doing. I believe that’s about it.
And that’s fair, but in this game is just getting a black screen. So there is nothing to worry about. It’s not the Witcher series of games so you don’t need to even worry about anything.
None of the sex stuff in current games is forced, it’s all optional. For some games you need to actively seek it out. So just don’t choose to engage with the sex stuff. Sounds like an extra layer of immersion to me.
I agree 100%. I cant imagine myself playing and my son comes and asks me what I’m playing and… Just no. It has to be very, very optional if ok. But even then it just feels unnecessary to me.
...Wait, are you setting people on fire for maximum immersion?
I feel like you're placing a higher standard on one action vs another. I can understand if it makes you uncomfortable because of sex itself, but the immersion reason seems like it doesn't work by itself when you consider other actions you're doing in the game....
Maybe I’m in the minority here, but I’m not a huge fan of the recent trend of guns and firing in mainstream video games. Besides the janky awkwardness of polygons, there’s something off-putting to me about my character engaging in deadly combat. Am I supposed to be pretending that it’s me as I watch the action happening? When I play a game (esp. an RPG) I can get really immersed in the experience and feel like the mouse/controller is an extension of my hand, shooting fireballs and whatnot. So is it also supposed to be an extension of my weapon when my character starts killing? Am I supposed to be fully engaged for maximum immersion?
In movies, it’s different because when a character in a movie engages in deadly combat, the audience understands that they’re watching someone else do it. I’ve never seen a movie where I’m supposed to pretend like I’m the main character and I’m the one doing the killing. (Hardcore Henry notwithstanding)
I have nothing against action-packed games or games with mature content as their own thing, but encountering it in a regular game always throws me out of the immersion. Coming from a mainstream studio, it also just feels like a desperate attempt to appeal to a certain audience more than anything else, even if it’s nothing more than a short murder.
I agree, but at the same time there’s still a bunch of games without that. Nintendo, especially, continues to offer titles that don’t have sex emphasized. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom were both great games, with good story (if a little cutesy, but it’s aimed at being family friendly), not even really any allusion to sex.
Also, with games like Baldurs Gate 3, they’re really just following in the footsteps of the original games. BG/BG2 and Fallout didn’t necessarily have companions you could romance, but they did have at least one or two options to have sex/marry someone. They were less detailed, and less descriptive, but it is part of the evolution of traditional Western RPGs, which traditionally were aimed at adults and didn’t shy away from including sex.
As far as Starfield goes, it’s a similar story, Bethesda games have long had those options, it’s not super new, although it’s a lot more prevalent now.
Still, I think there’s far more games without sex than there are with sex. Still a little weird though, I’m not horny enough to really enjoy it, I guess?
I think the issue might be that if you need the XP you may have to consider sex even if you don’t want to. I otherwise don’t have a problem with sex content in a game, if it doesn’t affect the rest of the gameplay mechanics
The first Fallout barely had anything, but Fallout 2 sure is something else having specific perks, traits and statistics about sex, a bunch of people you can have sex with and some you can get pregnant, and you can work as a prostitute or a porn actor. Or force some of your companions to do so.
Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom were both great games, with good story (if a little cutesy, but it’s aimed at being family friendly), not even really any allusion to sex.
A bit yes and no with TOTK I think.
spoilerYou are right that TOTK doesn’t have any explicit sex or romance. But the way the introductory cut scenes for Purah and Riju deliberately start from their legs and pan up over their bodies doesn’t really have a purpose other than to sexualise them and announce “look how hot we’ve made these characters for you.”
spoilerNah man, not with Purah at least, it’s more to show to show how tall she is now that she has grown, the glossary has her old art as a comparison too. I did not fully play BoTW so I’m not sure if Riju appeared there, but I bet it’s something similar.
I'd consider it a slight positive on a broader cultural level, though. The fact that big market games don't have to be heavily censored to exist any more feels like a positive even if I don't find the sex particularly gratifying. (And no, I don't care which of 3 identical looking dicks my character has, BG3 or cyberpunk). I do think, that given how many people find the romance part of the roleplaying enjoyable (and have way before the modern trend of adding explicit elements to them), that having sex is kind of an inevitable part of that, though.
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