Yesterday Digital Jesters announced that it would be sponsoring a new site named Shagster.net, which seeks to create online social groups through shared sexual partners – sort of Myspace meets… some grotty contacts mag. The company's involvement is all to do with publicising a forthcoming adult strategy title:
7 Sins, set in the hedonistic haven of Apple City, allows players to immerse themselves in the world of sex, celebrity and greed as they compete in a series of risqué and adult challenges in order to climb their way up the social and economical ranks of the neon-drenched metropolis.
Throughout seven distinctive chapters, players will need to carefully build the right relationships with the city's many flamboyant characters and indulge in each of the classic Seven Sins. By finding the right balance for their rampant emotions and conquering a series of fun-filled mini-games, players can manipulate, cajole, seduce and backstab their way through the city.
Yep, it's another vaguely saucy combination of The Sims and American Pie-style teen sex comedies. You may remember that last year we 'enjoyed' the return of Leisure Suit Larry, plus, the sequel to Couples, a shagfest soap opera sim, was recently released on PC. Mildly more entertaining were Sprung and Project Rub on the Nintendo DS – better games but still rather silly and inconsequential.
So, is this the only way that videogames will ever be able to deal with sex?
Historically, you can understand the reasons behind the industry's adolescent handling of adult themes: a younger audience, a male-dominated development environment and, of course, basic pixilated visuals which only ever really allowed a nudge, nudge, wink, wink, 'Confessions of a Bitmapped Bikini Lady' approach to portraying sex. Furthermore, videogames are – or at least have been - primarily about action, and this necessitates a fast-moving narrative. Often, there's just no time to stop for an incongruous shag. Arnold Schwarzenegger once said that he hated the sex scene in Terminator because it was totally at odds with the rest of the film - the same complaint would no doubt be levelled at sex in, say, Metal Gear Solid. Although 'stealth sex' is an intriguing concept.
But with the next generation consoles courting a wider social demographic and promising (I almost dread writing this) photo-realistic graphics (there, I did it), perhaps things will change. There's a chance we will begin to see Japanese dating games that graduate from high school. Or an evolution of the social gaming introduced by The Sims. I visited Lionhead on Thursday where Peter Molyneux chatted briefly about his latest ridiculously ambitious project, Dimitri, in which players will get to re-live their own teenage years in intricate detail with all the sexual angst that will inevitably include. Lord knows how that will work, and he refused to elaborate, but we can perhaps expect more than a few smutty encounters in a youth club (come to think of it that actually was my teenage years).
Alternatively, sex could be incorporated into adventure titles as a genuine gameplay element rather than a quick diversion. It has happened before. The Nintendo Entertainment System spy game Golgo 13 allowed you to use seduction as an element of the espionage storyline. Later, in the cyperpunk adventure Omikron: The Nomad Soul, one of the playable characters clearly has a sexual relationship with his girlfriend, which is reasonably well handled.
Some might say that the missing link in the GTA dynamic is some kind of emotional content, an ongoing love interest rather than a quickie with a hooker in the back of a Transit van. After all, even Tony Montana had a girlfriend. All too often any kind of emotional subplot is hurried out of the way as quickly as possible – the dead wives avenged in Max Payne and The Getaway. Couldn't they perhaps hang around for a while before being riddled with bullets?
Somewhere, somehow there is an alternative to tacky sex comedies. The industry just needs to fumble around for a while to find it.
