If you look carefully at the top of my blog, you'll see a series of words: these represent things that I think are important to me and shape the way I perceive the world around me.
You'll also notice that this page is primarily a video-gaming blog. I like to think that gaming isn't a discrete activity - i.e. I like to feel that the things that are important in life are represented in the medium of video games, just like they are in other media.
It's been bothering me for a while that one of those words along the top seems like anathema to videogames: sex. At what point will we get to a stage where video-games can accurately, faithfully, artistically and maturely explore sexual issues at the same level as music, film or literature?
Not just yet, it seems. In a seemingly bizarre experiment, Ubisoft appear (as yet there is no evidence or corroboration that it is a hoax, even though that is the most likely explanation) to be making a game encourages flirting and touching between the players. The trailer even goes as far as to show two couples leaving a dinner table together to "play together". The implication of group sex is very clear in the trailer.
By pitching the title itself as a cartoony party game with tame box art, but with a very adult-themed advert, it's hard to know exactly where Ubisoft are pitching this.
For reference, the game is listed on Ubisoft's own product page here.
Here is the trailer (source):
You'll also notice that this page is primarily a video-gaming blog. I like to think that gaming isn't a discrete activity - i.e. I like to feel that the things that are important in life are represented in the medium of video games, just like they are in other media.
It's been bothering me for a while that one of those words along the top seems like anathema to videogames: sex. At what point will we get to a stage where video-games can accurately, faithfully, artistically and maturely explore sexual issues at the same level as music, film or literature?
Not just yet, it seems. In a seemingly bizarre experiment, Ubisoft appear (as yet there is no evidence or corroboration that it is a hoax, even though that is the most likely explanation) to be making a game encourages flirting and touching between the players. The trailer even goes as far as to show two couples leaving a dinner table together to "play together". The implication of group sex is very clear in the trailer.
By pitching the title itself as a cartoony party game with tame box art, but with a very adult-themed advert, it's hard to know exactly where Ubisoft are pitching this.
For reference, the game is listed on Ubisoft's own product page here.
Here is the trailer (source):
Perhaps disappointingly, Ubisoft have decided to avoid releasing the game in the UK as a result of the controversy caused by both the trailer and the PEGI rating of 12+ for the game.
ReplyDeleteIt appears that the VSA are unable to rate the game any higher as the actual audio and visual content of the game is not inappropriate for the age group, even if the implied activity is.
Does this indicate a flaw in the relationship between game content and appropriate use?
It's also interesting that the game will still be released in Europe - perhaps they are less reactionary to the UK and US over topics like this?