Mature Themes in Gaming: When Is It Too Much?

[1UP Games]

Hello fellow gamers!

The gaming industry has grown and evolved over the years, and with it, the range of topics explored in video games has expanded. Many games now tackle mature themes, from violence and crime to romance and controversial social issues.

As gamers, how do you feel about the inclusion of mature themes in video games? Where do you draw the line between thought-provoking content and unnecessary sensationalism? Are there any games that you think handle mature themes exceptionally well or, conversely, games that you feel crossed the line?

Let's engage in a respectful and open discussion about mature themes in gaming, and share our thoughts on how they can enhance or detract from our overall gaming experience. Remember to be mindful of each other's opinions and maintain a constructive conversation!

 

[Pretentious Goblin]

I actually don't want any sexual themes in mainstream games. When I play an erotic game, it has to have themes that I enjoy, else it's worse than nothing. And when a mainstream game has erotic themes, it's going to be some of the most vanilla shit imaginable. It's not like we're going to get a blackmail corruption NTR plot in an EA game. In fact, whenever I see nudity/sex in a big-publisher game, all I can think of is they're trying to cynically cash in on teenage / 20something gamer horniness and it cheapens the entire experience.

 

[HarveyD]

I actually don't want any sexual themes in mainstream games. When I play an erotic game, it has to have themes that I enjoy, else it's worse than nothing. And when a mainstream game has erotic themes, it's going to be some of the most vanilla shit imaginable. It's not like we're going to get a blackmail corruption NTR plot in an EA game. In fact, whenever I see nudity/sex in a big-publisher game, all I can think of is they're trying to cynically cash in on teenage / 20something gamer horniness and it cheapens the entire experience.

Personally, I'd argue for more sex, at least in those depicting adult relationships. There's no need for nudity or sex in games that don't touch that subject at all. You're never going to get a sexual blackmail plot in a mainstream game because that's rape and allowing the player to do that is never going to happen. Or have it happen to the player character. It could be heavily implied to have happened to another character but never shown. Though if you never touch the "vanilla" stuff then you're never going to get to the non-vanilla stuff.

I don't see it as a cash grab towards teenagers or young adults either. The only games I can think of to have actually shown sex or at least nudity, undressing and heavy petting, are those made by Bioware and CD Projekt Red. Which are games that approach it as something that happens as part of a mature relationship. It never came off as "Hey look, guys, TITS!" If you played the game enough to get to the nudity then you were probably going to buy and enjoy the game anyway.

 

[Cosy Creator]

I think games can comfortably tackle all of the themes that every other form of entertainment media can, it just needs to be handled in a way that makes sense. For example, I might play a porn game that goes into the daily lives of a relationship between an orc and an elf, but I'm gonna be seriously pissed off if I'm playing Warhammer Total War and suddenly my game is put on hold for some bullshit romance plot in the same vein. Add to that the fact that non-core themes are usually half-arsed, for example marriage in RPGs (elder scrolls, mount and blade, stardew valley).

 

[obibobi]

No it hasn't, the entertainment industry in general has devolved, companies seek to maximize earnings, so dialogue is simplified to make it easier to translate. Social issues are also handled in a 1 dimensional way because characters are often not characters, they are racial or sexual identities in human form.

As for sex, where have you been, the very idea of a female character being written just to appeal to a male is simply not allowed in most mainstream media.

 

[Pretentious Goblin]

Personally, I'd argue for more sex, at least in those depicting adult relationships. There's no need for nudity or sex in games that don't touch that subject at all. You're never going to get a sexual blackmail plot in a mainstream game because that's rape and allowing the player to do that is never going to happen.

Yeah, the type of erotic content that can be in these games is very heavily constrained for legal and publicity reasons. Even showing a rape without graphic detail isn't going to happen (something the film industry can do, but PC-friendly publishers would never dare), all you'll ever get in this climate is consensual nudity and vanilla romance. If that's your bag, fine, but it bores the crap out of me.

I don't see it as a cash grab towards teenagers or young adults either. The only games I can think of to have actually shown sex or at least nudity, undressing and heavy petting, are those made by Bioware and CD Projekt Red. Which are games that approach it as something that happens as part of a mature relationship. It never came off as "Hey look, guys, TITS!" If you played the game enough to get to the nudity then you were probably going to buy and enjoy the game anyway.

TBH I was mainly thinking of The Saboteur when I was typing that. A game that, no joke, had a DLC (which you had to buy if you didn't register an original copy of the game) that removed the pasties on the strippers' tits (the MC lives in a strip joint and you can't really avoid seeing the strippers either). That game really soured me on adult content in non-erotic games.

 

[HarveyD]

TBH I was mainly thinking of The Saboteur when I was typing that. A game that, no joke, had a DLC (which you had to buy if you didn't register an original copy of the game) that removed the pasties on the strippers' tits (the MC lives in a strip joint and you can't really avoid seeing the strippers either). That game really soured me on adult content in non-erotic games.

I've played The Saboteur but it's been so long that I can't remember much about it. I suppose there are certain games that use nudity purely for titillation. Something like GTA would likely fit into that category. Also something like Dead or Alive Extreme Beach volleyball. The latter though not having nudity per se, certainly uses scantily clad women to draw in its audience, and the former does I suppose use it as a "Hey look, TITS!" with its strippers. Though neither uses actual sex. (GTA has prostitutes but I can't remember there even being nudity there.)

Perhaps the important point is relationships. Just having nudity for no apparent reason is going to be cheap. But having two characters engage in sexual activity as a logical part of their relationship, whether it be romantic or purely sexual, is I think an entirely different thing.

(Edit: I realise the below isn't a point you were making but this is just where my thoughts went.)
In the Sabateur example, I'd say there's likely no need to have the protagonist be based out of a strip club. I can also imagine that argument being applied to the romances of games like Mass Effect, there's no need for sex scenes. A fade to black would do. Which I certainly think should be an option for those that want it. But I'm of the mind that sex, sexuality and healthy sexual relationships should be in all media. It's a natural part of life. A natural part of adult relationships.

 

[Warthief]

Hello fellow gamers!

The gaming industry has grown and evolved over the years, and with it, the range of topics explored in video games has expanded. Many games now tackle mature themes, from violence and crime to romance and controversial social issues.

As gamers, how do you feel about the inclusion of mature themes in video games? Where do you draw the line between thought-provoking content and unnecessary sensationalism? Are there any games that you think handle mature themes exceptionally well or, conversely, games that you feel crossed the line?

Let's engage in a respectful and open discussion about mature themes in gaming, and share our thoughts on how they can enhance or detract from our overall gaming experience. Remember to be mindful of each other's opinions and maintain a constructive conversation!

I don't know where you see mature theme in modern gaming?
I feel like it's going the other way, compared to the 90s and early 2000s games have less violence, they removed blood from many of the games and even shooters have become more cartoony like fortnite,
Many games used to have some kind of nudity and they used to have so much sexulisation for woman's from how they dress to how they act but now they try to evoid that.
simple example is how the Diablo series showed Andariel in diablo 2 and how they showed Lilth in Diablo 4, and if you look at Lilith old concept art you will see how they imagine her.
But I agree that politics is effecting the video games industry and overall all media from movies, tv shows ...
artist now work with less freedom compared to how they used to before when they can do anything and express their ideas in art.

How I feel about inclusion of mature theme in video games? same as always, if the game need a mature theme they should have it if not don't do it or force it,
Game about WW2 should show the horror of WW2 like how the CoD series used to do,
If a game is about demons and corruption of the world so yes it's ok to show that in many different ways like how Diablo2 did.
If your game is about the street life like GTA so yes show how bad and ugly the life of the street is.
else if you have combat game or pvp shooter like Street Fighter or Overwatch we don't need half of the female cast half naked with boobs physics and very tight clothes.

 

[AdventAnyx]

... Overwatch we don't need half of the female cast half naked with boobs physics and very tight clothes

Where do I sign a petition to ban you from the internet or at least this forum?

 

[morphnet]

Hello fellow gamers!

The gaming industry has grown and evolved over the years, and with it, the range of topics explored in video games has expanded. Many games now tackle mature themes, from violence and crime to romance and controversial social issues.

As gamers, how do you feel about the inclusion of mature themes in video games? Where do you draw the line between thought-provoking content and unnecessary sensationalism? Are there any games that you think handle mature themes exceptionally well or, conversely, games that you feel crossed the line?

Let's engage in a respectful and open discussion about mature themes in gaming, and share our thoughts on how they can enhance or detract from our overall gaming experience. Remember to be mindful of each other's opinions and maintain a constructive conversation!

While there are a few games that aim for "thought-provoking" or "sensationalism" and there are a few small groups that follow these, they are by far the minority in the gaming world. Gaming is meant to be fun and while it's true many forget this 10 minutes in to a corpse / spawn camp, that is supposed to be the ultimate goal.

As for their inclusion into video games, they have always been there and even before in board games. How they are handled depends on what people want. You can see clear examples of this in many games where some people wanted more gore and others just the violence and so in the settings you can turn gore off (gore just being blood on the ground or a limb or two after a fight)

In fact, whenever I see nudity/sex in a big-publisher game, all I can think of is they're trying to cynically cash in on teenage / 20something gamer horniness and it cheapens the entire experience.

To be fair though they are just following a recipe that works, which is why their are beautiful women on coffee and in ads for men's aftershave. Although your point is taken when you see a half-naked women on banners for 300 different empire building idle clickers. Then really weird part is none of the women in the banners are ever in the actual game lol

I think games can comfortably tackle all of the themes that every other form of entertainment media can, it just needs to be handled in a way that makes sense. For example, I might play a porn game that goes into the daily lives of a relationship between an orc and an elf, but I'm gonna be seriously pissed off if I'm playing Warhammer Total War and suddenly my game is put on hold for some bullshit romance plot in the same vein. Add to that the fact that non-core themes are usually half-arsed, for example marriage in RPGs (elder scrolls, mount and blade, stardew valley).

Have you tried crusader kings 3 (I hate mentioning ANY paradox game but..) It has many for the mature themes and include the ability to engage in incest. I disagree with the elder-scrolls and mount and blade part though, calling it half-arsed is an insult to all half-arsed out there, it was worse than that lol.

As for sex, where have you been, the very idea of a female character being written just to appeal to a male is simply not allowed in most mainstream media.

I'm not 100% sure if you are being sarcastic or not?

Yeah, the type of erotic content that can be in these games is very heavily constrained for legal and publicity reasons. Even showing a rape without graphic detail isn't going to happen (something the film industry can do, but PC-friendly publishers would never dare), all you'll ever get in this climate is consensual nudity and vanilla romance. If that's your bag, fine, but it bores the crap out of me.

I wouldn't say never, years back who would have thought you could pay a stripper to dance in a game? then you could. After that there was no way a game would let a player pay a prostitute for sex, then you could. Depending on the setting and story and with who much rape has and is being shown in popular tv series, I wouldn't count it out sometime in the future.

"all you'll ever get in this climate is consensual nudity and vanilla romance." that's not exactly true, in conan exiles (without mods) you can go to a thrall camp, hit a topless woman unconscious and drag her to your camp where you put her on a pain wheel to break her and make her your slave, you can do it to men too but the number of bases I've run past with only female thralls is nuts.

(Edit: I realise the below isn't a point you were making but this is just where my thoughts went.)
In the Sabateur example, I'd say there's likely no need to have the protagonist be based out of a strip club. I can also imagine that argument being applied to the romances of games like Mass Effect, there's no need for sex scenes. A fade to black would do. Which I certainly think should be an option for those that want it. But I'm of the mind that sex, sexuality and healthy sexual relationships should be in all media. It's a natural part of life. A natural part of adult relationships.

I don't know, I'm still pissed at how they handled the endings for mass effect but I played that after playing the witcher series and to be honest the scenes in mass effect were very tame compared to the witcher. I think mass effect got a raw deal there, I thought those scenes gave a nice happy moment to separate all the killing.

 

[F4C430]

else if you have combat game or pvp shooter like Street Fighter or Overwatch we don't need half of the female cast half naked with boobs physics and very tight clothes.

Zangief needs bulge physics.

 

[ririmudev]

I think Persona would work with H scenes. Maybe a few folks had the same idea, since there are a couple of games here inspired by Persona.
(Minor note: in my headcanon, the characters are college students and not high-school students).
Hmm, why Persona? I like that there's a mission focus, and in the course of focusing on the mission, you build rapport with the other characters. Perhaps working with and growing with a character helps make an ero scene more worthwhile.
But as a healthy male, quick & shallow games are also fine.
Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with mainstream game erotica. Most recent was GTA with the car shaking, back in the days of Liberty City/Vice City/San Andreas.
Overall, mature content should have less taboo. One of my cynical thoughts is that some amount of prudism helps to artificially raise market value: after all, how many nude magazines would have been sold, if being topless was an ordinary occurrence? The actual industry (e.g. Playboy, Brazzers) might have an interest in keeping it out of the "mainstream". Anyway, just some of my musings.

 

[Hadley]

I want mature themes in all my Games. Games should be made for Adults only and not for fucking Kids. I hate when Games cater to Kids and censor themselves and make it a shitty PG12 Game.

 

[Geigi]

I'm all for mature content and themes in games, what pisses me off is a lack of male romances in female protagonist games or lack of romance at all. Lara can't have one guy, but Geralt for can have harem. The game that crossed the line with adult stuff is Overlast even though is horror.

 

[morphnet]

I'm all for mature content and themes in games, what pisses me off is a lack of male romances in female protagonist games or lack of romance at all. Lara can't have one guy, but Geralt for can have harem. The game that crossed the line with adult stuff is Overlast even though is horror.

By lack of romance at all do you mean any romance the MC is directly involved in or any romance in the stories at all? Lara games were always meant to portray a strong single woman, the story and settings didn't really leave room for her to meet anyone and Geralt is a bit unfair because he never had a harem, his love life was cursed with bad timing and never being able to find enough peace time to enjoy any love he was able to find.

Star wars the old republic added a lot of romance options (MF/MM/FF/FM) that directly involve the MC, their stories can feel rushed in some places but so far it's the best I've seen out side of dating sims. Torment has one of the saddest love stories and endings,(it also has one of the funniest sidekicks ever).
For not directly involved, neverwinter nights 1 has a tragic love story and world of warcraft surprisingly enough has a couple of tragic love stories and a few happier ones too.

 

[tanstaafl]

Context and author/dev skill <---- these two things are the most pertinent factors when it comes to deciding if a story is too heavy handed, tactfully done, well done, or just plain crap in terms of what you are talking about.

 

[mukiwara]

In some cases you can take movies as a reference, as some movies have sex or explicit violence that are not the main plot of it but it enhances the experience.
It's a lot of case to case of what type of game it is, and if there is any reason for it to be there. But in lot of cases, that being there is not detrimental as long as it expands the story and it's not forced into it.
Also everything in excess is just bad...

 

[Deleted member 5410619]

We have a rating system in place.
As long it is properly rated i am fine with anything under the sun being explored as long it doesn't hurt real people.

I also believe that a game shoud focus on what it wants to be.
An rpg doesnt need a sex scene.
Fade to black is fine.
Romance in those games are an after thought.
Likewise red alert 3 should have spend the money they wasted on the tits into the actual gameplay.

I don't expect a game to be as vast and open ended as real life.
But i do expect to get my money/time worth.

So i much rather have the game focus its resources on being good.
Then it waste them added stuff that isnt neccery.

 

[DuniX]

As gamers, how do you feel about the inclusion of mature themes in video games? Where do you draw the line between thought-provoking content and unnecessary sensationalism? Are there any games that you think handle mature themes exceptionally well or, conversely, games that you feel crossed the line?

There is no such things as crossing the line, there is only needless Censorship.

The thing is most Stories are about making characters Suffer in a wide variety of circumstances since it wouldn't be Drama otherwise, so things like torture, rape and debilitating trauma are perfectly fine but once you give Agency to the Player by making it a Game somehow that makes them complicit and a criminal.

In fact even if the player has nothing to do with it even the Possibility of the result as a consequence of the Gameplay is too much for some.

What kind of Games do not have death?

 

[♍VoidTraveler]

I rather like truly mature games like the Desert Stalker, games that don't shy away from anything.
No lines are necessary for those.

But, that's because devs of those games understand how to correctly use those mature themes.
If you aren't confident in your skills, best stick with what you're confident with.

That way you at least won't embarrass yourself.