Adventuring Through Sexuality Part 1: Excitement

Sexuality, i.e. the depiction of sex, nudity and sexual themes, has long been a hot topic when it comes to videogames.  I'm going to take a look at the past, the present, and the future of sexuality in video games in this three-part series of articles.

Leisure Suit Larry box art (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Leisure_Suit_Larry_Collection_Series.jpg)

Leisure Suit Larry, released in 1987, is one of the earliest, and arguably the most famous, examples of a video game that featured sexual innuendo and sexual humour, albeit no actual sex.  It was very much a heterocentric game (nothing wrong with it), and featured detailed portraits of the various attractive women that Larry met, who often had their boobs prominently displayed.  It clearly didn't try to portray sex in any meaningful or explicit way, and instead treated the topic with (often adolescent) humour.  The game was subject to a fair amount of controversy upon its release, with much clutching of pearls from the media and religious "watchdogs" alike.  It wasn't a particularly special game, either in terms of mechanics or visuals, but its content was still fairly novel (if slightly greasy and creepy at times).

Screenshot from Dōkyūsei (The Visual Novel Database, https://s.vndb.org/st/79/17179.jpg)

The depiction of sexual content and sexuality took a leap forward in 1992, with the release of Dōkyūsei in 1992, which was one of the first, if not the first, "dating sims". As the genre name implies, the game revolves around learning where various girls will be in a town, and then choosing which virtual girl(s) you want to date. This is one of the games that arguably may have contributed to many straight/bi male gamers viewing women as rewards for doing well, or objectives to be reached.

Publishers such as SEGA had already implemented their own (voluntary) ratings systems prior to this, but due to the threat of federal regulations regarding the growing number of sexually-themed games and games containing sexual content, a group of publishers, including Acclaim Entertainment and Electronic Arts, formed a political trade group called the Interactive Digital Software Associaton in 1994. Things reached a boiling point later that year, with the formation of the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board), which was partially in response to the growing number of games that contained sexual content. The ESRB's ratings system is fundamentally flawed, as it puts the depiction of sex and nudity on the same level as that of violence and swearing, when, in fact, sex should not even be a factor in a game's age rating, unless rape, molestation, pedophilia, bestiality, and other harmful sexual activities are depicted. But that is a topic I will delve into later in this series of articles. Please look forward to these installments, and feel free to leave your comments on this topic.