By now, you’ve probably seen or heard of the “controversial” sexy party game We Dare from Ubisoft. The ad went viral fairly quickly, portraying a pair of hot young couples finishing dinner and firing up the Wii (as if). Lots of good, clean, adult fun is had up to a point, with spankings, stripteases, etc. There’s even the mandatory and gratuitous girl-on-girl action (and of course no guy-on-guy action, WHERE’S THE EQUALITY???) to get the target audience all lathered up. I have no clue how well this will actually play out in the bedrooms and living rooms of Gaming Nation, since there isn’t exactly a past history of sexy, flirty minigame compilations for us to draw on. What I do know is that we in North America won’t get to see it for ourselves as Ubisoft have said that We Dare will be Europe only.
Why not, Ubisoft? Why are you dashing our dreams of group sex parties with our attractive friends? Okay, fine, you got me, I don’t have any attractive friends (why do you think we don’t do video podcasts?). But what if I did? Why do only Europeans get to have this kind of fun? Well, probably because Ubisoft knows that this game won’t sell well over here in North America. This is one of the things that bugs me about this part of the world. People will look at a game like We Dare with its sexually charged and risque minigames and react with shock and outrage. Or just outright dismissal. It’s symptomatic of a larger conservatism in today’s society. Remember the “wardrobe malfunction” from the Super Bowl a few years ago and the crapstorm that generated? Due to a split-second shot of a covered nipple? We can watch shows and movies with graphic violence without thinking twice, but get too sexy? Forget about it. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas features all sorts of violent shenanigans, including carjackings, homicide, both armed and unarmed, running over people with cars, jaywalking, you name it. But what got the game an AO (Adults Only) rating? Dormant code that some nerd found and exposed with the infamous “Hot Coffee” mod that allows you to see and control sexual intercourse between the protagonist and one of his girlfriends. Fully clothed, with no naughty bits showing, of course. Because THAT’S the most offensive part of the game. Kill a random person on the side of the road, or an in-game enemy? Okay. Kill a prostitute who you just paid for sex with so you can rob her to get your money back. NOW it’s a problem.
We can watch shows and movies with graphic violence without thinking twice, but get too sexy? Forget about it.
Let’s look at another, more recent, example, in Bulletstorm. It’s ridiculously violent. Every second word is cursing. It encourages you to find new and innovative ways to kill people with named Skillshots . And what does Fox News focus on? The fact that some Skillshot names are sexual double entendres, which apparently could encourage people to rape. Really? There’s not even sex in the game, just some tongue in cheek sexual references designed to make immature fratboys (and certain immature dads) chuckle.
Sex always seems to be the big taboo, while violence gets a relative free pass. Sex is the reason why we’re all here right now and you’re reading this. Sex is how we get to be parents. Sex is life creation and something that a vast majority of people will do in their lifetime. Violence, on the other hand, is life destruction, and something that most people will not engage in. Yet violence is reluctantly accepted, and sometimes glorified, in our society, while sex is confined mostly to the bedrooms of a nation. I’m glad we have our priorities straight.
