How is GTA4 Not an AO-rated Game?

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Another Take on The Witcher's Boobies

This very well could go down as my favorite blog post title ever. Finally -finally- I got to put the word "boobies" in a blog post title, and do it in context, no less. Suddenly my blogging life feels complete.

If you've been reading this blog since its inception, you know I had some rather strong opinions on the "adult" content found in last year's mildly controversial CRPG, The Witcher. Those posts came about as a sort of general response to two articles penned by Corvus Elrod that I generally disagreed with. (This is not a shot at Corvus. I read his blog daily and he's a hell of a writer that puts a great deal of thought and passion into his work.)

If this is a new topic to you, The Witcher is a game in which a professional monster hunter, Geralt, hacks monsters to tiny gelatinous bits while trying to stop the nefarious schemes of various evil doers that exist in a dark, medieval game world. (See my review.) You can also spend a fair amount of time, if you so choose, bedding various female characters that appear throughout. Make no mistake, Mick Jagger has nothing on Geralt.

(Clarification: The "sex" cut scenes in this game consist of about five seconds of two extremely blurry shapes doing something in the background of the screen. We're not exactly talking Cinemax after 11pm on a Friday night.)

Personally, I thought The Witcher, despite some significant flaws, was one of the best RPGs to come down the pike in years. But there's the question of the necessity and appropriateness of its more sexual overtones and how it portrays the relationships that exist between men and women. On this blog I argued in defense of those parts of the game, despite the fact that some aspects of it -the much discussed "conquest" pin-up cards, for example- are unquestionably unnecessary and pure cheesecake. That said, I don't think I was ever quite able to reconcile why I found those more "immature" parts of the game so easy to dismiss at the same time I was talking-up the more complex social relationship that I feel added depth the game.

As is often the case, the truth between two opposing viewpoints is usually somewhere in the middle and there's now an excellent voice for that middle in The Escapist's Andy Chalk, who has an article posted that's both an excellent and funny read. I'll leave you with just the conclusion, but the whole piece is well worth your time:

A lot of people don't, and won't, get it. My girlfriend, for instance, who I suspect sees it all as amusingly deviant, has made it quite clear that any attempt to explain why I'm watching a computer game character get laid will only make things worse. And there's no question we could, should and eventually must elevate the "adult" content in our games to something beyond the current "Seymour Butts" level of cleverness. But what's really wrong with indulging the little teenage idiot inside each of us now and then? It's served us pretty well this far, giving rise to a multi-billion-dollar industry that's outstripping both television and movies as an entertainment medium. They say that youth is wasted on the young; I say that I'm old enough to know better but think boob cards are pretty cool anyway. And that's precisely the point: As the great Time Lord himself once said, "There's no point being grown-up if you can't be childish sometimes."

Also of note, just in case you've been playing the game or thinking about picking it up, there's an enhanced version of it in the works that should address a lot of the game's remaining technical problems (more variety in NPC character types, a fixed translation of the polish dialog that is sorely needed, and a host of other stuff). The good news is that, if you already have the game, these fixes and enhancements will be available as a download. Kudos to developer CD Projekt for taking the time to really dress up a game that was already a quality product.

Sex in Games: Follow-up

In last Friday's airing of grievances I waxed poetic on the topic of sex in games, in particular, as it relates to the role of women and sex in The Witcher. The article that lead to that post was a review (and the comments thread that follows it) of the game at The Escapist (there's a link in the original post); a review penned by a gent named Corvus Elrod. This week, at his blog, Elrod posted an addendum of sorts to his objections to the role of women in The Witcher and in society that's worth reading, if for no other reason than to get the counter-balance to the point I was endeavoring to make. (I may be a grumpy, opinionated prick, but I try to be a fair one.)

Suffice it to say, I do continue to disagree with a lot of he says in the post. I have yet to find the dialog in the game "sexually predatory," unless you consider the mere act of a sexual advance
predatory. To me that's a pretty sizable leap and I think underscores my contention that there are a lot of well-meaning men out there who seem to assume that somehow the act of casual sex (be it in life or in a work of fiction) either takes advantage of or outright demeans women. I think that takes far too much credit away from women and the notion that somehow they're more pure of mind and body than men. Which, of course, is why trashy romance novels are such a tiny section of bookshops like Barnes and Noble or Borders.

Let's face facts. We're all human. Except for the puritanical self-loathers, we pretty much all like sex. Ain't nothing wrong with that.

You might be wondering why I'm belaboring this point. It's a game, right? Who cares? Well, that's just it. As Elrod points out in his blog, there is absolutely no shortage in today's day and age of actual, harmful sexism and outright misogyny. His example of some of the disgusting behavior that's gone on with regards to Assassin's Creed producer Jade Raymond is case in point. That kind of sh#@ needs to have attention placed on it, because it can genuinely be harmful. I think laying charges like misogyny at the feet of a game like The Witcher (rated M, by the way), a place where I really don't think the term applies, is a distraction from those places where the misogynistic shoe actually fits.

And with that... I'll shut up about it and get back to the fun stuff.

Friday Airing of Grievances: Sex in Games

So I was busy today trying to not work and ended up reading The Escapist's review of The Witcher and the three pages of comments that followed before the comments thread was locked. The review isn't nearly as interesting as the "discussion" that follows, so it's well worth reading the comments, if for no other reason than to see multiple posters get banned in the span of two pages. Frankly, given my high regard for The Escapist, I was more than a little disappointed in the review, not so much because the reviewer (Corvus Elrod) didn't like it, but because of the reasons given for dumping on it.

There were a lot of aspects he focuses on as negative that I don't agree with, but that's how it goes with reviews and games. I've got no grudge with that. (FYI, I have a review of the game up at Gameshark that, if it errs, errs to the unabashed fanboy side, so it's a good contrast if you want to read opinions on both ends of the spectrum.) But the thing that I really didn't get was the amount of criticism both in the review and, later, in the comments, in which he lampoons the game for its treatment of women, referring to it specifically as sexist in the review and misogynistic in the comments thread.

Just to be sure of what I'm talking about, I double-checked the dictionary definition of "misogyny" and found pretty much what I expected: Hatred of women. How this definition pertains to The Witcher, I really just don't get. (Disclaimer: I've got a long way to go, so things could change, but I sure as hell have put more than the ten hours he says he put into the game.) Honestly, aside from the rather juvenile cards depicting the women Geralt (the player character) takes to bed, I don't even think the game qualifies as sexist. Yes, many of them flaunt their generous... proportions, but then any trip to the local shopping mall will get you much the same show. And to be certain, there are sexist, even misogynist, characters in the game. I think that's primarily what Elrod seems to object to, but it seems to me that if you're going to deal with sex in a game, having characters that fit that bill in this kind of game world is not only warranted, but necessary. Hell, there are a lot of racist characters in the game too and that doesn't make the game itself racist.

Besides that, there all kinds of women portrayed in this game. Tough, driven women. Damsels in distress. Working women (legitimate). Working women (illegitimate). Women who have no interest in Geralt. Women who are too easily impressed by Geralt. Women who seek to use Geralt for their own purposes. And women who admire and love Geralt. Where exactly is the misogyny or sexism in that? Sounds like life to me.

Here's what I really don't get, though: At what point did the male champions of female virtue decide that women don't like sex?

I mean that's really what it all comes down to in many of these arguments. Evidently, "casual sex" is somehow the same thing as objectifying women. How stupid do some men think women are that suddenly a woman -fictional or otherwise- who jumps into bed with a guy is automatically being taken advantage of? Last I checked, most women I've known (admittedly the list is not impressive in length) considered a healthy romp in the sack an important part of their lives. Like a lot of men, many want it as part of a committed relationship. But just like men, there are, in fact, women who view sex as a good way to spend an evening… or a morning… or a lunch hour. Or was the character of Samantha in Sex in the City popular just because women liked her fashion sense?

It's one thing to argue about the objectification of women when Lara Croft is hanging out in the arctic in a T-shirt and short shorts, but every time I see someone decry a game, movie, or television program as objectifying women because there's sex in it I just can't help but shake my head.

Is the sex in The Witcher necessary to the game? Probably not, but it does add to the game. And let's be clear. At the end of the day we're talking about a picture card and a heavily blurred image of two human shapes -from what I can tell- kissing. It's a miniscule part of the game. Seriously, if you're going to object to that, why not have the same argument about the amount of drinking you need to do in the game to get information. Unlike the sex, that is required. Yet I've not seen anyone complain about the game promoting alcohol abuse. (Something that would be equally silly.)

Honestly, I think what makes some people uncomfortable with how sex is handled in a game like The Witcher is that it's really not a totally unreasonable representation of reality. We are, as a society, pretty immature about sex. Especially in this country, where The Witcher's content has actually been toned down relative to the UK version because our ever-so-delicate eyes apparently can't handle the sight of digital boobies. What's ironic to me, however, is that it seems to me that the ones who have the most immature notions about sex are often the ones who devote the most time and energy to decrying it.