Tits, bum, willies !

You’re right, that wasn’t big and it wasn’t mature, but I’m sure a fair few people reading the title will have had a small snigger at it.  After all, what could possibly be funnier than saying rude words out loud or even seeing pictures of “rude bits” in the mass media.  Well of course that is really only a problem prevalent in certain age groups of society and most of us have been there at some point, but is it safe to say when you can say “tits, bum, willy” without a snigger that you have matured?  I’m not entirely sure that is the case but is seems that when you can accept breasts as being part of the female anatomy, that everyone has a bum and all men have willies, then you are mature enough to cope with the embarrassing situations life throws at you.  Many of us older gamers seek to find maturity in games but more often than not it comes across as blatant titillation, merely there to cater for the market of sniggering, behind the bike shed teens, but is this all about to change?  Is 2010 the year that maturity finally found a home in the games market?

Sex sells, it is a well known fact.  The clever usage of a ” bikini babe” or ” beach hunk ” can boost sales with some clever placement, sometimes it’s in your face and other times it can be quite subliminal.  But what if the semi-nude imagery was used in a discreet but “appropriate to the content” manner?  Would it make any difference?  Well, over the Christmas holidays I got the quite entertaining game The Saboteur, which for the most part it is a sandbox adventure around Second World War Paris with plenty of gun play, explosions and driving.  However, at the very start of the game you are asked if you would like to input a supplied code to enable mature content including nudity.  Initially I was sceptical about what difference it could make to the game, but with true journalistic integrity I entered the code and sat back.  The game started it’s opening cinematic with a close up of the naked breasts of an erotic dancer in a club who then proceeded to do her dance as the game started.  There were no black bars covering modesty or heavily censored scenes, instead a mildly entertaining scene played out and it almost seemed appropriate.  As the game plays out the main character frequents establishments where women walk around topless and indeed dance for his pleasure and it almost came across as a mature approach to it.  It didn’t feel like it was catering for the sniggerers, it felt like a genuine attempt to introduce a sense of maturity not often seen in games.  The box shows no indication of the content included so it is not sexing it up for the sake of it, no one is going to pick up the box in a shop and say “Wow! look this game has tits in it, I’m buying this.”  I thought this must be some kind of fluke, maybe this one game slipped through the net and within no time we would be back in to Leisure Suit Larry territory.  I was wrong!

A few days ago I downloaded the demo for the upcoming Dantes Inferno and to my surprise I was greeted with even more nudity but in some kind of context of the game.  Initially I was a bit taken aback as I really wasn’t expecting it but once my shock was out of the way I was more than pleased that another developer was taking a chance and attempting to de-stigmatise the issue of nudity in games.  Having not played the full game yet I’m unable to comment on the full content but I believe that there is an excessive amount of nudity, both male and female, in the game.  Of course the decision to include such material will still set playgrounds at schools alight with talk of “tits, bums and willies” but the games are rated 15 and above, so the target audience is intended to be more mature in their approach to such matters.  Some would argue that any inclusion of nudity in games is a license to print money and sell them by the bucket-load solely based on word of mouth. Maybe though, what is needed is more examples like this in games so it is no longer looked upon as a novelty but more the norm, and maybe then the stigma would be gone and the games would be taken for their technical merit instead of their ” smutty ” content.

It doesn’t end there though, oh no!  2010 may indeed be the year that gaming finally comes of age.  We now have the pleasure of being able to play the simply amazing Bayonetta and guess what?  Yup, it features more nudity!  Although the nudity is more discreet in Bayonetta the overall package is by far, one of the sexiest games I’ve ever played.  It is sexy in a classy way, sexy in its looks, sexy in the gameplay, sexy in some characters, it’s just pure sex.  No one will be sniggering at it though, it’s not smutty, it’s not dirty, it is just a sexy game and it comes across as being for us mature gamers.  I’m looking forward to seeing how 2010 turns out for us adult gamers, just don’t mention “tits, bums, willies.”