It’s becoming an age old complaint of mature open minded individuals out there, why is it okay that games can have ever increasing levels of violence and gore but still to this day anything of a sexual nature is deemed as completely inappropriate?
Now I’m not having a go at Splatterhouse directly here as this is something that is endemic in the industry but in a recent interview with Joystiq the producer of Splatterhouse, Don Tovar, stated
“There are definitely some of the splatter kills that we had that we didn’t think were brutal enough. You want that impactâ€
So fair enough the idea of the game is to be gory, controversial and just plain violent. However when asked what they won’t do in the game Dan was quick to state
“We try to stay away from any kind of sexually-themed stuffâ€
I just find it bizarre that while they are pushing the limit as far as it can possibly go when it comes to blood, guts and violence they are avoiding anything sexually themed at all.
They didn’t say it but I will bet the main reason behind this is that as soon as they include a sexual theme the ESRB will try rate it with an Adults Only rating which means no mass market retails will then stock it and they will lose everything…
You can check out the entire interview over at Joystiq
Last Updated: August 2, 2010
Christo Le Grange
August 2, 2010 at 10:09
This should actually be a Flamebait Friday topic!
…I read a long article about this topic in a gaming mag last December, and it debates the fact that if a format like books and movies tackle subjects of rape, or sexually motivated topics, then its a best seller or box office hit.
on the other hand, breaching the gap of the sexual based games is difficult, because one is more interactively involved in the video playing process than watching a movie or reading a novel….it will be just plain creepy if progression of a video game relied upon one to indulgeinvolve in sexual acts of any nature.
BHW
August 2, 2010 at 12:01
One needs to look no further than the furore over “Hot Coffee”in GTA:SA no no that the mainstream is still a long way away from accepting graphic sexual content in gaming.
BHW
August 2, 2010 at 12:02
uhm to know – curse you clumsy oversized appendages