DiGRA 2009: Tanya Krzywinska – Sex and Videogames: A Case of Misappearance?

Tanya began her talk by emphasising the notions of the popular press with regards to the threat of games and the ill-effects these are perceived as having. She expressed this as a concern, whereby human sexuality is essentially reduced when it’s actually extremely complex. The questions Tanya asked us throughout the talk regarded exactly how to define sex and its appearance in games, and indeed what is really happening in the games we play. She drew attention to Floyd and Braithwaite’s statement that there is, in fact, actually very little sex within games if we look at games historically. However, Tanya engaged us with the idea that perhaps our notions of what pertains to be sex or sexuality in games should be more flexible. She stated that there is little explicit sex in titles perhaps because of the production costs relating to this, the limited input of games devices for producing this, regulatory bodies, and the already-abundant cyber sex opportunities. She also stated that, although there has been little sex in games, the places where it has been used should be examined.

From here, Tanya’s talk was split into three sections: representations, sex as a game mechanic, and libidinal economies in games. The latter of these received less attention due to time constraints. In the ‘representations’ section, Tanya showed us two clips in which, she explained, one could clearly see the cinematic conventions of representing nudity that had clearly been borrowed by the games industry. The first clip was from Beowulf, in which smoke and cleverly angled shots hide the genitalia during a fight sequence. Something that struck me about this scene was that the warped body this man was fighting was not given any of the same allowances. Indeed, said body received maximum exposure, in stark contrast with the fighter. Tanya described the hiding of the genitalia as ironic and related it back to Lacan and the hiding of the phallus.

The second clip was from The Simpsons and showed Bart nude, riding his skateboard. This scene follows the same cinematic conventions in which rear shots and everyday objects are lifted to the correct level in order to hide the genitalia. It subverts this convention in the middle, however, when Bart rides on the other side of the hedge which happens to have a gap at the right level, thus exposing the genitalia for a moment before the conventions return. Tanya discussed that many of these cinematic conventions are utilised by games, especially in cutscenes where they can draw upon the cinematics in order to render sexuality. An example of this would be Mass Effect whereby the scenario of the sex act depends upon which characters one chooses to interact with throughout the game. In Viva Pinata, a more family-oriented title, the creatures were shown to dance around, followed by a baby arriving.

Tanya went on to describe sex in terms of a game mechanic, in which she also drew reference upon games in which the sex is built into the game itself: Seven Sins and Playboy: the Mansion. Sex in these games is noted as a means to an end. Japanese ‘ero’ or dating games will reward the player with a sex scene at the end providing specific criteria are met. Yet, there are also games which hide the sex: Warcraft was stated as an example where, in creating a building the units appear, albeit with no suggestion of the sexual act. Tanya stated that perhaps the reason why games with cyber sex content are not particularly popular is perhaps because of internet chatrooms and Massively Multiplayer titles, where players already have room to express these desires.

Finally, Tanya pointed out that perhaps we are looking for sex in games in the wrong places. She showed us a clip from Assassin’s Creed where the main character was stated to have erotic charge in the way he moved and dispatched of enemies.  The game The Path (http://thepath-game.com/) was also referenced with relation to this. Tanya’s final point was perhaps the most pertinent: where should we be looking for sex in games?

In questions, Tanya made reference to the notions of sex and sensuality, libidinal desire, Deleuzian thinking on desire as being read in what you do, and crossovers between real life and the game world in multi- and single-player titles. With reference to the Assassin’s Creed clip, one final point was made: whose position of desire is it spoken from?