Ain't It Cold Down There?

So, I mentioned I'm in the process of reviewing Devil May Cry 4, and over the weekend I'd said that something that struck me was the fact that one of the female characters, Kirie, looks rather humble and normal and fully clothed, much like a real girl.

Kirie is, of course, insurance against Gloria, who declines to wear underwear in the snow, doesn't mind if you observe that fact, and likes to do the splits.

Part of DMC's charm as a franchise, if you're into this sort of thing, is its action movie conventions -- implausible acrobatics, heroes who still find time for smart-mouthed comments when impaled on large objects, explosive gunfights, and broads with big boobs. You can't knock it for that -- that's what it sets out to do, stylistically, and that's what it achieves. Gratuitous exploitation of the female form is a convention of the genre, and not a fault of the game specifically, or of the broader game industry. Lots of times, gals get in hackles about voluptuous panty-flashing video game vixens and the game camera's decadent worship of their rendered flesh. While that's an entirely new issue, again, I don't think it's a problem necessarily with video games, but with the genres and themes of entertainment they're emulating.

I'm actually a fan of visceral, fleshy game characters, especially in fighting games or melee games (see my article: In Defense Of Breast Physics). The gameplay in those kinds of titles taps into the player's human primal instinct, I think, the closest we can come in modern times to replicating our animal era. Sex and death make great archetypal bedfellows, and oversexed flesh makes a nice counterweight to the blood glut. Now, as a female I don't necessarily find these kinds of displays degrading or insulting -- it's fantasy, first of all, but most of all, it's certainly not a reflection on, or a representation of me. It's not personal. And I don't think everyone who enjoys this type of thing in the games they play has to be a chauvinist pig -- after all, I like these games too, and I like to think I'm not a wholly irredeemable person.

Gloria pretty much trumps any other chick I've ever seen in a game, though, in terms of hedonistic, decadent flesh-flaunting debauchery. She's like, miles and miles of cleavage and camel toe. If I'm a little shocked by her, it isn't due to offense as much as surprise, in that it gives the fabled envelope a great big ol' shove. Over the line? Dunno, I play porn games, so not to me. But it's blatant, that's for sure.

And in any kind of art or media, rarely is the blatantly direct route the most intelligent way to say something. I think that while full-on female displays will evoke an easy and instinctual hormone rush -- which, as I said, might be a good complement to a melee brawl -- most intelligent people will agree that some sort of subtlety in sexuality is appealing on more levels simultaneously. I want to be careful in stating that sexuality is best when it's dignified -- there are, of course, all sorts of indignities that can be titillating. But what I'm wondering is, how can we include sexuality in a game and keep the game's dignity, as a medium?

Was Mass Effect the way? I've gotta say no. Now, this is a matter of my own personal taste, but to my mind, sex and science fiction go together like Stridex and Astroglide -- you know, not so well. I remember all of the "passionate" romance scenes in Star Trek, and they always just used to squick the hell out of me. But then again, I've always been only a casual dabbler in sci-fi as a genre, generally preferring a touch more of the fantastic, or some sort of emergent hybrid between the two. To people not directly immersed in sci-fi fandom -- how to put this kindly? Well, okay, from the outside, it's all too damn nerdy for me to imagine sex as even remotely congruent. Again, personal bias. But the Mass Effect romance to me felt as discordant as a weird Picard makeout scene. I never ended up being all that into the game, so perhaps being somewhat emotionally removed from it helped.

Still, though, it's progress. I like that Mass Effect treated its audience enough like an adult to allow it the opportunity for a mature relationship in a game. Though I personally might think it's a bit cheezy from a subjective position, even still it's nowhere near as exploitive as Gloria's camel toe. And Mass Effect might suffer a bit from pioneer's syndrome -- we all knew there was a sex scene, possibly a lesbian one with a blue alien, and even though plenty of gamers were more interested in the gameplay and story, I wouldn't really believe anyone who said it wasn't at least somewhat on their mind when they were selecting character interactions. The fact that Mass Effect had a sex scene was one of the biggest elements of its buzz, and that predisposes people.

Female sexuality is a hugely powerful thing, and like many powerful aspects of the human condition, it definitely has a place in games. I wonder when, how, and under what circumstances we could see a naked, or half-naked woman -- or man, for that matter -- in a game without it feeling cheap?

Devil May Cry 4 also has a part where these evil naked snow chicks make out with each other and kiss each other all over. Okay, okay, that was kind of awesome. But I also sternly raised my eyebrows! I did!