Live Magazine February Issue February 2014 | Page 24

There are two conversations that need to be had, one with
video game developers and the other with the Australian
Classification Board. The former involves discussing the
use of sex in video games, how it impacts the story and the
impact it has on not only the characters in-game, but the
audience at large. With last year’s release of GTA V, we saw
a game that was racist, featured hyper-sexualized women
in submissive roles and casually utilized sex throughout
the story under a failed attempt at “satire”. It was demeaning, alienating and insulting. Yet it sold like wildfire and was
praised for its gameplay while people turned a blind eye
to its blatant slut-shaming sexism as well as its poorly researched African-American characters.
Bad writing aside, I know that the main marketing aspect
for games like GTA V, Dragon’s Crown and many others is
the fact that sex sells. I accept that, whether it’s a game
or a movie; once all the explosions and action has been
dangled before the audience, it can help to have that extra appeal in order to appear “edgy”. Be it a soap opera,
a prime-time television show (Hint: Starts with “Game” and
ends in “Thrones”), a feature film or a video game – sex appeal has it’s place. However, sex in video games should be
more than dominant men and submissive busty women, and
there are plenty of games that have successfully displayed
this without alienating the potential audience at large. Sex
should only be in video games if it needs to be there, if it
helps to develop the story, develop the characters and if all
genders involved give as good as they get. Both the Mass
Effect games and Saints Row IV are perfect examples of
this, for both serious storytelling and satire respectively…
Also Game of Thrones.
The discussion that needs to be had with the Australian
Classification Board involves their use of the new “R” rat-

“AND THE REASON WE
SAW A GAME THAT WAS
RACIST, FEATURED HYPERSEXUALIZED WOMEN IN
SUBMISSIVE ROLES AND
CASUALLY UTILIZED SEX
THROUGHOUT THE STORY
UNDER A FAILED ATTEMPT
AT “SATIRE”.”

ing. Thus far, the Classification Board has failed to utilize
the “R” rating as it was hoped to be used by the public at
large. Gamers hoped that the “R” rating would provide an
environment to permit more freedom for game developers in
terms of what content they can now provide to the Australian public. However, the fact is that the classification board
is stuck in a mindset that video games should be treated
more strictly than their film counterparts due to their interactive element. This reasoning however makes the fallacious
presumption that films and television programs are incapable of influencing the viewer. That somehow the ideas and
messages within a film narrative or somehow ineffective
when compared to video games. The fact is the classification board has to learn to grant the same level of creative expression between screen media and video games or restrict
them in the same manner.
Are we grown up now that we have an “R” rating? Not yet,
however neither are a lot of video game developers or the
Australian Classification Board, but we’ll get there.

SEAN FOX (WWW.JOHNNOSHARK-REVIEWS.COM)