Growing Pains: An Exploration of Mature Game Design

Post by Steve Farrelly @ 04:05pm 10/07/12 | 7 Comments

Anything adult-oriented that happens in the videogame world usually falls under some scrutiny, but after this year's E3 there was such a fuss made about a handful of titles, I couldn't stand by and not throw in a few of my own words and thoughts on the topic.

Namely, that topic is the maturation of our artform, specifically from a storytelling perspective and an ability to reflect a heavier dose of morality on players. So I took three examples from this year's E3 and looked at the controversies surrounding them, and laid out what I think they're correctly exploring in this golden adult gaming age. It's a hefty piece, but one I hope sparks some great conversation.

Click here for the full feature.

e3 tomb raider far cry 3 the last of us fallout 3 grand theft auto mass effect sex violence mature

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arkter
Posted 04:50pm 10/7/12

good read... I watched that clip too... it's truly indisputable that old mate was getting a bit frisky with Lara... but I mean come-on.. who cares... as soon as you turn 18 you can walk into a shop and buy The Hills Have Eyes 1 & 2 on DVD.. or pirate it when you're 14 for that matter... both graphically depict a woman getting raped by mutated zombies... god forbid a bad guy rubs up Lara a bit though!!

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Nick
Posted 01:25am 11/7/12

I guess the most controversial scene is the Lara one, on first viewing 'rape' did appear in my mind for a split second, but that by no means convinced me that the scene was inevitably going to lead to rape if she didn't fight him off and kill him. I mean he is hands on, but that could quickly lead to her being killed, Hollywood has done this plenty of times. You see hands on in film or sexual body language and it makes you think the worse than all of a sudden the male just kills the female like he was never interested in her sexually or if its the female pretending to seduce the male before she kills him. Maybe it was on purpose to give the game more media coverage, I mean if so its worked.

In the end she was fighting for her life and it adds extra depth to her first kill, its one of my most wanted games at the moment after the Resident Evil 6 demo was disappointing.

Great read :)

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Nick
Posted 01:33am 11/7/12

Just watched it again, you get hand brushing hip/leg... Bit of a struggle then he licks her neck and she bites his ear off... the neck licking does tend to lead towards sexual assault... I'd say clever marketing to give the game some more attention...

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MUZBOZ
Posted 09:18pm 12/7/12

Great article, Stephen.

Very thought provoking. Got me scribbling about 4 pages of ideas and notes in my game design clipboard!

Thanks!

- MUZBOZ

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kirkoswald
Posted 09:47am 19/7/12

That new croft game looks amazing! Great article too :)

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DeadlyDav0
Posted 12:53am 20/7/12

Amazes me how people fire up over the content in games but not other types of media. I suppose there is the argument that games are more involving and encourage the behaviour rather than just observing it like on TV or in a movie but i dont see the big deal with homo, sex, violence etc in games. Sexual female stereotypes i can kinda understand but with s*** like lingerie football on tv, does it really matter how skimpy the MMORPG female's armour is? I thought LA Noire was pretty mature in some of the murder scenes. From memory wasnt there one where some movie guy had sex with an under aged girl? Thats pretty serious yet i dont recall anybody making a deal over that. Anyway, ive bookmarked the article to read one day, thx.

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Unknown
Posted 10:17am 26/7/12

I think one of the reasons people are getting so fired up about the mature content in tomb raider is because Lara is a well-known character and it's not something found in the previous Croft games. Personally i think the licking thing was a bit slimy, if some creepy guy licked my neck i would consider that some form of sexual assault, but i'm not against the maturity in the new tomb raider, i guess it needs to grow and change along with the rest of the games, i just hope it doesn't become something very unlike the Lara Croft's games i know and love. :) Thanks for a really thought-provoking article!

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