Adult Themes in Gaming Today

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So, while not everyone who reads this is from the USA, we all feel the influence of American society. I'm talking about sexual themes in games. Companies like Nintendo and Sony will all out kill games that don't conform to their acceptable view of the world, but it seems the envelope is growing.

What you have to understand about he US is, seeing a women's nipple is considered more harmful to a kid than watching someone killed. Don't believe me? For those in the US, how many times have you seen a nipple during prime time? How many times have you seen someone killed?

Violence is considered OK, while sex is not. But now it seems, for Sony/Microsoft at least, violence is a way to slip things past. Take for example Conan on the PS3, it was the first game to actually show bare breasts in HD (at least on a major console). Now let's look at the next few games, Bayonetta, Dante's Inferno and Heavy Rain. All include violence, all include nudity (or partial nudity).

Is this a bad trend? In my opinion, no. The US is far too sensitive about nudity, which is a big part of art. Some of the most famous and influential art is of the nude figure. And when you talk about art, video games are the new medium.

Still, count the number of M rated games and compare that with the number of AO games (for sexuality) and you'll see there's a long way to go.