Search Results for “sex” – Page 12

October 21st

…the pursuit of portraying a realistic world, The Last of Us Part II actually reproduces a version of the world dreamt up by colonial administrators and the academics who aided in their destruction of cultures around the world.”

Feminine Sexuality

Two authors this week offer some valuable insights on feminine sexuality in games–be it by the recuperation of its representation in historical/mythological interactive fiction, or by the unflinching portrayal of contemporary queer feminine sexuality in one of the year’s most interesting (and macabre) puzzle games.

The Missing Gets Queer Love Stories Right | Kotaku Heather…

December 16th

…one of its most accessible inroads.

That Time I Created All The Greek Gods In The Sims And Made Them Have Sex | Kotaku Kate Gray extrapolates pubescent doll-play into The Sims and equal parts wonder and hilarity ensue.

“Of course, being the absolutely awful dork-child that I was, my first thought was not a tiny-fist-clenched, all-consuming need to make the sims fuuuuuck. Instead, I decided that I would make an accurate representation of the Ancient Greek pantheon of gods, writ small in janky AI humans.

I mean, there was fuckin’. But at least I…

January 6th

…Playing Over 1000 Hours of ‘Into the Breach’ Helped Me Survive 2018 – Waypoint Danielle Riendeau recalculates, recovers, and rebuilds, one turn at a time.

The Year In Video Game Sex, 2018 | Kotaku Gita Jackson reviews the evolving (devolving?) relationship between media platforms and sexuality.

Moments of 2018: Bowsette, or when Nintendo proved no-one can subvert it like itself • Eurogamer.net Emma Kent offers a thorough postmortem on the whole Bowsette thing.

2018’s games taught me the value of online fun with friends – Polygon Cass Marshall reflects on a year of shared play experiences.

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Mass Effect Trilogy

…assumed to be sexually promiscuous. Khee Hoon Chan makes the point that even amongst the alien relationships, BioWare is still reinforcing “unhealthy notions of attraction and sexuality” (and raises the very good question of why we can’t romance a krogan). One of the most hotly discussed romance options from the series is Tali, a quarian who has to wear a special suit that obscures her face at all times. If the player romances Tali, they do eventually get a sex scene of Tali sans suit, but one that was so unsatisfying that fans made a new one. What fans were…

April 21st

…both in and out of universe. Whether it’s deciding to date the misanthropic jerk in Dragon Age, or the fallout of an industry that makes bank on the narrative trauma of its creatives, there’s some great work to consider here.

Dragon Age’s Isabela is a Catgirl (Kind Of) | Sidequest Angie Wenham recuperates the catgirl trope by centering Isabela as an irreverent, independent, sex-positive counterpoint to an otherwise grand-destiny-oriented cast.
Notes on EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OK: Actually It Isn’t – Sufficiently Human Lana Polansky, in reviewing Everything Is Going To Be OK, takes time to

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June 16th

…a Skin Deep Exploration of VR Sex – VICE Nicole Clark positions Black Mirror‘s latest games-adjacent foray as a missed opportunity to do more with queerness (especially nonwhite queerness) and virtuality.

Masquerada and the Heart of the Queer Family | Unwinnable Jeremy Signor reflects on found families and queer legacies, and how they challenge heteronormative commonplaces about bloodlines.

“Because of the nature of how queer people form families, they are ostracized. It also happens that video games, particularly party-based RPGs, are uniquely positioned to explore this dynamic.”

Self-Directed Play

To what extent may

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August 8th

…you don’t.”

Queer Horizons

We turn now to thorny tensions in queer representation across games and series. Whether its the protracted fights for bare-minimum representation or the flawed and fraught depictions and allegories we actually receive in popular games, queerness remains… messy. Read on for more articulate insights.

Diversity and Videogames | Videodame Natalie Schriefer discusses the slow arc towards same-sex marriage in the Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games, looking both at their original development in Japan and their localization abroad.
Why Do We Talk About Mass Effect’s Asari as if They Are Women?…

July 7th

…empathy and compassion: directed at the self, at those we care about, at the world itself. And games don’t always accomplish this messy work successfully, especially if they perpetuate trope-laden narratives about the function and value of suffering.

Prey (2017) as a Teacher and Tester of Player Empathy | DualShockers Steven Santana investigates whether Prey–and other games that hinge upon choice-based play–can teach genuine empathy.
Blood Pact Review: Sex and Excess | Autumn Wright Autumn Wright thinks through trans desire in Ana Valens’ latest game.
I Never Want to Wake Up – Reviewing LUCAH: Born of

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September 8th

…plenty of other cool stuff this week to read, watch, and even play: check it out!

This Week in Videogame Blogging is a roundup highlighting the most important critical writing on games from the past seven days.

Listen, Play

(Content Notification: sexual/emotional abuse) Leading this week we have two pieces reflecting on the recent call-outs by survivors against abusers in the industry. These stories are still being told, and more are coming out as you read this. Everything we curate here we do because we feel it’s important, valuable stuff that should be read widely and repeatedly,…

December 8th

…a direct catalyst for the player to step into a skin that may not be their own, but one that allows them to reflect their innermost feelings. A space in which they can safely explore how it feels to be referred to by pronouns different than the ones they’ve used their whole life, to entertain the questions they’ve built up about gender and how they relate to it, to gain a sense of what romance and sex feel like when not having a gender imposed on you but to experience it with the one that you have chosen.”