Rated M for Mature: Sex and Sexuality in Video Games

Description

The word sex has many implications when it is used in connection with video games. As game studies scholars have argued, games are player-driven experiences. Players must participate in processes of play to move the game forward. The addition of content that incorporates sex and/or sexuality adds complexity that other media do not share. Rated M for Mature further develops our understanding of the practices and activities of video games, specifically focusing on the intersection of games with sexual content. From the supposed scandal of "Hot Coffee" to the emergence of same-sex romance options in RPGs, the collection explores the concepts of sex and sexuality in the area of video games.

Matthew Wysocki is an Associate Professor at Flagler College, USA, where he is the Coordinator of the Media Studies program. He is the editor of CTRL-ALT-PLAY: Essays on Control in Video Games and co-chair of the Game Studies Area of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association. Evan W. Lauteria is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of California-Davis, USA. Lauteria has published in the UK Literary Magazine Berfrois on the topic of queer game mechanics, as well as in Reconstruction on the resistant politics of queer game mods.

Sexuality is part of the human experience anywhere, and despite images of earthly flesh, has always had a virtual dimension. The contributors to this volume brilliantly show how sex and sexuality are not marginal to video game design, representation, and play. Rated M for Mature demonstrates that sexuality is at the heart of video games, and in turn how video games offer powerful lessons with regard to sexuality itself. * Tom Boellstorff, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine, USA, and author of Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human * This is an important, timely book and a much needed contribution to the ongoing discussion of sex and sexuality in games and game cultures. The emerging and established voices in this volume offer lessons for scholars studying sexuality, for players interested in how games shape our understandings of sexuality, and designers who want to represent sexuality more positively. Rated M for Mature asks how games represent sex and sexuality, why they do it so poorly, and what can be done to change that for the better. * Gerald Voorhees, Assistant Professor of Drama and Speech Communication, University of Waterloo, Canada, and co-editor of the Approaches to Digital Game Studies series * This collection raises many important issues about sexuality in video games. ... This volume analyzes specific games and issues, putting everything in context. Among the problem issues addressed are the frequent use of sex as a means to an end in games, the juxtaposition of sex and violence, and changing ideas about gender and sexuality. Also discussed is how the evolution from arcade play to home consoles has influenced the structure of games. Although the audience for video games is more diverse than convention would have it, the masculine perspective is still the norm. Likely readers of this book will be video game scholars, who will find the divergent views stimulating and enlightening. Summing Up: Recommended. Researchers, faculty, professionals. * CHOICE * ...the book itself warrants a place on the reading list of any serious games scholar... Rated M for Mature's exhaustive (though never exhausting) range of topics, from agency in simulated BDSM, controversy surrounding eroge ("hentai games"), sexual violence and censorship, to Joydick and teledildonics, ensures this collection's value in further maturing and expanding scholarly, gamer and scholarly gamer discussions about sex and sexuality in video games and video game culture. * First Person Scholar *