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Brent Bozell on Nudity in Upcoming Video Games
Ant writes "Brent Bozell of TownHall.com wrote an editorial about the video game nudity trend. It covers games like 'Playboy: The Mansion' and 'Singles: Flirt Up Your Life' that are due out later this year." Ultimately, Bozell seems to distrust the ESRB, citing Eidos' decision to only sell Singles in downloadable form.
Out of curiosity after seing a lot of articles about the game, I played Singles a little bit one evening. I'm not sure what the big deal is. Aside from it being a boring version of Sims, there was no nudity (not that I was hoping for it or anything). In fact, when your sims use the bathroom, huge toilet paper icons are plastered over them so youy only see their feet, neck and head. When they change clothes or shower, they are still in their underwear.
I think the people who report on Singles have failed to do their homework (or have clearly made it much further in the game than I bothered to - but if you were going to have a game with nudity why would you bother to cover up going to the bathroom or shower?). It strikes me as being very similar to all the idiot journalists covering the "underage and pre-teen children wearing colored jelly bracelets to indicate sexual activities they're willing to do" whenever they need a news story in 2004. Clearly it's overstated or possibly even entirely made-up -- but they still run with it because it gets eyeballs.
I don't mind nudity in games anyway. Nobody's forced to buy a game and there is probably a market for quality game play that includes some degree of sex or nudity beyond the old Leisure Suit Larry and Strip Poker products.