After much waiting, Dragon Age II was finally released at the beginning of the month. The reviews for Bioware’s latest role playing game were not good, especially in comparison to its predecessor, Dragon Age: Origins, which had captured the imaginations and hearts of a large contingent of gamers.

But then in a twist no publicist could have possibly orchestrated, something spectacular happened: after being hit on by a male character in the game, a male gamer took to the Bioware forum and wrote a petulant whinge-fest about how the creators had completely ignored their largest demographic — the Straight Male Gamer (his capitalization, not ours). The crux of the user’s complaint about the game can be summarized by the following two paragraphs:

In every previous BioWare game, I always felt that almost every companion in the game was designed for the male gamer in mind. Every female love interest was always written as a male friend type support character. In Dragon Age 2, I felt like most of the companions were designed to appeal to other groups foremost, Anders and Fenris for gays and Aveline for women given the lack of strong women in games, and that for the straight male gamer, a secondary concern. It makes things very awkward when your male companions keep making passes at you. The fact that a “No Homosexuality” option, which could have been easily implemented, is omitted just proves my point.

[ ... ] When I say BioWare neglected The Straight Male Gamer, I don’t mean that they ignored male gamers. The romance options, Isabella and Merrill, were clearly designed for the straight male gamers in mind. Unfortunately, those choices are what one would call “exotic” choices. They appeal to a subset of male gamers and while its true you can’t make a romance option everyone will love, with Isabella and Merrill it seems like they weren’t even going for an option most males will like. And the fact is, they could have. They had the resources to add another romance option, but instead chose to implement a gay romance with Anders.

Essentially: Bioware did not provide the option to disable homosexuality, it offered four main companions to romance, two male and two female, instead of giving the Straight Male Gamer more options beyond a nervous elven mage and a dark-skinned human pirate (how exactly is that exotic — or is that just a polite way of saying “not white”?).

David Gaider, the lead writer at Bioware, responded to the thread in what has to be the most fantastic post of all time, so do us a favor and quit skimming. This is relevant not just to sex in gaming, but to everything seeking to challenge the largely exploitative, sex-negative, hetero-normative status quo:

The romances in the game are not for “the straight male gamer”. They’re for everyone. We have a lot of fans, many of whom are neither straight nor male, and they deserve no less attention.

We have good numbers, after all, on the number of people who actually used similar sorts of content in [Dragon Age: Origins] and thus don’t need to resort to anecdotal evidence to support our idea that their numbers are not insignificant… and that’s ignoring the idea that they don’t have just as much right to play the kind of game they wish as anyone else.

The “rights” of anyone with regards to a game are murky at best, but anyone who takes that stance must apply it equally to both the minority as well as the majority. The majority has no inherent “right” to get more options than anyone else.

[ ... ] You can write it off as “political correctness” if you wish, but the truth is that privilege always lies with the majority. They’re so used to being catered to that they see the lack of catering as an imbalance. They don’t see anything wrong with having things set up to suit them, what’s everyone’s fuss all about? That’s the way it should be, any everyone else should be used to not getting what they want.

[ ... ] Romances are never one-size-fits-all, and even for those who don’t mind the sexuality issue there’s no guarantee they’ll find a character they even want to romance. That’s why romances are optional content. It’s such a personal issue that we’ll never be able to please everyone. The very best we can do is give everyone a little bit of choice, and that’s what we tried here.

And the person who says that the only way to please them is to restrict options for others is, if you ask me, the one who deserves it least. And that’s my opinion, expressed as politely as possible.

In a single stroke, Dragon Age II has gone from being a fun game weighed down with harsh reviews to one being hailed as part of a paradigm shift in the gaming industry: not only is Bioware catering to women as much as men, it’s catering to a wider range of desires. Let us not forget those threesomes and foursomes in the romancing options of Dragon Age: Origins. Clearly, this is a few decent notches above vanilla, even in spite of the tragic lingerie.

So, Gaider and Bioware, good for you. We commend you. And we’re loving Dragon Age II so far (we’re such die-hards, we pre-ordered it. And yes, we’re women).

We know we shouldn’t hold our breath, but we’re hoping beyond hope that guys receiving unsolicited attention from Anders will impart a lesson about how we feel when men randomly get all up in our sink when we’ve expressed zero interest in them.

Yeah, yeah, dream on.

Anders macro via Steam-Powered Carpal Tunnel.

Whoever said gamers don’t get any action is obviously jealous. Gamers have been getting more consistent action than most other demographics for years now — so what if it’s not analog?

Inspired by a recent article on the weekly BrandX about sex in video games, we hit up Crix Lee, the editor-in-chief of GirlGamer.com, a social network for women based out of Los Angeles.

“I can’t really pinpoint one game in particular,” Lee told us when we asked her to name the most sexually-charged game she’d played recently. “Like everybody else, I was out to get my characters in Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 laid.”

When asked whether she’d seen an increase in the incidence of sexual situations in games in recent years, Lee pointed to the Grand Theft Auto series.

“You’ve got games like Alpha Protocol, where you actually get an achievement — called “Ladies Man” — for sexing up every woman in the game,” she told us.

Though amused with the ability to make players engage sexually, Lee expressed disappointed about the manner that same-sex relationships are treated — assuming they are allowed to occur in a game to begin with.

“In Mass Effect 2, you could have a same-sex partnership but you don’t get the ‘Paramour’ achievement if you take this route, which I find unacceptable,” she said, quickly adding: “But it’s tastefully done, so there’s the rub, pardon the pun.”

Some games are not so tasteful, she noted, singling out “eroge,” games of a highly sexual nature that are marketed as such (“eroge” is a portmanteau of the words “erotic” and “game”), and which often feature non-consensual situations.

“RapeLay is about a man who not only rapes a mother, but her two daughters as well,” Lee explained. “The game shows you how to stalk, grope, and force your victim not only into sexual positions but you can put cat ears on one and make them meow and has multiplayer features like three on one gangbangs.”

Asked about whether any apparent increase in the sexual content in games is related to the success of the role playing game Second Life, Lee was quick to point to 1987′s Leisure Suit Larry, a game about a loser in his 40s whose mission is to bed as many “hot chicks” as possible.

“Record of Agarest War is getting a lot of attention these days,” she said of the sexiest game right now. “The God of War franchise has mini sex games, and… take your pick, really.”

So does GirlGamer.com have forums where tons of women gamers discuss the naughty happenings in virtual reality?

“We pride ourselves on being an open, welcoming community where you can speak your mind but at the same time we do not tolerate anything unbecoming toward any of our members,” she warned. “We also encourage our members not to use profile pics of themselves in compromising positions or scantily clad because we want our members and prospective members to feel like they have a home at GirlGamer.com, not like they just rolled up into a strip club.”

Oh, well. We tried.

Screengrab in the header by Frank.

I can’t think of anything nerdier–but no nerds may apply!

From GamerCrave:

The Nintendo Power Glove, released in 1989, was an early Nintendo attempt at motion control. Players who donned the glove were granted no sexual favors, but instead the ability to control video games by moving a hand around. We all freaked out after seeing it in The Wizard, but it was too gimmicky and expensive, and it flopped. Good thing someone’s trying to put it to use, though I’m not sure what’s worse: Someone asking for a Power Glove hand job, or a sex toy that’s been collecting dust in a basement for 20 years.

I wonder what the GirlGamer community would have to say about this?

Oh, and PS? Here’s a Nintendo Power Glove on eBay, for those of you who think this is a brilliant idea. You’re welcome.

Screencap and information via GamerCrave.

Jeremy described porn as entertainment. Gross countered it was “a cheap substitute for sex,” warning it had become a sex ed tool that taught children to have false expectations about sexuality.

Jeremy insisted that the industry caters to viewers who are over the age of 18.

“We don’t want kids to watch porn,” he said. But even if they do, there are far worse influences out there, he noted, saying: “[Studies have] found that violent video games are much bigger a negative influence on kids.”

Information via PC magazine.

Finally! A game that understands what it’s all about!

Geeks everywhere rejoice. Well, no. Geeks in Asia and Europe have had Record of Agarest War for a one or two years already. Aksys Games, which is set to release the strategy, role-playing game here in North America recently announced that they were pushing back the date for sometime next year.

Good thing next year’s tomorrow, huh?

Image from Aksys Games. Trailer via The Escapist.