The difficulty of contact in game sex

by Alexander Sliwinski { Mar 11th 2007 at 2:00PM }

Making sex games is tough. Between political issues, the ESRB's ratings board, cultural differences and technical issues -- it's a war zone. Brenda Brathwaite, the encyclopedia for sex in the industry, held a few roundtables about different aspects of sex over the course of GDC. The first day was about the business side of things and one of the major conclusions was if there is anything holding back sex-based games in the industry it's collision detection software.

Some of the designers in the room had worked on fighting games and explained grapples that you see in games are all canned. Simon Strange, a designer on Godzilla: Destroy all Monsters, said, "Single point of contact between two people in games is already difficult enough. If you're going to have people having sex, there is ultimate contact. How do you support their weight? There are multiple points of contact. That is the difficulty."

A conclusion that came out of the discussion was the company who makes a friendly to use multiple points of contact software will make millions through licensing between the fighting and sex games genre.

It also turns out that in these sex games all animations are originally created by hand. Designers said there has been a social downside creating position in this manner. Straights and gays received certain animations and there was complaining that one group couldn't do what the other one was doing -- even though in real life they certainly would have the ability. Let your imagination roll with what that means.

At this point the sex games industry is still in its infancy, due to technical limitations and social implications. Some of the hurdles these companies are trying to overcome is the obvious collision detection issues, linking up with dating sites and, most interestingly, how to get women involved in these games? For many of the games attempting to create a "real life hook-up" option, it kind of helps to give heterosexual men something to log in for. Otherwise, for the women on these services, it'll be a man-buffet.

Tags: brathwaite, digital distribution, gdc07, naughty america, sex in games, SexInGames, virtually jenna

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Kye @ Mar 11th 2007 2:34PM

If ever there were a genre of game made that was perfect the Wii...

Abscissa @ Mar 11th 2007 2:50PM

That technical limitation didn't stop the people behind Porntris from making a sex-based game. This is just another example of western game developers' obsessions over realism.

Godmil @ Mar 11th 2007 3:04PM

I noticed on Red Light Center there are hundreds of animation sequences to account for all the straight/gay/lesbian interactions, which I must imagine would have taken forever to do, but how would this be improved with body physics, surely the basic motions still need to be set up for each position?

bak8807 @ Mar 11th 2007 3:24PM

Sexy Beach 3

Tron Knotts @ Mar 11th 2007 5:49PM

Ok, stop me is I'm wrong, but isn't most of the fun of sex that it physically feels good? How can a videogame replicate that? Other than by plugging into your brain and stimulating sexual nerve centers, I don't see how any video game will ever make you feel the tactile sensetion of the sex act, which is really what sex is all about.

The things that videogames simulate the best are those actions which are fun in theory, in fantasy, but in reality feel awful. Boxing. Fighting a war. Stealing a car and then getting arrested. Crashing a plane. Getting biten by zombies or shot by aliens. All fun in games, because you get all the psychological benifits with out the physical pain.

Sex, on other hand, is one of the physically best feeligns you can have in real life. Video game sex, on the other hand, is a best a ridiculous parody of how silly the sex act looks and sounds (hot coffee mod), and at worst is a boring, trachy nightmare (current porn games). With out the physically feeling of sex, sex is sort of stupid looking and sounding.

I feel like those striving to make respectable sex games are barking up the wrong tree.

WamBam @ Mar 11th 2007 6:29PM

Don't know how much sex you're actually having, Tron Knotts, but it's not always about "physically feeling good". I won't argue that's physical pleasure is an important component of sex, but as much as action, sports or any other kinds of titles that appeal to one's psychology, so too can simulated sex.

I agree that sex can be really stupid looking and sounding as well. But it can be a lot of other things too. Perhaps what's needed is that someone takes a mature, serious approach to sex in games or else you look at online communities like Second Life, or perhaps Erotic sites where there is role play.

KanYozakura @ Mar 11th 2007 6:31PM

That pic kills what little sex drive I had left. Thanks a lot.

scratch @ Mar 11th 2007 6:40PM

To Tron:
The biggest sexual organ in your body is your brain. All one really needs to enjoy sex in any form (physical, written, pictoral, interactive video, etc...) is a really good imagination. It has been shown that for women in particular, relationships and the emotional context of sex is particularly important, and in some cases even more than the physical act (unless they're trying to make babies!).

While it is true that with current technology the physical aspects of sexual video games are nowhere near the actual physical act (and may very well never be - it certainly wont ever replace real life sex), you can experience physical and emotional situations that you may not be able to in real life. This is a big draw for some people.

The push for more believable sex physics is so as to present a more believable world, and thus increase the immersion, just as in any video game. This is far from the only way to do it... all text-based sex "games" have obviously been around a long time. But improved/realtistic physics, partcular collision physics of continuous surfaces (ie, whole bodies not just points) is a major challenge to inproving the visual imersion aspects.
To Godmil: If you have accurate physics you don't need to pre-aminate every act, because (with sufficently good controls) the characters can initiate the act, and the physics will appropriately handle the models' response. This is a very challenging problem, however, as should be evident from the rudimentary physical contact seen in all kinds of (non-preanimated) games. I doubt this one will be "solved" sufficently to provide the same level of imersion as in non-contact or pre-animated games anytime soon.

yubastard @ Mar 11th 2007 7:18PM

I believe sex in a game can be done if a "special" controller is made.

A woman would buy a dildo that connects thru USB and a man would buy a fake USB vagina as well. The former would use vibration and stretching (crawling?) to simulate a man's thrusts and the vagina would be the same only to simulate a woman's movements.

These two would be synchronized thru internet to deliver pleasure given by one to another. That would work.

http://el-cabron.blogspot.com

Burnt Meatloaf @ Mar 11th 2007 8:28PM

@scratch: Indeed. 99% of p*rn is flat-out boring.

The real problem is distribution. If Wal-Mart won't carry it, that cuts your sales drasticly right there.

Now excuse me, since I can't buy the little bit of decent p*rn out there becuase I could be hopelessly corrupted by smut, I'll get by blowing a virtual mutant nazi's head into spaghetti.

Actually, screw that. I'll play Grid Wars.

Burnt Meatloaf @ Mar 11th 2007 8:33PM

*yubastard: "A woman would buy a dildo that connects thru USB and a man would buy a fake USB vagina as well."

You're already on the wrong track. Less stupid gimicks, more imagination, please. Like I said, 99% of p*rn is stupid and boring. If people were to treat it like an art form (I'm serious), trust me, it would be much better and popular. There really is a terrible lack of adult entertainment. Perhaps a 2-player game for couples?

yehsure @ Mar 11th 2007 8:42PM

special controllers have been out for ages.

http://www.fu-fme.com/

yehsure

Anonymous @ Mar 12th 2007 12:18AM

@#4

Sexy Beach 3? Are you kidding me? There is almost no interaction between the characters in that game. The dick on the guy is a blur for a reason (It's not actually going in, nor does it exist) the hand isn't actually touching the boob (or any other part of the body) and is in reality suspended over the body of the girl.

If anyone needs an idea of why collision detection is preventing good sex games from being made (realistic rather, Sexy Beach 3 was a GRRRREAAAT game if you look past the fact that the characters never actually touch) just look at the game Counter-Strike:Source. The detection in that game is so bad that many find it unplayable. Characters clip into each other, and get frozen about every two seconds. If the pro's at valve can't even get it right, what chance does a porn game developer have?

And you might say that Sexy Beach 3 got modded with a real dick, and that the collision on the dick is fine, but go back and take another look. Every time the dick goes forward into the..uhh "Oriface" (Trying to keep this as clean as possible) the collision detection is not there, and the dick goes right through the girls back.

There is no solution right now =/

Bran @ Mar 12th 2007 12:34AM

how about people stop trying to have sex with their computer, mmmk? These developers act like most folks can barely walk past a knothole in a fence board without getting a hard on.

FSK405K @ Mar 12th 2007 1:10AM

Custer's Revenge! Sexiest game yet.

dbeech @ Mar 12th 2007 2:09AM

Just two words: Mo Cap.

BPM @ Mar 12th 2007 5:05AM

Anonymous:
The reason why the majority of Japanese-oriented adult content has the genitals censored is due to censorship laws in the culture, I believe. Or it is just how the culture is.

I'm not sure if it's still like this (my research into Japanese culture is a bit limited), but not only were genitals off-limits, but so was public hair, so most girls had none in adult content.
And intercourse was strictly forbidden in print! Which lead to the popularity of the tentacle monster and bukkake.

At least, I think that's how it is. If someone knows better, feel free to correct me.

Sex and games? Uh, Second Life, anyone? That "game" is so open ended, people can build, script, and animate anything, in anyway they want.

Personally, it doesn't interest me. But, I'm not going to play the moral police and tell everyone else they have to hate it, too.

Crono @ Mar 12th 2007 11:25AM

@Porn as art idea:

This is truly why I prefer hentai over real porn, and with japanese voices. The localization of hentai is horrible. They get real american porn stars to do the voices. I'm sorry, but they suck at acting anyway, and the voice over is always hideous. Maybe if I understood japanese the japanese voices would sound just as bad, but I don't, so it doesn't

Anyway, I've found that most hentai actually has artistic merit beyond the actual drawings. There is usually a plot that is taken somewhat seriously (even if it is stupid), vs real porn where everybody involved knows that each situation is just an excuse to have sex somehow.

ThePete @ Mar 12th 2007 2:42PM

Well, I'd like to second the Sexy Beach vote. I found SB2 to be a very satisfying (ahem) game and look foward to giving SB3 a try. I'm not sure why the things #13 talks about matter so much to him. I had no problem enjoying myself with SB2. I don't know why there's so much resistance to sex games in general, either. Which is more a part of our real lives? Sex or killing? Which do we do more in games? Something's wrong with that in my mind. That said, I think the Japanese Hentai game industry is decades ahead of the US and I don't understand why this "point of contact" stuff is the current excuse. Did unrealistic killing effects harm Space Invaders' popularity?

Dane @ Mar 12th 2007 11:26PM

We will be seeing sex game MMOs in 17 months.

sonykiller @ Mar 13th 2007 10:14AM

um...who the f*ck cares? i prefer the actual real life "contact" then some stupid sex game...and if there is a person who likes the fake sh*t more then they need some serious help!

Cassey @ Apr 12th 2007 2:27PM

I'm not sure if collision detection is a universal problem with these type of games. One Porn Game that I've seen where this is not an issue at all in 3D Plaything (www.3dplaything.com). Clearly you can see that some developers have the ability to include realistic nude body collision already.

I don't think its far off before the graphics improve as well on these type of sex games.