The last panel at PAX 2008 was the highly anticipated discussion on Sex and Violence in Videogames between former Nintendo executive Perrin Kaplin, Grand Theft Childhood co-author Dr. Cheryl K. Olson and What They Like Inc., president John Davison. Moderated by Newsweek tech writer N'Gai Croal, the trio attempted to dissect the mainstream media misnomer that "videogames are toys" with both informative and hilarious results.

The 2008 edition of PAX's Family Feud could have easily followed the "Sex and Violence in Video Games" panel, because it too had a healthy dose of sex and violence. Really, PAX Family Feud (or should we say Family Freud?) could best be described with three adjectives: entertaining; intense; and overly sexual. As attendees clapped to the Feud's theme song music, both teams (sans Joystiq readers, for shame!) answered questions ranging from, "Name a power-up used by Mario," (yay for fire flower!) to "What's your favorite Penny Arcade character?" Fruit "lover" got our vote.

Everything was quite tame, albeit a bit verbally violent as the show's host received constant heckling from the audience due to his sometimes ... questionable hosting abilities. But then things turned towards sex, sex, sex when Feud players were asked, "What do you do when the electricity goes out at home?" We thought it to be an innocent enough question, but then we remembered that PAX attendees answered the questions. As a result, things got interesting.

The use of sexual content in video games is not exactly the industry's proudest bullet point. Daniel Floyd, a student of Savannah College of Art and Design (home of noted game designer Brenda Brathwaite), has produced a nine-minute video that lays out sex's relationship with video games pretty well.

Floyd covers the history, the current state of affairs, and how we might progress as an industry in incorporating sex in a mature way. Admittedly inspired by Zero Punctuation, the video is very entertaining and easy to follow. Check it out and get educated.

[Via Rock Paper Shotgun]

After offending the easily offendable with slightly off-screen sex in God of War and God of War II, it seemed like a no-brainer that the somewhat adult mini-game would making a return for the PSP's Chains of Olympus. Well, that mini-game has now been revealed through an NSFW video posted of GameTrailers.

This time around, the urn and peeing statue that maintained the camera's focus in games past have been replaced with a deliciously suggestive candle (pictured above), which we have to say is an improvement. We can't help but wonder, though, where they'll go next for their suggestive imagery. Rock formations? Vegetables? A lighthouse? Hmmm, they'll probably be OK.

Warning: The below video contains adult content.

It's been a week since Fox News ran a largely ignorant news segment on the the brief, minor and optional sex scene found in Mass Effect. The crew of Loading.Ready.Run have produced a satire of the news segment for our enjoyment. All the important interview tactics are present, from the gaming supporter being frequently cut off mid-sentence, having his mic turned off, and the host giving loaded questions and descriptions ("full on hardcore porn sex ... with freaky alien chicks"). The acting may not be top-notch, but the snark is.

For a summary of events surrounding Mass Effect so far, including head-turning comments by Jack Thompson, check out this post. Video embedded after the break.

[Thanks, Pattmyn]

The Singapore Media Developmental Authority has reversed its decision to ban Mass Effect from the country. The game will go on sale next week and have an M18 rating. According to The Strait Times, the Board of Film Censors will selectively use game ratings on high-profile games until January, when they expect to initiate a game classification system.

The decision to ban the game earlier this week spurred from a lesbian love scene found in BioWare's anticipated RPG. The Strait Times also noted that Assassin's Creed was released this week with a rating for graphic violence.

If a human female and a humanoid alien who is classified as female want to express their love in a physical manner, who are we to interrupt the natural order of the universe? According to Singapore newspaper The Straits Times, the government's Media Development Authority has banned BioWare's Mass Effect from sale in the country.

As reported by Reuters, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said, "the city-state should keep its conservative values and not allow special rights for homosexuals." The lesbian scene was posted on GameVideos earlier this week before Microsoft asked them to remove it.

[Thanks, Mitchell]

A Reuters report yesterday took an interesting angle on the conclusions of the Casual Games Association's recently released 2007 study. While others commented on the casual space's size and growth, Reuters decided to focus on how men are lying, stealing bastards when it comes to casual games.

According to the CGA report, while men are just as likely as women to play casual games, the fairer sex is much more likely to pay for these games (women make up 74% of paying players). What accounts for the difference? According to Retuers, men are "more determined to find a free version or try to thwart anti-piracy protections on games." Or, y'know, they could be playing the copies their wives bought. We hope that's it, because finding a crack for a $20 game of Peggle is just sad.

But that's not all -- the Reuters report also reveals that men are more likely to hide their secret casual gaming shame. "The hardcore gamer who is playing 'Halo' with his buddies isn't going to brag that he just beat the next level of 'Zuma'." CGA Managing Director Jessica Tams told Reuters. And if they won't cop to playing Zuma, what are the chances they'll admit to an undying love for Flower Shop: Big City Break? Not large.

Well it's time for the healing to begin. Men, use the comment thread below to come out of the casual gaming closet and announce to the world your proclivity for matching gems and dashing between diners. We won't judge you ... much.

WoW Insider has an extensive feature on an erotic roleplaying guild disbanded by Blizzard in World of Warcraft. The guild, originally named Abhorrent Taboo, which now goes under the name Vile Anathema, apparently engaged in extreme kink typing and roleplaying about subjects like "Ageplay, Bestiality, Child Birth, Watersports" and "any other kink those playing may wish to explore." After complaints by other players, Blizzard disbanded the guild saying, "This matter is not one Blizzard takes lightly in any way, shape or form, and we do not wish to have this topic continue circulation ... Let it finally be said that we appreciate those of you who brought this particular issue to our attention and that we will continue to follow up with this matter in the future to ensure the safety of all parties concerned."

The issue gets murky in terms of public perception because of some comments made by the guild leader which became public. The guild leader allegedly said, "I want to defend us, but I also want to defend the pedosexual community." The key point here is that the guild leader is talking about pedophiles who don't actually molest children -- the thought isn't illegal, the real-life action is. So are people who engage in that fantasy while roleplaying in WoW (while in private chat with a consenting individual) doing something wrong? Of course, this is an extreme example.

There are also issues about age verification for the erotic guild. Many general-purpose guilds have age guidelines set up for the comfort of their members. It's also easy to argue parents should be doing their jobs and monitoring their child's online activity and who they associate with. This whole issue is full of deep social and sexual questions, but in the end it is Blizzard's game. We're not expecting the World of Warcraft sexual revolution anytime soon.

And because we couldn't resist, (it's an oldie but a goodie as) WoW meets porn and Broadway after the break.

The picture above is about to get NSFW in one frame ... in just one frame it goes from normal marketing cosplay to borderline furry pron. GameTrailers put together a Girls Gone Wild-esque segment of all the Leipzig booth babe fit for video (which we have placed after the break). We joke, the video is very tastefully done, as tasteful as one can get editing together flesh shots meant to titillate. On some level it's great culture context, for our puritan American eyes, public displays of boobies burns us they do.

Leipzig obviously takes a different approach to displays of the female form than E3. Although it was a moot point this year, the last "real" E3 had a ban on booth babes. We re-emphasize that the video after the break is not safe for work, don't come crying to us if your boss catches you -- although, for all we know, he might be into furries.

A sex program for virtual world Second Life has forced its owner to hire real-world lawyers to hunt down the identity of a person who has been allegedly reselling his work. Kevin Alderman, who created the sex program and owns Eros LLC, makes realistic genitalia and creates sexual moves for Second Life citizens. He's been doing it for about four years now. An avatar named "Volkov Catteneo" stole the code Alderman created and has been reselling it. When Alderman confronted the avatar, the person behind it said, "What are you going to do? Sue me?" And that's exactly what Alderman is trying to do.

Linden Labs, who owns Second Life, says they are unaware of any other real-world litigation going on between customers of the game. The key to this suit is that items created by users in the game are "owned" by them, along with the copyright. Although this suit involves the titillating concept of sex, it's your run-of-the-mill copyright infringement and theft story. Alderman's suit does not specify damages but his lawyers are currently subpoenaing PayPal records and putting together the virtual paper trail of theft. Fred von Lohman, a lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, locks it up saying, "This seems like a relatively straightforward case. It sounds like there is a real copyright issue."

Every other week, Bonnie Ruberg contributes Playing Dirty, a column on sex and gender in video games:

Like every good story, a good game needs a conflict. Sometimes the conflict is obvious (aliens are attacking Earth, you're trapped in a haunted mansion, someone is trying to kick your ass). Other times, it's less obvious (blocks are falling from the sky, the timer is running out, if you don't collect enough cherries you'll never get that bigger house). Whatever the conflict is though, the goal of the game is always the same: to resolve it. Maybe you kill the aliens, or kick his ass, or fit the blocks into perfect rows. The important thing is you win by overcoming conflict.

My question is this: What kind of conflict is there in a sex game?

With a title such as Hotel Dusk, you can see that the Ninendo DS market is interested in more mature titles -- but just how mature? Eric Caoili of Joystiq sister site DS Fanboy has amassed a list of five homebrew titles that show the DS for the sexual deviant mainstream media has occasionally labeled it.

The prevailing parallels between each title is that sex is a predominant theme, but it is tackled in a shallow and surprisingly softcore fashion. As per the usual sex-themed titles found online, the gameplay itself is a simple minigame with little thought required to succeed (the one exception is Virus DS) and, as Caoili quips, R-rated movies feature more taboo content.

What we'd love to see is more mature content, but we'd also like handled in a mature way. For the games industry to tackle more serious topics like other entertainment industries do would be a step in its maturity. And, for the games intended for more private sessions, even those in the homebrew community, how about a little more effort put into their development?

As Caoili notes, adult titles are not going to come from major publishers anytime soon. If you want to see these games proliferate and grow, you have to support the homebrew scene. The linked article is for adults only and is most certainly NSFW.

After designing a Pong controller built into a bra (touch the left cup to move left, the right to move right), Jennifer Chowdhury heard the term "gamer widowhood" where men essentially abandoned their wives in favor of playing video games. This got the ole gears turning: could a game actually bring couples closer together? Behold the solution: Intimate Controllers.

The idea is simple: a dozen sensors are built into a matching pair of boxers and a bra. The couple wears the undergarments and watches the game screen nearby with their hands placed on each other. At various points in the game players will need to touch certain sensors on their partner in order to progress (yes, let your imagination run free with that one). After watching the video, you'll realize there are many, many reasons you'll want to get further in this game.

Jenny's thesis project is a fascinating concept, and we're not just saying that for obvious reasons. Playing video games with other people is a form of bonding, but the Intimate Controllers take the idea and run with it. You get to play a game, and there's lot of groping going on in the process. We really don't see a down side.

[Thanks, Steve]

Much like Michael W. Smith circa 1990, adult video games (read: sex-based) are looking for their place in the world. But the industry's lady lumps are faced with some significant humps to get over, first and foremost: Their games aren't sold in stores. But in speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, many publishers of adults-only titles seem to be optimistic about their future in a gaming retail landscape that is increasingly digitalized.

The piece (by Joystiq contributor Bonnie Ruberg) makes a compelling case for a day in the not-too-distant-future when sex games will be able to find a real foothold, citing publishers like Manifesto Games who are willing to take on adult titles and developers like Brad Abrams of VirtuallyJenna who are finding outside-the-box ways to promote their games. The article also notes the increasing size of the Sex and Videogames Conference, held annually -- in our pants. Actually, the venue hasn't been announced yet, so while it could be our pants, we'd bet on San Fransisco. Not that we'll get an invite now. Unfortunately, there's no mention of homemade sex games becoming more popular, which is bad for us, because we had a great joke about XXXNA. ... Actually, that was the whole joke, so we're fine.

[via GamePolitics]