In the seventh episode of Meaningful Play, we discuss sex and romance in games once again! In this much anticipated part two, we talk about sex with greater consideration, asking how sex, as well as the distinction between sex and romance, is discussed within the relevant academic literature. Moreover, we discuss depictions of sex and romance in games that we believe are excellent, and those we believe are disappointing, in terms of their reflection of sex/romance in contemporary culture and society. We conclude by discussing what we would like to see from representations of sex and romance in videogames in future releases.

Games: 

Detroit: Become Human, The Last Door, The Sims (series), Custer’s Revenge, Super Mario (series), Doki Doki Literature Club, Dragon Age (series), Red Dead Redemption II, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, VR Chat, Tomb Raider (series), Remember Me.

References: 

Consalvo, M 2003, ‘Hot Dates and Fairy-Tale Romances: Studying Sexuality in Video Games, in, M. J.P. Wolf & B. Perron (eds), The Video Game Theory Reader, pp. 171-194. Routledge, New York, New York.

Krzywinska, T 2015, ‘The strange case of the misappearance of sex in