Ken Levine: sex in games is "silly"
"It’s a puppet with its clothes off."
Developers' general reluctance to include sex scenes in their games is probably for the best, BioShock mastermind Ken Levine has claimed.
Only a small handful of studios have dared try, and for good reason, the Irrational Games boss explained in a VG247 interview.
"I think it's not about being interactive. I think it's more about people not understanding what it is," he said.
"If you think about the amount of, for example, nudity in a videogame... it's not even nudity. It's a puppet with its clothes off. There are other problems as well. It's kind of silly in videogames right now, because – again – puppets with their clothes off.
"It's more like Team America. The sex scene in Team America as opposed to, you know, the sex scene in Black Swan," he added.
Levine did however go on to argue that the fact that there is even a discussion on the topic shows that that the games industry is still suffering from an image problem.
"The fact that's even controversial says that the perception of the industry is that we're making toys or something, as opposed to making creative expressions for a range of audiences – including adults. I think there's still some prudishness.
"There's even some prudishness in the industry itself. I did an interview recently and someone pointed out, 'Ken, you use a lot of foul language.' And I was like, 'Jesus, come on. We're all big boys and girls here.' If I'm going to drop an F-bomb, I'm going to drop an F-bomb. I'm a big boy and I get to do that. It's one of the privileges of being an adult."
Levine's next game, the presumably copulation-free BioShock Infinite, is due on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 some time next year.