@mikelemmer said:
I suspect if the girls acted like they enjoyed the touching instead of asking the player to stop, people wouldn't be so squicked out about it. As-is, this is one of those times where my in-game ogling crosses the line from "entertaining diversion" to "uncomfortable commentary on my behavior".
This is my line in the sand kind of thing. I have no issue with sex games or games with sexy content, whether that’s costumes, fanservice, or whatever. I mean, I don’t go out of my way to buy those games, but I have played them and even enjoyed some of them from time to time. Also, what people decide to spend their money on or their time with is their business.
As a teenager, I tried out Commodore 64 strip poker games just to see what was up, making sure to do it when no one was around to catch me. Really, I was just curious about what a game like that was and how it could be achieved with such limited graphics, that and I really liked playing poker. Recently, I’ve tried out Huniepop, which is a pretty enjoyable match 3 game with anime relationship and sex stuff being the wrapping. But, in all of those cases, I feel like the other characters in the game were willing participants. I didn’t experience people recoiling in horror and saying no as I tried to do what the game wanted me to do.
I just don’t like the idea of a game that wants you to grope someone (man, woman, anthropomorphic potted plant, etc) that doesn’t want to be groped and is emphatically telling you to stop.
Now, pair that with VR, which is pretty much in its infancy and you could have some issues arise from this. VR has games/experiences where people can congregate with others, and there have already been stories written about real people in VR not respecting the boundaries of other real people, or how harmful that kind of harassment can be to the other party. It may be in a VR space, but those people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. With a developer created character, that is something that isn't as important. As a player, you know your limitations and how willing you are to push boundaries. At the end of the session, you know that the character that you were with in VR was just polygons and programming. However, I think that we can lose sight of what it a real person versus a fake person, in a VR environment, and perhaps do something to someone that goes much too far.
I'm not implying that this game will lead to someone in a multiplayer or social VR environment groping another user, but I think that it is something to consider. We already have people acting like online threats and harassment are somehow less real than saying it to a person's face in real life. Is that going to be the argument for VR going forward? Well, it's not real, it's just virtual reality? I didn't grope or hurt you, I groped your avatar? The thing with VR is that it feels real, or is supposed to, so the person at the other end of that possible harassment will feel like they were groped or hurt or threatened, whether it's in virtual reality or not. That scares me as a woman who would like to try VR someday, wallet permitting, and would also like to remain feeling safe and secure as I experiment in that virtual space.
And, as someone who feels empathy for people expressing human emotions in a game, I feel like I couldn't get any type of enjoyment out of groping someone who doesn't want me to touch them and is verbally pushing me away, if not physically trying to push me away. Maybe some people want that experience in their games, but I find it to be highly offputting. I guess it doesn't matter much, because I wouldn't buy a game like that. It also doesn't matter much because it's not technically coming out in our region. Still, I look at this and feel like it would be nice if all of the women involved, even though they aren't real, were enthusiastically consenting and having fun, because I couldn't see myself having fun at their expense. :/
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