For all the hand-wringing over the years about sex in IRC, sex on the Web, sex in virtual worlds, and all the creepy dangers and terrors awaiting us, I figure it’s about time to just finally throw up our collective hands and say: where there’s a way, there’s porn.
This time, instead of it being the Lindens defending the presence of sex in a virtual world, it’s the execs over at EA Games - defending um, Spore sex, which arrived with its Creature Creator release:
“Within 24 hours …gamers had gone creature-crazy, designing millions of critters that were all thrown into a database and shown on a YouTube channel for the public to see.
But scrolling through the database — past the three-legged sea horse, past the seven-eyed wildebeest and the half-motorcycle-half-pig — revealed something many users didn’t expect. Buried among the more wholesome attempts were two-legged dancing testicles, a “giant breast monster” and a four-legged “phallic fornication machine,” for starters”
According to CNN this is a downside to, well, letting people be people:
“For EA, the developer of “Spore,” it’s the downside to tapping into the booming user-generated content arena, which has made sites like YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, Facebook and Second Life so popular. These games and sites often allow people to create and host their own content in addition to creating cartoon personas, called avatars, for themselves.
Many of the popular user-generated content sites have faced similar challenges in trying to control obscene material. In Second Life, users can read Slustler, a cyberporn magazine, or buy programs that allow them to have animated sex with other characters.
“Whether it’s modeling clay, dolls or crayons, a small number of people can be counted on to use it for something vulgar,” said Lucy Bradshaw, “Spore’s” executive producer.”
Some call it vulgar, others call it a romping rollicking good time that brings in new users!
Only question is whether you’ll need to age verify if you want your phallic fornication machine to populate a planet.
I just don’t understand why people even care about this type of thing anymore. Look at cultures where everyone is exposed to sexual stuff in normal, casual, ways through their entire life. All those people are perfectly fine people, and those societies seem to be doing quite well. The world doesn’t end when a kid takes a peek at a breast or a dancing penis. Maybe more and more games should be like this so it will become IMPOSSIBLE to stop it. Then, people won’t care, it won’t be ‘dirty’ anymore. Sometimes people are just completely brainless.
*Nods*
It’s the word “downside” that I find disturbing. Not to mention the word “control” - I mean, it’s not so much control in most cases as it is flagging it so that parents who so choose can make sure they have a way of making decisions with their kids.
Anyways. Don’t get me started, I’m from Canada, where sex is as natural as ice hotels and strong beer.
I really hope this won’t ruin what has the potential to be a really cool game. Not so much the actual “sporn” itself (c’mon, it’s not THAT hard to ignore it), but rather the inevitable overreactions to it…
[…] I was reading Dusan talking about EA Game’s Creature Creator for Spore (AKA Sporn). The point seems to be that where ever sexuality is repressed, it creates a […]
[…] also been trying to deal with the plethora of sex-oriented rooms (much as EA is trying to sort out Sporn), it all just goes to prove that code without policy is an invitation to a […]