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Petition to Toggle off Boobies in Age of Conan?

May. 7 10:06 PM by Mark Burnham

As you may know, the upcoming MMORPG Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures has a...well, incredibly curvaceous and voluptuous (and other 'ous words) female character: Keaira, a close associate of King Conan, and a source of secret information throughout the land. If it's me, I'm guessing she gathers information by use of her sparkling personality; but if it's you "nerdcore" junkies, you're probably thinking it's on account of her big, beautiful, bulging, bra-busting, bountiful, buoyant, bitchin', bouncy boobs. But don't sell her short like that.

Whatever though, Age of Conan will most likely rock in its own right, regardless of cup size. However, 1up.com reports that one gamer has started a petition on the official AoC forums, requesting a toggle to turn off the nudity in the game. Which is pretty rare, for a gamer to request censorship.

And here we are yet again, greeted with the why-is-sex-worse-than-violence question. In a game rife with violence, pillaging and such, why turn off the sex, and not the violence, as the 1up writer pointed out.

But before you WTF yourself to death over this guy, take a moment to see his perspective. Violence is a part of gameplay, and has been even before Mario learned to crush Gumbas to death. Part of the rush of playing a game and having fun is the cathartic release in pummeling your enemies into dust. But sex? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that a whole OTHER type of cathartic release, one that seems strange when it's so aggressively presented in a game? If games are supposed to be moving closer and closer to an art form (if not there already), then shouldn't they stay a notch above SkiniMax? And it's not like they're hiding her boobs, either. She was included--boobs a'bouncing--in the December, 2007 issue of Playboy, as a part of their "Girls of Gaming" feature.

Don't get me wrong: if you like a bit of MMO with your breast ogling, you are (I think) constitutionally permitted to indulge, and even perhaps further inflate Keaira's jugs to your satisfaction. But there's still something about it that feels like it's moving in the wrong direction.

The way I see it, at the very least, if you don't want to be taken in by that Hollywood-esque manipulation of men to drive sales, you should have the option to play the game sans-wood. So to speak. No? I wonder what others think about this. Feel free to comment.

Comments

I don't really feel that boobies belong in video games. I mean, how does that improve the gameplay?

The answer is that it doesn't. It's just a damn gimmick. How much waisted time given to implement boobie physics could have instead been used to further polish the gameplay?

Developers just aren't making any sense anymore. It makes me fear for gaming's future.

 

Who am I to say what artists should or shouldn't include in their work? I encourage all artists to follow their vision. If their vision includes bare breasts, have at it. If their vision includes a bare breast toggle, so be it.

 

The key word here is gratuitous, meaning "for the hell of it". I don't feel that the use of nudity in a Conan game can be considered gratuitous.

Anyone that knows the original source material knows that sexuality is just as much a part of the Conan universe as violence and sorcery, so in order to depict the world faithfully, a certain amount of nudity and sexual themes are going to to be present. If you are not mature enough to handle such things (ie if you giggle and say "boobies") then you should probably consider playing a different game.

Now if Kairi bares all in Kingdom Hearts III, well, that would be gratuitous.

 

I agree Art. If you can't handle the Conan universe, don't play the game. I also add impose your values somewhere else, I get enough of your intervention in everyday life I don't need it in my games. Sure peanut butter goes good with chocolate, but you are no chocolate mr. self imposed censor man/woman.

 

I stand by my comment. Tits or GTFO

 

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