Friday, July 02, 2004

Sex and games
Terra Nova had a post a while ago about sex and games. I have to say: It's about time it was talked about!

Ren Reynolds talks about rape in online games and sex in online games.

All the MUDs I played for my research addressed this issue. The first, World's End, didn't permit sex beyond making out, babies appeared miraculously. But they did exist. The second and main one, Dragon Realms, addressed the sexuality by not rewarding it. Rape roleplay was not permitted. Torture play had to be consensual, by way of a note to the administrators. Sex, cross-species or what ever, was just ignored. There were warnings posted though: don't give out your address, you never know who you are playing with. Aarinfel had MUDsex rules, as T.L. Taylor pointed out, quite ambivalent. There was a long list of warnings, and then it ended saying "Mud sex is safe sex". The many rules (mainly about rape) and warnings were an indicator of exactly the opposite: it isn't safe.

But it can be. As long as people use protection... erh, don't give out email, addresses or names, it is as safe a mutual fantasy as you can get into. And it happens, all the time. We should aknowledge it.

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