Nudity in video games is a controversial topic that has been discussed by gamers for years. In recent months, fully detailed naked NPCs were found in Watch Dogs 2. This attracted a lot of controversy causing Ubisoft to remove some of them from the game. However, as I explain below, I don’t necessarily agree that it should have been removed.
Firstly, lets look at a TV series that I have recently watched titled ‘Westworld’. Westworld features nudity and sex but has not come under too much scrutiny. The reason for this is because it is not excessive. The program features nudity because it needs to in order to fully tell its narrative of a wild west theme park and what real life people would do if a park like that was invented. In real life, many people would go there to have sex with the human like robots and because of this, it is accepted that Westworld contains nudity.
However, in another programme I watch titled ‘Game of Thrones’, the sex is too excessive. Game of Thrones is based in a misogynistic world where it is widely believed that women are inferior to men with the creators wanting to show women like Daenerys rising above the sexism. Because of this, it is okay for the programme to show men sexually dominating women as that is part of the world it is based in. However, the show goes too far, showing lots of nudity and sex in nearly every episode for no reason necessary to the narrative. This is what has caused Game of Thrones to come under a lot of scrutiny, with people refusing to watch it because of its excessive amount of sexual scenes. These two examples show that in TV shows, people accept nudity and sex as long as it is not too excessive and if it is relevant to the plot.
Now I will go back to video games. Many video games (including the Grand Theft Auto, Saints Row, Witcher and God of War series) contain some form of nudity. But the question is, should video games like this contain nudity/sexual scenes?
The easy answer is yes, as long as the nudity/sexual scenes are not excessive. In GTA 5 for example, the character can visit numerous strip clubs placed throughout the game world. The game features fully topless women within the strip club who you can hire to do private lap dances for you. In my opinion, these are okay as Trevor, Michael and Franklin are the type of people who would go to strip clubs and it helps to build their characters. However, if there was a strip club in Watch Dogs that you could visit and get lap dances at, I wouldn’t be okay with it as the main characters in Watch Dogs and Watch Dogs 2 are freedom fighters and not the type of people who would go to a strip club for a pass time.
Lets go back and look at Watch Dogs 2 and its naked NPCs. I have seen two scenarios on the internet in which people have showed videos or screenshots of the nudity in the game. The first one is the screenshot shown above which features a female prostitute with her genitals exposed. The second one is a video which shows a naked homeless man relieving himself against a wall:
As I said above, I wouldn’t think it would be appropriate if you could visit strip clubs in Watch Dogs 2 as it doesn’t match the personality of the character you are playing. However, the game is trying to show a corrupt dark city that needs people/hackers to fight for it to make it a better place. Having a homeless man relieving himself up against a wall helps to give the impression that the city if corrupt with the rich looking down upon the poor. This matches the atmosphere that the developers wanted to create in the game and so I think that it is okay to have this kind of nudity in Watch Dogs 2 as it helps to show the faults in society.
To conclude this article, I think that nudity is not too explicit for video games and can be used as long as it is necessary for the story or helps to build the atmosphere of the game world and isn’t too excessive. Developers should only show nudity when it is required and not just to advertise their game or please gamer’s who like that type of stuff. For example, in Beyond Two Souls, there is a scene when Jodi takes a shower. The game does not show any of Jodi’s private parts as there is only a need to show her head and the top of her shoulders. Showing her private parts would be too excessive as there would be no need in the situation.
Do you agree with my points in this article? Do you think that nudity is too explicit for video games? Feel free to let us know down in the comments.
