If there’s one sure-fire way to the hearts of gamers, it’s with what the ancient Romans called “teh b00bie5″. (Ed. note: Not really.) Seriously, sex in video games tends to get quite a bit of attention these days, and that’s from people that have never been in the Deeprun Tram tunnel late on a Saturday night.

However, like most other things, the subject of “grinding your epic” isn’t as cut-and-dried as it may first seem. Luckily, Kotaku ran across what may be the best treatment of this subject to date, done by Savannah College of Art and Design professor Daniel Floyd:

Notice the nods to Tabula Rasa and Second Life, but not much else MMORPG related.

This is a bit of a disappointment for me, since I was really looking forward to hot Tauren-on-gnome action in there somewhere.

I do have to disagree with one thing Professor Floyd says…I don’t think addressing sex in video games in a different manner is going to have the effect he thinks it will.

Admittedly, there’s nowhere to go but “up” when it comes to the problem, but the comparison with the motion picture industry isn’t particularly valid in this case; a better comparison would be with television (at least it would in my mind). Put the Mass Effect sex scene on Fox tomorrow night at 7pm, and let’s see how it goes over.

Heck, Janet Jackson’s NIPPLE caused quite a bit more controversy than any video game sex ever has, and her nipple had a tiny little hubcap on it at the time.

(Personally, as I look at the image on the right, the nipple cover she used isn’t really noticeable.)

The point is this…we can discuss games becoming a “recognized art form” all we like (and I’m all for that, btw…in my mind, a talented developer is nothing less than an artist), but we’re a generation away from games getting any serious artistic recognition…at least.

As I’ve said before, it’ll take time for the generation that has grown up with gaming a part of their lives to become the generation that holds the power, and until then, it’ll be an uphill battle (just like it was for rock’n'roll music). Why are movies and television (in some non-Lifetime cases) considered artistic efforts, while games aren’t?

Because even grandma can turn on the boob tube and watch Monday Night Raw or pop out to the local theater for a showing of “Saw CXXVIII” (your mileage with your grandma may vary), but they’re not quite into WoW.

Well, at least not after they reach the endgame and have to stay awake for the raid schedule.

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Tags: games, gaming, mmo, mmorpg, sex