sex in games and films is usually hopeless eg curtains billow and we cut to a train rushing into a tunnel. there was one memorable sex scene in a film (i don''t know what) when a man and a woman disappear into a room. their young son wants their attention but sits on the top stair, waiting, clicking his heels, knowing what is happening. if the child''s reaction was spun out into a major plot thread, is it a potential mine of tension.

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Subtle sexual tension is a good technique, and can''t be underestimated as a plot driver as well as tension builder.

Developing sexual (or sensual; face it, if you get the audience turned on even a little, both do the job, and the latter will be predominant until the sexual tension reaches payoff anyway)
tension cannot be separated from character, imo.

Well developed characters have a particular personality, behavior and physical self. That means they get turned on as unique individuals (for some people it''s flowers, some people it''s a good grope, for other''s it''s a subtle dose of body language).

Never underestimate the vicarious power of observing a character we already have empathy for getting turned on in a way that would not turn us on, because we are different people from our character.

It massively increases empathy, and avoids the mass market technique (and artistically amateuristic sign of the ''didn''t develop it specifically enough'' creator) of using guidelines that will get the most people excited rather than turning on *our* particular character, whom we may not have that much in common with characteristically, but for whom we will have a much more sympathetic response to.

More importantly, will feel greater *general* tension empathically because we observe the character we have empathetic ties to humanistically experiencing vulnerability and pressure that anybody can face when experiencing such a tension building situation.

To understand the power and subtlety of what I am talking about, let me illustrate. It''s the difference between a great looking cocktail waitress htat everyone would agree was a hottie plopping down a pitcher full of beer and frosty mugs at your table, dipping her rack only for you and obviously to the astonishement of your friends, or, watching another table across the room at the same bar and you observe a hottie that is not the type that you find particularly attractive, and you observe her melting for some guy you don''t even know.

Get the difference, subjective and objective (or direct and indirect) developments of sexual or erotic moments and situations makes an extreme difference in how your player will interpret the action, and accordingly respond. This is something you will have to watch very closely in playtesting. Anybody can animate a hooter''s girl, but how will you handle watching somebody you have empathy for who is not somebody you are directly attracted to experiencing a moment of being massively turned on.

The major difference, besides the sensitivity clearly distinguishing the hooters approach and the sentient observer approach to building sexual tension is that the observer gets to go where they want to go by indirect method, whereas this is not achievable through direct display or staged methodologies.

This is part of the fourth wall technique of dramaturgy, as well, for the literary cogniscenti among ye.

Further, if we were to add another level to the tension building technique, we could say that in this bar chicks are getting turned on all over, but none of them are to you. Or, the reverse (as my personal experience has oft been) they are all trying and vying to do the same to you.

Which brings me to point three. If your character is male, realize that the females in the game you decide to animate suggestively (I''m assuming a heterosexual game or situation) should be animated (and I will use the term animate to include the walk, the talk, the look, the moves -- comprehensively as it were--) as naturally as possible, in that:

Women once turned on a little, like to simmer, so build your tension slowly. Remember the rule, men are microwaves but women are ovens. Two, thwart the flow of excitement from time to time with a little misunderstanding, either communicatively or physically. It shouldn''t flow too easily, remember, the woman is making a big decision in getting turned on, because she knows she doesn''t turn off that easily. So, a little impediment like her qualifying the credibility or the character or the sincerity of the suitor or potential paramour is quite warranted.

Of course, if all your characters are eighty seventh degree black belts and seventy fifth level mages at the same time, all perfectly handsome and beautiful and eighteen with great hair, then, maybe all they have to do to get a kiss and a little is to save one another''s life and depend on ''magic'' to sweep them off their feet, but hey, that''s been done, and won''t get you on the map.



Four, we have to understand the environments in which this stuff occurs. Love can happen anywhere, and indeed it does, but sex is a weapon, a tool, a crime in some cases, you really have to know the myriad of dimensions when it can be applied, as well as the degrees in which it can be applied, from the softest touch and the sparkle in the eye, to the toss the salad move. All are valid, but also all have just a few valid applications in any one aspect of a story.

Building the sexual tension will also depend on how long the characters have known each other, usually most characters by design have first met not long ago, as nature takes it''s course in fairly short order in the biological time scale.

And, sexual tension needs to be devided into two categories, one, is is just sex, or is it romantic intimate physical bonding? The two can look a lot like the same to the objective observer, but to the participants, can be quite different. As the player or observer is invested in one or two of the characters empathetically to a greater or lesser extent, how the tension maninfests as a part of the relationship of the participants of the act of sexual tension will be directly relevant to the response your player has.

Last, but not least, remember the old entertainment adage that ''in the end, the guy gets the girl.'' There''s a lot to be said for not getting to the goods too soon, and in not getting there, show in as many different ways as you can just ''how good the goods are.''

Many a relationship has been ruined (and I am talking about the audience/player and the character they empathize with) by too much, too good, too soon, unless that is the way you exposit the relationship for the purpose of later reinforcing the relationship when they break up and get back together. This is a technique usually reserved for a love story, and would likely be a subplot in a game that contained any action, but it might make a good mata hari aspect to some other genre of game.

In any case, the bottom line here is to really, really know your characters, and that is only the result of character development.

By doing this, you have the opportunity to develop how they do and don''t get turned on, then every move you think you could ever categorize and synopsize takes on a whole new level of interpretation by the player/observer.

And, it allows you greater developmental freedoms in how the character can react, avoiding the gushing schoolboy/schoolgirl approach followed by the ''oops I bumped into you and wow we fell down'' and ''then we fell to the ground and wrestled like pythons after staring into each others eyes like a cobra hynotizing a rabbit for the longest time'' (hoping the audience would suspend disbelief on the basis of hormones instead of feelings of passion built up over time based on hopes, attraction, challenge, encouragements, and more).

HTH,

Adventuredesign, of course

Wow! A rare, insightful and well-thought-out mini essay . Armed with these kinds of tools, people really should be building deeper stories: the observer techniques you described would only suck up a few seconds of cutscene time but the rewards would be immense.

Implementation is probably the biggest problem, should we look to films, Walkabout and the like, for a role model?

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quote: Original post by walkingcarcass
Wow! A rare, insightful and well-thought-out mini essay . Armed with these kinds of tools, people really should be building deeper stories: the observer techniques you described would only suck up a few seconds of cutscene time but the rewards would be immense.

Indeed they would, and when it comes to audience, rewards is all you want to be thinking about.

Implementation is probably the biggest problem, should we look to films, Walkabout and the like, for a role model?

I look to life, but then, I have a rich life when it comes to women. I think films would be a good place to start, and most of the great love approaches and techniques have been cataloged there (it''d be great if you were making a love and passion game, dude, I''d write it for you) (hmm not a bad title, now that I come to think of it)

It would really depend on what about sex you want to portray in context and relationship to your game, that is really going to be your guide, otherwise you will have to go to the trouble that I did for the research on one of my books, and creat a database of love and passion, of which sex is a single table.

In such a guide, one could postulate the times that the potential passion interest were to appear to the one that falls in passion with them, this has been traditionally early in the plot line. Then, prudently choosing what circumstance the individual is in when the introduction is made (I used the word introduction loosely, for it can mean one is introduced formally or socially through an intermediary, or, one could see a stranger cross a crowded room, and have no idea who that hottie is, but hey, boy, your in love at first site) {and the steps to hell immediately commence} makes a big difference in how the audience responds.

If you show it extrinsically (he turns to his friends and says, wow look at that gem, stay away, she''s mine or I''ll kill you) then, your going to get one kind of reaction from your target audience (and audiences demographic is critical to their response range, and you can write to that response range).

If it is intrinsic, and he sees her by himself, and booiinngggg! The earth moves and it''s all his reaction with nobody intrinsically to share, then that elicits another type of response. Generally, though this is not true always, cause it''s the nature of the beast, men are extrinsic and women are intrinsic.

Another factor will be of course, when the female decides to show the potential suitor the goods or the doors when he first approaches her. I would experiment with women in my real life, get a sense of how it works generally, then take what you know to be true, and apply it to the personality of the character you''ve designed.

Remember, no pulse in the writer, no pulse in the audience.

HTH,

Adventuredesign, of course

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