Performers working in the games industry have spoken of their distress at being asked to work on explicit content without notice, including a scene featuring a sexual assault.

Sex scenes are common in modern games - and are often made by filming human actors who are then digitised into game characters.

But performers have told the BBC a culture of secrecy around projects - where scripts are often not shared until the last moment - means they frequently do not know in advance that scenes may involve intimate acts.

They describe feeling “shaken” and “upset” after acting them out.

Performing arts union Equity is demanding action from the industry - it has published guides on minimum pay, and working conditions in games, including on intimate or explicit scenes.

  • TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    1365·
    3 months ago

    Sec scenes are common in modern games?

    Y’all I’ve been big into Armored Core 6, Stardew Valley and Factorio lately what have you been up to?

    Edit: I’m being flippant, the idea that an actor could have such a thing sprung on them is awful and I hope they get the protections they deserve.

    • Zagorath@aussie.zoneEnglish
      31·
      3 months ago

      I know you’re being flippant and it definitely is a real issue, but my first reaction was the same. I’ve played plenty of games with some sexual content in them, but never one with sexual violence other than implied, and usually even the consensual scenes were fade to black, or close to fading to black. I was a little surprised to hear that this is going on.

      • Zahille7@lemmy.worldEnglish
        61·
        3 months ago

        I’ve played GTA: San Andreas, and I don’t think there’s anything overtly sexually explicit in that one (besides the Hot Coffee thing, which still isn’t that bad? It’s simulated sex acts while the characters still wear their clothes). Even Cyberpunk has like two sex scenes (I never went to the joyous besides for that one mission) that you only really see tits from a first-person pov.

        Though I realize that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.

    • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.eeEnglish
      16·
      3 months ago

      Baldur’s Gate 3 immediately comes to mind. You can fuck bears and mindflayers in that game.

      EDIT: Oh hey, they’re in the article in a good way!

      Baldur’s Gate 3 addressed this by employing intimacy co-ordinators - dedicated members of staff tasked with ensuring the well-being of performers in explicit scenes.

    • flamingos-cant@feddit.ukEnglish
      196·
      3 months ago

      Not to be that guy, but Stardew and Factorio both came out in 2016 (early access for Factorio). They’re nearly a decade old, so I’m not sure they qualify as modern.

      • Just_Pizza_Crust@lemmy.worldEnglish
        181·
        3 months ago

        Considering Factorio is still in development and has a major upcoming DLC release, I’d call it modern. Plus the modding scene is still pretty active.

        • SaltySalamander@fedia.io
          11·
          3 months ago

          The Skyrim modding scene is pretty damn active too. Yet I still wouldn’t consider it modern. Stellaris as well. Still receives DLC, modding scene is amazing. Still, nearly a decade old game, and it shows.

          • cynar@lemmy.worldEnglish
            3·
            3 months ago

            Most of the work on facturio has been on the underlying engine. Factories that would bring a high end PC to it’s knees, at the start, now race along on a mediocre PC.

            The factorio devs don’t play factorio in the game anymore, they play it with the engine. By the results, they are both a team of geniouses and completely addicted.

        • flamingos-cant@feddit.ukEnglish
          6·
          3 months ago

          EU4 has received continuous updates and DLCs since it came out in 2013, but I wouldn’t call it modern (still love it though).

          • Just_Pizza_Crust@lemmy.worldEnglish
            6·
            3 months ago

            I think “modern game” is really a semantics thing tbh. Like, is Age of Empires 2 a modern game, old game, or ancient game? I think it really comes down to how you’re playing the game, rather than the year of original release.

            Worms: Armageddon is another example. Is it an ancient game because of its release date, or is it a modern game because people are developing new rules and scripts to play the game by every year?

            • Zagorath@aussie.zoneEnglish
              5·
              3 months ago

              Aoe2 is a modern game. And it’s the only modern game. Everything else is a distraction.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        Edit: I put that Saving Private Ryan meme here, but it ended up rendering really huge, so I’m gonna remove it.

    • vaionko@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      7·
      3 months ago

      If you don’t have mods giving you graphical sex scenes os Stardew Valley, what have you been up to?

    • Noodle07@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      3 months ago

      Playing path of exile, I’m horrified at the idea of a sex scene

      (maven feet though…)

    • iamtrashman1312@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      3 months ago

      For real, this. I’m playing everything from nice fluffy casual games to M rated horrorshows and I don’t remember the last game I played that had a voiced sex scene. A few horror titles or indie games have certainly included sex or even sexual assault, but not voiced.

      BG3 is fine and good as noted by another commenter (haven’t actually played it myself), so what games are you guys playing?