The Dead or Alive series has long drawn the ire of lefty culture critics, especially their beach volleyball games which feature scantily-clad women whose breasts operate under one of the most cutting-edge physics engine in gaming.
Well, Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 released a video demoing their soon to be released VR mode, and journalists are losing their minds. The gaming media is in full on moral panic mode, with articles like Engadget’s “‘Dead or Alive’ VR is basically sexual assault, the game” and News AU’s “PlayStation VR game Dead or Alive 3 has a feature promoting sexual assault of women.”
Sure, the demo video is pretty creepy. You’re basically poking this girl and with some strange object as she pulls away and cries out. You can also put your face in her boobs if, uh, you’re into that. But some of these articles decrying the game imply that this virtual simulation will lead to real life sexual harassment.
This debate has been raging about video games for decades, and there is not much evidence to prove a correlation between real life violence (sexual or otherwise) and simulated violence. Just because someone somewhere touches a computer woman’s boobs does not necessarily mean he will go out in public and sexually assault someone. This idea is known as cultivation theory and is propagated by moral crusaders and many game journalists (god knows why).
But if DOA is causing this much of a stir, what about what’s to come? There is already VR content available that makes this demo look like a Gloria Steinem seminar — such as a VR sex simulator which combines a headset, a fleshlight, and plastic boobs to grope (NSFW link for the brave).
Culture critics will no doubt find the future of virtual reality sex to be even more problematic. As we speak, hordes of horny techies are pushing the boundaries of the technology to serve up the most realistic virtual sex mankind has ever seen (or heard or felt). An article on Venturebeat brought up the ethical dilemma of rendering real-life people to have sex with in virtual reality without their consent. Is it free expression or a violation of their privacy?
The future world of sex in virtual reality is a strange and scary place. There’s no sense in panicking over one demo.
