Sweet Merciful Crap: Full Frontal Nudity in Lost & Damned

[DoctorFinger]

Are you one of those enterprising souls who have already downloaded the GTA IV DLC: The Lost and the Damned? Then good news, you've downloaded what will almost certainly be the most controversial game of the year! Why? Full frontal male nudity, of course!

Yes kiddies, there is fully digitized virtual junk in the game. And not a fleeting glimpse either, as you can see if you click the 'more' button and watch the video of the encounter over at Gamevideos (behind an age gate, of course). The main character has a meeting with a Congressman who is receiving a full body massage. Near the end (the 3:08 mark to be precise) the Congressman stands up and is completely naked for about 20 seconds.

How big a deal is this? Pretty big, but in general for the wrong reasons. It's just a fact of life that we're much more accepting of female nudity than we are of male nudity. However full frontal female nudity hasn't appeared in any ESRB-rated console game which I'm aware of, and certainly not as...boldly as in The Lost and the Damned. This will certainly set off a firestorm of epic proportions, and the usual media hounds are certainly prepping denouncements as we speak.

On the other hand, some will hail this as a step forward for the maturation of the medium. Are they right? I'm not sure. It's certainly a clear provocation by Rockstar; the nudity itself seems to have no bearing on the story. By doing it so casually and pointlessly it may actually discourage other developers from pursuing tasteful nudity for story or gameplay reasons. Only time will tell

Source - 1UP.

[Mdot]

Push that envelope, Rockstar.

[TheFlyingOrc]

Well, as part of SKBOMM, the Society to Keep Balls Out of My Media , I'm against this.

[Nura]

Kind of reminds me of the "penis-shots" in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall".. those were totally uncalled for aswell :P

[zarathstra]

::shrug:: Its digital junk. Big whoop. Its not like I don't see the real thing every day.

[SilentScreams]

Man...I defended Rockstar over the whole Hot Coffee thing, but now they're just asking for it.
I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but they know they're going to get a lot of shit for this stuff, and yet they keep doing it.
I actually hope they get some kind of punishment for it.

I wouldn't even care if it added anything at all to the game, but it really doesn't. They're so obviously doing it just to get some attention.

[bapenguin]

Yeah, this is totally a comedic thing.

The ESRB really needs to get their ratings in line with the film ratings boards, then all of this can be a non issue.

[TheFlyingOrc]

Yes, Rockstar. We will take your big, adult story so serious. SO SERIOUS. Make sure that all the radio stations make immature dick jokes and that you show lots of comedic penis, though. That's the best way to be taken seriously.

Bunch of children.

[opsin]

They're just getting us ready to deal with Dr. Manhattan!

[Gorvi]

Originally Posted by TheFlyingOrc

Yes, Rockstar. We will take your big, adult story so serious. SO SERIOUS. Make sure that all the radio stations make immature dick jokes and that you show lots of comedic penis, though. That's the best way to be taken seriously.

Bunch of children.

That's basically the impression that I got from the 2 hours I played of GTA4 so far. It's mature in the way that movies like Meet The Spartans are "mature".

[c0m3d14n]

Originally Posted by DoctorFinger

How big a deal is this? Pretty big

^^ it seems very inanimate maybe they dont have enough experience animating this bodypart

[TheFlyingOrc]

Originally Posted by Gorvi

That's basically the impression that I got from the 2 hours I played of GTA4 so far. It's mature in the way that movies like Meet The Spartans are "mature".

Right. They're roughly what a 13-year-old thinks of as "mature".

[DoctorFinger]

Originally Posted by c0m3d14n

^^ it seems very inanimate maybe they dont have enough experience animating this bodypart

I though my double entendres were pretty restrained. Read the 1UP link, or the Joystiq article and you'll see how out of hand the joke can get.

[Bingley Joe]

Yeah, that was completely pointless and is only going to get people all jibbery for nothing.

Maybe I could swallow the 'pushing the envelope' argument a little better if the GTA games weren't already so trite and sophomoric, but sadly this amounts to nothing more than another lame dick joke in an endless stream of them.

GG, Rockstar.

[National Kato]

Originally Posted by SilentScreams

I actually hope they get some kind of punishment for it.

Originally Posted by TheFlyingOrc

Bunch of children.

I wonder if these would be the types of comments posted had the nudity been female?

It's obvious Rockstar is doing this for shock value. But they've been doing things like this for awhile, so it's no surprise. It's also no big deal. I think society spends too much time worrying about nudity anyway. The people who get up in arms about this kind of thing typically don't have much else to do.

[Panthera]

Personally, I'm pro-penis.

[TheFlyingOrc]

Originally Posted by National Kato

I wonder if these would be the types of comments posted had the nudity been female?

It's obvious Rockstar is doing this for shock value. But they've been doing things like this for awhile, so it's no surprise. It's also no big deal. I think society spends too much time worrying about nudity anyway. The people who get up in arms about this kind of thing typically don't have much else to do.

I'm not that shocked by it, I just think that its high time for their potty humor to end.

Had it been full frontal female nudity (which is actually kinda hard to display strongly in a non-pornographic context), I would have probably said manchildren, not children. They aren't "artfully expressing the human body", they're doing the equivalent of fart jokes. This is not to be applauded.

[Telefrog]

Is it wrong that I don't care about seeing virtual junk? I'm just not sure why people get in such a tizzy over stuff like this. The GTA franchise has never been a kid-friendly set of games, so why should this matter?

[National Kato]

Originally Posted by TheFlyingOrc

They aren't "artfully expressing the human body", they're doing the equivalent of fart jokes. This is not to be applauded.

Well, I'm sure the industry will eventually design games that meet the standards you are demanding. Until then, I still don't see the big deal.

[TheFlyingOrc]

Originally Posted by National Kato

Well, I'm sure the industry will eventually design games that meet the standards you are demanding. Until then, I still don't see the big deal.

I'm insulting them on the internet, not calling people in arms to censor them. It isn't a big deal, you're just grouping me with the opinion of some other people.