Love Sounds

Today's "Staff Pick of the Day" in the Asset Store is "Signature Sounds Of Playstation : Blood, Guts, and Gore". The Unity staff chose this to highlight today.

The description says: "...the Blood, Guts, and Gore Signature Set will make you cringe as you listen to life-like bone breaks, knife stabs, blood gushes, organ manipulation, and more!"

Imagine if someone made an asset like the following: "Signature Sounds of Sex: Love, Passion, and Orgasm", with a description that says: "...the Love, Passion, and Orgasm Signature Set will make you tingle with delight as you listen to life-like kissing, moans of pleasure, skin on skin, organ manipulation, and more!"

Would Unity approve that asset for the store? If the the sound of snapping someone's neck is ok, what about the sound of making love?

I'm just curious.

PS. I edited the last paragraph of this post slightly to avoid having it seem "trollish".

PSS. Read the exciting conclusion(?) here!

 

This is a stupid thread. You're creating a hypothetical controversy in your own head, then acting self-righteously angry about it. You're trolling for attention and clawing for a fight. Come back when you have a report of a sex sound asset actually being rejected, and I, for one, will take you seriously.

 

Make war, not love!

 

What controversy did I create? I asked if Unity would approve the asset. Steam certainly wouldn't sell a game with sex in it, but they will with death and violence. It's how the game marketplace works. I'm simply asking if Unity would approve the asset, and if so if people would get all bent out of shape. So far, you seem to be bent out of shape just because I asked.

 

You assumed they wouldn't, then got "bothered" about it.

 

As an aside ...

To me, it's just sales hyperbole. When I listen to the "signature sounds," all I hear is squishing ... which could be a person walking across flooded carpet for all I can tell. I guess you have to use your imagination to turn it into gore sounds.

FWIW, a person could take some of the groans in the SFX department of the store and use them for sex sounds. It might even be funny.

 

They will to a certain extent. The Witcher, GTA, and the newest Thief all have racy content. The issue comes when the game exclusively focuses on it, or is too hardcore about it.

 

You're right, and I stand corrected on that point. What I should have said is Steam won't sell a game where sex is a primary game-play element, but they will where murder is.

But this isn't about Steam, it's about me wondering if I spent the time to make some sexually focused assets, would Unity approve them for the store, or would it be a waste of time. Aside from sound effects, there's a also whole range of animations that could be sold, etc.

 

Doesn't steam sell leisure suit larry games?

 

Maybe so. Is there actual sex in those games or is it just alluded to?

 

You do bring up a valid point. It does seem like violence and destruction are very welcomed in the gaming industry, but sex is often seen as not kid friendly enough. I honestly doubt Unity would approve a sex themed asset. Maybe somebody from Unity will say one way or another.

 

Well, in a way, it IS about Steam. If you make a game with your Assets, where ya gonna distribute it?

Options:
1. Steam
2. Mobile. Apple is quite restrictive about these things. Google Play is less so, but still pretty restrictive.
3. Game portals. Most won't allow it, though there are exceptions, such as Newgrounds and Gamejolt.

 

Thanks. Yeah really that's my question, if Unity would allow sexually focused asset. Hopefully someone will come in and shed some light on it.

Option 4: Develop adult games and market them outside of Steam, mobile stores, and game portals.

Option 5: Develop and distribute via MiKandi on the Google App Store, which if you're making mobile games, great, but if you make PC or Mac games, not so great.

Number 4 is the only real option for developers making PC (not mobile) games that feature sex as a game-play element. There are exceptions I'm sure, and I have no doubt someone will chime in with one, but as a whole, games focused on the joy and pleasure of sex are simply not welcome in traditional game development circles.

 

This is wonderful idea for new audio asset. I'm going to start work in it right away.

 

Woo! I look forward to hearing it.

 

Yeah you definitely have some marketing work ahead of you. But hey, there's a target audience too!

 

I detect potential for trolliness, but I don't think this is (yet) a troll topic. Specifically, I don't believe that @Ony is trolling, her question seems legit and phrased in a level-headed way.

As for whether or not it would happen, I don't honestly know. I know that at least in the US, we have a double-standard concerning sex and violence (violence as a rule is OK in any work; sex is only OK on television and movies, though. We wouldn't want to overly piss off the moral guardians.) That said, Unity is a Dutch company if I remember right (I could be thinking of M2H games; as a "Yank", my hereditary deficiency in geography could be fooling me into thinking that those two companies are relatively close to each other.) I remember that much of the world has different cultures, with different outlooks on sex, so it may differ.

Do I agree with this system? No, not really. Could it figure into if Unity Tech would accept such a sound pack? Absolutely, with all of the recent sex-related issues in the gaming press, it'd make sense some troll would sniff the sounds of orgasms sooner or later and come a-trawlin'. It might even get on Stephen Colbert.

On that note, while this is a good topic in terms of culture and ethics, I also can't help but feel this topic is way too soon. The 'GamerGate' B.S. is still (barely) a thing, but I don't feel that talking about it will do good until the emotional temperature falls to a point where we can be much more likely to have an intelligent conversation about this, without having extreme views using this as a platform to make noise, instead of having all of society's stakeholders negotiating a solution to real cultural and ethical issue set.

 

Im sure theres a niche market for sex games although i dont know if steam would allow it on there platform. There is one with 8 million users already so it would be a tough nut to crack.

You could email the asset store and ask them if they will accept a sex based asset, although id have to guess the answer is no -- otherwise there would already be some in the store (considering its 4 years old now).

 

I don't really see how this relates to GamerGate to be honest, or that it's "way too soon," since... too soon for what? I'm pretty sure everyone so far in the discussion is keeping civil. I haven't seen anything to indicate otherwise, nor have I seen any extreme views aside from the first helpful commenter who said the thread was stupid. That's pretty extreme, but hey, he's welcome to his views, and since I didn't engage him any further past my initial reply to him, that particular line of discussion was quelled.

This is a game developer forum. I'm a game developer. I'm asking about game development and possible markets within that arena. I'm not here to change people's minds about sex, I'm asking if Unity would approve a sex focused asset for the store. They approve and showcase violence-focused assets, which to some people are just as incendiary, and I wonder if they would approve a sex-based one. The answer so far from the crowd seems to be "maybe, maybe not, just shut up about it." I'd like a an answer from Unity if possible, so I, and other developers, will know one way or another.

In my opinion, any potential market for development is one worth exploring and discussing, whether someone wants to personally get involved in the discussion or not. Regardless of people's personal opinions, sex is a thing just like violence is, and I wonder what Unity's stance as a company is, not as personal users.

 

Unity's asset store agreement section 5.10.2 says they will not accept anything that is "pornographic", so they might disallow it. However, in the same sentence, they say they will not accept anything "violent" either, and they seem to let that slide...

 

10. Other Questions?
Please feel free to email us via assetstore@unity3d.com if you need further assistance. We look forward to seeing your submission!

 

Yeah that throws me off as well.

 

Too soon for good taste; as I said in my post, there are times when it's a good idea to let things finish cooling off. While I would say that first poster was in part a reasonable bit of evidence towards that argument - it's still a bit of a sore point, thus still potential troll-bait - you're right too that the rest of us, me included are keeping things civil.

I'm expressing a concern that, while this discussion is good and worth having - something we agree on, it makes no sense that one primal thing is always OK while another has extremely stringent rules put on it for arbitrary cultural reasons - that whether or not it has yet become a fully good idea, is in question.

If by this, you mean you don't care for some responses your getting (I'm assuming mine, for brevity's sake), I will submit that a forum post may not have been the best avenue available to you to efficiently ask your question of Unity; it is possible to ask them directly, the 'Get In Touch' form would let you get their direct feedback more easily and without feedback that could be upsetting.

 

Email sent. Here is what I asked:

"Hello,

I was wondering if you allow assets for the Asset Store that focus on human sexuality, as in sex sound packs, sex animations, etc. If they were packaged tastefully, with no explicit screen shots, would something like that have a chance at approval?"

I guess that wraps it up then. Hopefully they'll let me know, so I know. I'll report back here with their answer for anyone else wondering.

 

It appears you may have got the wrong idea from my response regarding Unity's stance as a company, not as personal users. By "personal users" I meant the Unity employees and their personal opinions on it, should they choose to reply. What I'm looking for is an official company based yes or no. The responses I've got so far are perfectly fine and not bothersome in the slightest.

In any case, I've sent an email for a proper reply.

 

As to the why, I think it's obvious: the general Western attitude, especially the American one, is that violence is great but sex is scary and is best avoided, or shown very carefully and only in certain ways. Unity's a business; they'll do what they think will get them the most support from their customers, and usually that means culturally going with the flow. If you do business in a culture where violence is normal but sex is controversial, you're going to be reckless when selling violence but careful when selling sex.

 

Dunno, I'm not bothered. Make one and put it up for sale, lets see if it works.

 

Well, there is the Hectaoncheir battle in Final Fantasy XIII. Listen to Vanille's battle sounds...it may remind you of something. (Start at about 2:00)

 

From scientific point of view - I think there is a valid reason for this. As human we are way way wayyyy overpopulated compare to other species of our size. "Perhaps the power that be" is just telling us to "reduce" the population. Encouraging "procreation" AKA sex in this increasingly overpopulated world is just adding more problems, not solution.

From morality point of view - violence that resulted in reduction of population will actually decrease conflicts; while overpopulation will just result in more violence and death over resources.

 

I'm not so sure that sex games lead to real-life procreation, just as violent games don't (necessarily) lead to real-life violence. I could be wrong, but then that might open a whole can of worms best left for other forum discussions elsewhere.

Annnyyway... I wrote to Unity, and I await their reply. Any further discussion about sex in and of itself, and cultural views towards it, etc. that aren't about game development will lead, I'm afraid, to a locked thread.

 

I worked on a game for a UK company a while back and one thing we did was look at the rating specifications for both the UK and the US. The UK was stricter about violence but rather permissive, by US standards, regarding sex. The US was the opposite, rather puritan about sex and much less concerned about violence. I found that fascinating. It makes me rather sad our game is now developed in the US because I would prefer to put sex in the game and keep my T rating than be given the opportunity to put in more violence!

 

The west has a population below replacement. If the powers that be wanted to lower the population they would follow japans lead and start investing with more robots and not immigrants.

Japan to Invest in Robots, Not Immigrants, to Provide Healthcare for Aging Population
http://thespeaker.co/japan-invest-robots-immigrants-provide-healthcare-aging-population/

 

Don't know if it would get approved. Probably not, but its definitely a useful pack for any game that has a love scene or two. The game doesn't have to be sex oriented, or have sex as the primary gameplay element. I for one plan on having love scenes in future games here and there, or rather intros to love scenes, and would buy this.

Also just a side question, don't the sounds of sex require the actual, or aproximate, voice of the characters from your game? Might be a con of the pack.

 

One problem with this is it's hard to know exactly where to draw the line. Sounds are one thing. But the next guy comes in with models, completely rigged and animated! The next guy comes in with particle effects, and, well, you get the picture.

 

For clarification, are you talking about sex assets or violent ones?

 

So sleepy took me a sec to realize what you mean by particle effects. lol
But true, allowing one thing will give more power to other things such as what you listed, and people would complain about how sounds are ok but not the nude models.

 

Sex ones ... that's the topic of this thread, right?

Heck, someone might even make a game starter kit.

 

Given that the thread is about "sex" and "violence" in the asset store, I just wanted to be sure. In the recent thread about the "Hatred" game some people were outraged at the violence and the question came up about "where to draw the line" as a developer, so the question exists for both subjects.

If it was allowed in the store, I think that would be interesting. I might even do it myself.

 

I'm refreshing the New Posts list at work right now... this topic heading really needs to stop coming up for everyone to see

...damn... and this is going to bump it again.

 

I changed the title to "Love Sounds" for you and anyone else who might need it.

 

Neither violence nor sex in video games bothers me.

Certainly, if sex was much more common place in games available on mainstream distributors, then more conservative people would complain about them being too crude, and more progressive people would complain more about them being sexist. That's already happening, as restricted as it is, even though these things are already common place in other forms of media and outside of mainstream distributors. Of course, some of them would be very crude and some would be sexist, but there will always be some people who would complain either way even if that was not the case.

I've never seen a sex scene in a game that is anything but cringe worthy though, so maybe when someone actually gets it right then people would be more receptive to the idea.

I also feel like people are very aware that someone actually had to hand craft every detail of a sex scene in a game, and a lot of people are uncomfortable with watching it, or being able to take it seriously at all. Same thing for cartoons or CGI. Films on the other hand are a lot easier for the viewer to pretend are real, and books allow the reader to fill in most of the details for themselves because it lacks sensory input and is more ambiguous.

 

Nice

 

sex game starter kit? that sounds something going to change the internet community

 

I think there's a difference. Not saying it's correct. But we have these laws in the US about what is considered "obscene." It's a cultural thing. It's ok to portray violence, because that's natural and acceptable, sex and nudity are unacceptable and should be regulated into the peripheral..

 

You don't think the human body is natural?

Why is portraying violence "natural and acceptable" but somehow our bodies are not "natural and acceptable"?

I've never understood why so much of society finds gratuitous violence more acceptable than minor nudity. Everyone has a body. Thankfully, not everyone thinks that violence is a normal part of life.

 

That was my point.

 

Fair enough. Despite your clearness to the contrary, I somehow interpreted the quoted part of your post as your opinion. Friday afternoon fever, I think.

Anyway, I don't think that it'd necessarily be a good thing for games to start featuring gratuitous nudity the way they do gratuitous violence. I do think it'd be a good idea for some games to re-think the level of violence they portray and/or how they portray it - it doesn't offend me or anything, but I do often ask myself "well... was that really necessary?" and I do think it detracts from dramatic effect in many cases.

 

I think that's hilarious. And observational.

 

When I saw the gore sounds on the store I was more surprised to see that Sony is releasing unity assets. And what an odd debut asset indeed.

 

It is a sinister plot to get indie makers to stack the violence, blood and gore to such a level, that they all require M ratings and are unable to compete with Sony's lower rated games. As a plus, it will cause such an outcry in the media, that Unity's value will fall and Sony can buy them up for a song.