There lot of good points on this page. First of all, to re-iterate, this thread is about the explicit sex scenes. Not romance, not the fact that BG3 romances lead to sex, and not violence/swear words. The scenes themselves.

Quotes:
Originally Posted by Sozz
Now a lot of those same stories are allowed to be more explicitly for adults, and feel it's necessary to earn their rating in order to be taken seriously, a lot of the time it feels shoehorned in, like they're checking it off a list (which they probably are). So we get stories made for adults or children instead of for both. I don't think it's as bad as all that, but its true that all the best sci-fi shows I've seen of the past decade probably wouldn't be available to me as a kid, and that's including Star Trek which is kind of sad.

Originally Posted by Gray Ghost
There's a whole spectrum available between "No nod to even the existence of sex" and "Full on porn scenes" and I think it's unfair to equate not wanting the latter with wanting the former. [...]

Originally Posted by Garold_izAravii
What is the mature and healthy way to approach it? You are not the first person who uses these words. What do they even mean?
I think that answer lies in how the narrative itself deals with its contents. Does it actually call on the viewer/reader/consumer to think about what's going on? Does the game just HAVE sex, or does it deal with sex? Deal with it in the sense of characters reacting to it, having thoughts and feelings about it. Or is it just there in a way that could be theoretically excised without the point of the narrative changing?

Originally Posted by Wormerine
My impression was [BG3] sex scene was closer to cards from Witcher1 or videos from Yakuza game - naughty rewards for the player. That’s the main reason for my contempt for it, and if it will stay that way, I would welcome an ability to just automatically skip those. Larian is more then welcome to surprise me with their 1.0 release, though.
All the above ties into the question: What purpose do the sex scenes in BG3 serve? Are they actually important to the story or character/relationship development? Or are they just an erotic reward for players, maybe that Larian has included to partially justify the rating of "Mature"? My current opinion is that the sex scenes are mainly the latter, and thus could be removed (or made optionally fade-to-black) without affecting much of import.

An additional consideration is whether these scenes affect further-down-the-line companion romances and/or game opportunities. If I reject Lae'zel and don't have sex with her, can my romance of her continue? Or must I accept and view the sex scene in order to get closer to her? If I reject Minthara, do I lose out on information and options regarding Moonrise Towers? (I'm curious about this. Does Minthara give you information the morning after regardless if you sleep with her?)

Last edited by mrfuji3; 31/12/22 05:36 PM. Reason: highlights