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?)
Someone like Minthara might withhold information if you refuse to sleep with her and thereby insult her pride, forcing you to accept the consequences of your choices and seek another path/clue to continue your journey, like a role-playing game might have you do. Lae'zel might not ever be interested in romance at all and is only interested in carnal fulfillment. Shadowheart clearly isn't interested in rushing into things, and wants to make you work for it.
The Lae'zel gripe is funny to me, because I remember years ago being incensed at the fact that in Dragon Age Inquisition that I couldn't romance Vivienne. I was playing a Mage and thought she would be the perfect match for him, but she just laughs you off, no matter how much approval you gain with her. You will never get everything you want exactly the way you want it. If Lae'zel doesn't want to romance your ace character, that's part of her character. Romance is partly a matter of opportunities, or rather missed one's. If you turn someone's advances down, they're not obligated to wait on you like Hachiko. Lae'zel will hook up with someone else if you reject her. People move on and look elsewhere for romance if another option makes itself unavailable or unappealing.
You can absolutely use sex and sex scenes to meaningfully gleam into character psyche and motivation, and advance the story, and if players are titillated along the way, who cares? You can play an ace celibate paladin who will not be tempted and follow the pure path of no-fap.
Things can be both erotic and of narrative significance.
