Highlights
- Baldur's Gate 3's launch has been surprisingly successful, with over 800,000 concurrent players on Steam.
- The game's nudity and sexual themes have sparked controversy and debates on social media about their acceptability.
- Arguments and comparisons have been made between the game's portrayal of nudity and sexual themes and censorship in anime and Japanese games.
Baldur’s Gate 3 surprised even the most optimistic commentators with just how successful the game’s launch has been. The latest instalment in the legendary series peaked at over 800,000 concurrent players on Steam over the weekend.
Popularity often breeds controversy and Baldur’s Gate 3 is no exception. The game’s nudity and sexual themes have caused quite a stir on social media, sparking back-and-forth debates about the acceptability of some of the more mature content present in Baldur’s Gate 3.
For those unfamiliar, Baldur’s Gate 3 contains full nudity. You can choose the type of genitals that your character will have, and you can strip down every character to their barest form if you so please. In addition, there are explicit sex scenes and a myriad of other sexually-charged situations that occur naturally while playing the game.
It’s important to note that Baldur’s Gate 3 is rated mature by the ESRB and has a variety of options to turn to hide genitals, cinematic nudity and sex scenes.
There has been some anger among social media users over the blatant nature of the nudity, as well as numerous questions on why Baldur’s Gate’s nudity is being celebrated while past sexualisation in video games was vilified.
The debate has also been wrapped up in a conversation about sexualisation and censorship in anime, as well as Japanese games. Fans of these subgenres argue that Western gaming fans are hypocritical for celebrating nonchalant nudity in Baldur’s Gate 3 while simultaneously maintaining that censorship in anime and other Japanese media is necessary.
People are countering the above argument by saying that the majority of censorship in Japanese games is being directed by Sony and other publishers, not because of popular opinion. Sony is known to censor games in order to comply with Japan’s CERO rating system.
Meanwhile, those in favour of keeping Japanese content censored argue that Baldur’s Gate 3 handles nudity and sexual themes in a more mature manner than Japanese content, avoiding the fetishes and tropes that people find problematic.
Another recurring argument dredges up past criticism about a scene in Mass Effect 2 where Commander Shepard is speaking to squadmate Miranda Lawson about her past and the camera inexplicably stays focused on her rear. This scene was re-animated for Mass Effect's Legendary Edition.
Those arguing this point suggest that it’s hypocritical of people to criticise this scene in Mass Effect 2 without also criticising sexualisation in Baldur’s Gate 3. Of course, this ignores context. The oft-maligned scene in Mass Effect 2 was out of place, appearing during an emotional conversation between Sheperd and Miranda. The cinematic nudity in Baldur’s Gate 3 is within context and makes sense.
Barring the usual conservative talking heads that abhor all sexualisation in video games, the other arguments tend to drag Baldur’s Gate 3 into unrelated squabbles. For people who were confused about the loose discourse on social media regarding this topic, we hope this article helped explain things.