Third Person Shagger

Going back to my last, rambling and barely coherent, post, I ended up concluding that violence in computer games was basically harmless, as most people can tell the difference between reality and fantasy. I'm guessing that most people would agree with this. But I set to thinking - what if it wasn't violence which was being portrayed? What if it was sex? Imagine if people were playing a game - let's call it a 'third person shagger', perhaps - in which their avatar has to have sex with as many game characters, in as many positions and combinations, as possible in order to gain points? Would we think that was OK? I suppose that you could argue that as long as the sex was 'consensual', in that the avatars on the receiving end weren't coerced, then it might, just about, be considered relatively harmless. But what if you could commit illegal acts in the game, in much the same way that players can commit 'war crimes' in war games? What if players were able to virtually 'rape' other characters? What if they were able to engage in sexual acts with 'underage' characters in the game? Suddenly, what seemed OK if it was confined to committing acts of fantasy violence seems morally dubious.

The argument that experiencing violent computer games could desensitise players to real life violence seems more plausible if you substitute 'sex' for 'violence'. After all, wouldn't such hard core sex games represent the ultimate in the objectification of women (you can guarantee that they'd be mainly aimed at, and played by, men)? Doesn't seem more likely that people who play such games might be more likely to commit sexual offences against women in real life? Or can we just dismiss such qualms, saying that people can discern between reality and fantasy? After all, is anything I've described as happening in these hypothetical 'third party shaggers' any worse than the average bloke's masturbatory fantasies, (actually, I don't know whether peadophilia features in such things, but most men certainly admit to having rape fantasies), and the overwhelming majority of them don't go out and rape for real, do they? Or is it possible that because such games would make these fantasies 'consensual', allowing participants to realise that they are a shared experience, that players would think that they were somehow, OK? Frankly, I don't know. All I know is that I've now confused myself as to my attitude toward violent computer games! I suppose it's a bit like pornography - it's easy to say that it is basically harmless as long as the women involved haven't been coerced. After all, they're complicit in their own exploitation, aren't they? But then you have to ask yourself, would I feel the same way if it was my girlfriend/wife/sister/daughter/mother posing naked, for thousands of strangers to ogle at their bodies and probably whack off over? Not so harmless now, eh?