I just finished watching the premiere of G4’s special report on sex in video games, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how detailed and informative the whole thing was.

The hour-long special was divided into two distinct half-hour segments — the first an historical overview of sex in video games, the second a more detailed discussion of recent developments in the controversy of the “hot coffee” mod in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

While at least one reader wasn’t that impressed with the history portion, I thought the producers did a good job condensing 20+ years of sex in gaming into one half hour. The usual sexy suspects — Leisure Suit Larry, Night Trap, Tomb Raider, Playboy, etc. — get their due time, of course, but the special doesn’t pass over more obscure gems like Gotcha (an Atari arcade game with breast-like controllers), Softporn Adventure (an early text-based game), and You Don’t Know Richard (a humorous, full motion video dating sim).

In between a whole slew of blurred out scenes of depravity (which included many noticably repeated clips), G4 threw in some interview snippets from a variety of developers and journalists (including a few freelancers. Whoo!). The comments were mostly dry description, but the interviewees managed to throw in some color commentary here and there. The general consensus: sex is a part of life and part of games, so get used to it! Hardly the objective insight we were promised. There were also some issues of pacing and content — I could have done without the minute or two wasted on a relatively tame scene in Golgo 13. All in all, a fair, if not stellar, retrospective.

The panel portion, however, is where the special, and G4 in general, really started to earn my respect. Host Adam Sessler was the real star of the show here, handling himself in a much more serious and composed manner than his X-play doppelganger. Throughout the segment, Sessler managed to ask tough and interesting questions without getting caught up in the emotional nature of the issue himself.

He asked Microsoft’s Ed Fries about the reality of how “removed” code might end up on a game disc. He asked IEMA representative Hal Halpin if the controversy has actually been a boon for sales. And he treated the token opposition representative, the Parents Television Council’s Melissa Caldwell, with respect and dignity, asking challenging questions without being accusatory (I did notice, though, that whenever Caldwell spoke, the camera seemed to not-so-subtly switch to one of the other panel members looking perplexed or unconvinced).

The panel was punctuated by short, pre-recorded informational videos, including one of the most clear and concise explanations of the whole “hot coffee” timeline that I have seen. Included in these pre-recorded sessions were satellite interviews between Sessler and the ESRB’s Patricia Vance and California Assemblyman Leland Yee, who both go over the usual talking points (Hearing Vance say “The system works!” and Yee say “No it doesn’t!” is only interesting so many times).

Other notes:

• There were some interesting back-and-forth exchanges between panel members, particularly between Caldwell and New York Times reporter Seth Schiesel on the role of sex in culture.
• Halpin took the game journalism industry to task for failing to recognize that IEMA-member retailers have a better track record of denying M-rated games to minors than non-member stores. Not like he has any reason to promote that stat or anything.
• Caldwell and Yee both jumped on Rockstar for lying about the nature of “hot coffee” when the story first broke, a PR strategy that will no doubt continue to bite them in the ass for a long time to come.

Overall, though, the best and most surprising thing about the panel discussion was that it failed to turn into an emotional screaming match between the two sides of the issue. Everyone remained calm, rational and respectful while making their points, and Sessler kept the general tone from veering into cable-news-style alarmism.I’d reccomend that anyone with a passing interest in the issues involved keep an eye out for the repeats.

Thanks to Chris Mautner of The (Harrisburg) Patriot-News for sending in the following (reprinted with permission. Links added):

Kyle,

I meant to email you about this when I first saw the post but . . . anyway, we got a preview copy of the G4 special that’s running tonight. I watched it last week and, well, don’t bother. While it’s not particularily salacious, neither is it very interesting. It’s just a run down of popular games that had sexual content, like the Leisure Suit Larry series, and doesn’t offer up any thoughts on what made these games stand out, or what it’s like to develop games with X-rated content or where the industry is heading sex-wise. Honestly, it plays like one of those VH1 specials, with a lot of shallow information being thrown around but not anything of any real depth or significance being said.

Thanks for the thoughts, Chris. I actually tend to like those cheesy VH1 specials where they mention a lot of pop-culture detritus from the ’80s or list the top 100 music videos featuring exploding cars or something. For a big issue like this, though, I think a little more gravitas is necessary. I was hoping the round-table discussion part of the program would satisfy in this regard, but Chris seems to think otherwise. I’ll be in front of the tube tonight at 11 forming my own opinions, which will be posted here here shortly after the program is done (no live-blogging this time, unfortunately).

In other G4 news (and I know there’s been a lot recently), the network is teaming up with Gamespot to produce two epsiodes of CinemaTech this Thursday and Friday. Gamespot has been leaking information about the collaboration on their Web site, and the result seems to be an odd mix of piece on video game appreciation, recent history, gender equality and, um, pretending. The trailer on G4’s site teases with even more glimpses at the content. Quite a departure for a show that usually focuses on straight gameplay videos.

Thanks to G4 for sending me word of their upcoming special on Sex in Games, which premieres August 23 at 11 p.m. They also sent along links to an “exclusive” trailer for the program in Windows Media and Quicktime formats. The best part of the trailer is the guy saying “Yeah, I got some” about a sex scene in Golgo 13, of all things. A close second for “best part of the trailer” is the disclaimer that says it’s “some parents may find unsuitable for children under the age 14.” Who sets these ages? Some parents might not find it suitable for anyone!

Based on the trailer and the press release, it seems like the hour-long special will be one-part Icons-style history of sex in video games and one part roundtable discussion, which the release says will allow “political pundits, retailers, game developers, and concerned parents will be invited to cut through the noise of the ‘Hot Coffee’ controversy and explore the real issues surrounding sexual content in today’s videogames.”

The press release also says the special will provide “objective insight about how sexuality is used in games” but a few of the people in the trailer seemed pretty opinionated on the subject (like Hugh Hefner, for instance) . Perhaps they meant to say that it will be balanced, which is different but still good. The release also includes G4 Vice President for Programming & Production Peter Green calling the network “an authority on the videogame industry that happens to have a show about drift racing.” I may have added that underlined part.

All kidding and nitpicking aside, though, it should be interesting to see G4’s take on this issue. Part of me thinks the show will be informative and serious look at the issues involved and part of me thinks it will just be an excuse to show some sexually explicit game scenes on G4. The truth will probably end up somewhere in the middle, but I’ll be sure to let you know which side it leans towards after the premiere.