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My partner has been playing a lot of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl & I'm fascinated by how horny this game is despite a pretty non-horny setting and plot (not that "thinking a lot about the state of your body in a place where space & bodies have mutated; thinking a lot about the relationship between body and mind and consciousness" can't be horny—sure can—but it's also very cold dirty slog + cerebral, so, a wash).
And I think it's 50% the FKMT effect : if your misogyny is so fundamental that it doesn't even occur to you to include female characters even as sex objects/love interests, but your all-male cast is still going through life or death situations, then you have accidentally constructed an intimate, pressurized all-male space, in other words: you accidentally made it intensely gay. (Of course FKMT isn't the only one who does this—this is half of why slash is such a phenomenon—but maybe no one does it better.) In STALKER 2, Skif has a bad case of main character syndrome: he comes from nowhere to prove to be exceedingly competent and meet every major player in the Zone, all of whom are vaguely sexy in rugged power fantasy white male way, most of whom end up in life or death situations with/because of him—lots of potential, waiting to be explored via...
And it's 50% the argument made in Polygon's why skeletons are so important to video game animation video: the more bespoke or finessed an animation, the more corporeal and real (and therefore sexy) the characters feel. While STALKER 2 is a little "we are actually an indie studio, thanks" re: production quality (voice acting, mocap, lipsync), it's also ridiculously physical, chock full of bespoke animations and enriched by some cute head/camera movement, see this scene of the conversation with Richter. There's no reason for Skif to balance and jump around over the junkyard! Except the blocking balances the cerebral conversation, so there's playfulness, characterization, and so much physicality in Skif playing, in the flick of his gaze towards Richter, in the tension of his balance.
The result is stuff like (these scenes are all a little later in and consequently a little more spoilery) "is that him? yay here's the key to my special suite if you'd like to sleep in my bed!" and Skif can do a little strangulation, as a treat and the cigarette scene that proves my point by being an exception to the rule (this being one of the 3.5 female characters in the game) and this incredible cutscene fight. In a time when first person player characters still tend to be a little telekinetic (and certainly STALKER 2 doesn't make you reach out a hand to pick up every bandage and box of bullets), the realism in this first person camera and the wealth of bespoke animations are physical, substantial, dynamic; which means tense and violent, which also means horny as hell. With half a dozen slightly oversized male characters who all meet Skif for 5 (five) minutes and become convinced that the sun shines out his ass. I'm not the least emotionally invested, while still having a constant, low-level appreciation: all games should be willing to be incidentally sexy.
And I think it's 50% the FKMT effect : if your misogyny is so fundamental that it doesn't even occur to you to include female characters even as sex objects/love interests, but your all-male cast is still going through life or death situations, then you have accidentally constructed an intimate, pressurized all-male space, in other words: you accidentally made it intensely gay. (Of course FKMT isn't the only one who does this—this is half of why slash is such a phenomenon—but maybe no one does it better.) In STALKER 2, Skif has a bad case of main character syndrome: he comes from nowhere to prove to be exceedingly competent and meet every major player in the Zone, all of whom are vaguely sexy in rugged power fantasy white male way, most of whom end up in life or death situations with/because of him—lots of potential, waiting to be explored via...
And it's 50% the argument made in Polygon's why skeletons are so important to video game animation video: the more bespoke or finessed an animation, the more corporeal and real (and therefore sexy) the characters feel. While STALKER 2 is a little "we are actually an indie studio, thanks" re: production quality (voice acting, mocap, lipsync), it's also ridiculously physical, chock full of bespoke animations and enriched by some cute head/camera movement, see this scene of the conversation with Richter. There's no reason for Skif to balance and jump around over the junkyard! Except the blocking balances the cerebral conversation, so there's playfulness, characterization, and so much physicality in Skif playing, in the flick of his gaze towards Richter, in the tension of his balance.
The result is stuff like (these scenes are all a little later in and consequently a little more spoilery) "is that him? yay here's the key to my special suite if you'd like to sleep in my bed!" and Skif can do a little strangulation, as a treat and the cigarette scene that proves my point by being an exception to the rule (this being one of the 3.5 female characters in the game) and this incredible cutscene fight. In a time when first person player characters still tend to be a little telekinetic (and certainly STALKER 2 doesn't make you reach out a hand to pick up every bandage and box of bullets), the realism in this first person camera and the wealth of bespoke animations are physical, substantial, dynamic; which means tense and violent, which also means horny as hell. With half a dozen slightly oversized male characters who all meet Skif for 5 (five) minutes and become convinced that the sun shines out his ass. I'm not the least emotionally invested, while still having a constant, low-level appreciation: all games should be willing to be incidentally sexy.
