Alpha Protocol - Sex and Abstinence

Wired discusses the sex in Alpha Protocol - and the two related Achievements:

While the 2007 best-selling BioWare title had one optional yet infamous love scene, Hickman said the male protagonist in Alpha Protocol can have up to four sexual encounters. If the player cultivates close relationships with several of the female characters, the love-making can occur. Score with every woman, and you get the “Ladies’ Man” Achievement.
But if you’re not interested in watching virtual characters making whoopee (we’re sure you aren’t), you’ll also get an Achievement for remaining celibate.
However, Hickman contended that if you decide to go all the way with the women, it will be worth it.

“It’s pretty provocative,” he said. “And there’s one that actually has a couple of ways it can go depending on how you react in the middle of it.”
Wait, in “the middle” of it? To clarify, Hickman said the decision-making wouldn’t necessarily happen “during the act,” but declined to give further details so as to not ruin the story.
“I can say it’s one of my favorite scenes,” he said, “and it’s hilarious when it happens. It’s just so unexpected when it comes and how it plays out… it’s great.”

More information.

Oh for crying out loud…why is sex suddenly that important in every new game? I would not making a purchasing decision on whether a game supports this levels of (dubious) 'realism'… and it's not every interesting sex, as in the case of inter-species shenanigans in ME. "yes sir, our games does support Sex (TM) - because we know that matters to you!" How about providing more information of aspects of the game that actually matter?

Uh… booboo? From where I'm at, Obsidian has been providing a LOT of information about all kinds of aspects of the game — choices and consequences, different styles of gameplay, skill trees, environments, the dialog system, and so on and so forth. It's not like they've been beating the drum about this from day one.

Sex is pretty prominent in espionage films and books, so I can't see why they shouldn't put it in an espionage game — nor do I see why you should be so allergic to the mention, especially since you can avoid all of it if you're not interested (and even get an Achievement for that, for what it's worth).

I do see his point though. In AP it actually makes sense, but lately there's been way too much focus on "our game does support Sex (TM)". It's getting tiresome. In certain games, it makes sense, but in others it just seems awkward.

It's not so much having sex in the game - I don't care one way or another, as long as its contributes sensibly to the story - it's insisting on making a fuss about it. Of late it's become very popular (certainly from reading post here) - like they're trying to outdo each other. As I said, the absence of presence of sex is so inconsequential in a purchasing decision (for me at least) that I don't think it bears fussing about and if they do, this suggests they have run out of relevant and interesting things to report on…

Alpha Protocol … where Achievement Whores meet Sex Addicts and everyone wins!



Kidding - I like anything that enhances role-playing, even if the romances tend to be puzzle/quests like in BG2 / KotOR. It is the whole 'looking to enhance your XBOX Gamerscore … we can help!' thing that bugs me …

Originally Posted by booboo
It's not so much having sex in the game - I don't care one way or another, as long as its contributes sensibly to the story - it's insisting on making a fuss about it. Of late it's become very popular (certainly from reading post here) - like they're trying to outdo each other. As I said, the absence of presence of sex is so inconsequential in a purchasing decision (for me at least) that I don't think it bears fussing about and if they do, this suggests they have run out of relevant and interesting things to report on…

I'm sure it's not inconsequential for SOME potential customers. It's definitely not a deal-maker kind of feature for me, but I'm nevertheless interested to hear it's there.

When sex is considered natural, it's no longer noted, no matter the amount.

Now imagine a dark, gritty and mature game with sex and social networking, that would be AWESOME!
/s

So what´s the achievement for remaining celibate called?
Gay? Dr. No?

Originally Posted by wolfing
Now imagine a dark, gritty and mature game with sex and social networking, that would be AWESOME!
/s

You forgot'epic'.


What's the point of implementing achievements in SINGLEPLAYER game? I understand multiplayer… but what are they for in singleplayer?

I think they're mandatory for X360 releases Konjad so they may as well put them in the PC version as well.

I like kinda them for some reason, so I don't mind.

The amount of sex has no impact on my expectation for the quality of the game.

The thing that makes me fear for the quality of the game is the fact that they have "achievements" in it.

That is a very bad sign IMHO.

Achievements are a cheap trick to "improve" replayability through repetition.

That is a sure sign of dumbing down.

"I shall not today attempt further to define [pornography]..but I know it when I see it…."
-Justice Potter Stewart 1973

Sex is the new violence.

Originally Posted by bkrueger
The thing that makes me fear for the quality of the game is the fact that they have "achievements" in it.

They're mandatory, you have to have them- if you want your game on 360 (and PS3 too, IIRC, though they're called trophies or something there). They may well not be activated on the PC version as the game box doesn't have 'Live' on it so just play that version.

[picture of xbawx achievement kid here]

I saw the video from ME , remember the scenes from The Witcher , all those sex scenes were not sexy , on the other hand Bloodlines was totally sexual even without sex .
Showing some skin does not improve quality or realism plus big cut scenes are boring.