Rated M for Mature

Matthew Wysocki is an Associate Professor at Flagler College, USA, where he is the Coordinator of the Media Studies program. He is the editor of CTRL-ALT-PLAY: Essays on Control in Video Games and co-chair of the Game Studies Area of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association.Evan W. Lauteria is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of California-Davis, USA. Lauteria has published in the UK Literary Magazine Berfrois on the topic of queer game mechanics, as well as in Reconstruction on the resistant politics of queer game mods.

Sexuality is part of the human experience anywhere, and despite images of earthly flesh, has always had a virtual dimension. The contributors to this volume brilliantly show how sex and sexuality are not marginal to video game design, representation, and play. Rated M for Mature demonstrates that sexuality is at the heart of video games, and in turn how video games offer powerful lessons with regard to sexuality itself.

• Acknowledgements Notes on the Contributors IntroductionEvan W. Lauteria (University of California, Davis, USA) and Matthew Wysocki (Flagler College, USA)The (R)Evolution of Video Games and SexIntergenerational Tensions: Of Sex and the Hardware Cycle.Rob Gallagher (King’s College London, UK)Beyond Rapelay: Self-regulation in the Japanese Erotic Video Game IndustryJérémie Pelletier-Gagnon (University of Alberta, Canada), and Martin Picard (University of Montreal, Canada)Assuring Quality: Early-1990s Nintendo Censorship and the Regulation of Queer Sexuality and GenderEvan W. Lauteria (University of California, Davis, USA) The Newest Significant Medium: Brown v. EMA and the 21st Century Status of Video Game RegulationZach Saltz (University of Kansas, USA)Explicit Sexual Content in Early Console Video GamesDan Mills (Georgia Highlands College, USA)Video Games and Sexual (Dis)EmbodimentThe Strange Case of the Misappearance of Sex in VideogamesTanya Krzywinska (Falmouth University, UK).Let's Play Master and Servant: BDSM and Directed Freedom in Game DesignVictor Navarro-Remesal (Centre d´Ensenyament Superior Alberta Giménez, Spain), and Shaila García-Catalán (Universitat Jaume I de Castelló, Spain)Countergaming’s Porn Parodies, Hard Core and SoftDiana Pozo (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)Casual Sex: Sex as Currency Within Video GamesCasey Hart (Stephen F. Austin State University, USA)“Embraced Eternity" Lately? Mislabeling and Subversion of Sexuality Labels through the Asari in the Mass Effect Trilogy.Summer Glassie (Old Dominion University, USA)Systems/Spaces of Sexual (Im)PossibilitiesPlaying for Intimacy: Love, Lust, and Desire in the Pursuit of Embodied Design.Aaron Trammell (Rutgers University, USA), and Emma Leigh Waldron (Rutgers University, USA)It’s Not Just the Coffee That’s Hot: Modding Sexual Content in Video GamesMatthew Wysocki (Flagler College, USA)“Death by Scissors”: Gay Fighter Supreme and the Sexuality That Isn’t SexualBridget Kies (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA) Iterative Romance and Button-Mashing Sex: Gameplay Design and Video Games' Nice Guy SyndromeNicholas Ware (University of Central Florida, USA)Climbing the Heterosexual Maze: Catherine and Queering Spatiality in GamingJordan Youngblood (University of Florida, USA)Assessing Player-Connected Versus Player-Disconnected Sex Acts in Video GamesBrent Kice (Frostburg State University, USA)