I think ‘no 18+ content’ is very different to ‘skippable 18+ content, clearly marked, consensual, otherwise legal and not grossly offensive’.
As @poison_mara said, non-consensual relationships, or ones that include minors as romance options (which would be a no-go for Hosted Games anyway, I think? so these aren’t new parameters, really), or something that isn’t clearly marked and skippable, is where the problem would be. Not mature content per se.
Exactly, but people seems confused. I don’t know why people associated Masquerade with violence. sub Theme is about romance and a deep trust in other not violence or weird stuff. Masks aren’t only in Shades of Grey lol
Now I’m thinking about it, I realized a hot scene that includes sexuality wouldn’t need to involve sex, but to be honest, that’s what I thought of when I first saw it. Possibly because my mind stays in the gutter. But for people like me, maybe it’d be cool to make it clear that the idea’s to think outside the box on that one? If that’s the case. And to keep in mind the story has to be minor friendly. Even if skippable scenes is a thing, I think people might wanna know and not everyone reads every post.
@poison_mara I don’t think anyone’s brought up the masquerade or 50 Shades in this recent conversation. Consensual sex can be wild. It’s more a general question of adult content and something I think people’d wonder about regardless.
Even if that weren’t the case, it’s cool if that’s what comes to people’s mind. Masks plus violent, weird stuff is pretty common? Like Eyes Wide Shut or the The Purge. I can’t really think of any sweet non-superhero genre examples and a lot of comic book writers are freaks, anyways. Like one of the superman writers made a BDSM book about Clark and Lois. And unless I read wrong the second theme’s merriment, not trust or vanilla romance. Kink can be super merry.
To be honest, I hadn’t considered what would happen if someone felt they were too young to read sex scenes. An option to skip or avoid the scene sounds like a good compromise, if the judges think they can fairly deal with a game where only some of them have seen the more explicit content? That will make it difficult to decide who gets my prize, but it was always going to be apples and oranges comparing people who go the sexuality route with other kinds of relationships.
Judges?
Each of the sponsor prizes are a separate category, so if a judge to not want to read a sex scene they could abstain from scoring for your subtheme specifically. I think that would be fair, if the other judges, Lordirish and you agree.
I’d agree to it, as long as it’s simpler for everyone
@Guhik made a good point on the judges discussion, we really do not want to be changing the rules around after the comp has started. I think we covered the sex part in the rules well enough. I am not going to get worked up over what is or is not going to be submitted. We follow CoG standards and if something comes up during the judging I will work with the judges to resolve it. Should it be a big problem then we will discuss it for next year’s comp. Enjoy, relax, and most importantly write. 
No worries there. 4k words this early in which is my personal best (especially since I didn’t reach that number till May 20th last time haha.)
As if you kids today haven’t seen basically everything that used to be taboo and forbidden already with only two mouse clicks or your phones. 
I’d say Evertree Inn did that just fine with Dandy without going into the very explicit, certainly no worse than anything on HBO or some other modern fantasy TV series. Unless full male nudity is considered to extreme around here, but IMO that hasn’t been the case yet and we even have @dashingdon own infamous naked protagonist game.
I specifically said I wasn’t talking about explicit sex scenes. A lot of HBO isn’t meant for minors.
Okay well if you cut out the full male nudity and cover the men strategically while only fully showing the women in non explicit scenes (no more then (naked) hugs and kisses), then you’ve basically got our daytime soap-opera’s (and their double standards). And almost anybody can watch those, should they have a mind to.
I’m going to answer this two ways - from a writer’s perspective and from an official judge’s position.
A hot scene from the perspective of a writer can mean many different things from sensual and soft to harsh and gritty - it is time to rely on your creativity if you wish to compete for @Sashira’s category - you don’t have to try for this specific sub-category
From the judge’s perspective: The rules dictate the results.
[quote] Can I submit a XXX game?
We try to mirror the rules of the forum as far as gender and inclusiveness, but due to that some years my judges may be underage and some may be offended by such materials we would advise against it. A judge has to score all games for their score to count, should the material be of a truly sexual nature some of the judges may give this game a very low score diminishing your chances of winning. Also we want a warning label for heavy topics such as suicide, discrimination, drug/alcohol abuse, sexual abuse, any kind of abuse really. Again the judge has a right to score a zero if they find it offinsive, but they also have to give a valid reason for this score. [/quote]
If there is non-consensual relations in a story, then a judge has every right to score that story down due to that valid criteria - as long as the judge is consistent the scores, whether 0 or 10 are valid.
I figured that out already.
EDIT: Also honestly, part of me wishes interesting sex scenes were more of an acknowledge thing. Like the way you just described it makes it seem like going down the sex scene route couldn’t be creative. And it can. Maybe it’'s not for this contest, but it’s something I wish more people tried in general, provided they’re comfortable with the content.
I don’t think I asked if people could include rape. I said people’ve only mentioned things like it so far, like in the paragraph you’ve quoted.
I disagree - what I meant with what I wrote was the more creative and less route in your approach, the better you should score as a writer in this contest.
I was answering this explicitly - [quote=“Eiwynn, post:213, topic:25334”]
How do you do that without wildness?
[/quote]
Good luck.
The hard question. Simply put any and all sexual activities with the MC must have player consent. The story must reflect that also ( I know it is a little more writing on the author’s behalf but that is the hard line).
The hard question I didn’t ask.
I just quoted you (was not directed at you) to answer the above discussion.
I hate it when someone asks a simple question, and then someone comes along who turns it into an essay question. Who proceeds to talk a lot and say nothing at the same time, and then finishes it of by asking someone else’s opinion, who comes in and says something but not really, and at the end i’m still asking myself whats the answer? lol
So from what I got is that we can write sex, but it’s got to be consensual if not it’s a no go, and that there must be a skip button because we have minors as judges and for the people who don’t like to read that stuff?
I’m sorry i’m just slow
Unfortunately, it is a bit unclear, but that’s what I’m getting from this, and that’s what I’m doing!
I know it might feel a bit silly and pedantic, but perhaps this sort of boundary should be explicitly stated in the rules for next year? Some people like to explore heavy topics, or uh, ~topics~ that might toe the line, and it’s good to know before things get to the planning stage.
Thing is even heavy topics can be approached appropriately. We’re not against BDSM and alternative sex acts. We’re specificaly talking about explicit consent in the act and the limit of what is acceptable in an erotic context. Rough sex and violence in the story is fine but dont expect a high score if you include murderporn scenes. Heavy subjects are interesting when handled properly but they get boring fast if its just there to be there or to test the limit.