Is There Even A Point To Cyberpunk 2077’s Genital Customization?
Exactly how in-depth does genital customization need to be, and why spend time doing it?
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The ratings are in for CD Projekt’s highly-anticipated new RPG Cyberpunk 2077. We’re not talking about reviews, mind you—the game won’t be out for months—we’re talking about ESRB ratings. Unsurprisingly, the game will receive an M rating due to its violent themes, naughty language, and overt sexuality. Digging a little deeper into the rating summary provided by the regulatory organization, however, reveals some potentially shocking insights, and of particular note is the fact that players will have the ability to “…select a gender and customize their character; customization can include depictions of breasts, buttocks, and genitalia, as well as various sizes and combinations of genitals.” Excuse us, what?
True to form, the developer behind the immensely detailed Witcher 3 seems to be taking things to an even more drastic degree with their forthcoming project. We’ve known for some time that Cyberpunk 2077 would be introducing themes and exploring circumstances not often seen in gaming, but exactly how in-depth does genital customization need to be?
At the outset, this does seem to be very much in line with modern progressive values, and allowing a character’s gender to be completely open and unrestricted will likely go down as a huge leap forward for those hoping for more representation in their interactive media. However, this raises several questions as to what the hell we’ll actually be getting into when the game drops in September.
The character creation seems to be on the same level as Code Vein, Saints Row, or Dark Souls. In fact, those games have allowed players to manipulate aspects of a character’s body not dissimilar to what has been described by the ESRB in its description of Cyberpunk 2077. Yet, just as we spend hours configuring our characters to be just-so in most RPGs of this nature, it often tends to be all-for-naught, as various pieces of armor or costuming often obscures the character we so lovingly designed. Will we really be up close and personal with the player character’s junk, tailoring it to the nth degree, just to never see it again? Would such a ridiculous feature even be worth it?
Naturally, Cyberpunk could land on the other end of the spectrum, overindulging in sex and sexuality to the point that it feels distasteful. Would the gaming populace be prepared for that? Not too long ago, the world had a fit over the disturbing realism of the genitals of the NPC’s in Watch Dogs 2, and, if that’s anything to go by, it seems that wanton violence and graphic depictions of nudity don’t go hand in hand all that well. Plus, some gamers found the depictions of sexuality in previous Witcher games to be a bit too crass. Hell, some people are still upset that you could kill the strippers in Duke Nukem 3D—whatever Cyberpunk 2077 is prepared to unleash upon us, we clearly aren’t ready for it.
That’s not to say that CD Projekt couldn’t be cooking up a genuinely thought-provoking and meaningful narrative surrounding sex and sexuality. Though it wasn’t the main focal point of any of Geralt of Rivia’s romps, per se, the morality of his womanizing ways was still worthy of reflection, and, if treated with enough care, Cyberpunk 2077 may well deliver the type of groundbreaking experience for which we’ve long been craving—genitals and all. Still, there really is such a thing as “too far,” and, should Cyberpunk end up being more Leisure Suit Larry than Mass Effect, well, we can’t imagine that it’ll go down all that well.
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/is-there-even-a-point-to-cyberpunk-2077s-genital-customization/