I have consistently written on the importance of talking about things that can't be heard on every podcast and can't be read in every blog. While the subject of the "achievement locked" underwear has brought some female gamers to the spotlight, I felt it was important to offer my own perspective, that of the male, but to take it a step farther and backup my perspective with a well-thought hypothesis. I must add that this really doesn't have much to do with overall gaming news or discussion, please see my podcast this week for your fix (here comes the plug: http://www.geocities.com/unscripted1).

For those that aren't aware, there was recently a web site (splitreason.com, which is where this pic is from) that started selling boy-cut female underwear that had "achievement locked" printed on the front, implying that like all Xbox 360 games, that there was an achievement available if you could figure out how to unlock it. From the simplest sense, I just imagined it was some cute way for a gamer girl (or a gamer guy suggesting it to his girlfriend/wife) to put some video game play into sex. I even mentioned it to my fiance and she implied that it wasn't her cup of tea, but if I was into it then she'd be more than happy to play along. I didn't think, however, of the larger suggestion this was making. Many female gamers stepped up and gave their opinion, mostly reflective, but occassionally negative, on what this elusive pair of panties was really saying.

After taking a better look at the situation, I must admit that some of the comments brought up made some valid points. The most literal translation, that the "locked" portion was the girl's legs or that the "achievement" was, as Mercutio so polietly put it, "all the demesnes that there adjacent lie". This thought can provoke some fear or concern in gamers, I would assume predominantly female gamers but males can easily fit here too, that sex or getting into some woman's underwear (these are clearly intended for women only) is an "achievement". Also with the though of "locked" and what one might do to get them "unlocked" suggests, like in most video games, a degree of brute force or trickery. Sure, it may be going over the top with a little joke about panties and sex, but hey, society never ceases to amaze me with issues involving sex and force. At this point, the suggestion it could be making made my fantasy a little less exciting and little more creepy.

It was at this time that I decided to dissect the gaming industry, especially the "avid" or "hardcore" (as 1upyours recently discussed, this is nothing more than a self-proclaimed nametag and nothing more; I'm using it in this context to refer to a gamer that spends a large portion of their time gaming of their own volition). Most gamers fitting this profile are male, it's just a fact. I know that there is a large portion of female gamers (they make up something like 36 percent of the gaming population), but how many of these females are "hardcore"? My fiance counts as a female gamer, but that's just inasmuch as she plays the puzzle games on her DS like crazy and enjoys a couple quick rounds of Wii Sports or Guitar Hero/Rock Band. I'd hardly ever expect to come home and see her consistently working to crank through a Final Fantasy (in fact, she gave up on Kingdom Hearts in a few days). This becomes more apparent online, where in a room of 16 gamers, you're probably all male and complaining about how your girlfriend/wife won't stop nagging you while you're playing. Additionally, there's this constant struggle, discussed in many forums, podcasts, blogs, and voicechat banter that explain the dynamic with gaming and getting laid. In fact, it seems very important, and my podcast will be the first to prove it that there is this overwhelming urge to include females purly for the sexual factor and to remind the world (and ourselves) that gamers do, in fact, have sex...often frequently.

So when does it go too far? Since we're already jacking into a virtual sense of the Matrix when we play video games and we're usually killing people, cussing like soldiers, being racist, and making some snide comments about someone else's mother every 30 seconds, its no wonder that we imply that we're going back to basic instinctual behavior. You'll often hear a 12-year-old and a 30-year-old in a shouting match that results in a frag fest on most war games. There's even the joke I've heard of the girlfriend lying naked in bed next to the xbox controller and the man has to look at both and decide which one he wants to "play". This, moreso than ever implies that the need to have sex is just that, a basic need and nothing more. This is a very negative situation as it removed all sense of intimacy and creates (once the gamer is down to basic function) a meglomaniac, concerned with only one's self.

So let me set the record straight. Gamers, your partner is not a "game", he/she's not a "prize", and you aren't unlocking an "achievement" by having sex with her. The moment that he/she becomes as such is the day that most of the things that make good sex great are lost. A good relationship can't sustain a world where one of the member's is an object, be it of desire or otherwise. It's time you put down your controller, stopped yelling about the person who, for all intents and purposes, just loves you and when it's time to go to bed, keeps you warm at night. They are a person and they care for you; this may come as a shock, but your Xbox or PS3 don't! They are machines. You "unlock achievements" with machines, you care for people. Once you get to this point and your partner knows that the line is drawn between them and your video games, even if your as avid a gamer as I am, your partner never questions your motives. It is at this point that panties displaying "achievement locked", t-shirts with Master Chief that say, "I teabag", and a little fantasy roleplay where she's your game and you try to "push the right buttons" is no longer creepy, it's just fun sex with the one you love.