The defining feature of early erotic video games and the "first smut boom"? Sexual assault, depressingly - FPSHUB

PAX West 2025’s Decades of Digital Love panel highlighted a worrying trend in early erotic video games

Considering how important romance and relationship gaming have become over the past decade or so — just try and imagine a version of Baldur’s Gate 3 that doesn’t focus so heavily on romance — it’s unsurprising that relationship gaming has a long history that stretches back almost half a century at this point. Slightly more surprising (and disturbing)? How many of those early games don’t really have any concept of ‘consent.’

During the Decades of Digital Love panel at PAX West 2025, moderators Jennasis and Virvada — who host the weekly Two Girls One Ship podcast — explored the long, hard and, honestly at times concerning history of romance, sex, and relationship dynamics in video games since the ’80s… starting with what they playfully, if accurately, described as the “first smut boom” for the industry back when industry regulation was just a

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Graeme McMillan: Popverse Editor Graeme McMillan (he/him) has been writing about comics, culture, and comics culture on the internet for close to two decades at this point, which is terrifying to admit. He completely understands if you have problems understanding his accent.

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The defining feature of early erotic video games and the “first smut boom”? Sexual assault, depressingly