10 EXACT Moments Video Games Gave Us The ICK
5. Sex Cards - The Witcher
The Witcher kickstarted one of the greatest RPG franchises of all time, yet the game's fun and immersive qualities are hampered ever-so-slightly by the addition of one especially juvenile collectathon element.
Whenever Geralt sleeps with an NPC in the game, he'll receive a card of her likeness, typically pictured in a state of considerable undress or even entirely nude.
These so-called "sex cards" basically turned romance into a bit of a Pokémon-style "gotta catch 'em all!" situation, where sex is something to be rewarded with a literal trophy of-sorts.
While some have defended the cards as a throwback to salacious postcards from the early 20th century, they've also been heavily criticised for upholding gaming's historically disposable attitude towards women, and basically injecting some needless sleaze and objectification into an otherwise great game.
After all, "maturity" doesn't merely mean tons of nudity and swearing - and in fact, The Witcher 3's sex cards feel more like something dreamt up by a horny teenage boy.
Hell, even one of the game's own designers, Karol Kowalczyk, recognised the problem and later regretted their inclusion entirely. He said:
"It is about the fact that you switch to a mindset that you need to collect them all, right?... And in that context, it is indeed very disturbing that the game kind of forces you to become a mindless sex addict to get some of those. We failed to see that as when you are testing the game for the 100th time, you start to do it mechanically and don't really feel those emotions."
As such it's looking considerably likely that the cards will either be cut or at least immensely sanitised for the game's much-anticipated upcoming remake.