IMO One of the hardest parts about Emotions in games is the narrow edge between developing a loving relarionship and a caring One as a close friend. I loved the Characters and interactions in BG3 but Part of me wished there were also "comraderie Events" similar to stardew valley were there are Events for getting to know poeple closer without the intent to develop a sexual relarionship to the Character
I honestly don't care if they do or don't add this stuff, but please make it skippable. The last thing I want is some boring corporate-approved formulaic bland sex scene that I have to suffer through in the middle of an interactive game. At least movies and shows let me 30-second skip past that stuff. All of them are exactly the same sequence. It's tedious.
As for flirtation being more important to in-game social interactions and dialog trees that could be fun. It could also set young people up for trouble. They'd be practicing the "wrong habits" that will get charges filed against them IRL.
The reason game designers are afraid of sex is because most of Western society is. Can games help turn that around? I don't know, but probably not. The USA is super puritanical about all things sex (but blood, gore, and violence are generally OK).
I don’t want or care about sex scenes in anything. Cyberpunk 2077 definitely has this problem, and once I get to any stage where intimacy happens I just get up and let it play out so I don’t have to watch.
I've never found sex scenes in games appealing. First of all, there's rarely any build up to them. If there is, it's just sitting there, listening to an NPC talking about themseves for 10 minutes and selecting the "good" answer to gain "affinity points" and proceed with the dialogue.
Then you get to the sex scene, and it's either fade to black immediately (hopefully), or two uncanny valley dolls touching each other for a few seconds.
After the sex scene, the partner becomes another NPC, sitting there doing nothing, having completed their purpose. So inspiring.
Most games unless it is a sex game shouldn't have sex in it. My kids play lot of the same games I do and I don't want them having access to sex in a game.
Most times it adds nothing to a story and is there just a preversion thing.
Your kids shouldn't impact what artists choose to create, and parental controls and ratings systems exist for you to engage with (you probably should if you are scared of them seeing intimacy between grown adults)
Gamers say they want parents to actually get involved and monitor the content kids interact with in games. A parent actually does monitor what their kids play, and suddenly gamers lose their minds.
Kids that aren’t ready to see sex in games aren’t grown up enough to play those games to begin with. I don’t know any non-porn game with a nude sex scene in it that isn’t a violent murder simulator. Except maybe Sims but that isn’t even graphic and even kids just find that funny to see.