do events have a sex problem?
- dom180
- Jun 30
- 4 min read
I’ve just read an excellent article Faber, Tom ‘Do games have a sex problem?’ FT Weekend/Arts
14-15 June 2025
Tom Faber brilliantly argues in his summary “Video games are still looking for mainstream cultural legitimacy, and to be regarded as sophisticated entertainment and art, they can’t shy away from sex. As a medium that that offers tools for fantasy, trading in play and pleasure, they are well-placed to add meaningfully to the body of stories about sex. But to get there, the industry is going to have to stop giggling and learn to do it right.”
Rockstar is set to release Grand Theft Auto VI with protagonist Jason Duval’s muscles ‘flexing and shifting with startling realism as beads of sweat coalesce into tributaries running down his forearms.’
The article goes on to state ‘this is the kind of grounded, intimate moment rarely seen in games…
So why have games always struggled with sex?
And might developers finally be ready to step confidently into the bedroom?
Now replace games with events.
And sex with value.
And for context, let’s replace developers with event professionals.
And the bedroom with the boardroom.
In this post, I argue that event leaders are well placed to add meaningfully to the body of stories about value. But to get there, the event industry too must stop giggling and learn how to do it right.
To illustrate my point, let’s continue to draw parallels with Faber’s article.
“In GTA V you can try to covertly touch strippers while they give you a lap dance. Most notoriously, is the Hot Coffee mission of GTA: San Andreas, where CJ simulates sex with a girlfriend. You press buttons to thrust and fill her ‘excitement meter’… Until now, GTA has never presented sexual encounters as anything other than transactional and voyeuristic. “
Brands and organisations continue to struggle to derive value from events. I say this with confidence as this theme is consistently discussed on Bums on Seats podcast.
Marketers, Communicators and HR leaders find it increasingly difficult to articulate event value and so it would seem many agencies [and the event industry] are failing in their role to support. If boardroom pitches focus only on agency price, discount, ROI, technology, KPIs and data then the agency achieves nothing more than feverishly pressing buttons to fill an ‘excitement meter’.
Purely transactional, the intention being a positive result if enough buttons pressed and, in every sense, voyeuristic because this approach lacks any true influence or accountability.
“In modern games with romantic elements, sex is often a reward for choosing the right dialogue, as if love making were just another achievement…”
Value is not established retrospectively, as a reward.
And yet oftentimes, ROI is cited as the primary value indicator.
A return is something of a reward, an achievement.
And so, in contrast, value must be established at the beginning to overcome this problem and still so often organisations, brands and agencies start by focusing on price, KPIs, tech, data and so on. Make space for tactical considerations yes but make selections based on value to drive success not what they could achieve.
“Even as technology has improved, sex in games has been held back by a lack of maturity in developers”
Perhaps the most poignant illustration of my argument. Just to contextualise, this translates as ‘even as [event] technology has improved, value in events has been held back by a lack of maturity in event professionals’
I’ve taken a swing at event technology providers before for focusing too greatly on technical features and not enough on value. I’m interested to see how AI development will impact events and particularly the perception of value. On one hand, undeniably AI will streamline increasingly complex data tasks and commoditise this function to a point where its value diminishes. On the other hand, this reliable technology will enable organisations, brands and agencies to redeploy [perhaps fewer] resources to more creative and innovative endeavours.
But only if event professionals quickly mature.
True innovation in event technology is scarce with much of the industry [no, much of the world] currently waiting to see how AI’s presence will be felt. Maturity isn’t aligned to improved technology revealed by programmers and engineers, maturity is aligned to how technology is applied, by event professionals.
Oftentimes, planners learn more about audiences’ shoe sizes and dietary needs than they do individuals’ business goals or learning preferences. Yet the technology permits both. It’s then a lack of maturity that still derives value by rewarding event attendees with tactical event features over deeper, more meaningful, strategic and value-driven experiences.
“While representation has steadily moved on, titles such as last year’s Stellar Blade, whose buxom heroine wears impractically skimpy clothes, show we have not yet entirely moved on. The games that venture into sexual territory with more maturity tend to be role-playing games, whose narrative focused developers understand that sexiness stems from intimacy, tension and emotional investment.”
Let’s highlight a few choice words here: representation, venture, maturity, narrative, stems from…okay two words for this last one.
Popular media portrays event professionals as highly caffeinated, anxious, tactical operators. It’s a characterisation I think the event industry rather enjoys.
But it’s extremely harmful.
How so?
Event industry trends point to improving wellness and self-care for practitioners; downward trending budgets and skyrocketing expectations, the very fact I’m writing this post championing value above all else shows that the event industry hasn’t entirely moved on.
The event professionals that venture into value territory with more maturity tend to…
This is not about role-playing.
This is somewhat about narrative-focus.
This is all about understanding where value stems from and demonstrating value in the most compelling ways.
Faber’s account of how mature developers understand that sexiness is not about smashing buttons to fill an ‘excitement meter’, sex as a reward/achievement or reliance on scantily clad heroines, is precisely the anecdote organisations, brands and agencies need to understand.
[Event] value stems from a place of maturity, growth, shared vision and investment.
Tom Faber wrote a brilliant article.
As marketers, communicators, HR, business leaders and event professionals we might have missed the subtle resemblance to [event] value.
As readers tackle Tom Faber’s question, ‘do games have a sex problem?’ let me ask for your opinion.
Do events have a value problem?
Are your event budgets static or trending downwards? Are you struggling to articulate the value of events across the board? Is your event agency a value-first partner? If not, then click below to schedule a short introductory call. It’s time we talked.
