The same cannot be said for sex or any other 'adult' theme you care to mention. While there have been some feeble attempts at 'saucy' adult humour in older computer titles like Leisure Suit Larry, not to mention some pitifully bad FMV sex titles, the raunchiest videogaming gets in 1999 is probably Lara Croft. Big tits, big deal. More risks were taken back in the days of the Amiga when titles such as the hilariously tacky Sam Fox Strip Poker teased an audience too young - or too scared - to buy a jazz mag for a tenth of the price. How things have changed since the Internet became the world's major supplier of porn.

Sexuality, bad language and drugs are grey areas for many game creators, while the depiction of explicit violence has positively flourished by comparison. Currently the rating of videogames is an awkward marriage of activities undertaken by the Video Standards Council, the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) and the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).

But according to most publishers the situation is in a right old mess, the consensus being that when it comes to videogames, the BBFC is a bit clueless. As a result, games are often unfairly delayed while research is taking place - and games that crudely celebrate violence such as Camaggeddon II end up with zombies spouting green blood just so that they can reach the shelves within a commercially viable time frame.

In some cases though, a degree of self-censorship is exercised by the industry because of moral or commercial factors - the fear of being withdrawn from the shelves is enough to make publishers abandon or tone down risque elements. Sensible Software's unreleased, adult-themed epic, Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll was turned down by over 20 publishers despite the developer's strong reputation and numerous past hits. The reason? They feared it being pulled from UK shelves and were concerned for American sensibilities. Similarly, Virgin's crude and gratuitous Thrill Kill was buried when the company was acquired by EA because it was deemed 'inappropriate'.

The truth is that adult-themed games - those with an 18 rating on the box - are still firmly in the minority, amounting to less than five per cent of the games submitted to the BBFC. But while games such as Resident Evil 2 are raking in more money than the year's biggest Hollywood movies, one look at the content of most 'mature' games will prove that this is an industry that is still tragically adolescent. Hence the crass sexual stereotypes, comic book-style scenarios and gratuitous violent scenes, usually devoid of cognitive, emotive, or moral considerations - the kind of things that give meaning to all experiences, not just videogames.