Conan Exiles is celebrating its first anniversary – at least in terms of Early Access. It’s a good reason to talk about one of the most discussed features of the game: the penis slider.
On January 31, 2017, Conan Exiles had its Early Access release on Steam and has since provided players with hours of fun, blood, and naked body parts. What garnered particular attention was the fact that characters can actually be nude and you can adjust the size of a male avatar’s genitalia.
PC Gamer recently spoke with director Joel Bylos about the open-world title in general and the penis slider in particular.
How did the slider come to be?
In the initial discussions, they at Funcom wondered, “Does it fit the setting? Should we really do it or is it too problematic?” After all, there was nothing sexual in the game, but nudity did fit the setting. Who had ever integrated penises into a game like this before?
“Let’s just do it!” was the well-considered conclusion.
It quickly became apparent that penises are a self-sustaining topic. No marketing was needed, which they hadn’t even considered beforehand. Players and the press jumped on the topic on their own.
The fact that such a “big thing” wasn’t advertised beforehand came as a surprise to most. For the team around Joel Bylos, it then turned into a big issue.
NSFW but Conan Exiles has an endowment slider. Big dong, little dong, big dong, little dong pic.twitter.com/MNgGsmlv32
— Chris Livingston (@screencuisine) January 30, 2017
The Reactions from Outside
While the ESRB (America’s Entertainment Software Rating Board) understood that it wasn’t a “porn game”, it did not simply allow the depiction of swinging genitalia.
The PEGI (Europe’s Pan European Game Information System) was more relaxed in these matters. Nudity didn’t bother them; rather, it was the violence that was the sticking point.
In the interview, Bylos reflected on the reactions and categorized them, how else could it be on this topic, by gender. Most women were pleased with the penis slider. After all, it reminded them of the much-loved breast customization options in many RPGs. The penis version was the long overdue balancing equivalent.
Men, on the other hand, saw less of the aspect of balancing justice. The fun was probably the priority for men. It was just okay and not as scandalous as feared.
“That someone would be upset was my only concern. But actually, no one was upset. Everything just worked smoothly,” Joel Bylos
NSFW, more cock & balls from Conan Exile. I hope this is earning me XP pic.twitter.com/159udrkgIp
— Chris Livingston (@screencuisine) January 30, 2017
Penises are Fun
Bylos’ team seemed to have a huge amount of fun with it and still do. During the brainstorming phase, they were only concerned about how Jenny would react. She was the character artist for Conan Exiles and would now be seeing a lot of penises.
But Jenny thought it was great too! For a week, her work screen was full of penises. For reference purposes, of course.
