February 23, 2008 - Brenda Brathwaite, a female game designer (yes they do exist!), is considered by many to be an expert when it comes to sexual content in games. Some of her more recent games include: "Playboy: the Mansion" and "Def Jam: Icon". Did we mention that she wrote a book called "Sex in Video Games"? Some people pin Brathwaite as an advocate for sex in videogames, but this isn't exactly the truth. Just like in any other medium: movie, book etc… she believes sex thrown in for the sake of sex's sake is pointless and unnecessary.

IGN had the opportunity to attend "Hentai, Hardcore and Hotties" a GDC roundtable event about sex in games, hosted by Brenda Brathwaite. Following the round table IGN was able to conduct an interview with her over some hot coffee.

IGN: It is surprising to hear that a female game designer who helped create games like "Playboy: The Mansion" and who wrote titles such as "Sex in Video Games" is not an advocate for sex in videogames. So to be clear, you aren't one to implore more sex in games?

Brenda Brathwaite: No. I don't think people should put more sex in movies or games. That's utterly irresponsible. Why? What's the point?

IGN: So if there was a underlying reason or point for sex in a videogame, you would be accepting of that?

Brenda Brathwaite: Yeah! I'd say think about it when you're doing it. If you're going to create a game, and there's absolutely no point for there to be sex or love scenes in it then don't put it in the game! Let's just flip the context and make it seem absurd for a minute. So we've got the "Sims" right? Now just imagine if all of a sudden a soldier runs into the world of the Sims to start firing and shooting at down at the Sims. You would think what the frig is going on! Right? So that's pretty violent, but just for violence's sake. Similarly sex looks dumb when you just throw it in for no reason at all. Now if the goal of the game is to purely stimulate somebody, throw it in, throw tons of it in. Now obviously there are consequences to that, your market is going to be much smaller and you're going to be limiting your distribution. So just using sex haphazardly for no apparent reason doesn't work and it doesn't sell your game, at least for right now.

IGN: Is there a point where the line becomes blurry? Fox News seems to think that the sex scene in Mass Effect falls under the category of sex thrown in for sex's sake; where as others have said the sex scene in Mass Effect is merely art imitating life. And then what about GTA where the sex fits in within the game's world and context?

Brenda Brathwaite: Alright let's look at Hot Coffee. Ok so this is interesting actually. Let's look at hot coffee in the perspective of a narrative. And I'm not defending Hot Coffee, Hot Coffee should have absolutely been disclosed, so I'm not endorsing that methodology at all, that's no way anybody should go about doing anything. But let's just look at it from a narrative's point of view: one dude takes his girl friend out to three dinners, they go home after a night and they go into her house and make love. Right? Now let's contrast this to a show like the Sopranos. Hot Coffee looks fairly tame in comparison. GTA is mature rated, and it's made for mature audiences…even in the strong contextual content…again it shouldn't have been there in the first place…but would that be a part of a "thug narrative"? Yeah! Go to the movies, your basic thug movie is going to have that sort of stuff in it. Almost every movie has some kind of love interest narrative and so for a game to have that is not at all shocking, it's still the fact that we have the perception that games are for kids, even if the game is called "M" as in rated M, which means no kids.

IGN: why do you think the mass media doesn't get this when they clearly get the "R" rating in movies?

Brenda Brathwaite: Well for the same reasons that years ago Ozzy Osborne was a concern to a lot of people, you listen to Ozzy now and you're like 'you mean the dad on MTV'?? We could kind of see him as an American icon, and I don't think any parents to ban that sort of entertainment today.

IGN: Ozzy's an American icon even though he's British? *laughs*

Brenda Brathwaite: *laughs* British Icon I meant!! Didn't I say that?! Yeah I think I did… [She didn't] Point is we all like Ozzy now so it's a matter of perception. Let's take a look back through history. We start off with games, so games are bad for you… I mean wait rock and roll is bad for you, so is Twisted Sister, Ozzy Osborne, Aero smith, and ACDC. I remember when ACDC had this secret symbol about being gay. If you wear earrings it meant you were gay! If we go back to the Beatles, John Lennon was once asked how he could wear his hair so long. the New York post said that American Society had reached new depths because of the grinding of Elvis Presley's hips. When cars were first invented they were called "Devil Wagons", "Brothels on wheels" and devices to ruin the family. Then there was the VCR…which they said was going to bring porn into every home – that one they were right on.

IGN: *laughter*

Brenda Brathwaite: *laughter*

IGN: So essentially what you're saying is that it takes time for sex in videogames to wane away from public evil? How long is it going to take?

Brenda Brathwaite: About twenty years.

IGN: But it seems that America, in particular, regards sex in general as something taboo… And this way of thinking has been around for as long as there has been media.

Brenda Brathwaite: America in general does not want you to know they are consuming sexual content.

IGN: So why is that different then say…Germany, or other European countries?

Brenda Brathwaite: I think it's a question of our puritan ancestors.

IGN: You think it goes back that far?

Brenda Brathwaite: Yeah! Oh absolutely! Study our sexual history, and the sexual development in the United States. Here's a way back example: when the English colonists arrived they discovered Native American women. In some tribes, Native American native women were bare breasted, this of course was not a big deal at all to Native American men. However the English interpreted the situation as 'obviously native American women are tramps and the Native American men must be frigid and that's how it was interpreted to the English colonists, so really the puritanical roots go back that far, but on a vernacular sense Americans consume as much pornography as the rest of the world.

IGN: Right, except that we just don't talk about it.

Brenda Brathwaite: Right.

IGN: Is there any incite that you wish to share regarding the topic of sex in games to our readers or perhaps to the industry as a whole?

Brenda Brathwaite: Yes, there were two things that came out of GDC this year; one of them is the concept of "intimacy in games vs. sex in games". Sex is very mechanical. We can physically perform the act of sex in games just like we can have bullets firing in games but the subtly of intimacy in games is really something to consider.

IGN: Is that something that you'd personally like to push for as a game developer?

Brenda Brathwaite: I don't necessarily want to push it, but if we want to give it a romantic theme, or more mature things… let's take a look at the Sopranos again, which was a great moment for TV, the show has the whole range of human…everything! So we wanted to have something Sopranos-esque in our medium. In the Sopranos there obviously is the mechanics of sex, but there's also the concept of intimacy. The other big topic that I'd like to talk about is the concept of serious games that deal with sexual themes like safe sex.

IGN: In the roundtable you touched upon the idea of games being used as a form of sexual education. Is that something you'd like to see more of?

Brenda Brathwaite: Of course! I'm a parent and at some point in time I'm going to have the birds and the bee's discussion. Would I like to have a piece of software to walk me through that? Yes!

IGN: If you don't mind me asking, how old are your kids?

Brenda Brathwaite: Seven, three, and three.

IGN: Looks like you've got a little while before "the talk".

Brenda Brathwaite: *laughs* while I don't know! Another year maybe!

IGN: Geez. Even for the three year olds?? I haven't even been told how it works yet!

Brenda Brathwaite: *laughs* …well the three year olds…yeah…they're still too young, but the seven year old, maybe another year…which is amazing to me! I wish there was a facilitated piece of software that allowed us to talk about it together…yeah absolutely I do.

IGN: You've mentioned previously that some European countries had similar types of games already in play? Some of these games teach you about HIV and aids?

Brenda Brathwaite: Yeah search for "catch the sperm" online, just make sure you type in "games" and have safe search turn on. *laughs*

IGN: *laughs* well thank you for your time.

Brenda Brathwaite: No, thank you.