Ign recently snagged an interview with one of the woman in today's video gaming world. The lady in question is Brenda Braithwaite who happens to be a video game designer (good on her!) She is somewhat of an expert in this genre having designed Playboy: The Mansion and also having written called, "Sex in videogames?" Below is full interview for your perusal. If you're so inclined, read the whole aricle, it's actually a good and interesting read.
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.