REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – The mainstream gaming industry is losing its reticence to speak about — and incorporate — sex in games. In fact, the co-founder of developer BioWare this week said there’s no reason for mainstream gaming companies to avoid the topic, as long as the subject of “sophisticated mature experiences” is dealt with “in context” and presented responsibility.

“I think from our perspective we want to reflect real human relationships,” Greg Zeschuk told ComputerAndVideoGames.com during a lengthy interview about the subject. “If you’re trying to have a relationship with a character, we want to reflect that and the impact of the connection with that character. And if that involves some sort of intimate scenes, we want to provide those for the player.”

Zeschuk said the company’s upcoming Dragon Age: Origins features tasteful adult situations, but the company didn’t go out of its way to incorporate sex for the sake of titillation. The sex is part of the story.

“I don’t think [all games] need to have [sexual situations],”he said. “I think that in certain types of games it makes sense to have them. It’s based on the fact that this is a sophisticated mature experience. The same way that a kid’s anime or cartoon will have a different style of content in it than a really serious drama, this is like a serious drama.”

Considering the competition in the gaming space, do modern videogames designed for adults need to have some king of erotic content in order to attract attention? Not necessarily, Zeschuk said.

“Really what we’re going for in all cases is emotional engagement; some kind of impact,” he told CVG.

BioWare already has suffered the slings and arrows of public misconception. Last year, Fox News ran a segment about the company’s previous title, Mass Effect. Zeschuk said the report was factually inaccurate when it stated the game featured “full digital nudity and sex,” and accused the company of incorporating “graphic sex.”

The resulting right-wing uproar was a bit deafening for a while, he noted.

“It’s interesting, because I think the Mass Effect thing was completely overblown,” Zeschuk told CVG. “There wasn’t even really nudity; it was like the side of a leg. I think some of the press took huge advantage of the situation. The reality was that it was the kind of stuff you’d see on evening television.”

The CVG feature is here.

(Image: Morrigan from Dragon Age: Origins, courtesy of BioWare)