Mass Effect 2's tamer (and sideboobless) sex scenes led some to believe that BioWare held something back, after the 2008 uproar over Mass Effect started by the Network That Must Not Be Named. But a dev sternly denies that charge.
User Menelaos1971 opened a forum thread on the subject, calling the sex scene in Mass Effect 1 "a step in the right direction for Rated M games," but implied that the uninformed uproar over it chilled BioWare's intent to extend the theme in the sequel. He also alleged that BioWare was given orders from EA that an M for violence was OK, but not nudity, because it might affect sales. "Or was it just EA lawyers," Menelaos1972 wrote.
Stanley Woo, a member of the QA story team for the game, replied forcefully:
It's kinda funny that this topic keeps coming up over and over again. People who claim to be old enough and mature enough to handle sex and nudity in a game seem to believe that any lack of sex and nudity in the game is a sign of self-censorship. They generally don't believe that a game can be called "mature" without explicit sex and/or nudity.
Let me tell you, folks, that as a developer full of mature individuals, we are also free to not have explicit sex and/or nudity in our games, no matter what you, Fox News, the government, or Bunky the Wonder Clown has to say about it. We have never considered it a "problem," it is simply a choice we have made and we have every right to make that choice.
Later on, answering another forum poster who dragged parenting into the discuss, Woo continues:
You are absolutely correct. It is not our job to parent the child or determine what content is acceptable or unacceptable for our players. But on the other hand, it is not your job to dictate what content we include or don't include in our games. Game development is not a collaborative effort between developers and gamers; it is a dictatorship, where we alone determine what content goes into our game. You the player make the choice whether that content is acceptable to you (and/or your family) or not.
I agree, but I think forum user Gorn Kregore put it a little more succinctly.
"Two words: Get laid."
Sex and Nudity [BioWare Social Network, via Cinemablend. There are no spoilers in this thread]