Baldur's Gate 3 made use of intimacy coordinators for its sex scenes, an apparent first for a traditional video game.
Intimacy coordinators help plan scenes featuring simulated sex or other intimate physical contact in movies and TV, with the goal of making sure that the actors involved are comfortable and don't feel pressured into things they haven't consented to. Use of intimacy coordinators began to grow after the MeToo movement, and today you'll find credits for the role in everything from House of the Dragon to Oppenheimer.
Now intimacy coordinators are working on video games too, it seems. In a report on the game's actors, the BBC notes that Baldur's Gate 3 "employed specially trained intimacy coordinators to make sure actors feel comfortable during romantic scenes."
"I never felt 'yuck' in a recording session at all," Jennifer English, who plays the Cleric companion Shadowheart, said. "And I've got quite a low 'yuck' threshold."
Larian said it believes Baldur's Gate 3 is one of the first traditional video games to make use of intimacy coordinators. The only other example of a game using intimacy coordinators I'm familiar with is 2022's FMV thriller Immortality - though that project has more in common with film and television than it does with traditional video games, at least when it comes to its live-action actors.
Baldur's Gate 3's sex and nudity have become quite a talking point in the weeks leading up to the game's release, with the promise of customizable genitals and the opportunity to have sex with a Druid while he's wildshaped into the form of a grizzly bear. I can offer no judgment. It's been clear at least since Mass Effect in 2007 that video game players love to form romantic relationships with their NPC companions - particularly when those bonds pay off in first-class tickets on the next train to Pound Town.
If lust isn't your thing, you might try approaching Baldur's Gate 3 with gluttony.
