Why, why, why must this always occur? First off, it seems that you are miss understanding the gaming culture as a whole. This sort of thing always happens, and I believe 10 years ago, they were blaming rock music. Let’s face all the facts, every decade, something is blamed for ‘distorting the youth’ or turning them into psycho-sex fuelled killers.

On to the analysis.

“1. "The most realistic sex acts..." - from the YouTube footage I saw, I still concur, to me these acts are the most realistic put in video games - that I have seen. In the lesbian version one woman's hand appears to stimulate the crotch of the other passing between the legs. Today many of the more per*v-oriented gamers took delight in describing for me the detailed description of games they claim are MORE realistic... Ok fine, I'll take them at their word, but for me the statement stands...”

Realistic? Perhaps. Sure the game is HINTED at sexual acts. But in the linked scene, do you see any such acts? No. Do you see any bare flesh? Just the top of the shoulders. I’ve personally seen dresses worn that reveal more flesh than that scene. And again with the misinformation. There is no such scene involving ‘stimulation of the crotch’ in any of the possible sex scenes.
Also, there is only one scene in the game where there is a little more flesh seen, and even then it’s buttocks and the side (as the breast is covered by an arm) and back of a woman. ‘Most realistic in a game’ not really, it seems pretty tame to me. As I’ve said before, a TV show like CSI has worse sex scenes in it, and that’s Prime-time TV.

2. "One can custom design the shape, form, bodies, race, hair style, breast size of the images..." Evidently the only thing I got wrong on this was the breast size, though I would like someone to explain to me how the female characters end up having different sizes again on the YouTube footage I witnessed with my own eyes... But the rest of it was true. race, hair style, color - etc.

So? You can make a character that looks like you. It’s the basic “I wish” fantasy. Nothing to do with the sex in it. When I bought this game, I didn’t even know I could have sex in it (hell, I didn’t even find out till my friend told me, as I played the whole game without seeing it, especially as certain criteria must be met). I don’t know about you, but if I read a book, and get a vague description of the main character, I imagine myself as the main, doing all the cool things. This is just that same thing but made reality.
Also, the breast size only changes with body size.

3. "...the video game "persons" hump in every form, format, multiple, gender-oriented possibility they can think of." Again true (not that there are that many combinations of human sexuality to begin with.) But since the makers of Mass Effect decided to throw in a little alien booty both hetero and homo it seems to me that they covered the range. Would these gamers have preferred that the game included bestiality? Later in the column I make a reference to being able to perform sex acts, homo and hetero, with whomever... Ok - you can't have sex with every single character in the game... But between copulating with Aliens, girl on girl, guy on girl, and according to my gamer friends who I checked with - it does not take a great deal of manipulation to add a few extra "kinks" to the mix for those who know a little bit about such things.

No, there is no ‘humping’ of any kind in the game. At all. And as I stated before, if you play the game like I, you can complete it without even knowing about such a scene in the first place.
And so? Alien-human sex? Didn’t William Shatner do that in the old Star Treks? Sure, you didn’t see it, but it was hinted at, which is only slight better than what happens in the game. But this is the 21^st century. Why should it matter whether it’s heterosexual or homosexual?

4. They also took outrageous umbrage to the claims I made in the column that the game is marketed to teen-age boys. (Though many of those giving me feedback happened to be under the age of 17/18.) The common argument is that because the game is marked "M" that means that no kid under 17/18 (depending on your state) would be allowed access to it. Asinine thinking through and through though. Simply like the fact that movie theaters are this night allowing children underage to purchase tickets, refusing to ask for ID, these games are being sold over the counter by the major chain stores with no enforcement of the age limit suggestions posted on the games themselves. The Gamers act as though the packaging itself is all the responsibility that needs to be taken. Of course they themselves probably started hiding their collection of Hustler Magazine under their beds when they were eleven and have thus a good idea of how the "letter of the law" differs from the "intent." Thus the explanation of why they were so sore with me for pointing out the obvious. The silly "M" label stands for, and accomplishes precious little. (UPDATE 1/16: It accomplished more than I previously understood.)

Again, it is rated ‘M’. And as you say, under 17’s are unable to buy it any less than they can get ‘R’ rated movies. I do not hear you complaining about them selling movies to underage.
Not only this, but it should be up to the parents to enforce what their children are either playing or viewing. In fact, this is the major thing. It is much harder to hide playing a video game than hiding pornography. If I was a 15 year old (I never owned pornography, mind you), I would hide my pornography under my mattress. However, I don’t know about you, but I cannot hide myself, a television and an XBOX 360 under my mattress. Not only that, but parental controls can be set on XBOX 360’s to shut out such contents, or make games unplayable if they are over a certain rating. All of which, are too the parents.

5. The major criticism the Gamer-Nerds had for me in their reaction was this challenge: "Unless you've spent the 20 hours of game time it takes to get to the explicit scenes, keep your fat mouth shut!" Many challenges stated that unless I played it myself then I had no business pointing out its objectionably content. Would they say the same of a strip club at the end of their block or hookers knocking at their door? Normal people would not. There is an innate instinct that tells us right from wrong, it's called a conscience. Did I play the game? No. Did I talk to some gamers who had and who knew the possibilities of the game. Yes! Does it make the lesbian, alien, hetero, homo sex that a player arrives at in the game a proper thing for teenagers to be tantalized by? Absolutely not!

“Gamer-nerds” most of us “Gamers” are not the same as nerds, anymore than Geeks are.
The fact of this is, “don’t bash it until you’ve tried it’. Reading through even your latest articles, you still state misinformation, proving that your ‘gamer friends’ have not gone that far into detail with you on the game. Again, you can play the game without having and sex whatsoever. And what is this deal with conscience? Yes I would complain about a strip club at the end of my street, but a video game is little more than an interactive movie. Would I complain about a sex scene in a movie? No, I would not. Why? Because there is little point. Sure, I may take offense at it (hell, as long as it’s a good movie, I care not the content in it), but I would not post a blog with half-researched information, and then make slanderous comments about people whom have posted a predictable response. I would be a good journalist and fully research what I was writing beforehand.

To wrap the whole thing up: Society isn’t going to fall because a game has sexual content, now more so than movies with it in will. I can go into best buy tomorrow and buy a movie or a television series that has more graphic scenes in  the whole of Mass Effect, for a reduced price; or I could even just use the internet for my per*verted ends to get my pleasure for free.
I am not going to spend 50 dollars on a game for a less-than-2-minute lousy sex scene, in reality, am I? No matter what the age, the amount in this is minimal. I would bet that the only reason that the game is M rated, is for the tepid violence, anyway!

Again to wrap up: You column is filled with either blatant lies, or severe misinformation/misinterpreting. And your articles have made me very angry, as both a gamer and a journalist.

Levant D. Mayne