Tessera is an artist specializing in a type of art that didn’t even exist until a few years ago. Tessera creates “mods” or “skins” for computer games that change the appearance of characters in the game for aesthetic purposes. In Tessera’s case, the mods are intended to provide a sexier gaming experience for the player. Since Angela and I are one hundred percent in favor of anything that makes the world a more erotic place, we think he is performing a service to gamers everywhere.

Tessera kindly agreed to an interview with us and we hope you will enjoy it as much as we did. His website is Tessmage.com and we encourage everyone to go there to see more examples of his beautiful and stimulating art.

One acronym in the interview needs a little more explanation. An MMO is a “Massively Multiplayer Online” game. In a game like this, hundreds or thousands of players share an online “world,” having adventures together and interacting in other ways. The best-known MMO is World of Warcraft, but there are many other examples.

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Angela: We both have a high appreciation of pin-up art and other imagery that celebrates female sensuality and we really admire your work. Thank you for agreeing to answer a few questions!

TESSERA: The pleasure is all mine, and I am flattered that you have asked to interview me.

Angela: Many of our readers are not going to be at all familiar with modding. Can you tell us a little about the process, what tools you use, and how you got started modding?

TESSERA: "Modding" is short for "modifying." In terms of games and gaming, the term "modder" refers to someone who has the skills to selectively (or even radically) alter the original files from the game in question, in order to permanently change certain aspects of that game. For example, some modders like to change the way certain items or weapons function within the game, so they dig into the files that govern those aspects and then directly modify the game code. Other modders like myself are more interested in the visual elements of the game. My own specialty is texture modding, which means that I make alterations to the artwork that is used for character models, or scenery, or any of the other graphics that I might wish to change and/or improve. To accomplish those changes requires a knowledge of complex graphics manipulation software, as well as a fair degree of natural-born artistic talent.

The mods that I am best known for are sometimes referred to as "nude mods" or "nude conversion mods." Before I got into computer graphics, I was a more "conventional" (pastels and canvas) artist and I usually painted female nudes as my subjects. So when computer games came into my life, "nude mods" that convert the female characters into high-quality nude versions just seemed like the logical next step for me to take. The amount of work involved in producing one of my nude mods might surprise a lot of people. It can be a very laborious process, depending upon the models and textures involved.

Angela: Which of your mods is your favorite, and/or what is your favorite thing to mod?

TESSERA: Well as you might imagine, I have a hard time choosing a favorite. So much work goes into each of my mods that it is difficult for me to decide which one is "the best." I suppose if I were forced to select one of my mods as being the one that I enjoyed working on the most, then I guess it would be the total package of mods that were combined to produce my "Raven" character for the game "Oblivion." She is the most photorealistic character that I have managed to produce to date. I am also very fond of the mods that I have created for "Vampire -- The Masquerade: Bloodlines." My modified female Malkavian for that game has been one of my most popular mods to date, and I can understand why. She's quirky and kinky and downright fun to play.

As for what my favorite modding subjects are..? That's an easy answer: I enjoy working on female characters, and I do my best to make them appear as beautiful and sexy and appealing as I can manage. I suppose that I just have an innate fondness for feminine beauty and a strong familiarity with the anatomy. Whereas most nude modders simply focus upon giving you more skin, my goal has always been to give the players better skin. I won't just slap a pair of chocolate stain nipples and a poorly-drawn splotch of pubic hair onto a female character model and then declare "Look..! I just made a nude mod..!" No... I have always been a bit more ambitious than that. My goal has always been to achieve a certain "look," not just make the girls be more naked. I always try to spice up my creations a bit, by adding a few erotic elements here and there like gold waist chains, or a hint of tan lines, or manicures and pedicures, or a kinky and revealing outfit, or whatever else that I feel will add an extra dose of "Ooomph!!!" to the final presentation.

Drake: Your website suggests that there is a philosophy behind your work. Can you tell us what your goals are for creating these great skins?

TESSERA: Well, that's a question that is difficult to give a short reply to, but I'll do my best to give you an answer that is less than twenty pages long.

Essentially, I'm a hedonist and an eroticist in my real life. I feel that nudity and sex are not only normal and natural, but that we should all be much more open about those very pleasurable aspects of our humanity. We need to embrace our beautiful bodies and our equally beautiful selves -- not hide away in shame. Inhibitions inevitably lead to a fear of intimacy and sexual guilt, which can never be a good thing. I suppose that certain presentations within my website reflect that philosophy to varying degrees.

I have always been distressed by the sexual repression that we have all been poisoned by within our society. Yes, I said the word "poisoned," because I truly feel that the repression of sex, sexuality and nudity is directly harmful to our species. We are the only animals on this planet who view their own natural bodies and mating habits as being a source of guilt and shame. I am very saddened by that. I truly am. The late George Carlin provided us with similar observations and comments regarding this issue, on his brilliant "You Are All Diseased" comedy album. I highly recommend that everyone grab a copy of that performance and then try to listen to it with a truly open mind. You may recognize certain things about your own psyche which are worthy of some healthy introspection.

Both my website and my work are motivated by those feelings and beliefs on my part. Some might look at my humble little website and think that it is just another half-assed amateur porn site, or that it was filled with nothing but shallow and gratuitous fluff. The truth is that, amongst other things, Tessmage.com is a website that asserts the notion that the natural feminine form is the most beautiful objet d'art in this world -- not something "dirty" that needs to be hidden, repressed and frowned upon. Far from being a cheap and tawdry exploitation of women, I feel that the images that I present are empowering, in a way. To my way of thinking, the day that women (and men, for that matter) can finally free themselves from the bondage of sexual repression is the day that they will truly have become "liberated" at last. Until that day comes, we'll still be living in a prison made of fabric... and shackles made of needless and irrational shame.

Drake: Have you ever had anyone become morally offended by your work?  If so, how did you respond?

TESSERA: Oh yes, I have occasionally received some incredibly vicious expressions of outrage from supposedly "moral" individuals, who claimed that my work was somehow the product of a sick mind and that I needed to stop exposing the rest of the world to my own "pornographic fantasies." My customary answer to such repressed individuals is this: if you feel that the bodies and sexual habits of your own species need to be stigmatized, sanitized and even criminalized, then to my way of thinking you are massively mentally ill. This goes back to my earlier comments about repression and how it has poisoned our society. Repression has caused such an insidious degree of inner conflict and psychological damage that it has literally set people at each other's throats at times. One trip to an especially repressed culture (like Saudi Arabia, for example) should be all the proof that anyone needs of the toxic nature of sexual repression. So whenever I run into someone whose mind works in such diseased ways, the usual reaction that they will get from me is one of both pity and disgust. Such attitudes need to be systematically eradicated from our culture -- certainly not tolerated or worse, encouraged.

I should mention that, by and large, the overwhelming reaction to my work has been both positive and highly complimentary. For that, I am grateful.

Angela: Do you read erotic fantasy? Any favorite books or graphic novels? Any films that have influenced your visual style?

TESSERA: I am actually in the process of writing an erotic vampire story as we speak. I even posted a copy of a rough draft of the first few chapters on my own forums. I can't give you any of the details right now, except to say that it will be an interesting mixture of horror and steamy softcore erotica. I was originally inspired by the World of Darkness Role Playing Game, but I later removed any and all such references from the story and took it into another direction entirely. Vampires lend themselves very nicely to erotic fiction, due to the lusty and exotic nature of the vampire genre. So yes, I have always been interested in erotic fiction, so long as it is presented with a bit of style and flair. The depth of the story itself is the key.

I can't think of any films that have influenced my visual style, though. I'm not really sure where my style is coming from. Perhaps it is simply coming from some exotic corner of my own imagination that needs to find a regular outlet. It just seems to flow along by itself as I work.

Angela: What MMOs do you play currently? Do you have an all-time favorite, and have you done mods for all of the games you've played?

TESSERA: I am currently playing the Age of Conan (AoC) MMO, but I am beginning to lose faith in that game and its creators (Funcom). I had hoped that AoC would be a more authentic recreation of the Robert E. Howard stories, but sadly that has turned out not to be the case. Instead, we've been handed a game which glorifies violence and atrocities, but simultaneously suppresses the steamy sexual elements of the Hyborean mythos. Frankly, we're seeing the same warped double standard throughout AoC that has plagued our culture for centuries: violence and butchery are perfectly okay, but lust and intimacy are forbidden. In other words, you can lust for blood -- but you can't lust for another human being. On that score, I am very disappointed with Funcom. A lot of other adult players are, too. Many have quit in disappointment over this issue. They were expecting a more sophisticated treatment of the subject matter than what we have been given.

My all-time favorite MMO was the original EverQuest (EQ), back in the days before it was handed over to the complete control of Sony Online Entertainment (SOE). Up until late 2002, that game was hands-down the most brilliantly constructed MMO that has ever been produced. The original EQ (prior to the SOE takeover) also enjoyed the most interdependent and mutually supportive community in the history of online gaming. Is it any wonder that it continues to be the yardstick against which all other MMOs are inevitably measured? Those were good times, to be sure. Well, until SOE came along and dumbed it all down, of course. After that, the game lost its original appeal and in late 2003, I eventually stopped playing it.

I have not done mods for all of the games that I play. I only produce mods for the games which I feel warrant the effort on my part. If the character models are well-constructed and if the game itself has enough overall appeal to it, then those are the games that I am the most often tempted to mod. Unfortunately, there are not very many PC games that meet all of those qualifications, hence the rather limited number of mods that I have released to the public.

Angela: What is your view of erotic role play (ERP)?  Do you believe ERP enhances MMOs?

TESSERA: I think that erotic role play in an MMO is a wonderful idea on paper. The problem is that due to the anonymity of the internet, ERP opens the door to certain types of abuse. For example, there are purportedly a number of gay men who portray themselves as being actual females in MMOs, so that they can worm their way into erotic role playing situations with other men. I am not simply referring to the men (such as myself) who prefer to create and play female characters in their games. That's merely a matter of what type of character you prefer to be staring at all day on your screen. No, I am referring to the so-called "mangina" types, who actually try to convince others that they are a woman in real life, for the purpose of tricking them into illicit situations. I find that kind of activity to be rather disturbing. Several years ago, I once did something like that myself (although minus any erotic role play) as a prank and predictably, it got way out of hand. I have regretted that prank ever since and I have never repeated it.

However, if I knew for a fact that the person I was role playing with was indeed a member of the opposite sex…then absolutely -- erotic role play is not only very entertaining, but also very liberating. And who knows? You might even strike up a real-life romance in the process. I've heard of many such relationships which arose out of online erotic role play between men and women. I myself have had real-life romances which began as online ERP. Even if you don't have any such intentions or expectations in mind, erotic role play is simply a fun and intriguing way for mature gamers to interact with one another. I view it as being a very healthy and liberating fantasy, so long as there is no serious deception and/or unreasonable expectations involved. 

I should also mention that it is perfectly okay for someone to harmlessly role play as a member of the opposite sex. That's just "pulling a Tootsie," as they say. I have no problem with that at all and in fact, I think it's rather impressive if someone is a good enough actor to pull it off convincingly. That's a far cry from getting into erotic scenarios, though.

One needs to be very careful, because when you cross that line into erotic behaviors, then everything needs to be completely above board. Otherwise, there's bound to be some serious trouble... because erotica elicits some very deep feelings of lust in most people. Lust is a good thing -- but only when it is not being exploited in an unscrupulous manner.

Drake: Do you have any message for the people who might be reading this and are fascinated by your work and want to learn more about it?

TESSERA: My first advice to them would be to become 100% comfortable with the subject matter. After that, it is a process of seeking out others who have been successful at what I do, and then learning from them directly. There are also various websites which offer nuts-and-bolts lessons on how to use the various tools of our trade. In the final analysis, it will come down to your own talents and the limits (if any) of your imagination.  Never be afraid to take a chance... because sometimes, you just might wind up producing something truly unique and special.

Angela and Drake:  Thank you very much Tessera, and best wishes in your endeavors!

Follow this link to a wonderful video of Tessera's work!  Great music and some incredible modified graphics!  Note:  This is best viewed in Internet Explorer. 

For more videos, graphics, and discussion, check out Tessera's website at www.tessmage.com.