An Open Letter to Bioware Regarding Explicit Content

Bioware,

Your games (specifically the Mass Effect and Dragon Age Trilogies) are among the finest action-RPGs on the market. In anticipation of Mass Effect: Andromeda, I feel compelled to write openly on behalf of a minority demographic your team may not be aware of: players who love the story and action elements of the game but don’t care for the explicit content. I’m asking on behalf of myself and others for you to add a feature in the settings of your future titles allowing players to set which explicit content they want displayed in the games—namely language, gore, and sexual content.

Please understand that I am not advocating censorship, but merely choice. I am a writer myself, and I know I don’t want anyone telling me what is or isn’t appropriate for my own work. Instead of trying to control the content you put in your games, I’m simply asking for the choice to customize my experience for maximum enjoyment. Videogames have the unique providence of being a medium built around individuals. I can already control gaming aspects like difficulty, subtitles, and graphic and auditory settings, so why not what explicit content I see and hear? Choice is a key aspect of Bioware games, it is one of the attributes that truly make your titles stand out, so why not extend that choice further into the real world, embracing players who want to play the games without the explicit aspects? Of course those of us who want to limit our own exposure to explicit content already have a choice: to not play. But I hope you’ll give us a third option: to play without the content we hope to avoid in media.

I have seen countless forum threads where gamers have asked if X game has an option to turn off explicit content, and the answer is almost always the same: no such option exists. The replies on these threads then usually go on to mock the gamer in question, attempting to emasculate the player (regardless of whether they are male or female), telling them they need to “grow a pair” etc. I don’t see any need for this kind of mentality in the gaming world. Bioware games champion the fact that different kinds of people, leaders, and problem-solvers all have a place, e.g. you can be a renegade, you can be a paragon, etc. I don’t think Bioware needs to limit its fan base to those who enjoy explicit content. My reasons for wanting to limit my own exposure to explicit content are personal. Strangers don’t have to understand my reasons for them to be valid.

I know I’m not the only one with concerns about what kind of content will be in ME:A. The first Mass Effect game had no strong language, very little gore, and very brief partial nudity, while the most recent Mass Effect game had strong language at times, gore in the form of heads exploding when sniped, and the most recent Dragon Age game had much more explicit nudity. It leads some of us to wonder what the future holds if in such a short period of time this much new explicit content is introduced.

Let me reiterate my stance that this is a personal choice. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong for any other person to view or enjoy this content, but that as for myself I know I want to avoid it, and that I can enjoy your future action-RPGs much more without it. I hope I am not opening myself and others up to derision by asking for this concession, but I hope you will seriously consider implementing three separate toggles in the settings of your future games to control language, gore, and sexuality. Some games have given these options in the past, but I challenge you to set an industry standard by doing this with your A-list, flagship titles. Show that you care about all of your fans, not just the majority, and other companies will follow.

Regardless of what you choose to do, please accept my gratitude for making some of the best games I’ve ever played.

-MA

The Mass Effect Trilogy - Bioware (Videogame Series)

Now you know where all those "N7" t-shirts you see sometimes are from.

With the recent talk about the next Mass Effect game starting development, this is as good a time as any to cover a series I've been wanting to review for a while: the Mass Effect Trilogy. For the uninitiated, Mass Effect is an action RPG originally developed for the Xbox 360 and later ported to PC and PS3. Bioware (the company that created and produced ME) was founded by three doctors who had been friends since med school. They pooled together their resources and created their first game in 1996. Since then they have created hit after hit, filling what they perceived to be a void in the market with serious action role playing titles.

Set about two hundred years in the future, Mass Effect is the pinnacle of their achievement to date. You play as Commander Shepard, male or female, tough and reckless or thoughtful and empathetic--you choose. The major storyline, involving an apparently indomitable race of super-intelligent machines known as Reapers, doesn't actually change all that much on the large scale, but your decisions affect which characters live and die, how you get from point A to point B, and every logistic and interpersonal relationship in between*.

ME is not the first series to focus on the player being able to make decisions that affect the world around them, but it may be the game that (to date anyway) most capitulates the sensation of actually having made these choices and owning up to what becomes of them. At least when I played it, I know I really felt as if I were in some sense Commander Shepard. Partly this is because my character looked like me, but also because the games allow me to approach situations at least in the same ballpark as how I would if I were really there. They have even allowed for the development of romantic interests in each game that really add to the emotional interest of the gamer without getting in the way too much or being too cheesy to take seriously.

Liara T'Soni, one of the romantic possibilities in the game.

Another aspect of the games that is commendable is how familiar they get you with the different species that populate the Milky Way. There is a real sense of community in the galaxy as they have created it, with all the good and bad blood that entails, and you are right in the thick of it. You start to understand how the races are different; you learn about their pasts and what they--as a culture--value.

It is not perfect. The first game is rather glitchy and is almost impossible to play for those who are not familiar with video games in general, which is a real shame considering these titles could go a long way toward inviting new people to experience the power of video games. The choices can sometimes feel like damned-if-you-do/damned-if-you-don't scenarios. Not every possible side quest is as thrilling as one might hope, but these are minor issues in a game so packed with interesting characters, ideas, and decisions that two hours can pass by in the proverbial blink of an eye.

I recommend these games to gamers, of course, but also to others; those who perhaps have wondered what the fuss is about video games. Think of it as an opportunity to expand your personal artistic horizons. And if that guy or gal you have your eye on is a ME fan, I can almost guarantee they'll give you the time of day if you ask them to help you go through the games, because watching someone play ME is almost as fun as playing it yourself.

-MA

*I don't think I'll ever get over the fact that "in between" isn't "inbetween." Between between between.