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
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