BioWare has been accused of censoring the upcoming Mass Effect Legendary Edition â the remaster collection of the original Mass Effect trilogy â by removing its gratuitous butt shots. This removal of various leering camera angles has caused some gamers to cry âcensorship,â with BioWare deciding to make some changes it believes detracted from the story it was trying to tell.
The ability to romance characters is a big part of what made Mass Effect so popular, so news that BioWare would potentially be censoring some of these scenes sparked outrage. However, as is typically the case with the internet controversy machine, these responses are disproportionate compared to what BioWare actually said.
Why BioWare isnât censoring Mass Effect at all
In an interview with Metro, BioWare project director Mac Walters discussed how certain alterations were being made to the game, specifically regarding its treatment of female characters such as Miranda Lawson in cutscenes.
âKevin [Meek, character and environment director] actually called out some camera cuts that were just⊠why was that focusing on Mirandaâs butt?â Walters said. âSo in some cases we said, âOkay, we can make a change thereâ. But ultimately, to change an entire character model or something like that wasnât really⊠it was a decision that was made as part of many creative decisions and just showing it at the best possible fidelity that we could going forward is really the choice for all of the art that we had.â
Additionally, Meek noted how the female version of Shepard would be improved so that she would be âon parâ with her male equivalent, making additions such as subtle face shape changes, wrinkles, and different camera angles so that she would feel like more of her own character rather than a palette swap.
All of this sounds perfectly reasonable and, as some have pointed out, actually not as extensive as many had hoped considering that some Mass Effect fans wanted new romance options, new animations, and altered character models. âI do think a lot of things have evolved since [the original games],â Walters said about BioWareâs approach to female characters in the original trilogy. âI donât know if I would say we were ultra-concerned about it or anything like that, but there were considerations.â
So there will be moderate changes in this department, but theyâll mostly revolve around awkward camera shots that seemed out-of-place in the original trilogy. Still, that hasnât prevented the perenially outraged from doing what they do best.
Censorship cries from the YouTube outrage machine
The Quartering, a YouTuber with 1 million subscribers, published a video titled âBioware CENSORS Mass Effect Legendary Edition Because Beautiful Women Are Bad & Gamers Are Evil.â In the video, he explains how if there is a game with a âbeautiful womanâ in it, it will be updated â the implication being that developers feel forced to remove attractive characters when they modernize old video games.
He offers Final Fantasy 7 Remakeâs Tifa as an example of this â a character who was given a more athletic body type than in the remake than in the original and various spin-offs, though was certainly not a dramatic departure from her previous incarnations. He explains how Mass Effect Legendary Edition will be an âeasy passâ as its developers are focusing on changing camera angles when they should be âfixingâ the ending of Mass Effect 3 instead. (If BioWare changing Mass Effectâs camera angles is âself-censorship,â then why would the same not be said if it changed Mass Effect 3âs ending as a result of fan backlash?)
This is ignoring how the character models themselves arenât being altered and the romance scenes are being kept in-tact, but is reflective of a wider (and incorrect) belief that Mass Effect Legendary Editionâs changes are an example of censorship. As weâve seen with plenty of remasters and remakes, various changes will be made to old games to bring them in-line with modern releases. Compared to some of the more major alterations made in remakes over the years, altered camera angles isnât exactly an example of drastic alterations.
As far as we know, Mass Effect Legendary Editionâs romances will stay the same, as will its character models. BioWare is just making sure that the camera wonât zoom in on Mirandaâs backside when sheâs baring her soul about her sister. Itâs a sensible change but one that is predictably riling up not-too-sensible people.
In more Mass Effect news, the Legendary Edition is reportedly missing one DLC from the original series, while fans of the series also donât have to wait until the collectionâs launch to play a âremasterâ of the original game.