14 DAY TRIAL // When Mass Effect 3 was launched, some fans complained about the way same sex relationships were handled by the development team at BioWare. But close to two months after launch, its writers are satisfied with how the player base has reacted to the narrative arcs.
Dusty Everman, who is the writer in charge of Steve Cortez for Mass Effect 3, told the official BioWare Blog that, “Though I was a bit out of my element here, I’m very happy with how Cortez turned out. Given the nature of the relationship, I expected that my work here would be scrutinized more than anything I’ve ever done, so not one word was written lightly.
“The early feedback I’ve seen has been encouraging, and I’m eager to hear everything players have to say about him, both positive and negative.”
Patrick Weekes, who was in charge of the character of Samantha Traynor, added, “My friends and managers called me on it. I’d been so focused on writing something positive that I hadn’t made a real-enough character.
“So in the next draft (closer to how she shipped), the focus was on her as a mostly lighthearted fish out of water, a very smart lab tech trying to adjust to life on the front lines, with her identity as a lesbian present but not shouted from the rooftops.”
The writer also believes that the romantic sequence between Traynor and Commander Shepard was not forced in any way.
The writing team at BioWare is now hard at work on the promised downloadable content to be released during the summer and will explain the ending of the game that a lot of players have criticized.
The developer does not plan to change the endings in any way, only to offer more clarity and more details about certain characters’ fates.
BioWare is also offering updates and new events for the multiplayer side of Mass Effect 3.