The video game Mass Effect 2 remains popular more than a decade after its original 2010 release. Now, lead game designer Jonathan Cooper reveals that the game originally had a same-sex romance, that is, until, outcry on Fox News pressured game studio BioWare to delete the subplot from the game.
Cooper took to Twitter to confirm that the character Jacob Taylor would have had a romance with his fellow crew member MaleShep (the male version of the player’s character). Taylor modeled and animated their love scenes together after Brokeback Mountain; that is, until, Fox News intervened.
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“I animated both scenes for Male & Female,” Cooper revealed on Twitter. “We prevized Jacob as the male/male, matching shot-for-shot from Brokeback Mountain. Was told at the time ‘America isn’t ready for it.’ Perhaps it still isn’t.”
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“We matched Brokeback so it wouldn’t be unacceptable – but different rules for film and games I guess,” he added. “Personally I still believe it was the wrong call to cut, as we protested at the time. People with a problem with can go f*ck themselves – they don’t deserve to play our games.”
We matched Brokeback so it wouldn't be unacceptable – but different rules for film and games I guess. Personally I still believe it was the wrong call to cut, as we protested at the time. People with a problem with can go fuck themselves – they don't deserve to play our games.
— Jonathan Cooper (@GameAnim) January 27, 2021
Cooper’s assertion comes not long after fellow designer Brian Kindregan told website The Gamer that another character in the game, the genderfluid Jack, would have also had a same-sex romance with the player, if he had selected the female version of the game’s lead, FemShep.
“Mass Effect had been pretty heavily and really unfairly criticized in the US by Fox News, which at the time… maybe more people in the world thought that there was a connection between reality and what gets discussed on Fox News,” Kindregan told the site. “The short version is, a lot of us were asked pretty late to focus the relationships on a more traditional kind of vector.”
To date, Mass Effect 2 has reportedly sold more than 7 million copies. Fox News, of course, continues to endure criticism both for anti-LGBTQ bias, and outright distortion of reality.
DarkZephyr
We always knew something like this had gone down, although the belief had always been that it was Thane Krios that was supposed to have been bisexual. I’m actually very surprised to learn that it was Jacob. How interesting. Stupid Faux News.
SFMike
Christofascist Fox News destroys anything they touch.
WSnyder
So the Studio caves to ‘pressure’ from Fox and they ‘blame’ Fox? Sure Fox just caters to mostly rural white trash but seriously, does anyone at the studio realize that Fox viewers would be a minimal part of their players? What’s next, caving to ‘A Million Mom’s’? Westboro Baptist Church? Didn’t anyone realize that getting into a tiff with Fox is free PR you can’t buy at any price? It likely would’ve brought players back to the game and likely drive new sales?
Well, goes to show, the Studio is driven by a bunch of wimps with no backbone and hardly worth anyone actually playing a game with that type of management.
JessPH
So why give in to the pressure? You have nobody to blame but yourselves.
LegionKeign
Why not rerelease the game with the intended content?
I bet they’d make a ton of sales.
Motard
My understanding is BioWare and EA have announced remastered versions for the original Mass Effect trilogy launching later this year – I haven’t seen coverage suggesting that content might be similarly revised or updated, so I suppose we’ll see?