Mass Effect 2’s LGBTQ+ relationships suffered as a result of Fox News’ infamous and high profile segment on the brief sex scene included in Mass Effect 1.
That’s according to Mass Effect 2 writer Brian Kindregan, who told TheGamer, the controversy had contributed to the curtailing of pansexual romance possibilities for his foul-mouthed but kind-hearted character Jack.
Back in 2007, bullshit broadcaster Fox News took aim at the first Mass Effect for its 30-second romance scene where you are able to see blue alien Liara’s buttocks. In an awful and ill-informed discussion segment, the network suggested this optional coda to the near-60-hour game was potentially dangerous to its audience and that copies of the game should not be allowed into family homes.
If you want to watch all of that, here it is, including a valiant attempt at a defence of the game from a fresh-faced Geoff Keighley:
FOX NEWS Mass Effect Sex Debate Watch on YouTube
When it came to Mass Effect 2, development of which was already underway when this Fox News skit blew up, Kindregan says BioWare bosses felt pressured not to risk another controversy – however ridiculous it may have been.
“I was trying to chart out the arc of [Jack’s] romance, which for much of the development – it was actually very late that it became a male/female-only romance,” Kindregan told TheGamer. “She was essentially pansexual for most of the development of that romance.