Again, this post is talking about an issue that is a couple of years old, but I just wanted to voice my opinion on it.
When Mass Effect 1 first came out it sold very well and was nearly universally acclaimed, as Wikipedia will tell you. However this was overshadowed by the news that it contained a single, optional sex scene. Close to the end of the main campaign, if the player had pursued a character romantically they were treated to a thirty second, out of focus, tame sex scene. It showed nothing explicit, a mere side boob at most depending on who you were playing as and who you had initiated the scene with.
However, as is always the case, mainstream news outlets and anti-video campaigners made out as if it was all the game consisted of; a thirty hour interactive alien orgy. On television, blogs and newspaper articles critics described the game as pornographic, offensive, destructive and a terrible influence on the children that it was supposedly “marketed to”. Aside from the fact that every single one of these critics was IMMENSELY WRONG was the fact that NONE of them had actually played the game, with many saying they had simply heard the game was pornographic.
What personally annoyed me most about the situation was how widespread the ignorance was and how news outlets were allowed to get away with their accusations, simply because it was “only” a video game. If it was not a video game, I don’t believe the same sort of ignorant news reporting would have taken place.
For arguments sake, lets say a new indie film comes out that has a mild sex scene in it with two young adults and only gets a limited release. Now imagine that someone who hasn’t even seen the film reports to the rest of the world that the film contains a graphic sex scene with under age teenagers. Then the rest of the media reports it to the whole world describing the film as nothing but a two hour paedophile porno and convinces everyone that this is a fact.
It would never happen. Why? Because it would be a film, not a video game, so people would not be allowed to make such sensationalist claims without having even watched it. The kind of negative media coverage that Mass Effect received is, I believe, spitting in the face of the games industry.
But there is always a silver lining. All the free publicity probably generated bigger sales for Mass Effect than any of their ad campaigns had hoped.
The Dannyish 
Posted on July 12, 2010
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