The outrage over Mass Effect 3 has reached epically outrageous levels, with players fielding complaints that range from polite and legitimate to shamelessly bigoted (we definitely saw someone ask for a "no-homo" switch to make Shepard's gay crew members straight).
One of the more legitimate complaints, however, is that the game's day one DLC—"From Ashes," which allows Shepard to recruit an important new teammate—is so important to the story that it should have been included for free. At GDC this week, former Bioware employee and designer and programmer on the Mass Effect series Christina Norman (who now works for League of Legends dev Riot Games) went on a one minute rant to tell players a developer's side of the issue.
"There's no point in releasing DLC a year after your game has come out when most people have already sold your game back to GameStop three times," she said. "That means getting it out early; that means even day-one DLC. That is a terrible thing to some players. Players rant--they know nothing about this DLC that's coming out except its name. But then it's 'oh this game must be incomplete, the game must be ruined.' Game developers are not evil. (Some are evil.) But most are not evil."
"We just want to release awesome stuff. Players please, give us a chance. Judge our games based on what they are. Judge the DLC based on what it is. Stop thinking you're a producer and telling us when and where we should be building our content."
No doubt some ex-fans might reply that developers should stop listening to producers and start listening more to fans. Us? We're objective. Let us know what you think, though, in the comments or on Twitter.
