While i'm not going to give my opinion on the matter in this space, it is alway interesting to watch what the community does when mass media takes things out of context and portrays them as fact. Sure, Fox News has kind of earned its reputation thanks to all its punditry and posturing, but running a segment on Mass effect without having anyone on their panel passing judgement without having played it probably is not a smart idea.

That's the biggest problem with mass media, but another problem is a muted response by the companies that make games. How many times has GTA taken a beating on TV? And how many times has rockstar gone out of its way to defend its popular franchise? Not very many. EA is taking a different posture, which is "don't tread on me!" While Id on;t want to jump into the middle of this argument I will say that companies, and not journalists, need to defend the games they make. EA is the very first company to figure this out and I hope they continue to do so..

I will give you one opinion on what they are saying about Mass Effect: It is one of the best games of 2007 and that's a ringing endorsement from me - the guy that didn't fool around too much with the whole relationship angle of the game - but then again I never was a fan of these relationships in any of Bioware's previous games. If I want that i'll work on my real relationship. - James