BioWare’s Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk on Mass Effect 3’s Leak

The folks at Eurogamer report some comments from BioWare’s co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk on the leak of Mass Effect 3’s private beta, which also included in its files an early incomplete version of the title’s script, noting that the developers will certainly listen to the feedback that comes out of this situation:

“We listen to our fans all of the time,” Muzyka continued. “We listen to them on the forums, their feedback from stories. We’re reading it all. If we can get ideas out of it that will make the game better, sure. We’re not adverse to taking feedback. That’s part of our core values, is humility. Any time we get a good idea from fans… they’re our audience. They keep us in business.”

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Muzyka urged the fans to stay clear of story spoilers because they script is out of context.

“You edit it continually. It’s a living process to build a game and it’s also a living experience to play through it. You’re seeing the graphics, you’re seeing the choices, you’re seeing the characters. Words alone on a page, they’re not delivered in voice over, they’re not delivered in the interface, they’re not delivered as your character, with your choices up to that point imbuing them with meaning and purpose and identity, the emotion part of it.

“A lot of the art now in video games is developed in an interesting way where subtle expressions and facial animation, a tilt of the head, the way the camera is positioned, the lighting in a room, they can set the tone and the mood, the sound effects, the layer of audio that’s put over the top of a scene, that stuff is really important.

“What I would suggest to the fans is, we’re going to make sure we deliver an awesome experience as we have in prior Mass Effect games. Don’t spoil the story. The fun of the story is uncovering things and exploring and finding new points to adventure in. I hope they don’t lose that joy of discovery.”

While the script will certainly be edited and polished up until release, I’m really doubtful that we’ll see any major changes to the story arc at this stage of development.