A Hepling Hand

Jenny, Jenny. Who can I turn to?

It seems we are once again in the midst of another Bioware writer kick-up thanks to the joys of instant communication. Given that I threw in a couple of jabs at the developers in the first article I wrote, I figure there's no harm in a small follow-up in the wake of this non-event slapfight in which everyone came off poorly. Which is totally different from every other time something similar has happened between two or more jilted nerds.

Much of the ire directed at Bioware is more than certainly well-earned. One of the top-selling developers in the industry today believes that "compelling storytelling" means a harem of emotionally unstable sex buddies to distract you from a plot with more holes than a sponge. It might be defensible as attempting to tackle adult themes if it wasn't approached like its own fan-fiction and then further expanded into the same writers' budding bargain-bin bibliographies. While they might be touting the ability to skip either the combat or the dialogue sections of the upcoming conclusion of the 'Shepard trilogy' as a feature, I don't see how this is supposed to inspire confidence in the quality of either of those elements, to say nothing of each element's synergy with the other.

What's even worse is that despite a bevy of legitimate grievances to air and a plethora of ridiculous in-context quotes by various employees of the company with regards to their design philosophies and conduct, people have been stupid enough to disparage Hepler in great volume and without any measure of candor. In all likelihood, the sympathies for her (appropriate) status as 'victim' against an onslaught of gendered insults and general harassment will likely shut down any trenchant ability to criticize Bioware for the next several months. Not that they seemed to be exerting any effort to quit barreling down the tracks with the bridge out (see: the leaked Mass Effect 3 script, any of the Star Wars: The Old Republic "romance" options), but now the handle's been broken off.

New leaked Edi concept art! You won't want to miss a thing!

So, congratulations to whatever collection of idiots wants to claim glory for shutting down her Twitter and proving her partway right about being resented as a woman in the video game industry. That, in an unrelated detail, she also happens to be a lackluster-at-best writer is now off the docket indefinitely. You have effectively acted as her own personal job security and guaranteed her continued influence over a division of the staff of one of the most powerful AAA developers. Oh, and you also made it even easier for her to reject any and all trenchant critique of her work by being able to take any of her detractors with at least half a brain and lump them in with you.

I'm pulling out the rum bottle and restarting my read-through of the "darkest, sexist, and best" Let's Play of DA2 by Shadow Isaac. Let their "work" speak for itself.