Former BW producer comments on the adaptation of "Mass Effect": You can't just copy the game content

Earlier, there were reports that Amazon was negotiating with EA to produce a Mass Effect adaptation. David Gaider, a narrative designer who has worked at BioWare studio for more than 15 years and the founder of the Dragon Age series, recently commented on this matter.

Gaider said on Twitter: "I am very happy to see this sci-fi game adapted into a TV series instead of a movie. Even so, I am still a little worried and not as excited as most fans. First of all, ME or DA is a custom protagonist, which means that the TV needs to choose whether the protagonist is male or female. Boom, this disappoints a large group of fans with their own ideas."

"Second, the main character is designed to be a blank slate that the player fills in, which doesn't apply to passive media. So, all of a sudden, the main character has their own personality... and their own story. It feels weird to the fans. Do you think I'm wrong? Think about how much of the story in the game unfolds from the main character's companions. They are the code for the player to get most of the emotional personality. As for the main character themselves, DA or ME... well, it's boring."

"Think about all the companions of the main character, and how much the fan base relates to them. Now think about the fact that no single story can include all of them equally, so some companions will be relegated to cameos... or not appear at all."

After listing the problems existing in the above adaptations, Gaider also gave his own solution to the problem. He believed that a story about other protagonists could be written in the Mass Effect universe. However, this would also cause problems with audience recognition. Gaider then concluded that one way the adaptation might be successful is to follow Marvel's approach, not to copy the original work completely, but he himself could not be sure how successful this would be.