BioWare’s Ray Muzyka on Mass Effect Controversy

N’Gai Croal from Newsweek’s Level Up feature is offering up a few details on why the doctors at BioWare have yet to publically defend Mass Effect from Fox News’ ridiculous accusations.

We asked Muzyka about this during the last night’s D.I.C.E. Summit cocktail party. He told us that he wanted to first let the community respond to the erroneous statements made by Lawrence and other Fox News panelists (which he colorfully likened to having a complete stranger hold a gun to the head of one’s newborn baby) and that he’d been heartened by the support that BioWare had received. As for why he and his colleagues didn’t take the lead on the rebuttal, Muzyka not only cited the quote he’d given the New York Times, but added that there were different ways to respond to incidents such as these, and that his focus would be to continue to loudly proclaim at every opportunity that videogames are an art form deserving of serious respect.

While we certainly respect Muzyka’s stance, and we welcome EA’s newly aggressive, forward-leaning posture in dealing with its critics, we can’t help but feel as though something is wrong when the loudest and most visible voices in defense of Mass Effect were journalists and suits. If this were a painting, a novel, a play, a movie or a television show being made by an artist or artists as successful in their medium as BioWare has been in videogames, it’s hard to imagine that a gallery owner, a book editor, a theater producer or a studio exec would be at the forefront of setting the record straight about their work.