BioWare and EA have been catching a lot of flak lately; so much that they had to post a statement on their official forums telling users that if they continue to personally attack employees, they'll be banned immediately. While personal attacks are no way to make a statement, the fans have plenty of reason to complain even if BioWare doesn't think so.
VentureBeat had a chance to speak to Casey Hudson who is the executive producer of the Mass Effect series. He firmly believes that fans are equally as important as the developers in producing each title and stated:
You know, at this point, I think we’re co-creators with the fans. We use a lot of feedback.
Really? Then what about the day one DLC that fans have been upset about?
The DLC, whether it’s day one or not, is always going to be sugar on top, the extra… You know, the extra little bits of content that tell side stories. So even though the character we’re releasing on day one is a Prothean, which is part of a race that’s important to the lore of Mass Effect, his story is still an interesting kind of side thing, and then you get this character that’s good if you want to have him for your first playthrough. But it’s always optional. We would never take stuff out of the core game and only have it in DLC.
If Bioware has been listening to fan feedback over the years then they know just how important the Protheans are to the series. It's pretty clear that the additional content was intentionally designed to be a "must-have" piece so the developer and publisher could easily make a quick buck (or hundreds of thousands in this case). While that's the case with most DLC, it's rare that you see such vitally important content offered on launch day. That's not something I think fans would ask for, so you might as well take that co-creator quote and toss is out of the starship window.
I won't be buying the DLC, but the thousands that might could make this dirty tactic appealing to other studios. Think before you buy.
