According to one of the game’s scriptwriters, the character of Mass Effect 2Jack, was originally written as pansexual, but his romance options were apparently changed late in development to allow only heterosexual romance. Apparently the motive was the critical response to the sex scenes in the first game. and a Fox News panel on Mass Effect.
In an interview with The Gamer, Jack’s main screenwriter Brian Kindegran said the character was “essentially pansexual for most of the development of that romance”. There are references in the Mass Effect 2 dialogue to Jack’s interest in men and women, which is why many fans have since wondered why Jack could only have an affair with the male commander Shepard.
In explaining the reasoning behind the change, Kindegran pointed to criticism from the media in the United States: “Mass Effect had been very harsh and very unfairly criticized in the United States by Fox News”Kindegran told The Gamer, referring to a 2007 panel on the use of sex scenes in the first game.
“The Mass Effect 2 development team was quite a forward-thinking and open-minded team, but I think there was a concern at fairly high levels that in Mass Effect [1] There had only been one gay relationship (Liara, who on paper was not technically a gay relationship because she was kind of a single gender). I think there was a concern that if that had caused criticism, Mass Effect 2 had to be a little careful. “Kindergran explained.
Kindegran disagreed with the change, but told The Gamer it was made in an attempt to “Minimize the amount of criticism directed at the community by outlets like Fox News again.”.
