Make love, not (just) war: Why romance is the key to Mass Effect games' popularity

Mass Effect: Andromeda continued BioWare’s internationally recognized approach to character-driven role-playing, with relationships and player choice treated as important parts of the game alongside exploration and combat. The series’ branching dialogue allowed players to shape their protagonist’s personality and relationships, while BioWare’s writing and performances helped create characters that players became invested in across the original Mass Effect trilogy. The article also highlights Edmonton actor and comedian Mark Meer, who voiced the male Commander Shepard in the original trilogy. Meer credited BioWare’s writers and performers with creating the complex characters that helped distinguish the series. By the release of Andromeda, relationship systems that BioWare had experimented with as far back as Baldur’s Gate II had become a recognizable element of the studio’s games, demonstrating the influence of BioWare’s narrative design on its internationally successful franchises.