A great many BioWare fans – myself included – fell in love with games like Mass Effect precisely because they are not Gears of War. When we hear the company’s marketing chief David Silverman describe Mass Effect 3’s “action-adventury gameplay”, talk about the series “breaking out and going truly blockbuster”, and read – quite unsurprisingly – that the boss of publisher EA has spoken of “adjusting the gameplay mechanics…to address a much larger market opportunity”, we all know the score. BioWare and their partners want to broaden the series’ appeal and sell even more games. The trouble is, they are in danger of alienating their sizable and passionate audience by doing so.