BioWare has issued a formal apology for how a transgender character in Mass Effect: Andromeda behaved and promises to tweak the character in a future update to "remedy the issue." According to some BioWare players, the character in question, Hainly Abrams, revealed the fact that they are transgender too soon to Ryder.
Hainly established the fact that she was named Stephan, but now goes by Hainly, within a few seconds of discussions with Ryder. Now, BioWare will alter the character to be less forthcoming with how they took an opportunity to start their life anew with the Andromeda Intiative. To get a little backstory on why some Mass Effect fans were upset, this is the player interaction with Hainly:
BioWare took to Twitter to apologize to anyone who was upset by Hainly's openness and that they will be tweaking the character to only reveal information to Ryder after trust is established:
"At BioWare, we strive to make games that are representative of our players and the broader world around us. We do this by actively consulting within our diverse workforce, as well as speaking with different communities.
"In Mass Effect: Andromeda, one of our non=playable characters, Hainly Abrams, was not included in a caring or thoughtful way. We apologize to anyone who interacted with or was hurt by this conversation. This was never our intent, and was an unfortunate byproduct of the iterative process of game design and a change in the structure of the character's dialogue.
"We have had several discussions with members of the transgender community, both internally at BioWare and in the broader community, and we are working to remedy this issue. Once the changes are implemented, Hainly will only reveal certain information to Ryder after they have developed trust, and only if the player chooses to support her.
"As always, we appreciate the help, feedback, and support from the Mass Effect community."
This change will come in the next two months.
