The Changing Face of Games: Feeling Angry and Ignored, Fans Look for Someone to Blame

Until recently Jennifer Brandes Hepler, a writer at BioWare, Electronic Arts’ role-playing game subsidiary, was little-known outside the inner circle of BioWare fandom. Within those small circles, Hepler had for some time been a polarising figure. Or, more precisely, a kind of hypothetical Jennifer Hepler has been a polarising figure. Periodically, quotes would be attributed to her on the Bioware web forums. In these quotes the imaginary Hepler might, for example, promise to make Commander Shepard, the leading figure of the popular Mass Effect franchise, come out of the closet as a central part of the hotly-awaited third and final part in the series. The actual Hepler has no involvement in this game. Last week, a couple of these fake comments were rolled together, combined with some selective quotation from an interview Hepler gave in 2006 and posted, along with a picture of Hepler, to forums outside BioWare’s reach.