Mass Effect 2 Knows Everything About Your 28 Playthroughs

Only 20% of players chose female Shepard

You think you may be the only who knows you played BioWare’s latest space opus for 66 hours. Not true. Mass Effect executive producer Casey Hudson also knows that you spent more than 5 days playing his game.

As it turns out, BioWare collects data from everyone who turns on the game, PC and Xbox 360–provided they’re connected to the Internet. It’s all anonymous and Hudson claims it helps the design team improve the game.

“[O]nce you know what players like and what they don’t like, based on the way that they’re playing it, then you can make more of the good stuff and less of the stuff they weren’t interested in,” says Hudson.

So what crazy stats are we privy to?

Generally, the data between the PC and Xbox 360 were quite similar. PC players played an hour longer but Xbox 360 gamers did 10% more loyalty missions.

• Engineer is the least played class. That’s not surprising given it’s not a flashy class. No biotics there.
• Solider is the most popular class, outdistancing all combined classes. I find that surprising since it’s just shooting a bunch of guns. Doesn’t everyone want to see some guy shoved into a bulkhead with your push biotic?
• Average completion time is 33 hours. Not too shabby.
• Someone has played a single playthrough for 66 hours. That is impressive given that world exploration is not as extensive as, say, Fallout 3 where I spent 100 hours.
• 80% of players made customized faces (and no doubt were still not happy with the results).
• 80% played as male Shepard. That is a shame since Jennifer Hale gives an excellent performance as female Shepard–something Mark Meer, voice of male Shepard, and I agree upon.
• 50% of players finished the game. It’s hard to say if that’s impressive when there are no other comparable statistics but it’s good to know players are getting to the ending.
• 50% of players imported a Mass Effect 1 save which means that the success of the PlayStation 3 Mass Effect 2 is not dependent on past experience with the game.
• Two PC players finished the game 28 times and four Xbox 360 players finished the game 23 times. Hard lesson learned: no matter how many times you play, Miranda won’t sleep with female Shepard.
• Players only skipped 15% of the conversations. Those in charge of the narrative and performance should be given a high five. Obviously the writing was compelling enough to keep people in the moment and enjoy the performances.

Hudson says that these findings won’t affect the PS3 version but it does raise questions that perhaps BioWare wasn’t aware of.

“Ultimately what it means for players is that we don’t have to guess anymore about what players are doing,” says Hudson. “We can actually learn about what they like and what they don’t like and just try to focus on building the good stuff.”

[via IGN]