The first “Mass Effect” may not be over yet.

BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk may have primarily talked to me about “Dragon Age” at this past E3. But he told me we could also chat a little about his studio’s sci-fi role-playing game of last year, “Mass Effect.” Really? So how about confirming some new downloadable content?

He certainly came close to doing that:

Multiplayer: What can we talk about regarding “Mass Effect”?

Greg Zeschuk, Co-Founder of BioWare: Well we said it was a trilogy so there’s some stuff happening. We’re also looking at some other post-release content. We’re working away. BioWare’s pretty busy these days.

Multiplayer: We got our first DLC for the 360. People can expect there may be some more more coming?

Zeschuk: We’re talking about that. You know how we are. We’re always very circumspect until we can go “Aha! There it is!” With everything we build now, we want to have this long-term relationship with the customer and always have something for them to try. So we’re definitely looking at that for “Mass Effect.”

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Although “Alpha Protocol” is an action-RPG starring a government operative in modern times, I couldn’t help but think of “Mass Effect” when I saw the game at E3 last week.

Everything from the dialogue tree to the real-time combat system (replete with an “active skill” wheel that pauses the combat and allows the player to choose a special attack) to the main character’s circular targeting reticule echoed gameplay elements of the best-selling space saga from BioWare.

During a closed-door demo, senior producer Ryan Rucinski of Obsidian Entertainment acknowledged certain similarities to “Mass Effect,” but told me that the “Alpha Protocol” has been in development for over two-and-half years, and has plenty of differences to boast about. It goes deeper than the setting.

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“Alpha Protocol“’s dialogue system doesn’t just offer a variety of ways for player-character Michael Thorton to get missions.

It can also help him pick up women. That is, if you select your responses wisely.

When I saw “Alpha Protocol” at E3 last week, senior producer Ryan Rucinski told me that there are “a lot of love interests” for Thorton to choose from. There are several factions in the game that you can ally with or fight against, so the women Thorton meets can become collaborators or enemies. As a government operative, the player can acquire missions and assistance from the ladies Thorton’s wooed. But piss them off — by dating other girls, for instance — and there’s hell to pay.

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Call it overstatement.

Call it hype.

Call it a public relations ploy.

But also call it true?

An Electronic Arts press release promoting the release this month of the PC version of BioWare’s roleplaying game “Mass Effect” suggests that gaming is part of green living:

Popular video games such as the upcoming release of “Mass Effect” for PC, offer consumers over 50 hours of entertainment. Compared to other things that you can get for $60 these days, video games like Mass Effect provide more value for your dollar. Going to the movies costs $10 for two hours of entertainment. For $60 at the movies, you would only receive 12 hours of entertainment, which is 4 times less than a video game such as Mass Effect. For that matter, $60 won’t even get some car owners a full tank of gas, which would likely only last a week. Why not stay home, save the environment, and play “Mass Effect”? [Emphasis Added]

Now clearly the person writing this release was trying to get my attention. And they did. But is there any wisdom to these words?

Yesterday I showed you how Denis Dyack justified “Too Human” being a trilogy.

Today, witness how BioWare’s founders answered when I asked why “Mass Effect” needed to be three parts.

This interview was conducted in February at the Game Developers Conference where the BioWare was promoting the PC version of “Mass Effect”…

Multiplayer: “Mass Effect” was announced as a trilogy. Creatively, how do you go about determining that you’re making a trilogy? On the completely cynical side, it could be that there was some marketing guy who decided, “We’re going to make one game. It’s going to be a hit. We’re going to have two sequels.” On the other side of the spectrum the idea would be: “This story cannot be told in one game; it can’t be told in 40 hours. It needs to be told in 120.”

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Did you think that “Mass Effect“’s side quests could be better? If so, then the guys who run BioWare agree that there is room for improvement.

They told me so at GDC.

I care, because I’ve been to a lot of those side-quest planets in “Mass Effect.” In fact, I believe I’ve been to all of them. So I have my own feelings about what worked and what didn’t. I wanted to get the official developers’ take.

Here’s my chat with BioWare general manager Greg Zeschuk on the topic:

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First there was “Mass Effect.” Next there was the Fox News’ report on the game’s alleged “Luke Skywalker Meets ‘Debbie Does Dallas’” themes. Then came the subsequent fallout.

So at Game Developers Conference last month I asked the founders of “Mass Effect” developer BioWare how they’ll handle love and sex in future games

Their response:

Here’s an excerpt for people who can’t watch the video:
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Why the Marvel MMO didn’t make sense anymore. When “Banjo” is coming out. Whether “Mass Effect” is still a 360 trilogy. What will be the best-looking game on Xbox 360….

Last Thursday at the DICE gaming summit I met with Shane Kim, head of Microsoft Games Studios, in a conference room across the hall from where he had sat for a public interview with the New York Times’ Seth Schiesel. We discussed his publishing philosophy and reviewed the status of Microsoft’s major first-party gaming franchises one by one.

Our sweeping conversation covered “Halo,” “Gears of War,” “Alan Wake, ” and the host of other big Microsoft-backed games under his watch. Kim acknowledged that his studios’ line-up is more slender than the in-house offerings of Sony and Nintendo, adding that he hoped MGS’ reputation is one of “high-quality premium experiences.”

No, MGS won’t be set up to produce a lot of games, certainly not one a month, a rate I threw at Kim. “I know for us it’s been very fruitful to focus and to really get our attention and resources focused on key things,” he said. “I’m actually very comfortable with the volume of titles we have.”

Kim was a good sport, even gamely answering my question about whether the view that “Call of Duty 4” — not an MGS title — was the best-looking game on the Xbox 360 last year would drive Kim to ensure his label has the best-looking 360 title in 2008. He said: “I hope ‘Fable 2‘ is going to be really beautiful and that it will be considered the best-looking game.”

What follows is a game-by-game breakdown of my chat with Shane Kim.

Let’s start with the Marvel MMO and his explanation of why it’s not being made anymore…

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If you’re like me, you’re going to have to do a little bit of work to enjoy the newly announced downloadable content for “Mass Effect” when it comes out.

The “Bring Down The Sky” pack announced on Wednesday and slated for release on March 10 offers 90 minutes worth of bonus interplanetary exploration and combat. But if you saved the game where I did, you’ll have to spend a couple of hours reach a point of the game from which you can access it.

Even before I heard the announcement I was confused about how I would be able to enjoy the game’s promised downloadable content. I’ve cleared the game, and as others who also have can note, the “Mass Effect” galaxy is closed off to the player at least an hour before the game ends. “Mass Effect” isn’t like a “Grand Theft Auto,” or “Crackdown,” which leave their game environments open and available to the player even after their main narrative is concluded.

Instead, completing “Mass Effect” cycles the player back to the beginning of the game’s timeline, allowing them to replay the story with a powered-up copy of their character. But that character, at the outset of the story, can’t explore outer space and go to new downloadable worlds.

Yesterday at the DICE summit in Las Vegas, BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka confirmed to me that I would have to get my Commander Shepherd back in control of the Normandy spaceship — in other words, past the game’s opening Eden Prime and Citadel sequences — in order to access the new DLC.

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(Below is the beginning of a report filed at MTVNews.com.)

Nearly a week after slamming the Xbox 360 role-playing game “Mass Effect” on Fox News for its sexual content, author and psychology expert Cooper Lawrence backed down on some of her comments and took gamers to task for their chosen method of revenge.

Lawrence’s response followed several days of Internet frenzy that made her the most disliked person in the video game blogosphere and resulted in several hundred scathing reviews of her newest book on Amazon. While Lawrence hasn’t completely retracted her comments, she has offered some clarification.

“In hindsight, I would have liked to have had the opportunity to play this game before appearing on the program,” Lawrence said in a statement released to MTV News by her publicist. “As a developmental-psychology expert, I was asked to appear on this particular show to discuss the broader issue of video games and their impact on developing adolescents, not as an expert on ‘Mass Effect.’ ”

Read the rest of this story at MTVNews.com

(UPDATE: More Outlets Added)

Are you also tired about reading other people’s 2007 Game Of The Year lists?

Do you yearn to learn something of greater significance?

Well then I’d like to tell you what the Game Of The Game Of The Year is for 2007. See, in gaming, all accolades are measured as averages. So it is with Metacritic. So it is with the GOTGOTY. It matters not what any single outlet chose as the 2007 Game Of They Year winner was. It matters what, on average, they picked as GOTY.

You will find that out below. And then you will commend us on the wisdom of this new system.

So never mind that everyone isn’t done naming their GOTYs. I am sorry, Game Developers Choice awards, but I can’t wait until late February. I apologize, Interactive Achievement Awards. Early February is too soon as well. My best wishes to the Game Critics Game Of The Year Awards, for which even I participated. EGM, I’m sure you’ll announce your winners someday.

But time’s up and the law of averages is kicking in.

So, which 2007 video game was awarded GOTY status the most times? It was a close call…

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Throughout the week the team at Kotaku and just about everywhere else that writes about games on the Internet have been covering the report on Fox News’ “Live Desk With Martha MacCallum” about the sexual content in “Mass Effect.”

I know that sex scene — at least a version of it. A few weekends ago, under my Xbox 360 control, one Samus Shepard had sex with a bisexual alien woman near the end of my 29 hours and 24 minutes with the game.

Fox News reported that “Mass Effect” shows “full digital nudity and sex.” And to any Fox News viewer who hasn’t played the game, it may well have seemed like it has quite a lot of it. A panelist who participated in a round-table discussion following Fox News’ report described the game as “Luke Skywalker meets ‘Debbie Does Dallas.’” That didn’t quite square with how I remembered the game, nor with Spike TV gaming reporter Geoff Keighley who said, in the segment, that it was wrong. Fox’s MacCallum even read a statement from Microsoft saying that the description of the content was “inaccurate.”

Still, the report was headlined “‘SE’XBOX” and focused on why allegedly inappropriate sexual content was being marketed to kids.

Gamers got angry about this. So did Electronic Arts, new-found owners of “Mass Effect” developer BioWare.

(Note: Responses from both Fox News and EA follow below)

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