BioWare Launches Survey to Help Direct Mass Effect 4

[Fox12]

Guys, I might've messed everything up. I wrote I wasn't looking forward to any aspect of the new Mass Effect because as far as I'm concerned Mass Effect is effectively a massive dating sim series and I can't think of any other aspect it excels at.

Ah fuck, I wrote that all I've been playing lately is persona 3 and 4. Between the two of us Mass Effect 4 is just going to be about an average Japanese high school student who has to fight reapers while managing a part time job and a relationship with a special someone.

 

[TheSanityAssassin]

ME3 was awesome, so were the endings. Can't wait for the next one

 

[Vivi22]

Nothing says you know exactly what you're doing like asking your fans to help you make it the best game in the series.

Not that it matters. The original trilogy was bungled to high heavens by the actual Bioware, and now the new game has been handed off to a five year old dev team with no actual titles to their name that was slapped with the name Bioware to trick people into thinking that the actual Edmonton team is making the games they make. Of course, they're not, but EA would rather people not know that the Bioware continuing the franchise isn't the Bioware everyone actually thinks of when they hear the name.

 

[MercurySteam]

Anything that will help Bioware and I'm in. I just hope they take their time to do things properly so that we get a 'true' Bioware game.

 

[Naqel]

I hate to point this out but.. it's a marketing survey.

Approaching it as such, I mentioned how I dislike EA in every field that allowed it.

Maybe the advertising will skip all EA logos?

 

[bug_of_war]

which could indicate a rushed deadline.

Yeah...too bad that EA actually extended Bioware's time to finish ME3 by pushing it from November 2011 to March 2012.

OT: Just make it a mash up of ME1's universe building and customisation, ME2's companions and ME3's combat and it'll be fine.

 

[Dragonlayer]

I took the survey but I don't think it was that helpful because it was basically me drooling and yelling: "I'm looking forward to everything!!! Please announce it so I can pre-order!!!"

 

[truckspond]

I did the survey. Hopefully they realise how important a good story is to the whole thing this time around

 

[Dragonlayer]

OT: Just make it a mash up of ME1's universe building and customisation, ME2's companions and ME3's combat and it'll be fine.

I know I'm committing the cardinal sin of fanboyism according to Yatzhee, but basically this. I would also love to see an expanded multiplayer, minus the fucking random rewards system!

 

[Fulbert]

Guys, I might've messed everything up. I wrote I wasn't looking forward to any aspect of the new Mass Effect because as far as I'm concerned Mass Effect is effectively a massive dating sim series and I can't think of any other aspect it excels at.

Ah fuck, I wrote that all I've been playing lately is persona 3 and 4. Between the two of us Mass Effect 4 is just going to be about an average Japanese high school student who has to fight reapers while managing a part time job and a relationship with a special someone.

Oh crap. I've been playing Personas too! Now it's decided, I suppose.

 

[Sol_HSA]

These surveys are the thing that ruined mass effect to begin with.

ME1 was great. It had its flaws, sure, but it was horribly immersive. Then they started making ME2, and when news started appearing how they have a list of things that people complained about and that they'll be fixing all of the complaints.. well.. it didn't sound promising. You can never please everybody.

So ME2 was still good, but way, way more "gamey". Way less immersive. Some changes I felt were totally welcome, like reduced inventory management, but they simplified a lot of things so far that it felt less like your interactive story and more like yet another game.

I was a big fan of ME universe at this point, and even bought the books. Then ME3 was announced. Apparently the main writer left the team at some point. Things were promised to become even more mainstream-friendly.

I never played ME3, so I don't know, first hand, how badly things went there. Thanks, origin.

 

[Johnny Thunder]

I got some ideas for future Mass Effect games that I humbly submitted:

- What if in a future Mass Effect game we are able to play AS any of the squad mates? The protagonist will always be present, and he will go through the story and dialogue options, but in addition to selecting the squad mates we can select the one we want to control.

That way, people can play as Asari or Krogan like they always wanted, but are not stuck with that race throughout the entire game.

- A space celebrity: a Krogan opera singer.

- Miranda takes over Cerberus as the Illusive Woman - maybe change the name to Lazarus.

- A super Relay is build to travel to another galaxy like the Andromeda Nebula.

- A level takes place on a gigantic tank of a hundred meters or so long with multiple levels.

 

[gittonsxv]

this is a good idea and can help work out what people want and like but can go wrong super fast,
i have faith, one bad ending does not mean that the entirety of mass effect is ruined.

 

[seditary]

I took rather a lot of glee filling out the 'What games have you played in the last two weeks' box with Etrian Odyssey Untold, Dynasty Warriors 8, Civilization 5 and King of Dragon Pass.

 

[Aggieknight]

To be fair, the "outside commentary" resulted in a significantly improved ending compared to the original ME3 conclusion, as well as shaping what was easily the best DLC of the game with Citadel.

Agree completely. When I've replayed ME3, I basically play the entire game up to Cronos Station, do The Citadel and stop.

Years later, that last couple missions fill me with anger and geek-rage.

 

[Ylla]

Honestly, devs know better than fans.
So when devs make such a huge mistake that even a large portion of fans understand it, its time to reevaluate themselves. Not the fans.

 

[JenSeven]

I do hope they take some inspirations from the games I listed that I played, beyond the options they gave me.

Like Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate 1&2, Planescape Torment, Tachyon The Fringe and Half Life 2.
That should give them an idea of what I would like.
A good old school story driven RPG with actual space combat and not a 3rd person action game with some RPG elements thrown in.

 

[Something Amyss]

I recall a similar survey a couple years ago for the next Mass Effect game. The biggest question was "prequel, sequel, side-quel?" (IMO, anything but sequel).

There was one before ME3, as well. Of course, I'm pretty sure the survey didn't as "how would you feel if we dropped almost everything in the game for an 11th hour deus ex machina that limited your actions to three choices which primarily affect the colour of the explosion at the end of the game," so I doubt it shaped ME3 in a sense that would be meaningful.

I took the survey. I basically told them to just make a next-gen version of Mass Effect 1 XD

I'm pretty sure that detracts from their plans to make Mass Effect into a sci fi FPS.

 

[UsefulPlayer 1]

I honestly thought the survey would be to determine what is canon in the Mass Effect universe. Like how there is a kind of canon for Jedi Knight Revan although there is a game with many choices.

I feel like this would be the only way to make a sequel.

Everyone has to agree say:

Liara is the love interest
Shepard is a girl
The Geth and Quarians live
Red or Green Ending

Those would be my votes anyway.

 

[BarkBarker]

You don't need a survey, you need to know how to make a good story, the ending of ME 3 before any changes was dick move by any storyteller standards, make YOUR story how you think it should be, don't give people EXACTLY what they want, because then it just becomes pieces rather than a whole.