BioWare Launches Survey to Help Direct Mass Effect 4

[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.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

I don't see the point if its a pre quel or side sequel....

for me its actual sequel or nothing, and MABYE the only way I'll ever feel right about the series again

But how would they even begin to make a sequel out of this? The (extended cut) four endings are so different from one another, that it'd be impossible to make a sequel without forcing one of them to be canon (which is always a shitty thing to impose on people). They can only really do a prequel or have it set during the events of the trilogy. The different endings have put them into a corner like that.

 

[james.sponge]

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.

You know they didn't streamline ME2 because fans wanted it, I remember asking for more stuff to do, bigger levels, more meaningful exploration and less copy-pasted places. This series was supposed to be about doing important things and exploring strange new worlds, they said so when they first announced ME1. It was supposed to be something between Star Trek and Babylon 5.

Ultimately ME suffered because BW wanted to be recognized as an AAA developer doing Hollywood style games with cool stories which they never were (BG, KOTOR Jade Empire were good games for specific audiences not CoD, Fifa, GTA level blockbusters), it's basically the same path SquareSoft followed before their eventual bankruptcy.

It's kinda sad BW believe themselves to be those excellent storytellers whereas compared to Naughty Dog, CPR or Obsidian their stories come out as mediocre. I know it's getting old but I want to participate in an imerssive story not Politically Correct Dating Simulator in Space 2016: The Three Colours of Creation.

 

[ickymcicky]

No, Bioware, people are going to just mess with you, and then you are going to subsequently completely ignore the outcome anyway. Let us not pussyfoot around your insincere notion of doing what your fanbase would want.

Man, we really need a like button here!! I completely agree!

Just a quick aside, I think they should work on something else. The story is pretty much over. A very, VERY good story but over all the same.

 

[putowtin]

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.

And this is the problem, Mass Effect isn't black and white when it comes down to choices, Sucker Punch could turn around and say that Cole being a good guy in InFamous is cannon as there were only two choices, be a hero or be a dick! As for Mass Effect every person who's commented on this thread so far could list their choices and there maybe one or two the same as there were so many choices (The geth, the genophage, Conard Verner).
For the record mine would be:
Garrus is the love interest
Shepard is female
The Geth and Quarians live
Destroy ending.

As such if they turned around and made Male Shep dating Liara with the control ending cannon, which was actively observed in ME4, I'd have to walk away from the series.

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.

And I said I'd been playing loads of Saints Row,
So combined with your reply we've got:
Japanese High School Student fighting reapers with a dildo bat whilst spraying the city with poo, managing a part time job and a relationship, whilst coming to terms that their planet has been blown up and now they have super powers!

If Bioware don't jump all over this idea then I claim it as my own! muhahahahaha!

 

[Quazimofo]

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!

Or at the very least have characters eliminated from the pull pool once you max them out. I've pulled human male engineer so many times I'd have unlocked all of the appearance options thrice over and change now and got enough xp to promote the class without even playing it as many times.

 

[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!

Or at the very least have characters eliminated from the pull pool once you max them out. I've pulled human male engineer so many times I'd have unlocked all of the appearance options thrice over and change now and got enough xp to promote the class without even playing it as many times.

Urgh, tell me about it. The grind to unlock the Geth Juggernaut was painful enough as it was, but it didn't help that the game seemed to be rubbing my nose in it by giving me 10 billion character cards for bog-standard human classes or every single alien *but* what I wanted. And yeah, I've also gotten several classes promoted without even playing them - if you can reach level twenty without once selecting that character, something has gone wrong with your rewards system.

They should have just allowed us to buy character classes with in-game credits, restricting the more exotic stuff behind challenges and achievements, like say score so many cloaked kills as a Infiltrator to unlock the next Infiltrator type.

 

[jklinders]

This was pure marketing magic. The survey itself was a bit of a joke, I filled it out for a laugh but there was very little meat to it. By some accounts the game is very close to being completed. Could be as little as 6 months if some sources can be believed (I don't but that's irrelevant). That's not a whole lot of time to execute feedback if true. Considering there is still testing, localization bug fixes and getting their software compatible with windows to go gold. the art assets are long completed, the story outline and gameplay already fully executed, any RPG elements worked out. At this point how much more can there be outside of tweaking some of the quests and dialogue?

Bioware has the lid screwed on tight with this game. This is actually pretty weird for them. I'm curious, but I don't believe for a second this survey will do anything that trolling their own forums hadn't. All the feedback, useful and not they ever needed was right there. Their writers still frequent it, though I suspect David Gaider (for Dragon Age at least) had a shock collar installed to zap him if he tries to post.

I'll wait and see just like I always do, but it has long since been decided I'm thinking.