BioWare Making Mass Effect 3 More Accessible for New Players

[The Pinray]

Well, since the NPCs will still say 'Ohhhh, Shepard! Remember that one time?' to me when I import my save, I don't see a negative point about this.

Agreed and same here. The only ones here that see negatives are the ones that obviously didn't read the article.

 

[bbad89]

Sorry, but I think Bioware's making a very wrong move here. I can understand wanting to attract new players (this is a business, after all), but using the final act of an epic trilogy is definitely not the time to do it. And what this inevitably ends up doing is screwing over the already existing fans of the game. I -want- my AI squadmates to go "Hey Shepard, remember that time we..." It gives the game personality, and it makes the story feel like it's mine.

Excited as I am for this game, I don't like this at all.

Did you read the post AT ALL? It states that if you imported a save, your squadmates WOULD go "Hey Shepard, remember the time we were stuck in a closet for an hour and could only..." etc.
Make sure you read the post instead of just skimming.
Also, shame on Bioware for using the word "accessible" in today's try-hard market.

 

[Sandytimeman]

i think most people who have commented this thread so far didnt read that part :

The first step in accomplishing that feat is programming the AI to interact with players differently depending on whether or not they imported a save from Mass Effect 2. If they did, the characters surrounding them will be much less likely to dump narrative exposition on them during the game, while if they're new, NPCs will drop in more details so the newbies don't feel left out

so if you have played the two first game, and that you did import your save game, well you will still have people comming at you telling you "you remember me from that thing". If they do it correctly, i dont have a trouble qith that actually. For the people who will have played the second game, you will have a continuity and for those who have not, it will be easier for them

by the way i'm very intrigued to know how the story line will be constructed, since according to bioware a dead sheppard stay dead...

Hope you wern't trying to import that from your steam collection of ME titles XD

 

[Versuvius]

This will be hilarious because people who get ME3 and start there will then go back and buy the first two games (Probably over Origin) and spin EA some more money from old games. Also it means they will have ME1 and 2 locked to your account. Opposed to Not being if you were to aquire them any other way.

 

[OManoghue]

Every time an article comes out about a BioWare game I get worried. I don't really know what they're doing here but I'd prolly turn into fanboy hulk if someone mentions a bunch of shit I did in Mass Effect 1 or 2. I am FULLY AWARE of the shit I did. And honestly, I work at EB Games the lighter friendlier Canadian version of Gamestop, and I can promise you there is no one who will get a third game first, if all three games are on one platform. ME2 goes for 15$ Canadian, NEW. If someone wants to catch up, it'll cost them 30$

Also, my captcha has the word "Glabrous" in it. This makes me happy.

 

[pearcinator]

From what I understand is they make it more accessible to people who DIDN'T import characters from ME1 or ME2.

If you imported a character they might say 'remember blah blah blah'. If you didn't they might not have that dialogue at all.

I am ok with this cos I will be importing characters from ME2 (and ME1) into ME3.

 

[scorptatious]

At first when I read the title, I thought:

"Oh boy. Another thread that will no doubt have a bunch of whiny people complaining about how game companies are catering to new players. Which will in turn instill a seed of doubt within the part of my sub conscious that is convinced this game will be a really good game and won't become shit."

Thankfully though, it sounds like Bioware is going to try to appeal to both audiences with this new A.I. interaction with new players. So I guess that's nice. I'm still a little wary though.

 

[omicron1]

Oh, great - they still want the CoD crowd, don't they?

Expect ads plastered everywhere, with guns out and the deeper elements of story and universe-building that defined the first game-and-a-half conspicuously absent.

"Epic space opera? All I see is this game about guns and power armor! Look, no boring conversations to distract you! Look, it works as a standalone B-movie FPS! You don't even have to play those old, moldy RPGs we made! Please, CoD fans! Buy our game! Give us your money! Help us compete with Activision!"

...

...Please?

Why are you all still playing CoD? Don't you want other games?"

 

[Joccaren]

You get to the second episode, and every conversation explains what happened in the previous episode before moving on to what's happening in this one, just for new viewers.

Ah, I see your point. I definitely don't want every conversation in Mass Effect 3 to be an explanation of what came before. It's a good thing that this article is stating something completely different to that! It doesn't even make a difference to people who have played the game before. This is nothing but a benefit to the act of making money. New fans are happy. Old fans are hypothetically happy, since they don't have to put up with it if they import a save.

Well, not necessarily. If an old player wants to play through and see what the story would be like if they had followed the default options, they get a ton of exposition dumped on them. Its why I think it would be better as a toggleable option that a set thing, which it might be. We don't know.

Hell, imagine if comic books did that, stated exactly what happened in the previous book in the next one, just to help people know what happened last book. It would get annoying.

A lot of comics do that. A short few narration boxes in the first couple of pages explaining the current story. It's no biggie whatsoever.

Much like the short fill in comic at the start of ME2. Now imagine when characters were talking to each other they kept explaining what happened last episode for those who hadn't read it, not just an intro sequence of sorts. That sort of thing is what people are worried about. Rather than your intro sequence, characters will dump info on you because you didn't import a save.
Thankfully we don't know everything about this yet, and imported saves will be immune to it (Thank god), and I have already stated that the hate against this is a bit much. I'm cautious about it, as it has the potential to go horribly wrong, but it could also be alright.

 

[Joccaren]

Hope you wern't trying to import that from your steam collection of ME titles XD

AS far as I know that has no effect. You simply copy your save files into a folder in the new ME game, like you did with every previous ME game. I don't think EA would have gone back to ME and ME2 post release and added in a specific flag to the save files that checked if you were running the game off Steam then set that flag to yes so all your save files were useless. As many bad decisions that they (And most other publishers) have made, they aren't that stupid.

by the way i'm very intrigued to know how the story line will be constructed, since according to bioware a dead sheppard stay dead...

Yep, if your Shepard died in ME2 you cannot import the save. No running around as Joker sorry (That would be awesome. Harbinger, why so serious?).

 

[AndyFromMonday]

The third game in a trilogy is not the time to make a series more accessible.

 

[CrazyBlaze]

I hope that they also add an option that goes in far deeper than the comic for two. There should be a page that you can use at the start of a new game to select all the options that would affect the third game in anyway. It should not by a synopsis, that should be different. This should allow you to completely choose your story with out having to make all the choices in the first two games.

 

[justnotcricket]

snip

I dislike the phrase, yes, but only because it makes people who clearly didn't read the article through gripe about the developers 'making the game easier'. If you take a minute and read the full text, you'll see that this pertains to 'the story thus far' exposition, which Bioware wants to include for new players to catch them up but doesn't want to dump on people who are continuing with a previous save file and know what's going on. I fail to see how that's a bad thing.

If that one line is making you give up on Mass Effect 3, then you clearly weren't that interested in it in the first place.

Aye, you have me there. After the amazing dissapointment that was Mass Effect 2 and the abortion that was Dragon Age 2 I have little to no interest in Mass Effect 3.

Still my distain for the recent Bioware products doesnt mean I dont have my right to complain and gripe.

What I see is that new players wont start with the last game advertised to be an epic trillogy, it would be like somebody watching Return of the Jedi first and then saying "So why does Luke wear that black glove?". The whole feature is a pointless endeavour for this series. However In some series that span different consoles over the peroid of many years it is necessary (see Yakuza and Metal Gear Solid which did have features similar) but for a series like Mass Effect there isnt a need for a "Previously on Mass Effect option".

It is just a waste of hours and man power that is going to pull away from the main game, that's why it is a bad thing.

Also as for my comment on "More Accessible for New Players" that is just my general opinion on the phrase and ones like it, big red warning lights go on when I hear developers say words like that. I did not articulate my words properly in my first post.

The 'more accessible' phrase is an odd turkey, really. It makes longer term players see red, and honestly I'm not sure if anyone new to the series was really 'concerned' that they wouldn't be able to get into Mass Effect 3. I imagine most people wanting to get into a trilogy will go pick up the first game, or else just not care and play the third one anyway. I can't fault Bioware in the sense that, as a PS3 player (my home PC is good at DOS games...=P), I didn't *have* the option of picking up the first game, and it's a nice sentiment, but I'll admit I'm not sure it's really *necessary* in the third game of a series. I guess that's the trap you fall into when your games are continuity/story driven, like Bioware's often are, rather than gameplay driven.

Skyrim is the opposite case; Bethesda never have to worry about this sort of thing because each story is unique - the game is gameplay-based, and no-one has to care about catching up on the story or characterisation..it's a flaming pile of arse anyway. (In case it wasn't obvious, I'm a subscriber of the 'Can't we have the story and characterisation of a Bioware game with the gameplay/open world of Skyrim?' theory of RPG development).

Although I don't think catching new players up on the 'story thus far' will take away sufficient man hours from the development to cause problems with the rest of Mass Effect 3, you're well within your rights not to want the game. You just set off my facial tic because it seemed like you were reacting to a nonexistent issue. ;-P

 

[CJ1145]

Sorry, but I think Bioware's making a very wrong move here. I can understand wanting to attract new players (this is a business, after all), but using the final act of an epic trilogy is definitely not the time to do it. And what this inevitably ends up doing is screwing over the already existing fans of the game. I -want- my AI squadmates to go "Hey Shepard, remember that time we..." It gives the game personality, and it makes the story feel like it's mine.

Excited as I am for this game, I don't like this at all.

It says in the article if you're importing a save then this doesn't affect you.

 

[Darren716]

BioWare Making Mass Effect 3 More Accessible for New Players

Does anyone else hate the phrase "More Accessible for New Players" as much as I do, it pretty much translates to "We making the game easier for people who are under twelve, fuck the people who played the previous games.". You know like the did with Dragon Age 2.

Yeah im not buying Mass Effect 3.

I hate this streamlining bullshit too, why should fans of a series have to play a watered down version show the publisher can make money of the dumbasses who were too thick to comprehand the previous games. I believe this guy explains it well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPZ1BSD5g90&feature=channel_video_title (embedding wasn't working for me)

 

[Phlakes]

No, don't say that word! That word brings out the selfish, elitist, "new player are ruining our games" crowd!

Anyway, good for them, now more (yes, more) people will be able to enjoy the experience and the rest of us won't be affected at all. Seriously, actually read the article this time, it'll do you good.

BioWare Making Mass Effect 3 More Accessible for New Players

Does anyone else hate the phrase "More Accessible for New Players" as much as I do, it pretty much translates to "We making the game easier for people who are under twelve, fuck the people who played the previous games.". You know like the did with Dragon Age 2.

Yeah im not buying Mass Effect 3.

Like you. You've generalized "accessible" to mean "dumbed down" either because of your experience or the internet. If you read the article, "accessible" in this case means it'll be easier for new players to understand the story, and absolutely nothing else.

 

[Atmos Duality]

I'm curious how they intend to make it even MORE accessible.
The first two games didn't have any gameplay challenge whatsoever.

So...maybe it's referring to just the story?
I mean...it's not exactly difficult. Hell, the vast majority of Mass Effect 2 was just padding towards the central plot.

 

[alik44]

So bio ware assume people will buy the concluding Epic finnaly to mass effect without play or even knowing the story of the game. umm can they just but the other games they not that or expensive

 

[Susan Arendt]

IM not debating the merits or downsides to introducing people to a late trilogy, Im just stating that your statement, right there, which I quoted is flawed, therefore you should amend it or replace it for another one.

What part of it is flawed? As I already mentioned, the Episode titles that hinted at previously unexplored backstory were only added to the original films later on after they were already released. Return Of The Jedi is a perfect example of a trilogy conclusion which requires knowledge of the prior events in order to understand what is going on. Why is that such a contentious issue for you?

The crawl at the beginning of Star Wars says "Chapter IV" and always has. You're right that the "official" name changed later, of course.