Mass Effect 4 protagonist...

[IamLEAM1983]

Oh, come on, Phlakes. Sunsetspawn's got a chip on his shoulder that might come from a somewhat defensible position, but I'm not as pessimistic as he is. Yes, BioWare is and forever will be stuck catering to the Dudebro camp for as long as EA wants to siphon the CoD crowd's precious, precious money. Despite James Vega and Diana Allers, ME3 was an enjoyable game. If you didn't want to deal with either of them, you didn't have to. Anyone who complains is whining with a golden spoon firmly inset between molar and cheek.

That aside, I'm still confident they'll be able to whip up something enjoyable. I'm just a little leery of there being another Mass Effect after the third, however, seeing as Shepard's presence was so strong than just flat-out repeating the cycle would be a waste of good storytelling material.

Fleshing out one of the individual locales more could be fun, for instance, but I won't entertain any illusions. They've got an easily reusable framework going in terms of character generation, so I don't see them letting us play as anything other than a human.

 

[disgruntledgamer]

I hope there is not a Mass Effect 4? That's my thoughts.

There is a good chance EA will have run Bioware into the ground and shut it down by than.

 

[Lonewolfm16]

Please either be a Salarian special forces (mabey League of One?) or a Batarian mercenary. Well either that or basically like Dragon age Origins.

 

[Denamic]

Well, duh, there is only one answer here - a volus adept. The only thing that can measure up to commander Shepard is a biotic god.

I have to wonder, are people who make these jokes actually under the delusion that they're funny?

It's just a reference to an encounter in ME2.

 

[Khazoth]

I could not begin to describe how little I care. I might pick it up if they let me be an alien..


But they won't. It will be another human, a grizzled / beautiful human with a sympathetic backstory about how they saved an orphanage full of sick puppies from the reaper attack on earth. Because being an alien won't sell to a broad enough demographic. That said? It's cute you people Shepard Redux will actually not be a soldier. 10 to 1 its another human soldier is all i'm saying.

 

[StormShaun]

A sandbox universe (You can fly the ship and etc) where you can play as any race and the story is made up like Dragon Age. Like you choose your background, profession, race and etc.

The story could be that you have to recover tech that could shape the universe itself. Also this would be like 300 years after ME3.

Also god child is a boss you can kill...YAY!

 

[enriel]

I wanna play as a Geth so bad. If that happens Mass Effect 4 will be the best game ever.

Like seriously, I'd be the shit out of a spin off game where you play as Legion during the two years Shepard is extra crispy.

 

[triggrhappy94]

First off, I really appreciate that Bioware recognizes that they've created a universe that fans love and want to see explored, not the same story told again and again. That's not something that comes obviously to everyone.

I don't mind the OP's idea. Over coming cronic shyness seems... well alittle... like a step way back. This is Mass Effect not MLP.
I also think that I divided focus will divide time invested into each character so the audience won't become fully attached to one or the other.
It seems like there's a lot ideas, including the OP, that would make for a good "Episodes from Mass Effect" kind of game(s), but couldn't hold up to the narrative heavy-weight that is the original trilogy.

EDIT: I would honestly love it if there was some easter egg hidden in it that gave some indecation of what happened to Shepard after the end of ME3--granted he doesn't die.
I still want to know that my Shep retired happily with his bondmate Liara.

 

[Sangnz]

Personally

Based in the ME Universe 100-200 hundred years after the reaper invasion. I just want to see what happened to the Universe.
It really does need to be set before or after Shepards time tho and after would be far more interesting.

 

[ultrachicken]

I would really prefer that Bioware just move on to another series, but if they let us choose a race, and even better, if they let us play salarians, I may forgive them.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

Volus Vanguard. Trader by day vigilante by night.

I'd love it to be an Asari Ardat-Yakshi. It'd be an interesting turn of events, considering those who aren't conforming to the law are usually on the run.

A game where you tried to awkwardly have sex with as many people as possible in between killing things certainly wouldn't be outside of Bioware's expertise.

 

[Bat Vader]

I think Mass Effect 4 should be like SW:TOR except not be an MMO and not have a class based story. That way players can choose whichever race they want to be and won't be forced into a story they don't want just because their preferred class is tied to that story.

 

[A-D.]

Volus Vanguard. Trader by day vigilante by night.

I'd love it to be an Asari Ardat-Yakshi. It'd be an interesting turn of events, considering those who aren't conforming to the law are usually on the run.

A game where you tried to awkwardly have sex with as many people as possible in between killing things certainly wouldn't be outside of Bioware's expertise.

I see what you did there..both of them. And i approve.

To be on topic, i just dont really see where Bioware can go with that franchise anyways aside from doing in-between things from some other points of view, like playing Anderson on Earth during the Invasion, or his "famous" attempt of becoming a spectre etc. But even stuff like that is essentially too short for a full game anyways, and with the Reapers gone, well how would they top that? Unless they actually go through with the whole Threat of what the Terminus Systems are supposed to be.

Playing a Ardat-Yakshi would be interesting, always on the run and chased by Justicars etc. Or even any race other than humans. So yeah, either before the whole Reaper thing or after, First Contact War, a possible War with the Terminus Systems or just plain being a Mercenary of some sort. But again the problem is story, you cant create a big looming threat like the Reapers again, or some really big incentive for the player character to do shit. The usual chliche's are Money, Revenge or the World-ending-threat and so far Bioware never really went out of that particular field.

Well aside from Baldur's Gate..but again, that was also more a revenge/knowledge thing. Bioware Games live from the story, they cant really make big huge sandbox games we can do whatever in, they do..well railroad you along and thats fine, i mean imagine Dragon Age or Mass Effect to be like Skyrim, where you can do whatever the hell you want and ignore the whole mainplot entirely. Not that they couldnt, but they havent ever done it.

To me the franchise is dead anyways because, unless they can suprise me, im not really seeing the potential to go beyond another "Woohhh big evil things are coming and want to kill us! Lets kill them first!"

 

[Hawkeye21]

In ME4 you will play as either a flamboyant homosexual black mechanic, who is haunted by visions of war and struggles with his attraction to his female elcor colleague.

Either that or a hot asari lesbian stripper, who is about to be forced into unwanted marriage to Hanari priest by her mother.

This tragedy will unfold during a full-scale Sith invasion from a galaxy far, far away.

 

[BrotherRool]

I think Mass Effect 4 should be like SW:TOR except not be an MMO and not have a class based story. That way players can choose whichever race they want to be and won't be forced into a story they don't want just because their preferred class is tied to that story.

The thing is though, that's possible for SW:TOR, because it's an MMO and so has a potential income way bigger than Mass Effect could ever have. They knew that in the worst case scenario they would be making millions every single month with SW:TOR and so had the resources to make it a large game.

So for example, GTA IV has one of the biggest single player budgets of all time and it cost $100 million to make. SWTOR cost $200 million minimum.

I think it's something people forget about games, they talk about EA spending all their money on SWTOR instead of Mass Effect, but that's actually not true. Realistically Mass Effect is only going to sell X games and so you can only give it a budget where you still make a profit if only X games are sold. We make fun of Dead Space needing to sell 5 million games, but then wish that they'd spent even more money on ME3 than it did.

So if you want different races and a selection of possible stories, that's fine, but you have to understand that they can't put more money into a game they have already, so it will have the same amount of work as ME3, just spread out over multiple stories and races. If we have 3 stories and a potential story/starter story for each race that's fine, but the game is probably only going to be about 6 hours long on each run and there will have to be less choice (more races = more consequences for choices =less choices)

 

[Arif_Sohaib]

I know XCOM Enemy Unknown is already out but I would like to see Bioware's version of an invasion of just Earth(not the whole galaxy) by an enemy that can be negotiated with, Mass Effect: First Contact.
The game taking place before the discovery of the first relay, leading up to it and culminating in the First Contact Wars.
The main character could be a normal soldier and then be chosen as part of a team being sent to Mars. This would also allow Buzz Aldrin a better part, as himself, giving a speech at some point near the beginning of the game.

 

[Mauler]

NOOOH The best protagonist would be BLASTO the hanar wanguard... ENKINDLE THIS(gunshots and screaming in background)!!!

 

[Bat Vader]

Snip

I understand that. I am not saying they should pump 200 million dollars into Mass Effect 4. I just think they could take some elements of SW:TOR and put it into Mass Effect 4. While I do like having 8 different stories to choose from I know that would not work in a single player game.

If I play a Drell I want NPCs to refer to me as a Drell. I actually want to feel like I am playing a Drell and not just the main character. Kinda like how in Dragon Age: Origins NPCs knew I was an Elf, Dwarf, or a Human and that depending on which race and background I picked different things opened up like conversation choices.

I suppose that means I want ME4 to be more like DA: Origins than SW:TOR. Which isn't a bad thing because I love DA: Origins.

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

See, I was always kind of hoping Bioware would puss out and ME4 would have you play as a clone of Shepherd or something and be a literal Shepherd mk.2 in the future. But with the obvious downside Bioware would need to make three games for that to work unless they force all three options into a singularity or something, defeating the point of choose your own ending.