Mass Effect Lead Writer: Next Game Can't Be A Spin Off

[fix-the-spade]

But the ending isn't the only reason I dislike Walters (and Hudson). There's the shift towards a stronger focus on human characters, and then there's the completely unnecessary character of Vega, who seemed to exist only so that Walters had a character of his own to write.

I know it's blasphemy but I really liked Vega, he's the typical video game meat head sperz muhrine, but twisted to fit in with the Mass Effect universe and with a demonstrably nice personality. The result is quite charming, he's a typical bro dude who likes pumping weights, drinking and shooting guns, but when confronted with an openly gay comrade his reaction is to be his best friend. It's a nice subversion of the usual archetype.

It's racist uncle Javik that I didn't like, all that build up and it's just a Klingon with four eyes (and he looks nothing like a Collector, I wanted wings and bug mouth parts).

 

[JediMB]

But the ending isn't the only reason I dislike Walters (and Hudson). There's the shift towards a stronger focus on human characters, and then there's the completely unnecessary character of Vega, who seemed to exist only so that Walters had a character of his own to write.

I know it's blasphemy but I really liked Vega, he's the typical video game meat head sperz muhrine, but twisted to fit in with the Mass Effect universe and with a demonstrably nice personality. The result is quite charming, he's a typical bro dude who likes pumping weights, drinking and shooting guns, but when confronted with an openly gay comrade his reaction is to be his best friend. It's a nice subversion of the usual archetype.

It's racist uncle Javik that I didn't like, all that build up and it's just a Klingon with four eyes (and he looks nothing like a Collector, I wanted wings and bug mouth parts).

Vega is... inoffensive, really. But he also felt rather pointless, and only served to put yet another human soldier on the Normandy crew when there was a distinct lack of a permanent Krogan presence.

I like Javik, despite that he's one of many examples of the new "agenda" they started pushing in ME3. If they wanted to have someone preaching about how biological and synthetic life can never coexist, they really shouldn't have made Mass Effect 2.

 

[bigfatcarp93]

Make it like Dragon Age Pl0x.

And I mean mainly in story, with the ability to choose a race and background. But also, I wouldn't mind Dragon-Age-ish gameplay either.

 

[Murais]

Mac Walters can't go into specifics, but he can talk about the last game's ending.

I originally read this as

"Mac Walters can't go into specifics, but he can go fuck himself."

due to a brain jump.

I stand by my brain's decision.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

It's kind of what we've all been expecting, isn't it? I guess it's a good idea.

Basically, I just want to play a game where the objective is to create as opposed to destroy. Obviously Mass Effect is a shooter, so there have to be people who need shooting

Shooting creates holes in people. Holes can be creative.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I'm sure Mac Walters has a fine career but I just don't consider him to be the lead Mass Effect writer. The series started with Drew Karpyshyn and while I know he isn't infallible (oh the things I've heard of the book Revan...) I think it's a shame that he was either swept aside (or worse, stepped aside on his own) when it came to Mass Effect. He was the lead writer for the first two games after all...and I think the 3 books that came out back between the first two games...

Anyway: YES it can be a spin-off game. Start a poll and see just how many people hit "yes" when asked about a game playing as Archangel in between ME2 and ME3.

 

[Psychobabble]

"I'm not saying that our decision was wrong or right," says Walters. "I think we just underestimated the impact that would have on certain players."

Uh huh. So you guys wrote a story for the story's sake not really giving a fuck about how the players who've invested time and feeling into your little game world might feel and it turned around and bit you in the ass. However you are still going to blame fan outrage on "certain players" which let's face it is just a polite way of saying hysterical fanbois, rather than your own arrogant egotism.

Wow. Yeah I have to say I do not envy the Mass Effect fan base as it sounds like Bioware haven't learned their lesson from ME3, that games are created for the entertainment of the players not to showcase your fucking dramatic writing skills. Sadly the next ME game seems to have high potential to disappoint.

 

[shrekfan246]

It seems like any time a Bioware person speaks up to the press it's all bullshit. Just a bunch of random buzz words thrown together to sound like a sentence that doesnt actually mean anything. I know pretty much all game studios do this, but it just feels like Bioware dies it was more and are way worse at backing it up when the game is finally out.

It seems like any time a Bioware person speaks up to the press, people all across the internet get all frothed up over "a bunch of random buzz words". I know it happens to pretty much every game studio, but it just feels like it happens particularly often with Bioware and new reasons for hating them are fabricated with every one.

I wonder if we would get the same reactions were Valve to announce that Half-Life 3 would not feature Gordon Freeman, Alyx, or the G-Man, but would still take place in the same universe.

 

[Chaud]

The ME universe was conceived/created by someone else; Drew Karpyshyn (Kotor, Baldurs, Neverwinter, ME1 and ME2 etc.). Heck, Walters wasn't even in on the first game at all, he co-wrote the second, with Karpyshyn still leading the go of things... and the transition/shift in style and theme from ME1 to ME3 kinda shows with the middle ground of both writers affecting the 2nd instalment - who wanted it to go in what directions.

Well... This. To put it simply, without Drew, I don't see any chance that I could get interested in the franchise again.

Hell, the original idea for the ending wasn't incredible, but it was very good:

"Dark Energy was something that only organics could access because of various techno-science magic reasons we hadn?t decided on yet, maybe using this Dark Energy was having a ripple effect on the space-time continuum.

Maybe the Reapers kept wiping out organic life because organics keep evolving to the state where they would use biotics and dark energy and that caused an entropic effect that would hasten the end of the universe. Being immortal beings, that?s something they wouldn?t want to see.

Then we thought, let?s take it to the next level. Maybe the Reapers are looking at a way to stop this. Maybe there?s an inevitable descent into the opposite of the Big Bang (the Big Crunch) and the Reapers realise that the only way they can stop it is by using biotics, but since they can?t use biotics they have to keep rebuilding society ? as they try and find the perfect group to use biotics for this purpose. The Asari were close but they weren?t quite right, the Protheans were close as well."

Fits with the series's name (Mass Effect), isn't a failed "Deus'ex Machina" and... It just makes sense. For me, the series began to lose focus since Drew lost control of the story. The rest was just consequence of this.

 

[octafish]

So it's a game that take place in the Mass Effect universe but doesn't have to do anything with ME's main story arc? That's pretty much a spin-off, as it should be.

Pretty much, this sounds like EA doublespeak to me.

Captcha: sick puppy

So it's a game that take place in the Mass Effect universe but doesn't have to do anything with ME's main story arc? That's pretty much a spin-off, as it should be.

Spin offs include Frasier, Mork and Mindy, Baywatch Nights, Booker, Angel, and for you younguns, Pinky and the Brain. Most spin offs are based around existing characters.

I still haven't finished ME3, it just hasn't the appeal of ME1. I should have known after ME2.

 

[james.sponge]

So basically they want to make a game about First Contact War or some background story set during the original trilogy? Of course there is much more to explore in Mass Effect universe unfortunately BW won't risk enraging dudebros by not including human characters.

Just imagine a game about Turian rise to the stars and their various conflicts with other races, how cool is that. Too bad it will never happen. Also Mac Walters is a terrible writer I can't see how he can pull off a non-shepard story without mentioning "great events", "dark times", "commander Shepard's destiny" and "humans are special".

 

[DSK-]

The annoying part about the article is that Mr Walters states that the issue was about the "ownership of the Shepard character". It isn't. I think the vast majority of people would have been happy with a 'The Departed"-esque ending to ME3 so long as it wasn't convoluted and seemingly arbitrary and was done in good taste in regards to the narrative of the trilogy.

Honestly, I'm really bothered about a new iteration of Mass Effect, and I could say the same for Dragon Age (where is my Warden!!!!).

 

[Kieve]

I've tried so many times to regain my interest in the ME franchise. I really have. For what it's worth, I really enjoyed my engineer in the ME3 multiplayer. But that ending...
I can't do it. No matter how I try to rationalize it, play it off, or head-canon it aside, I just can't find the enthusiasm for it again. Ten minutes retroactively killed all three games for me.

I don't care what they're cooking up in the back room now. I'm going to wait, long after it's released, watch plenty of spoilers, and then - if I can assure myself the story is not shit nor will it turn to shit - then maybe I'll give it a chance.

When it's on sale.

On Steam.

 

[ShinobiJedi42]

Am I the only person here who was actually satisfied with the ME3 ending? Post, extended cut, of course. After a decent deal of closure and some explanations, I thought my ending, (Control), had a feel of Golden Age Science Fiction akin to 2001: A Space Odyssey and some of Herbert's stuff. I agree, it could have been done much better, but overall, I'm fairly satisfied.

 

[Fox12]

Man, I am still butthurt about ME3's ending. Shouldn't I have let go of it by now?

The pain doesn't ever really go away. You just... learn to live with it somehow.

Incidentally, this is decent news. I'm glad their not planning a prequel, a sequel, and a gritty reboot for every character with five minutes of screen time. That's what I'd expect from EA. I don't know, I may pick up the game, I may not. Unfortunately I'm not overenthusiastic about this game, like I was with ME3. If they focused on a smaller, more character driven story this could work. I'm skeptical though, one failure is a fluke Bioware, multiple failures is a trend...

 

[ffs-dontcare]

I actually looked up the term spin-off after I noticed one or two people on here mocking him about it. I can see what Mac Walters means when he talks about how the new game can't be a spin-off.

"We have agreed to tell a story that doesn't relate necessarily to any of the Shepard events at all, whatsoever,"

So basically what he means is the the new Mass Effect game will not be connected to the Shepard events.

I'm okay with that, I want to experience more of the Mass Effect universe that we haven't seen yet.

 

[Sarge034]

Man, I am still butthurt about ME3's ending. Shouldn't I have let go of it by now?

No, remember your anger. It makes you stronger. In all seriousness, they fucked the fans over and we should not forget that they did.

OT-

Because who wants to put in the legwork to get that mess of and ending to try to make sense in another game? I am very sad that ma Tali will not make an appearance, but I guess it makes sense because her and my Shep are on Rannoch making genetically impossible love babies. You know how? Shep fucking wills it.

 

[Seracen]

Yeah, this is more-or-less what I had been expecting. Hopefully they put their alien modelling from ME3's multiplayer to use and give us a few options of what kind of character we'd like to play. Even if it was just a selection of different pre-modeled characters. Though, I suppose that'd make voice acting a mess.

I think they could still stick with only one male and one female voice actor, then apply filters for the alien counterparts. Only the vorcha and krogan would need different VO's, and I could see BW making you stick to the "more humanoid" races.

I don't know how I feel about Mr Walters heading up the new project. Then again, even though it added little in the way of plot to the final story, ME2 was an extremely fun ride.

I think it's more important to have a complete, fully formed, and consistent vision for the franchise. I posit that changing writers mid-series is one of the main reasons ME3's ending failed to satisfy.

Heck, I KNOW that's why the Matrix trilogy went to crap...the same writer wasn't there after the first one!

Furthermore, I have little interest in playing a damn prequel. Firstly, few of your choices COULD make a difference, considering established canon. Moreover, we have a feel for how things like the Krogan Rebellion and the First Contact War went.

If they do those, I see little to differentiate these campaigns from Dead Space with Krogan, or Halo with Turians...

I'm far more interested in alternate takes (like the feel of Bioshock Infinite to the original) or seeing what happens centuries down the line.