Sanunes
N6
Just a flip of the coin.
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, SWTOR, Anthem, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
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Just a flip of the coin.
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Post by Sanunes on Sept 17, 2018 16:47:17 GMT
Humans are by far the least interesting aspect of ME. That's one of the reasons it was so stupid to make cerberus the main villains in the game of the franchise for most of it. I would love to play as a different race, assuming of course I would even care about a new ME game to begin with. None of the races were that interesting and if they were to make a game around us playing a non-human character it would be exactly the same. The reason why other games feel differently compared to a BioWare game is that they build the protagonist for you while BioWare tries to use algorithms based on what dialogue choices to make to create your character on the fly. I wouldn't expect anything different with a protagonist of any race.
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Post by CrutchCricket on Sept 17, 2018 17:05:01 GMT
Between a set name or a few names that are recognized, I’d choose the latter. Fallout 4 did that, and MEA kind of did, and overall that was fine. Then again them calling me by my title or last name never really bothered me. Definitely don’t want to have a predefined name though. For LIs at least nicknames would work since they could call you universal terms like love, sweetheart, etc. Universal terms of endearment would work up to a point, but would again break down after a while. A life and death situation where they thought they'd lose you, for example. Limited selection would be fine, but I'd argue for a more limited set than Fallout 4, making the choice mandatory (i.e. you have to use one of the options) and more uses of it in-game. I haven't played too much FO4, but that was more of a gimmick than a fully integrated feature.
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Post by Hanako Ikezawa on Sept 17, 2018 17:09:03 GMT
Between a set name or a few names that are recognized, I’d choose the latter. Fallout 4 did that, and MEA kind of did, and overall that was fine. Then again them calling me by my title or last name never really bothered me. Definitely don’t want to have a predefined name though. For LIs at least nicknames would work since they could call you universal terms like love, sweetheart, etc. Universal terms of endearment would work up to a point, but would again break down after a while. A life and death situation where they thought they'd lose you, for example. Limited selection would be fine, but I'd argue for a more limited set than Fallout 4, making the choice mandatory (i.e. you have to use one of the options) and more uses of it in-game. I haven't played too much FO4, but that was more of a gimmick than a fully integrated feature. Perhaps, but then really there are only a few scenes where they would use those terms of endearment while the rest of the time they would refer to you like the others so those few times wouldn't have enough uses to break down. I agree with the more limited set and more uses, but disagree completely with them being mandatory. I see no benefit to that when instead they could just do what they did in MEA where if you didn't use Scott or Sara they just call you Ryder.
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Post by KaiserShep on Sept 17, 2018 17:25:20 GMT
DAI had randomized terms of endearment that worked. I’ll admit that I reloaded a couple of times in a subsequent playthrough so Sera would keep “Shiny”, and made sure never to have Cole and her in the same team so he doesn’t force her to change it lol.
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Post by CrutchCricket on Sept 17, 2018 17:30:31 GMT
Perhaps, but then really there are only a few scenes where they would use those terms of endearment while the rest of the time they would refer to you like the others so those few times wouldn't have enough uses to break down. I agree with the more limited set and more uses, but disagree completely with them being mandatory. I see no benefit to that when instead they could just do what they did in MEA where if you didn't use Scott or Sara they just call you Ryder. One can be enough to break immersion. I suppose, so long as defaulting to the last name wouldn't encourage a preference for it, in the form of decreasing the number of personalized uses. Basically if we have 4-6, max 8 choices that then get used regularly in the proper intimate setting and we default to the common appellation of last name/title otherwise, that should be fine. You could even code in a dialog where you could choose to have a character refer to you by last name even though they could refer to you by first name- for cases where some people still prefer the last name, or if a character tries to get familiar too quickly.
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dmc1001
N7
Biotic Booty
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, SWTOR, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Origin: ferroboy
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Post by dmc1001 on Sept 17, 2018 17:59:26 GMT
OP has a point about fixed characteristics offering a stronger integration of the PC as a legitimate part of the world, instead of "the PC". I will never get over the mental gymnastics done to avoid Shepard's first name, for example. There is little else that screams more "yes, varPlayerCharacter, I agree with your sentiment, beep boop" than that. I think BW must have been somewhat aware of this about naming, which is why they allowed "Scott" and "Sara" to be used if the player decided to use the standard names. I actually prefer "John" but I already have enough "John" PT's that it's difficult to keep track of them. It never made sense to me to have Shepard's LI simply refer to him/her as "Shepard". You'd figure they'd be on a first name basis, especially if originally romanced in ME1 during the fade to black sex scene.
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Post by KaiserShep on Sept 17, 2018 19:07:18 GMT
OP has a point about fixed characteristics offering a stronger integration of the PC as a legitimate part of the world, instead of "the PC". I will never get over the mental gymnastics done to avoid Shepard's first name, for example. There is little else that screams more "yes, varPlayerCharacter, I agree with your sentiment, beep boop" than that. I think BW must have been somewhat aware of this about naming, which is why they allowed "Scott" and "Sara" to be used if the player decided to use the standard names. I actually prefer "John" but I already have enough "John" PT's that it's difficult to keep track of them. It never made sense to me to have Shepard's LI simply refer to him/her as "Shepard". You'd figure they'd be on a first name basis, especially if originally romanced in ME1 during the fade to black sex scene. This is why I was so glad to have actual first names acknowledged by the game this time, and why I always roll with them. The PC doesn't have to have a name I'm necessarily a fan of, so long as it doesn't sound silly in conversation. I'm happier with characters actually being able to speak to the PC like they're a person rather than a rank.
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Iakus
N7
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by Iakus on Sept 18, 2018 15:10:32 GMT
OP has a point about fixed characteristics offering a stronger integration of the PC as a legitimate part of the world, instead of "the PC". I will never get over the mental gymnastics done to avoid Shepard's first name, for example. There is little else that screams more "yes, varPlayerCharacter, I agree with your sentiment, beep boop" than that. I think BW must have been somewhat aware of this about naming, which is why they allowed "Scott" and "Sara" to be used if the player decided to use the standard names. I actually prefer "John" but I already have enough "John" PT's that it's difficult to keep track of them. It never made sense to me to have Shepard's LI simply refer to him/her as "Shepard". You'd figure they'd be on a first name basis, especially if originally romanced in ME1 during the fade to black sex scene. At least Ashley gives Shepard the nickname "skipper".
At least for ME1...
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Iakus
N7
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by Iakus on Sept 18, 2018 15:14:55 GMT
Humans are by far the least interesting aspect of ME. That's one of the reasons it was so stupid to make cerberus the main villains in the game of the franchise for most of it. I would love to play as a different race, assuming of course I would even care about a new ME game to begin with. Mass Effect is a setting full of Rubber Forehead Aliens And Planets of Hats. This isn't a bad thing in itself. But I never understood the "humans are so boring" thing. They're all humans. Just some of them have scales or tentacles or chitin. The only truly "alien" aliens imo were the rachni and the geth (or at least, Legion. Okay ME2 Legion)
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Post by Radec on Sept 18, 2018 21:15:12 GMT
It probably will, but I'm nonplussed about either way. The humanoid species' are planet of hats and wouldn't be much different from playing a human, anyway.
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dmc1001
N7
Biotic Booty
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, SWTOR, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Origin: ferroboy
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Post by dmc1001 on Sept 18, 2018 22:27:26 GMT
Humans are by far the least interesting aspect of ME. That's one of the reasons it was so stupid to make cerberus the main villains in the game of the franchise for most of it. I would love to play as a different race, assuming of course I would even care about a new ME game to begin with. Mass Effect is a setting full of Rubber Forehead Aliens And Planets of Hats. This isn't a bad thing in itself. But I never understood the "humans are so boring" thing. They're all humans. Just some of them have scales or tentacles or chitin. The only truly "alien" aliens imo were the rachni and the geth (or at least, Legion. Okay ME2 Legion) Hanar, too.
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Post by griffith82 on Sept 20, 2018 23:43:23 GMT
Humans are by far the least interesting aspect of ME. That's one of the reasons it was so stupid to make cerberus the main villains in the game of the franchise for most of it. I would love to play as a different race, assuming of course I would even care about a new ME game to begin with. Mass Effect is a setting full of Rubber Forehead Aliens And Planets of Hats. This isn't a bad thing in itself. But I never understood the "humans are so boring" thing. They're all humans. Just some of them have scales or tentacles or chitin. The only truly "alien" aliens imo were the rachni and the geth (or at least, Legion. Okay ME2 Legion) Hanar, Turians, Quarians, Protheans, Keepers I could go on....
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Iakus
N7
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
Posts: 20,879 Likes: 49,335
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Post by Iakus on Sept 21, 2018 0:03:14 GMT
Mass Effect is a setting full of Rubber Forehead Aliens And Planets of Hats. This isn't a bad thing in itself. But I never understood the "humans are so boring" thing. They're all humans. Just some of them have scales or tentacles or chitin. The only truly "alien" aliens imo were the rachni and the geth (or at least, Legion. Okay ME2 Legion) Hanar, Turians, Quarians, Protheans, Keepers I could go on.... Hanar: polite humans Turians: humans with sticks up their butts Quarians: humans with serious food allergies Protheans: *sshole humans I’ll give you Keepers but it’s not like much was done with them
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Post by Vortex13 on Sept 21, 2018 18:10:56 GMT
Even as a strong proponent of seeing more 'alien' aliens I would prefer the protagonist remain a human. Unless BioWare was going to devote 5 years to just distinguishing wholly separate racial choices for the player; i.e completely separate interactions with other characters, totally different outlooks and perspectives depending on species physiologies, and then giving each racial option a unique and separate ending to the main campaign; then they should just stick with the single racial option. Asking to play as an Asari, or Krogan, or Salarian for the campaign will only amount to a funny looking human with a texture swapped model if the extra work isn't dedicated into making them feel different.
Case in point, any Qunari or Dwarf playthroughs of Inquisition. I can count on one hand the number of times my choice of Dwarf Inquisitor was brought up in the course of the game; the vast majority of which boiled down to some variant of "Hey…. you're a dwarf" It was even more discouraging that said racial choice didn't give you any special insight into your chosen race's culture or history. My dwarf character was just as clueless as a human when it came to understanding other dwarves; the game even having humans explain to my dwarf how my own race's culture operated.
In any subsequent Mass Effect game I would much rather play a clueless human, wide eyed at all the alien cultures around him or her, than play as an Asari and then give a questioning glance to other Asari when they say "By the goddess".
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Iakus
N7
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
Posts: 20,879 Likes: 49,335
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Post by Iakus on Sept 21, 2018 18:17:38 GMT
Even as a strong proponent of seeing more 'alien' aliens I would prefer the protagonist remain a human. Unless BioWare was going to devote 5 years to just distinguishing wholly separate racial choices for the player; i.e completely separate interactions with other characters, totally different outlooks and perspectives depending on species physiologies, and then giving each racial option a unique and separate ending to the main campaign; then they should just stick with the single racial option. Asking to play as an Asari, or Krogan, or Salarian for the campaign will only amount to a funny looking human with a texture swapped model if the extra work isn't dedicated into making them feel different. Case in point, any Qunari or Dwarf playthroughs of Inquisition. I can count on one hand the number of times my choice of Dwarf Inquisitor was brought up in the course of the game; the vast majority of which boiled down to some variant of "Hey…. you're a dwarf" It was even more discouraging that said racial choice didn't give you any special insight into your chosen race's culture or history. My dwarf character was just as clueless as a human when it came to understanding other dwarves; the game even having humans explain to my dwarf how my own race's culture operated. In any subsequent Mass Effect game I would much rather play a clueless human, wide eyed at all the alien cultures around him or her, than play as an Asari and then give a questioning glance to other Asari when they say "By the goddess". Yup. My qunari mercenary Inquisitor was virtually indistinguishable from what a human mercenary Inquisitor might have been. Still had fun with him, but the differences were clearly more social class than "ooh, bug scary qunari!"-related.
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Post by griffith82 on Sept 21, 2018 23:44:16 GMT
Hanar, Turians, Quarians, Protheans, Keepers I could go on.... Hanar: polite humans Turians: humans with sticks up their butts Quarians: humans with serious food allergies Protheans: *sshole humans I’ll give you Keepers but it’s not like much was done with them Let's just say I don't agree.
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ahglock
N5
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Shattered Steel, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, SWTOR, Anthem
Origin: ShinobiKillfist
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Post by ahglock on Sept 22, 2018 1:25:15 GMT
Perhaps, but then really there are only a few scenes where they would use those terms of endearment while the rest of the time they would refer to you like the others so those few times wouldn't have enough uses to break down. I agree with the more limited set and more uses, but disagree completely with them being mandatory. I see no benefit to that when instead they could just do what they did in MEA where if you didn't use Scott or Sara they just call you Ryder. One can be enough to break immersion. I suppose, so long as defaulting to the last name wouldn't encourage a preference for it, in the form of decreasing the number of personalized uses. Basically if we have 4-6, max 8 choices that then get used regularly in the proper intimate setting and we default to the common appellation of last name/title otherwise, that should be fine. You could even code in a dialog where you could choose to have a character refer to you by last name even though they could refer to you by first name- for cases where some people still prefer the last name, or if a character tries to get familiar too quickly. that makes no sense to me people in real life say the wrong thing at the wrong time all the time so how would it break immersion?
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