Article: A requiem for Mass Effect: Andromeda

Ok I'm confused is there now confirmation of no dlc?

Or has Yoda said:

"Love turns to passion.
Passion turns to anger.
Anger turns to hate.
Hate leads to suffering."

 

I think most of it was rubbish, but there was a troubling scenario playing out here for a few months where there was a lot of vitriol. It's no wonder the forums closed down and that Bioware rarely post here now. I think, as a community, we need to learn to be constructive rather than abusive or aggressive in our comments. Ian Frazier responded to my thread earlier, I guess because it was trying to get some answers in a polite manner. I think deep down this community needs to be more positive, and I've noticed steps towards that lately which is great.

A couple of quick notes:
Gamergate was started by male developer calling his ex-girlfriend basically a whore and posting a statement about how she slept to get reviews for her indy game, also he later retracted statement. Then a bunch of articles came up basically denouncing the general hatred that gaming culture had been building since forever and an angry right-wing actor got on twitter and coined the term #gamergate. I was there from day fucking one dealing with that shitshow. Gamergate hasn't done a damn thing except get a lot of talented people fired for saying that gaming culture has a serious problem with women and minorities in general, which is the truth, and gave gaming the worst black-eye to the non-gaming public since the censorship war of the 90s.

Gawker went out of business due to Hulk Hogan suing them over them releasing/publishing an illegal sex tape of him (made and released without his consent) and he won the full $140 million settlement they couldn't pay and went bankrupt to pay the settlement and then all their assets were bought by Univision. Outside of Hulk Hogan being in a bunch of wrestling video games and doing voice work for Saints Row: The Third, other than that tangential connection, gaming had NOTHING to do with Gawker's demise.


EA/BioWare closing their message board to use social media, guess what? A LOT of media companies are doing that in comics for example the major publishers (Dark Horse, Image, IDW, Marvel, and DC) all have closed their message boards, so has most major movie studios and so has other game studios. Because it's cheaper for them use Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Youtube, and other platforms because they don't have to take care of it and they aren't responsible for the content plastered all over them, so they can't be sued. 

Ok so it's just the same old stuff then.

Ive read a lot worse op-eds...

Honestly it's kind of a non-piece, as it doesn't really address anything in the piece, other than what actually happened in regards to the leadup and aftermath.

Except this bit....



I always said in my own stuff, the real problem with Andromeda was how it played it so safe. The game was completely risk-adverse that it was like the original Mass Effect, bit stiff, cliche characters written well most of the time, some info dumping and decent questlines. Personally, I think that stems from Mass Effect 3 more than anything else, it was a conscious choice to not rock the boat but to instead double down on what people remember, the banter, the high-stakes personal plot, the sense of exploration- all of that.

That, in the end, is the real achilles heel because that can't really be fixed. I actually agree, we didn't need a new Mass Effect 1, we needed Mass Effect: Andromeda.

I still like the game for what it is, but it is BioWare's weakest RPG since Neverwinter Nights. One can hope that it can come back some day, there is a LOT of stuff to tell still.

But it might best for the rest for now...

Usually I stay the fuck out of #GamerGate discussions on boards with an obvious left-leaning slant, but I have to chime in here.

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Gamergate was started by male developer calling his ex-girlfriend basically a whore and posting a statement about how she slept to get reviews for her indy game, also he later retracted statement.

That statement is partially true. #GamerGate tension had been building long before the Zoe Quinn chronicles. Reasons for tension included:

• The incredible dishonesty in the games media. (This problem extends to all media, tbh)
• Non-gamer influencers pushing their way into gamer circles and then pushing goofy social justice agendas.
• Gamers being blamed for the failures of games companies.

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Then a bunch of articles came up basically denouncing the general hatred that gaming culture had been building since forever and an angry right-wing actor got on twitter and coined the term #gamergate.

Erm, no. These articles boldfacedly declared gamers dead and that the hobby was no longer for gamers. It was the journalists voicing there disgust for their audience. They tried to backpedal from the original articles, but the damage was done. Right and left have nothing to do with this and political compass tests showed most #GGers were left leaning anyway.

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Gamergate hasn't done a damn thing except get a lot of talented people fired for saying that gaming culture has a serious problem with women and minorities in general, which is the truth,

False. #GamerGate got many games journalism outlets to update their codes of ethics and hold their reporters to said codes. An example was disclosure of integrated ads and disclosure of sponsored links.

The movement and gaming in general doesn't have a problem with women and minorities. That is not the truth, but a construction of the new group of non-gamers trying to force their way into gaming. What gaming has a problem with is these non-gamer influencers pushing social justice agendas and trying to bend the industry to their will.

The only people who got fired were people who dared to support GG as the opposing side had the monopoly on taking people's jobs.

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and gave gaming the worst black-eye to the non-gaming public since the censorship war of the 90s.

Gaming has always had a scarlet letter A painted on its face simply for the reason that it is new media. It competes with old media and old media doesn't like competition. The same exact thing happened to television until it became part of old media. People will go outta their way to paint gaming in a bad light because it is the new kid on the block.

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The other 2 paragraphs are dead nuts on, but the first one was... misinformed.
In short, #GamerGate was a consumer revolt, a revolt against a corrupt media, and a revolt against instigaters trying to stir shit up. Like any other social movement, #GamerGate eventually met is goals and then slowly got corrupted by extremists that consider everything to be SJW propaganda and seemingly died out. GG had a goal in mind, set out to do it, and it did it.

Not trying to start shit here with you, (we are on the same side of the ME:A lovers vs. hater war after all) but come on man. You left so much out.

OMG seriously I am going to try to stay out of this for my mental health but this is one example of many.
Where's fluffymothsiren when you need her.

You talking about the "Hamburger Helper" incident?

Yeah, that.

Very odd pattern, it seems. Any time something "goes wrong" or something is misquoted or the like, there is always a scapegoat...

It's partly the fans' fault for wanting a game set after the endings. Casey Hudson made a poll asking people about the next game's setting after ME3 and nobody wanted sidequels or prequels.

Forget the first contact war. The interesting decade is the 2170s, with humanity officially recognised and expanding rapidly across he Attican Traverse, before becoming another stuffy Council race. With Terra Firma on their best days. With human corporations like Kassa Fabrication and Sirta expanding (bring back corporations!). That's the real time humanity was busy "finding a new home" (and its identity as a race sharing the galaxy with many others).

The clashes and uneasy relationships and trade of humans with the other races should be interesting for a game about colonisation with heavy dialogue. You could help the efforts to better humanity's place with the Council or contribute to our image as "something of a bully" in Liara's words. Lots of room for decisions. The plot would look nothing like ME1.

(This is probably terrible but it's fun to think about. Gawd I love ME's Milky Way.)