What should BioWare do now with Mass Effect?

I've gone with Other.

Personally, regardless of the narrative dead end they wrote themselves into with ME3, I still argue, even moreso now post-Andromeda, that there was so much story and narrative left to tell in the Milky Way, that it could also have been done without Shepard as a protagonist.

There's been enough detailed think pieces and analyses on here and on YT about where Andromeda's narrative failed or was poor, so I don't really feel like going in and repeating what a lot of other people have already argued, just that I agree with some of the assessments that arguably, Andromeda didn't really do enough, or particularly anything interesting that warranted the whole narrative switching over there.

The Kett and Remnant just didn't feel original or new or interesting, especially within the context of the Mass Effect series. It felt to me and others who have argued better than I, more of the same. The Angara also felt particularly uninspiring or uninteresting.

Sure there is a lot of narrative threads left dangling, but most of those I would argue shouldn't have been left dangling at the end of the main game. It was obvious the intention was there for most of them to be explored or expanded upon in DLC, but now with no DLC coming, it seems an awful lot for one game to do, that being if an Andromeda sequel even happens or chooses to tackle tying up whatever threads the books or comics don't choose to resolve.

Its probably an unpopular opinion to leave the Andromeda story, at least just to the books and comics, and want the games to go elsewhere, but really I'm saying this as someone who wholeheartedly, wants there to be no more Mass Effect games now. Not even one set in the Milky Way, even if I'd argue it possibly being a safer bet than continuing Andromeda's narrative.

I understand that too is probably an unpopular opinion, especially here.

But after the original trilogy concluded with the Citadel DLC, I wasn't really clamoring for another Mass Effect game. I am, for example, wanting Dragon Age 4, but that's because of the way that series continuously sets up the narrative going forwards in the next few entries. The original trilogy felt like it came to a definitive end, and when Andromeda was announced, I was excited for another Mass Effect game, but unsure if, once it was out and time was given to properly play through it, the game itself would be worth it.

Narratively speaking, I personally don't see the point of Andromeda, or what its narrative managed or tried to accomplish. It gave us some new likable characters, which is great, it also gave us some pretty weak ones. It gave some cool moments that can be argued as ranking up among some of the other great moments from the original trilogy. But it also squandered the tightness of its main narrative with filler and all the other negatives that came with the exploration of the planets, which I argue as being just as dull and plain as the ME1 planets, except with better visuals and slightly more polish.

Sometimes I like it when things just come to an end. With all the DLCs following ME3's endings, the way the original trilogy concluded as a whole, was satisfying enough for me that I kind of would have liked that to be where Mass Effect ended. This is just my opinion, not a declaration that was what EA and BioWare should have done, point blank.

Sometimes its nice for a series to just conclude, without a follow up coming along trying to capitalize on a series' popularity and ultimately failing to meet whatever standard or aspect of quality was expected.

Mass Effect could have been remembered somewhat fondly as a great example of what video games could accomplish in the last generation of gaming, even with the ending controversy. It still is for a lot of people. But now the series as a whole just has this big question mark over it. That could have been avoided had they just left the series where it was, or, Andromeda was better polished and all the other endless things you could argue as needing to have been done in order for Andromeda to have been a success so that the series was confirmed to be going forwards, as opposed to being indeterminately put on ice.

The most "lore-friendly" way to reintroduce geth into Andromeda is to have some rogue quarians simply create more of them there.  Trying to feed a reason for the geth fleeing the galaxy goes against the very fiber of what the geth were and the lore presented of their history.  Having the Quarians repeat their mistake would also continue with the ongoing sub-theme that has always been present in the series that we, in essence, make our own enemies and that the real enemy IS us.

This whole issue with the Trilogy began when the fans started overstepping and trying to convince Bioware to inject a bunch of their fan-fictions into the story rather than allowing Bioware adhere to whatever story plan they had in mind from the start.  Bioware has planned a story line that probably does include a plan for getting to the Milky Way at some point (Walters has alluded to it on a couple of occasions).  They wrote ME:A to set up that plan in motion.  Derailing onto some fan-driven side road is NOT the solution to this.  Let them write their story... adhere to their plan.  Sit back for a change a just read the book rather than trying to act as a director/writer yourself.  They produced ME1 on their own, without the benefit of a lot of fan input.  They produced ME2 again without a lot of fan input and although that was a story that didn't progress the ME1, it was still the best game they ever wrote.  It was ME3, when all the fans had started pitching their opinions at them, when everything began to fall apart.  Just let them go back to doing their job... and we'll all come out the better for it.

I think the main cause of the inconsistency between how the Geth were presented in ME2 and ME3 was the loss of Chris E'toile. Giving the Geth a Pinocchio-complex tying their arc into Synthesis I felt was a betrayal of Chris E'toile's work and felt incredibly hammy and contrived.

There's plenty of great ideas floating around on fan fiction boards, we all have to start somewhere. Given what we got in Mass Effect Andromeda it's time to reshuffle the pack and bring in some genuine fans with chops who understand the property.

You could maybe get around the latter problem by having the fleeing faction be heretics rather than orthodox geth. Makes the threat more credible, too. (Even if the geth split wasn't known pre-departure, the MW was sending transmissions to the Arks up until the Reaper invasion.)

Not really out of a fear reaction, simply a logical response; given their advance knowledge and full understanding of the capability of the reapers it's logical to assume they would act to preserve their future aspirations from the inevitable consequences of remaining in harms way. To not act would be illogical. If you don't think heretics were indoctrinated then you'll agree they acted on the basis of self-preservation to ally themselves with the Reapers.

BioWare never had a long term plan for the original trilogy, nor do they have one for MEA, evidently.

No they don't need anything complicated.  They are a created intelligence by the Quarians... and according to Xen "What has been created can always be recreated."  If people don't want the humanized 'Pinnochio" version of the geth, then why do they keep treating them like something human?  Having a group decide it's logical to leave still does not solve the "hive" not knowing and, therefore, Legion not mentioning it to Shepard in either ME2 or ME3.  If people can't accept the Intiative being kept secret from Shepard, they certainly should not accept a group of geth deciding to trot off to another galaxy as being able to be kept secret from Legion or the rest of the geth - heretic or not.

Evidently you say... However, what real evidence is there that there was no longer story roughed out by the writers at any point in time during the development?  I've seen a lot of malcontent fans trumping this up as though it's proven fact, but I've never scene any solid proof of it.  Also, they like to trump up Mac's quote as "speculation for everyone" but the image of the paper I've seen says "speculation from everyone"... and that means something very different.

It serves no purpose for Legion to inform Shepard about the possibility of Geth survivors outside of the milky way. The Geth/Legion have withheld information from Shepard before when it served their purposes, no reason why they wouldn't want to keep this information from organics and the reapers. It might even be a goal of their species to explore Andromeda for all we know.

I wonder if legion and  geth knew about other geth using relay's as a telescope to look at Andromeda?

Probably did.  However, Shepard and Legion never go into a purely scientific astronomy discussion in either ME2 or ME3.  I'd buy into an idea of geth just exploring better than geth fleeing.  It still doesn't change the fact that it's a "forced and contrived" story.  No better than what we have set up now... and I'd just as soon let Bioware finish that story however they have planned to write it.

Milky Way Reboot, Andromeda was a mistake.

I'm inclined to test Manny's theory, actually.

Go on, Mahad. Show your cards, we'll see what you got.