Is the BioWare/Mass Effect fanbase really filled with triggered snowflakes?

Oh, dear. "My opinion is objective."

DA:I had significant technical issues on release (infamously requiring several early hotfixes) and included a multiplayer component that was rendered non-functional by the infamous "key bug" for months.

DA:O wasn't perfect, but it didn't suffer from as many technical issues on release as DA:I.

Opinions are inherently subjective. Not that I'll ever convince anyone in a forum of that.



Oy vey! O.O You should be using the word "subjectively" every time you use the word "objectively."



People noticed the flaws because they were noticeable.

It's technically a subjective assessment because one would have to reject too many objective facts (digital sales, profits, DLC sales and profits, ME 3 MP microtransaction revenue, ME 3's steam concurrent player data, longevity of ME 3 online play) to state it.

Not that I mind someone saying "I like ME 2 the best." There are some pretty good reasons for that opinion (even if I don't agree with it.)

Then shouldn't they just sit down and be quiet? Why complain about something, you no longer care about? Baffling!

Jesus Christ were you even around DAO's release?

The game was so bad that many unofficial mods are basically required to ensure a smooth experience. CTDs exist to this day. I still crash in Denerim and the Mage Tower.

Do I even have to mention the memory leak? It's not as bad on today's machines, but in 2009 ... RIP your PC.

The fact that DAI resolved them in hotfixes is not a point against it. That was a quick fix. DAO's patches took much longer to be released.

DAI's technical problems were mostly because of drivers and tuning parameters. Most users did not experience issues. EVERYONE experienced DAO's issues beacuse they stemmed from the game itself.

And it's not just the bugs. Class balance was out of wack (mages were way too OP), inventory was a mess, a lot of dialogue would not fire (until fixed), and some of the major plot points were bugged for non-human PCs etc...

I think this is just another case of a person (you) remembering the patched and modded version of DAO.

Yes it is, OP...



Edit: On second thought, an Overload character would have made Cryo Splosion Metropolis but - alas - I couldn't find such a clip...

So if it wasn't for 'memelords' I wouldn't have noticed the vacuous characterization, asari clones and some appalling animations?

If you like Andromeda, good luck to you. But don't tell me that I'm so gullible and infantile I needed these glaring errors pointed out to me and if they hadn't been I'd be happily playing it now.

? I didn't say you wouldn't have noticed them. I said you were influenced by them. Negative reinforcement is a thing. These issues became more pronounced because of them. That's all there is to it.

This works both ways. People can appreciate something after learning more about it. 

The issue here is that people are more likely to consider the negative rather than the positive. That's just how humans are wired.

Even I was influenced. Every time I experienced something bad, I would think about what others said about it. It got so bad that I stopped playing MEA for a while (I wasn't around hereanymore either) because I could not appreciate the good parts of the game. A few months later I picked it up again (without going to the forums), and I found that I enjoyed the story a lot more.

There is no such thing as an objective assessment. Well, yes, if a game is outright broken and constantly crashes, that would be an objective assessment.

Thing is, many people's expectations were disappointed by this release. Bioware has shown time and time again, that they can do better where it matters most for Bioware fans. Story, companions, most of all.

You won't find any post by me calling MEA a bad game. It wasn't. But for me it was bland. I often used the comparison of the soup where someone forgot to add something as basic as salt. In my opinion, they just tried to hard to capture every kind of audience instead of concentrating on their real strengths.

ME3 was a good game. Only the endings were a letdown for a substantial part of the playerbase. Many reviewers didn't ignore the endings debate, but they were right in saying that the rest was good.

Yes. All the people crying about gay sex and dark skinned characters are triggered snowflakes

Don't forget what RPG fans in general now expect:

10) A huge open world to explore and find hidden stuff and events in every nook and cranny.
11) A couple of hundred hours of content.
12) Interesting side missions
13) Extensive crafting options
14) End game content (debatable)
15) A realistic world with night and day cycles, dynamic weather, NPCs following a daily routine.

And then what gamers in general expect from a AAA game:

16) Ground breaking or at least the most up to date graphics, lighting, textures, etc. 
17) Slick performance on mid to high end PC and latest consoles.
18) Every area, dungeon and mission to be unique.
19) A huge variety of enemies, weapons, armour, etc. with different tactics and combat styles.
20) Flawless presentation throughout.
21) Bug free.

Etc, etc.

It's a hell of a lot to manage.  I'm not sure anyone's quite managed to live up to all expectations gamers put on developers. And if there's a major unexpected production road block, then the chances are they're going to fall down in some areas.

Personally, I'd sacrifice quite a lot of that for a really tight RPG expeience.  The best graphics, the open world, the enormously long playthroughs, the crafting.

But what's most disappointing for me is the basic RPG core of games hasn't really evolved much since the 90s. 

You get your main quest line, with some choices that effect the story, but don't really change how the game plays out.  For example in the original mass effect trilogy (I haven't tried multiple play throughs of Andromeda), there's tonnes of choices, but most just determine who lives and who dies.  In some cases, it's entire races, but it still doesn't actually change the series of events.

Then you get your side quests, which tell you more about the game world and characters and reward you with loot or new abilities.  And then there's usually a bunch of fairly junk quests for leveling and completionists.  Maybe, you can get a job as a wood cutter, play some cards or other activities as well. 

Bioware did expand the concept a bit with focus on characters, romance and continuing you choices from one game to another, but it's still basically the same formular.

What would be great is if someone really changed the rules for the RPG side.  Where choices drastically change how the game plays out.  (OK, the Witcher 2 had a second act which was completely different based on one of two choices, but it was basically a one off thing).  Some ideas:

- Instead of defined main and side quests, you just have quests which somehow feed in the main story.  It could be a complicated web of real choice and consequence.
- Instead of a "plot" as such, you have a series of events and opportunities to make your own story.
- You could pick up an object or learn some knowledge in one quest which affects what you can do in another. 
- The order you decide to do things becomes important to how the story plays.
- Some parts of the game could be locked out depending on your earlier choices.
- A particular dungeon or area could have a completely different objective, different enemies and different loot depending on circumstances leading up to it (largely so they don't waste too many resources)
- There could be different approaches to achieve the same objective (some games manage this). 
- Doing a character related quest could screw up your relations with another character. 
- Bad choices could open new options.  Maybe you fail a mission and have to fix it somehow, or a character death could open up a new quest.  You can screw up, and want to play on becasue the result is interesting, rather than just relaoding and getting the best result.
- Choices aren't just restricted to dialogue options but what you do in actual game play.  Did you kill or capture the enemy in actual combat?  Failing a puzzle, could result in not just a locked door, but a different (and probably less good) outcome.  Not finding that switch or collecting that McGuffin earlier in the level changes the outcome when you reach the end.
- If anyone's really feeling brave, they could even make a game where you get right to the end only to discover you've effectively lost, because you screwed up somewhere along the line.  That might be a bit much though.

I could go on and on.

To do that, a developer would have have to say "right, we're for the most intense and RPG experience we can do, and everything else is secondary".  They'd probably have to spend a year thrashing out such a convoluted tale and all the interactions before they even start coding anything.  And they'd have to sacrifice in other areas. 

But, as much as I'd love to play such a game, there's a big problem.  Most people won't play through multiple times, so much of that effort would be lost on people. They just wouldn't notice.  Maybe enough would be happy if they knew that everything they say and do really matters, even if they don't see the other outcomes themselves.  I don't know?  It would be an enormous risk.

But somehow, someone needs to mix up the formula a bit.

(That turned into more of an essay that I expected)

Hear, hear!

I have been lurking this site for months and shaking my head in disgust at these fanboiz an fangurlz who constantly bully people who dare have an opinion that isn't omg this game is the bomb!!!!!!!11

Mass Effect Andromeda is only Mass Effect in name and virtually nothing else. The devs clearly didn't know what they were doing prolly sitting with they're thumbs up there asses for years looking for the easiest way to make a buck and omg it shows. Lucky they have a pack of mindless salivating purist fans who will eat it up whether it looks smells an tastes like shit or not!!1

The only triggered snowflakes here are the crybaby purist fans who can't face the truth. That BioWare is dead.