Will EA and Bioware actually use MEA as a learning lesson?

Also, I remember requests to allow for the romancing of side characters (ones not in the squad and ones aboard the ship), which was also done in ME:A.

i actually agree but to claim Bioware does not attempt to fix what was broken in previous games...whether their corrections are good or not...is just silly. Especially given the rest of the industry.

What makes a fetch quest "MMO-style" rather than just "CRPG-style"? Bio's had me running fetch quests since the BG1 prologue.

They've always been there, but open world tends to drag them to no end. When you look at it, both first two games of each series had them in abundance...but they were quickly done, so you didn't mind.

Only rpgs that  really have none are last two Shadowrun games.

Can't you put too much effort into a thought? How about the fact that the majority of Andromeda's side quests are inconsequential and is just there to keep the player doing worthless shit instead of, you know, worthwhile and engaging content? People don't just call this DAI in space for no reason, and what that got heavily called out for? For all the filler mediocre fetch quests approach that were the vast majority of stuff for the player to do that weren't not related to the main plot? Maybe there's a reason for that.

Effort wouldn't get me anywhere. No data to think about since I've never played any MMO. Or am I overthinking this? Is "MMO" just shorthand for inconsequential content, and there's nothing particularly related to MMOs here?

Again,  Bio game ever has had this sort of content. 

Oh please... show me a video of an ME:A side quest that consists solely of "standing and talking to a NPC for 20 hours."  Your overdone sensationalism defeats your own argument.  Side quests in ME"A have generally have some talking, some traveling and exploration (scanning, reading of datapads, etc) and some combat.  A relevant side story exists with most of them.  The presence or absence of a cinematic does not make it a "fetch" quest.

I will agree that the camera method Bioware are using for talking with NPCs does not enhance the overall experience; and that is one thing that has been done much better in TW3 and was done much better in ME Trilogy as well.  However, the fans complaints have been centering about the idea of "fetch" quests... not focusing on the camera angle issue

IMO, ditching the class system was an improvement.  It has made the game much more flexible... within the player's control to decide whether they stick on one class or combine talents from various classes.  It does not prevent any player from sticking to a single class.  People were complaining about not having the ability to carry certain weapons as certain classes of players and ME:A fixed that since any Ryder and carry any combination of up to 4 weapons without having to carry 4/5 different weapons... some of which the players just doesn't want to ever use.  If one desires, one can set up 4 favorite profiles all in the same "class" and use up to 12 skills from that single class... or they can select 4 profiles from different classes or they can mix and match individual skills from any of the classes... and change them with only a short cooldown.  The beefs that arose that imply we can only use 3 powers... wah, wah, wah are just completely off base.  We can access 12 powers... more than any previous ME game.  To top it all off, you can actually access ALL the powers easily even mid-battle, simply by mapping them on the fly directly from the skills menu.

As I recall, some people did ask for the removal of the power wheel.  They felt the ability to pause the game in order to look around and assess the battlefield and aim was a cheat.  The only thing that, as I recall, no one asked for, was the removal of the ability to individual direct squad mate powers.  I'm not sure why that change was implemented... perhaps some conflicting bugs with the squad mate AI that they just couldn't resolve prior to release.  We do know they were having a number of problems with bugs and that we ultimately did not get the game they had hoped to release to us because they were left scrambling to salvage it with only 18 months in which to do so.

Changing Ryder's gender when going into an NG+ game does count as an improvement because it is more flexible.  I only need to play through once for leveling up and can continually import any number of different Ryders from that base game easily... not only changing genders if I want, but changing appearance, and respec'ing their skills as desired.  The only thing missing is the ability to respec the squad at the same time (something that was available in other ME games in the past).  Still, it does not prevent anyone from sticking with the same gender, just as not having the class system does not prevent a person from deciding to stick with a single class set of skills.

 I really don't understand what you have against giving people some options and I'll never understand why people here refuse to take some responsibility for not choosing those options if you don't want to use them and just not doing any side quests you don't want to do.  Instead... they whine here trying to get the options they don't want to use completely removed from the game... even though others may want to use them.   Basically though, we suffer from a seriously divided fan base... one one group asks for another group rejects vehemently... and Bioware simply cannot accommodate everyone.  They are damned if they do and damned if they don't.   

No

1) Your father sacrificing your life for you... Sam will "leave you with your thoughts" if your choices to that point indicate that you cared for dad... so you can imagine breaking down and having a good cry if you wish off screen.  They put in the option of playing a Ryder who doesn't give a damn about their father.  Showing an emotional breakdown on screen would have shut out that option.  Regardless, there is sadness expressed on the face of Ryder when he/she first asks and is told dad is dead.

2) Your sibling is in a coma... Yet the doctors are repeatedly assuring you that everything will be fine, so there is no actual reason to flip your shit over it.

3) Tens of thousands of lives riding on your actions?  Get over yourself. The fans complained incessantly, you among them about the protags in game being set up as so special.  They begged for something different.  In this game, it is quite clear that many colonists (the exiles) are actually surviving without a pathfinder.  It's the knobs in charge on the Nexus that can't seem to find there way out of a paper bag and that is inherently funny.  The protag is not being set up to be this overarching hero and the game is written as a comedy... something different for a change.  It's not even set up to be clear that what he does was so great or even so necessary... since we are told they are reforming Ryder 1 the "old-fashioned" way.

There is nothing in the situation in this game that precludes it simply being a comedy... something different as game.  OK, you don't like.  A lot of people didn't like.  They like the same old trope in their games time and time again... so, that's probably what every damn gaming company will eventually deliver... all the same... no point in buying anything because they're all the same.  Dark, with ghouls and goblins and magic... playing D&D over and over and over and over and over and over again.

 

1) Yeah, you get the options, and they're all flat and flavorless.  I'm not talking about emotional breakdown (another flaw of ME3) I'm talking about EMOTION.  Again, something DAI did order of magnitude better than MEA.  When you decide to use the "sad" option, the Inquisitor can sound upset without bawling their eyes out.  When the Inquisitor sounds mad, he actually sounds angry.  "Passionate" Ryder sounds more like someone who just found out someone didn't replace the roll of toilet paper in the bathroom.  The sibling in a freaking coma gets a more satisfying outburst.

2) You've never had a sibling in a serious medical situation, have you?  Even when the doctors sound optimistic, sounding concerned isn't an out of line option.  Again, not something every Ryder may do, but the option should have been there.

3) Hey, guess what, the protagonist is special again, the Pathfinder role as well as SAM stuck in their head turning them into a super-soldier, and the only one who can safely use Rem-tech.  All that's missing is a cape.  As you said, the AI brass were woefully incompetent, but it wasn't played for laughs (not intentionally, anyway).  Fallout managed to play the whole nuclear apocalypse thing for laughs.  This was no Fallout.

I don't think that medical situation has any RL parallels; an induced coma is close, but if they do that there's usually some uncertainty about the outcome. 

I don't even think the ME3 ending was so much grim as it was pretentious and way too open-ended. There were so many plot threads that never got tied up, even with Extended Cut.