What if you could do this in the next Mass Effect game

So basically like GTAV, the trainwreck GTA.

Worked pretty well in Maniac Mansion 2

Wouldn't mind this approach myself however, this will take away from people's own created protagonist. There'd be less emphasis on their own character so you'd have some convincing to do when it comes to changing characters over and over mid game.

Not interested. One of the things I truly loved about the MET was the ability to follow Shepard through all the games. It's at least part of the reason I like this game over just about any other I've ever played.

Difference between TV shows or movies and what Bioware games do is that, in those you just follow those characters, watch what they're doing while they are still characters disconnected from you. Picard will always be Picard. That also goes for games like Nier Automata or GTA5, you don't really impact what those characters do.

In Bioware games on the other hand, the protagonist is essentially you. A much cooler you with limited options that is called Ryder, or Shepard, or Hawke, but you nonetheless. You make their choices, you mold their character either in your own image or the way you want. You choose what you want your protagonist to look like and then you're hurled into this world to make your mark on it. It's also part of why Shepard is such a beloved character, you got to be them for 3 games, forming friendship and romances with your crew and it was probably more intimate than it could be if the story was told in any other way. I don't think Mordin's or Legion's death would've had the impact it had if you weren't in Shepard's shoes, surviving a suicide mission together and then seeing them sacrifice themselves.
This is also why playing The Witcher doesn't have the same impact as playing Mass Effect or Dragon Age has for me. I read the books from Sapkowski long before I ever heard about the games, and I can't divorce game Geralt from book Geralt so it isn't really me making choices there but more thinking what would Geralt do in this situation. This is not me saying that's bad, it's just not what I look for in a Bioware, or Bioware-like game.

So where you might see staying "safe", I see staying true to the core of what makes a Bioware game. And this is also what makes me so uninterested in Anthem because so far, it looks like and entity that is completely separate from the kind of games I got to know and fell in love with (and wish there was more of).

There is one way I could see this working, at least partially though. They could borrow an idea the first Divinity Original Sin had, you had 2 protagonists who always had to be in the party, and both of them would be involved in dialogues and you chose responses for both of them. And even then it still detracted from each of them, to the point where they became singular entity of 2 people, in my eyes at least, instead of being 2 separate characters.

Well I thought it worked well for GTA V. Not here though.

It'd be a tough sell for a game where most people invest quite a bit in the character creator and the protag's they create.

I'll give you the last part. Until MEA the last title I was pissed didn't get DLC was GTA V.

Yeah. Story's absolutely weak and uncharistmatic after GTA IV, and it's fairly obvious they went for little effort, lots of money through bullshit that avoids grinding until you drop. Aka microtransactions for fucking Cards.

Let them get one main character right first.
Then let them expanded it to the companions.
Kind of like they did with the loyalty missions in ME2.