What REALLY killed MEA was...

I think that's more down to the fact that the ME series has always had a voiced protagonist though whereas DAO did not. the more lines you add the more they have to reccord and of course the more they add the more complicated it is to program as well.

Yup. Whenever anybody talks about anything "on rails" they're referring to linearity. It's a problem with Bioware when talking about dialogue because going back to Origins there were tons of dialogue options. To be fair though, people have been talking about declining dialogue options throughout the entire mass effect series, it's just become more noticeable with Andromeda.

and yet Andromeda has more dialogue options then any game in the series.

After reading the "little things" thread on the spoilers board, I'm coming around to the idea that one of ME:A's design problems is too much reactivity.. There's a ton of wordcount and conditionals being burned on subtle things which a lot of players will probably never notice.

Although my impression is that MEA averages somewhat fewer investigate options than ME3.

What is it about Liam that gets to people, anyway?

That is not one of the things that really attract me to Bioware games...like...at all.

Well I am a Biodrone, or at the very least, probably what you would call one.  I love BioWare, they are my favorite game company and I think they usually create video games that are at least really fun, or transformative in some way.  My life is much better for having BioWare in my life then not, and this includes from Andromeda.  I have learned a lot from the game and think its really good, though not their best.  

And again, as someone who loves BioWare games and someone who really loved Andromeda your post was directed specifically at me, or at least so I thought which is why I commented.  And while I find romances in BioWare games to be a delightful addition to the games, but they aren't the main point in BioWare games, they aren't the main point in why I love BioWare games, and I find the comment that 'BioWare has focused on romances to the exclusion of gameplay (maybe even story?)' to be vague and unhelpful to the point of uselessness.  I mean sure, that is clearly an opinion people have, but its one that is so far out of my experience and that no one has yet explained why they feel this way (at least I have not seen a post like this) that I do not understand the point.  Its just a point made in the wind.  My reaction when someone just makes an opinion, like that, without giving reasons, is 'annnnddd'?.  I can understand a lot of the criticisms of Andromeda even if I disagree with it, like the weakness of the game as an RPG, but that...anyways...



If you consider yourself as one, then fine by me, you said it yourself. Oh, yes, it definitely is the thing people are most worried about. "Who can I romance?" "How many?" "That one looks like I can romance." "Waifu already." "I can't fuck him?" "BioWare is misogynistic!" "BioWare is SJW!", Jaal's thread was the most popular one before people even knew if he had any relevance or even a name, filled with people who were basically licking a screenshot of him. This part of the base is the most loud, I mean - they got the whole romance section of the original BSN closed before for months and had the guys launching a patch so that one character could be fuckable more? How much deep in denial you live? That's your explanation. If you think MEA is really God's gift, then maybe you won't be able to understand it after all.

I actually wasn't talking about this or at least as my main point.  

My main point was thus: 

In the MET Shepard had three RP dialog options at the most (not counting investigative options). Paragon, Renegade, and neutral.  Which is a morality system.  We had zero control over Sheard's personality.  

Whereas Ryder gets at least 7 dialogue options in the game, and maybe what 8? 9?  There are a few instances where they do throw in more choices.  But we get mainly 7 dialogue options throughout the game.  

The tone wheel, where we effect Ryder's personality: Casual, Emotional, Logical, and professional.  

We get a choice wheel where Ryder makes large to small flavor choices that effect the narrative:  Just two of them.  

And then we get the romance and flirt option.  And like I said the occasional rare friendship dialogue...but again we have 7 options as a baseline,  and five of them deal with Ryder's personality.  

These are pretty much facts.  And because of these facts I feel I have far more control over Ryder's character then I ever did with Shepard.  And don't get me wrong when I was playing Shepard I thought I had a lot of control over their character, but Ryder represents, for me, such a quantum leap in the concept elevating the ME series to the very high RP standards found in the Dragon Age series.  

So much so that what you say that you could not do, make Ryder care about their father's death, its a classic I hear a lot.  But I was.  I was able to not only make my Ryder care about their father's death, someone who did not like their father btw, but it was central to my Ryder's character arc.  They grew as a character when they realized that Alec actually did care about them.

More precisely, you can't play a Ryder who emotes a lot over Alec's death. How Ryder actually feels is not controlled by dialogue.

But how Ryder expressing those feelings is.  

And without an option to express grief (aside form just saying "I feel sad") kinda hurts roleplaying a reaction to what, for most people, would be a hugely traumatic event whcih should have a lot of options available, given people react to trauma in different ways.

It's Shepard's ME2 death all over again.