Fanbase Phenomenon: The Latest ME is Always the Worst

Gears did cover better then ME and BW knew it, so they shamelessly scalped it and tried to play it off.

No doubt.

The one super annoyed left, most of them haven't bought a BioWare game since DAO. Well the ones in another forums I hang at with haven't and they still crap on the company every time there is a news about BioWare.

But for the people who stayed (because some were not fan of the direction changes but not enough to stop buying BioWare games), there is a ME1/MEA vs ME2/ME3 separation (you can also see it with DA2 vs DAO/DAI..and also DA vs ME). Not in the hate sense, but in the I prefer one design over the other. Fandom is a spectrum not boxes, so it's not exactly clear cut, but even in this thread you can see how people are split among the games design.

As for re-introducing features:
- crafting (DAI/MEA is a return to NWN crafting and that got mixed reception people didn't want to grind, although I believe MEA did better than DAI here, in term of reception)
- inventory (I remember someone hating that MEA was going to get an inventory similar to DAI/ME1 because he/she didn't want to have to manage one which is kinda hilarious because people where pissed that ME2/ME3 didn't have inventories worth the name),
- getting larger zones to explore. Out of all BioWare games, ME2/ME3 are the exception in constrained world design (and ME3 wins the linear label). All their other games are much closer to DAI/MEA with the difference that DAI/MEA engine allowed for large maps instead of having to glue 4-5 smaller ones together with loading screens in-between. Yet, I keep seeing people complaining about the large maps in DAI/MEA.
- the return of the Mako (Nomad) in MEA, lots of people were against it (still probably are) while some really wanted to have it back.
- the skill system of MEA is closer to ME1 than ME2/ME3 and I remember people not liking it when they first showed gameplay (it doesn't seems to have been much of an issue after release though).

If we are comparing protagonists, then Ryder beats Shepard in every possible way for me. The same goes for the crew overall, with some exceptions on both sides.

Eh, they are great don't get me wrong but they aren't my favorite Shepard team mates. That goes to Legion and Mordin for me.

I was using just Shepard team mates in that(though Legion is still my favorite squadmate). Overall percentage-wise I like more of the squadmates in MEA than any of the games in the Shepard Trilogy. 

Then for non-squad crew, other than Kelly Chambers the rest of Shepard's crew(Joker, Chakwas, etc) are easily beaten by Ryder's crew. 

I feel the need to apologize for saying "Dumbed-Down". The more I think of it "Dumbed-Down' is pretty derogatory in the sense of people who like those games are somehow bad for liking them and that wasn't what I was getting at at all. I've never been one to shy away when I feel that I've stated something wrong so again, I apologize. I should have stated it in a better way.

I'll leave up the original post to showcase my stupidity from said statement.

Go with streamlined. Essentially the same thing, but said in a much more neutral light. 

Yeah I guess that's kinda what I meant -- the games all feel very similar in structure, even FO4. Fallout 4 changed it up the most by adding a VA pc for a more focused story..... and no one liked it. Ha.

No consensus possible.

That's fine. You don't have to agree with me. 
But for me:
Kallo beats Joker
Lexi beats Chakwas
Suvi beats Traynor
Gil beats Steve
The only crewmate of Shepard I like on par with this crew is as I said before, Kelly.