Tin Foil

I don't know how you'd get away from making Synthesis or Control a canon ending though. From what I've seen most people chose Destroy, but how do you write off Synthesis? For Control I guess you just say that yeah, Shepard is a still a giant Reaper but hasn't done or said anything in hundreds of years. So, Destroy seems like the easiest to make, and it wouldn't actually be all that hard. Just set it 500 years in the future, after the relays and Citadel have been repaired, and boom, you've got a new hero and a new story. I'm not sure if it was entirely the unwillingness to force a canon end that put us in Andromeda, but that seems to be the reason.



I see your point, but I also like that they're part of the natural movement flow. Hitting bad guys with hammers is still kind of a rough way to go, but it seems purposeful when you use it with a power like Pull.



ME1 had some really boring parts, but there was also a pretty compelling story behind it all. (And you can get to level 60 in like 30 hours of gameplay.) After I was done playing I knew who the Reapers were, I knew their intentions, and I knew what Shepard's goal was. After I finished Andromeda, I don't know who the Kett are, where they came from, or why they're here. I know there was some mishap in an ancient city but I don't remember knowing what caused it. (Although I think it was explained?) Was it the arrival of the Kett? Was in a civil war? *shrug* I know that there's some Kett dude who may or may not come back. I know there were some shenanigans with the Benefactor. I know something something Mom. The loose end after ME1 is "how will Shepard stop the Reapers?" The loose end(s) after Andromeda are like, 10 different things. My only real problem with the game is that it just wasn't a tightly plotted story, and that's what I'm used to from Bioware. It had a lot of potential to be really interesting, but they made the mistake of spreading everything out too much and making at least three plot points (Mom, Benefactor, Quarian Ark) dependent on a DLC. When you have no idea how your game is going to be received you just don't do that. A hook (or three) is not going to make people want to play a video game for 120 hours.

This theory hinges on the fact that EAware actually cares about the ME fans and their customers in general, an assumption that is pretty laughable.

Really? It seems to me that lately they've overreacted to fan opinions.

Twitter is about the only social media I use these days... and I follow Casey H on there... he's been tweeting a lot of ME stuff lately.  Not sure if that is an indicator of anything but I'm sure now that he's back in charge ME won't just ride off into the sunset after one average entry.

I'm sure he wants to work on Mass Effect again, will EA want him to is the question.

Sorry, was a busy week but I wanted to eventually respond.

I've gotten into this subject before, but I have one easier example - and it is JUST a VERY GENERAL EXAMPLE - of how a unified narrative might work, in the span of centuries passing.

The bigger effects Shepard makes is on the war (shorter term damage to Earth and the species, form of destruction or defeat of the Reapers, if the war was truly won or not) and the perspective people have in the future, but not the wildly different state of the galaxy down the line:

Destroy - While the galaxy does recover and head into a beautiful age (at least eventually, in the case of Lowest Destroy), Reaper corpses abound, and organics utilize these corpses to have their own cycle of conflict that leads once again to a war against the next synthetic menace - not necessarily exactly 'Reapers'. They win enough to survive this time (perhaps using Crucible-tech-understandings but not so much the single megaweapon scale; aka scattered Cold Warish conflicts instead of WW2 Nuke/Invasions), but it results in the meantime in a somewhat ruined galactic state. In the meantime, the technological downsides have included no more 'Reaper' things necessarily around to use, but the upsides include weaker versions of Reaper and synthesis/post-organic tech. Everyone has their own form of mass relay tech, even if maybe not the mass relays, but they didn't need AI as much around to let them have this tech. Everyone has their own form of something SAM-ish, even if not what the higher potential of SAM-itself might be. Basically, the organic galaxy has evolved, but it had to undergo 'hard lessons' in order to do so, but ones that Destroyers might regard as worth it. But it hasn't lead to a continued golden age to point in time that we reconnect with them.

The background conflicts can be used as part of a bigger lore and further plotlines, but otherwise just serve as buffer for Bioware to not have to necessitate knowledge of the Reapers in order to really get into future games. Its part of the history, it can have a contextual relevance, but is never necessary, even as we return to the Milky Way sector itself. What would be more plot (background) important, would be the offscreen next conflict.

If we have something of Shepard, it would be like an extended memorial, where we have some insights on how choices of his life (and maybe or maybe not new reveals about what he did; up to Bioware how IT-or-whatever they want to make things, but I'm certain they don't want full-IT) influenced later events, later events which influence the tonal gist of what we face now. Just nods that go 'yes, Shepard did X, and X led to Y, and Y led to how we perceive current Z'. Influence, but a separation. Example: if Quarians are 'wiped out', they might have less/no place in the synthetic conflict, which can mean a bit of a different tone due to them not taking certain actions in that synthetic conflict (maybe enough survive and collect themselves enough that we discover they're not actually extinct, but there might always be written to be so few of them that they need Andromedan-Quarian(?) support to better succeed).
Summary of Destroy: recovered galaxy, new Metacon War, organics win but synthetic exist, organics carry some spoils but galaxy is pretty wrecked

Now that I got the basic gist communicated, to continue...

Control - While the galaxy recovers pretty quickly and heads into an even more evolved age than Destroy, something of Reapers, through an artificial ruler (albeit informed in turn by a new state of existence of the Reapers), has a more direct control over the societies of the Milky Way. This is a far more benevolent and/or safe result than Destroy, but its cracks show eventually (perhaps within a human lifetime) and for reasons (less organic sympathetic if Paragon Shepard, more organic sympathetic if Renegade Shepard - but always with some question whether it was worth it for the organics to take such action), lead to some open conflict. This at first isn't so explosive as Destroy's war, but eventually becomes extreme enough to lead to an open revolt to escape the disturbing results of the war. The machines are overcome in a war more damaging than post-Destroy's, but there can be some implication that more of such Reaper-techy-ness have survived and as useful tools. Not enough to change gameplay and core narrative, just enough to let some players argue that going supposed-Paragon in ME3 was still a correct choice - albeit a concerning one.
Shepard content, if any, would be like a knowledge bank of how a not-Shepard entity more actively did things over the decades/centuries, which is nice but relatively concerning as it seems this avatar took relatively more cultural importance over the living Shepard.
Summary of Control: evolved galaxy, new Reaper war, organics win but synthetics exist, organics carry some spoils but galaxy is pretty wrecked

Synthesis - While the galaxy recovers super quickly and heads into a transcendent age, one with its particular insights about reality, a surprising flaw in the scheme shows itself (perhaps one that relates to some concept from the Andromedan region, like the nature of the Scourge or whatever) and devastatingly splinters the galaxy and ultimately ruins it almost as bad as a successful Reaper Cycle (note: this would be the highest high, but lowest low compared to the other two). The survivors, organic and synthetic(?), manage to re-purpose themselves into something of the semi-neo-organic/synthetics we might see after the other two endings (or SAM-distribution in a MEA2 Andromedan people), but while they have the most insight to reveal (where Destroy people have the more confidence, and Control people have the most knowledge), they are also culturally scarred by the experience.
Shepard content, if any, would be like everyone alive having the most depth of knowledge about Shepard what what they went through, which is great but relatively dismaying as it seems they are basically dismissive of the living Shepard because they all consider themselves a bit 'living Shepard' (not to some overblown degree though - Bioware should avoid this).
Summary of Synthesis: supreme galaxy, new sort of war, organics survive/win but synthetics exist, spoils are carried but galaxy is pretty wrecked

I can write more for Refuse, but eh whatever. Would be up to Bioware to care about it or treat it as another 'timeline' like Shepard Dies in ME2.

Citadel could exist and still be at Earth but the status of it would be very different centuries after ME3. Match it with the Nexus with special tech and you have yourself a transit system. A game never needs to focus on the Citadel again though. Visit it? Okay. A hub? Eh maybe. Missions with intriguing purpose? Sure!
Citadel Council would probably be over. Earth would stand, but not be at its alluded to post-ME3 recovery and peak, but still above pre-ME3.
Mass Relays may or may not exist. I think in itself it is a fine sentiment of Bioware if they want to take away the mass relays themselves, but only if there is mass effect technology developed that progressively reaches their level (or attempts to go beyond). So even if Extended Cut had to go 'But wait! They still can have/recover the mass relays in order to recover the galaxy!', I'd be okay with them finally writing them out (whether through obsolescence and re-purpose in Synthesis, or dismantling and disabling and destruction in Destroy, or whatever).


Basic Result - The galaxy always recovers, then always reaches a newer apex that we don't get to visit, but this apex is short lived enough (years/decades/centuries) and a newer extended conflict occurs that cuts the galaxy off from Andromeda for centuries, so when Andromedans return to the Milky Way, it is not in a state that you could call 'safe'. It'd be better in tech available than ME3 or MEA, but still trying to reorganize itself.

Where MEA got to converge (ME1-ME2 mostly) states through taking an exploration focused initiative on a particular journey, a MW-involved game could converge states through having a whole other historical period occur that turns what Shepard did into a most loved or respected Legend on a larger Tapestry of lore (thus the Tapestry in ME Archives). The Destroy world accomplished much, but that doesn't come without its trials. The Control world enabled much, but that doesn't come without its dangers. The Synthesis world became much, but that didn't come without its disasters. And they all get to accomplish much, enable much, become much. And they all get to have trials, dangers, and disasters similar enough to each other to make the general state we see it in. There can be some dialogue, philosophical, and even cosmetic differences depending on MET choices, but they don't need to be so huge.


In terms of addressing the nature of the ME3 ending (IT, etc), I say they have many options, but one I wouldn't mind would be that they keep it 1)one part still vague about the whole matter, 2)one part acknowledging that they might be more to it in particular ways (like how I had seen some admittance that the Catalyst came from a mind reading of Shepard's memories), 3)one part ignoring it unless getting a very positive response on what already gets done in the base game, and then consider a Shepard-related DLC, or not. But generally, keep things about the ending vague but open to fitting into a larger storyline to discover.

Shepard themselves would be dead in any case. Whether their true death through Destroy or age, or the Control Shepard is ended, or the Synthesis Shepard-ness is faded. More info about each ending would be included - elaboration may be necessary and valued - but plot won't totally dwell on it either except to justify that there is a newer Milky Way here that is ripe for exploration, shooting, and relationships. I'd love MET to have relevance, but it shouldn't have a ton of it. I'd love post-MET MW to have importance, but not so much that we get too bogged down in events we never took part in. I'd like MEA to have contribution and even continuation of sorts, just as long as Bioware has some acknowledgement that its the black sheep title to lots of fans. And my ideal might be a game that is one part Helius (but not in the MEA way of establishing colonies, just in how it continues to develop), one part greater Andromeda (where we see more and do more, but in no way 'cover' it; but it continues to be a mine for new lore that newly matters for everything), and just one bigger/biggest part Milky Way (where we reconnect and go WTF at its changes but AWW in its nostalgia triggering and RAWR at its familiar but different conflicts we must address).




At least some of my list isn't really stuff I'm super into, just things Bioware might do well to note for a future game. I rarely use melee in either game, due to personal taste.



Both ME2 and MEA are what I'd call the most episodic. Thing is, ME2 was like putting in an episode and watching it and then able to leave, where MEA was living an episode, along with all of its plodding that would have occurred off-screen. That can be fine, but in MEA I don't think it was.

Sadly, they left the least compelling possibilities to be the possibilities happening in the game. Kett, Angara meeting, Remnant Vaults, all stuff that... ugh
can be okay or great, but really did not inspire 'wow this is a new stage for the series' to me. Key point: series. Where's my continued story of the species? Its there, but again, its not a focus. Where's my Alliance? Its barely there. Where's my mass relay tech? There, but I guess Kett genetic stuff and Remnant electo stuff is more important to these writers. The new things could be more compelling, but maybe in a framework that recognized that this is MASS EFFECT not INSERT ANY OTHER SCIFI. I think that might have been the problem with the old lead writer - maybe he just kept treating the game as a blank slate to do whatever he wanted with, instead of always having recognition that Mass Effect does try to have signature concepts that should be very difficult to drop or minimize. Yes, new galaxy blah blah, that's great and lets us see totally new things - but it still has to be a Mass Effect story in a Mass Effect universe we already know. The Remnant, Kett, Angara etc stuff only rarely tied into the concepts we already knew, when instead it all should have tied together beautifully. The Initiative are just interlopers on some other sci fi franchise happening in Andromeda. It felt like some cross-over at times, instead of something I could be sure will continue and work together. And then when we even start to get dreams of something like a Quarian Ark arriving with a Reaper or Geth attack or getting to interact with Remnant tech in awesome ways, we find out its just going to be a book.

A little satirical.