Mass Effect '5' speculation (Official Thread)

I'm not actually anti-social but dealing with people in real life versus people you'll never meet is entirely different.  People will be an entirely different kind of ass online than IRL because they will have little to no consequences.  I see only a bit of that here but it just gets worse online (though I believe I've heard ME3 MP wasn't so bad).  Also, I play more for the story than anything else.  If I have to meet some level of proficiency others demand from me it will completely ruin my experience.

Funny enough, they weren't necessarily always like this.  I play Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes on my phone.  It's always had options to buy "better" stuff, which is fine, but when it first launched they used to make the rewards so high that you could advance your characters quickly without ever having to pay any money.  I managed to hit the top level without ever paying any money.  Then they realized they could get more money out of players and reduced the rewards, slowing down character progression.  I was fortunate to have been in from the start so that I'm more of a mid-tier level (won't spent money to make myself a top player) that guilds do want me to be part of.  Had I come in later, I'd still be at a very low level and probably not want to participate much because I'd never to well in guild events.

Similarly, I'm not into grinding.  I love being able to advance in my SP game simply by playing the game, doing more side missions, getting that last light mineral one some random planet (ME1) or the Matriarch's 21st writing, or the 7th Prothean data disc.  (I'm missing one keeper to scan right now which is annoying the crap out of me.  But the Normandy just got locked down so I'm going to search the entire Citadel again JUST so I can get an email from Chorban telling me about the nature of the keepers - after I've already discovered the truth.)  To me, those dumb little missions are "grinding" but they're also part of the game itself rather than pointlessly fighting endless waves of enemies or whatever.

I recall getting an email from Chorban even when I didn't scan all the keepers

Personally, I am hoping that Bioware is able to recapture the overall feel of the original trilogy and get to a point where writing for the game doesn't need to jump ahead hundreds of years into the future to escape the past. Time will tell.

I know.  I don't worry about it.  I'm just saying that if a person can handle THAT death then they shouldn't be overly concerned about how Shepard manages to survive the end of ME3/Destroy.

I feel overly pessimistic about next ME game any time soon.

BioWare Montreal was build up for years to take over ME franchise and it blew it due to leadership mismanagement, getting lucked out to be merged with EA Motive instead of termination. BioWare Edmonton is focused on Anthem for several years and I doubt DA team will ditch DA franchise for ME. No way BioWare Austin will ditch Star Wars TOR for ME either, and BioWare Ireland is only server maintenance team for TOR EU servers.

I severely doubt BioWare would let any other EA studio to take over ME franchise, while forming new BioWare studio would be a major expensive risk that already didn't work out as mentioned with BW Montreal. Expanding BW Edmonton could be an option too, but also a major expense and I doubt BioWare wants to make their Edmonton studio too big to manage even with having three separate teams, instead of just two.

I just really don't see next ME game being made with these odds, not without either Anthem, Dragon Age or The Old Republic being ditched without bankrupting and terminating BioWare.

I guess.

I hope it goes that way, but damn am I jaded about ME future.
It's a profitable franchise for sure so EA doesn't want it gone, but it's still the matter of do they even have manpower and leadership to continue it.

They could but that's like a big "fuck you" to player choice.  Hence, why we got to have choices.  It's one reason I don't like that at least one MEA plot being wrapped up in a book - it's the ultimate in stealing player choice.

Not to mention the countless choices that have already been thrown out the window through the trilogy. Personally I don't see a reason why we can't go back to the MW or Shepard being alive for another game, when choices barley mattered in the first place. A return to the MW is what Mass Effect need. Or at the very least a remaster of the trilogy.

True, but I don't care about making the trilogy better, it was already great. Especially compared to Andromeda. I care about BW continuing it, or atleast remastering it.

They don't even have to say "this is what this particular shep did" As I see it BW just have to make destroy cannon. Players can have their other choices, because those other choices don't really affect the overall story anyway. Hell, I didn't even pick destroy but I'd be fine with making it cannon.

If they make Destroy canon, they lose me as a customer of this next game with Shepard. 
I'd say some of the other choices would have a huge effect on the story, since entire iconic races could exist or be gone.

I'm all for a remaster, but any new games should take place in Andromeda over making a canon post-Reaper War state. I actually liked MEA more than any individual game in the Shepard Trilogy anyway.