Mass Effect News Thread

I actually like that it's fixed, for that exact reason.  I don't want EVERYTHING fixed, but where each sibling was assigned as a support role doesn't bother me too much.  I presume I can still express how I felt about the experience, how I feel about my family, friends, LI's current mission, etc. To me, having a bit of a fixed background gives my character some depth and makes the role play experience a little bit more rich for me.  Not to say that I don't like tabula rasa type RPG's, I'm a big Elder Scrolls fan too, but for a game that is character and story driven, I think having some sort of fixed background fits as a building block for how I want to RP.

I was hoping we could choose whether we're the science geek or the diplomat nerd or whichever.

They do both obviously have military training, but I, too was hoping for something else to add to it. Maybe...they still have those interests, but the military in its infinite wisdom mismatched their true callings. I had a friend who was a phenomenal chef and joined the army. Instead of putting him into a chef/dietary role, they put him into some tech job, which he loathed.

It might actually be a parked ship.

These ones though are really small...

I don't have problem with the backgrounds being limited by which character you play, that is actually pretty cool, but I'm disappointed if there really is only the one possible background for each character and we have no control over that? I was hoping we could choose from different options, like for Shepard. There could still be the psychological profile - at least I hope so. And apparently we can decide what their training is. That's something...

That's another thing. Should it not be for the player to decide how their character felt about stuff like that?   Or is this possibly just how the non-player version of the character felt...

So you want the game to start in the Mars archives while Sara guards/ researches with a bunch of Prothean scientists?

One thing that is important to note: it is not likely that they chose where they were sent. It was most likely some officer in an office that just picked some people that was available and sent them where they needed them. (Maybe Dadryder had some influence being N7 and so).

And for me it is more realistic that we can't chose where to be sent, because that is how it should be.

Then why don't we start the game with the birth of the Ryder twins and lead them all the way through their entire life stories up until the moment they leave for Andromeda and then through their entire life experience in the Andromeda Galaxy until they die?  At some point BioWare is going to have to do something to establish at least a little flavor otherwise.  And their statements on who Ryder was pretty vague where you the player can do with it what you want to do.  

I mean, really, at the end of the day Ryder is not 'my' character as much as the Inquisitor, Hawk, or Shepard were.  Its 'our' character.  We are in a collaboration with BioWare here to create a character.  And pretty much every Video Game RPG that I have ever played operates under this principle.  Games like Skyrim and FO 4 even operate on this basic principle. 

I'm afraid if you wanted to fully feel either Ryder sibling as 'your', or indeed 'our' character, and not BioWare's, I think you'd have better luck in an Elder Scrolls, or Sims game, not Andromeda.

Arguably, there has always been an extent of preset characteristics to BioWare's protagonists. 

In this interview: www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/mass-effect-andromeda-interview-ces-2017/

Q: Does player-character gender affect the interactions, dialogue, or story?

Mike Gamble: Sort of. The story is the same, but the options and voiceover and personality that comes out is different between Scott and Sarah. The writers have gone through to make sure that the responses that Scott says and the responses that Sarah says are different, because they're two individual characters and they're not the same person.

I think some people, like Hanako, would just appreciate a bit more ambiguity from their characters so it's easier to 'headcannon' stuff.

But let's be honest, the only truly open-ended RPG is something like D&D.