Does ME:A promote imperialist capitalism?

Well, some of the locals seem to be as technically savvy and evolved as the A.I. so I'm not sure if invasion and conquest are the correct nouns to use.

Besides, could be the Andromeda races turn out to the empire building races this time.

To the poster who said imperialist capitalism is an oxymoron - oh honey, no.

You know, there's enough trolling on the BSN that I expected this to be the same, but, after reading your OP, I think you're actually being earnest. Honestly, I don't think we'll know for sure whether the story is like that or not until we play and/or get spoiled for the plot. I'm gonna guess it's not going to be that, though.

As for people who say that it's not colonialism if the culture being colonized is a powerful empire subjugating others.... Do you know anything about the Aztecs?

I sucked a krogan into paying for a fish I said was from the presidium, so yeah I am a worthy capitalistic pig!

I also endorsed 27 different shoppes as being my fav shoppe on the citadel.

It's a video game, who cares.

I do kind of want to forcibly take over andromeda and turn the natives into chattel tbh

Chill out, they're just barbaric aliens.

This, my friend, is a troll thread.

We only have to be the good guy for the main plot of this one game, for the sake of not hurting casual buyers' feelings.

DLC? Next game? Ryder and/or the Initiative can be the outright enemy. Or at least problematic ally. Etc.

I think the roleplay options in MEA may range from 'this is how anything colonial should have been done, and most potential dangers of this approach won't be seen right now' to 'this is you on a path of more clear negative colonialism, but most of the worst consequences won't be felt right now'.


There's a premise that screams 'colonialism!' as a focus of things, but there's buffers EVERYWHERE. Tech levels, the political situation, the limitations of the Initiative, the massive room to settle down on, the very peaceful approach that your Pathfinder may show, etc etc. All things that may say 'this isn't the bad colonialism you may have heard of!'. Though on the other hand, all factors that don't necessarily negate the possibilities of things going sour later on.


I consider this similar to DA's Inquisition, which may or may not become just like (or at least much more like) the negative reputation it acquired in IRL history. Just not for now, in this hero narrative, and at least probably with the hopeful element that things of this 'cycle' of events do NOT necessarily need to be the SAME level of badness (as one may see it) as the PREVIOUS cycles.

Bioware does often admit what many consider 'human nature' - but it also seems to go with narratives that at least consider those that focus too much on this supposed nature to be too short-sighted (and typically villains), and encourages narratives that attempt to always 'evolve' beyond that many may typically consider today's human nature (though characters with obsession over it are also typically villains). All heroic stories do this to some degree, but Bioware stories have so many characters and factions etc that kinda act as extension of the protagonist, that its pretty strong in their games. Its rarely just the protagonist, but the party, etc.

I think MEA itself will mostly involve stranded people that want to recover what they lost and find a safe home. We may get increasing implications of what that'll later result in though. Like, this may be a multi-racial project and the joiners probably more overall tolerant of other races than the Milky Way generally was, but it also is a project that had not undergone the unifying Reaper War and it is a project that has a Human group that will not necessarily love to play nice for even the sake of survival. I think this'll matter and it'll color how the Initiative conducts itself, in good (no war baggage) and bad (no harsher test to forge bonds) ways. I can even see this in the Krogan clan Bioware picked - one that is diplomatic to even CARE to have anything of an ambassador in this age, but still brutal enough to focus on touting its extreme combat feats. I can imagine similar approaches for all the species, and an edge to things that will consider the Initiative NOT being so cooperative with other species either as the story goes on (with options; we cannot be 'Muahhaa' though), or after the main story of this one game.


For now, we build, we make relationships, we combat rather clearly dangerous enemies to everyone else, we develop technology, we uncover treasures in ruins. All rather innocent until many more competing interests, internal and external, speak up....


EDIT: By the way, I know how this can be a troll post. Still felt like taking the opportunity to write about the subject.

My Russian camouflage senses are tingling.

Oh crap. More politics

In response to the OP, I don't think the goal was to kill the native population at all. The Tempest and Nomad don't even have weapons on them! So I find the "invasion" aspect lacking. Although, if you stumbled upon an alien species far less advanced, you wouldn't need a tank to enslave them or take over their planets.

We haven't seen a lot of the interaction between the AI and the native species, but it has never looked like we took over any pre-existing cities. Every AI outpost has been prefab structures and out in the middle of nowhere. If we were invading the Angara, we would probably just live in their cities instead of having to set up a radiation-free safe zone on a radioactive planet.

The fact that Sloane Kelly leads a group mercenaries proves that there is still capitalistic transactions in Andromeda, because mercenaries don't do things for free, but it's unclear if the native species were capitalistic or communistic/socialistic upon arrival.