Anybody remember writer Chris L'Etoile?

So say we all.

arshley?

The grass is always greener on the other side....

Other than the people who explicitly appear in the marketing, I have no idea who does or did what.

I gained a lot of respect for him after hearing his thoughts on writing Legion, it's a shame all his work got trampled on and retconned to hell in ME3. He seemed like someone who took the integrity of the setting very seriously.

I always enjoyed the Codex being read aloud(for major items) - I read that won't be so in ME:A. Oh well.

"Feels like Mass Effect" means a different thing from person to person. For some it may be sufficient to see Asari and Turians to have the game 'feel like ME'.
Now the writer you brought up wrote some good stuff. But what became of his work in ME3?

- Thane got shanked by a gary stu 'villain'
- EDI became a sexbot
- Ashley became a drunk whiner (I won't comment on the visual part)
- Codex became much more silent (and is completely silent in ME:A, but hey, have some GoT actress instead!)

Only Legion was (relatively) OK, though I didn't like his unavoidable death. Overall Chris L'Etoile's work was written down on a toilet paper and ME3 wiped it's ass with it.

Now ask yourself: did ME3 feel like a ME game?

I was going to post something similar, but no need, I guess.

Everyone has their own views, but my vision of ME meshed very well with Chris' vision. I think much was lost when he departed. His dedication to lore, internal consistency and a focus on the science side of science-fiction was an asset to the team. No one seems to have stepped up and assumed this unofficial role in his absence, and it shows.

I hope they've found a new l'Etoile during the making of MEA, in the sense of finding someone who has a passion for internal consistency; for science fiction; who values quality lore, and wants to build upon it.

Well said.

The thing that initially drew me into the Mass Effect universe was it's nuanced approach to the setting and the various 'alien' elements to it. It was only after I started looking into the game, and at who wrote what, that I realized all of my favorite parts of this universe were written primarily by Chris. He was the one that made sure the lore was consistent, he was the one that wanted to maintain that "aliens as aliens" theme to the various species present in the narrative, and it was painfully obvious that no one else was interested in those things once he departed. From the over abundance of space magic, to the reduction of EDI and the Geth into Pinocchio bots, the science portion of this science fiction setting suffered greatly.

I too hope that a new writer of L'Etoile's caliber is working on Andromeda, someone who legitimately wants to explore the intellectual notions of science fiction, of exploring the unknown, and challenging people to confront the truly different, the alien; and sees them as a valid form of existence despite not being anything like us.

I hate how the setting that originally gave us aliens like the Rachni and Thorian, is seemingly more concerned with "pretty good banging" and appeasing social justice issues now. 

I've personally never said that Chris was the perfect writer and that he could do no wrong. Indeed, the stuff involving Benezia's death, and some of the more romance heavy portions of Thane's character weren't appealing at all to me. My only reason for deferring to L'Etoile over the other writers is that no one else was as good, let alone as interested as him, in exploring and elaborating on the science fiction and alien sides to the setting. Point out another writer as dedicated to maintaining lore consistency, or one who wanted to explore alien intelligences as something uniquely different apart from just another human in a rubber mask and I will gladly recognize their contributions in trying to preserve the nuance of the setting.

After Chris left BioWare, I have yet to see an alien in this setting as unique as the Rachni, or the (ME 2 version of the) Geth. None of the remaining writing team has attempted to explore the non-human side of the galaxy; indeed they opted to take the few that remained and convert them into lame human wannabes and strip all of their unique qualities out of the lore, or just sweep them under the cosmic rug and ignore them entirely. 

BioWare has an abundance of good character writers, heck even Mac Walters is good at doing character narratives when he gets around to it, but they apparently have a crippling shortage of people that want to take an intellectual look at science fiction, and explore thoughts and ideas that arise when asking "what if?". 

I can understand then giving him due respect for being one voice of reason; but, as you admit, we don't know if he was the sole voice of reason.  We don't know who the "higher paids" were that he criticized when he talked about Legion.  We don't know what goes on today inside Bioware's board rooms or what influence EA has had on what they could do.  We do know that ME3 was rushed... but who's fault it ultimately was, we just don't know.

As far a planetary description quality, I'm not seeing a great fall in the quality of it between ME1 and ME3 (for the planets that didn't exist in either ME1 or ME2).  They seem every bit as detailed and contain interesting historical tidbits.  The description for Trikalon, for example, mentions a "centuries-old asari venture called the Tirii Supercollider" as being a massive particle accelerator that encircled the entire planet that wasn't completed due to funding cuts until human scientists stepped in with credits and labor to finish the project,  The project came online just days before the Reapers invaded and the entry notes:  "When the Reapers entered the system, they dispatched a swarm of capital ships toward Trikalon, treating the supercollider as a greater threat than the asari navel fleet stationed at Sanves.  They blasted it apart, sending debris hurtling to Trikalon's surface.  Several ships carrying supercollider staff escaped before the Reapers hit."  Interesting stuff, I think, and I wonder relevant, perhaps, to ME:A?

The "threads" relative to ME:A may be clear to Bioware.  We, the fans, are the ones continually assuming things in the dark here.  We just won't know how well ME:A holds together with ME:T until after ME:A is released.

Well, I sort of buck the trend about Legion and EDI too... I think their stories were always destined to be "pinnochio" ones.  I think the seeds of where that ended were sown right when both characters were first introduced to us.  That there was an intention to "humanize" the geth in some way, I think, was even shown in ME1 with the "place of worship" they were shown to have constructed on Feros.  That they, overall, would wind up subservient somehow to the Reapers, I think, was also foreshadowed by Saren's dialogue in ME1.  In truth, their characters didn't go anywhere in ME3 that I didn't expect from their introduction in ME2.  Even the "romance" with Joker, to me, was totally predictable.  No doubt, L'Etoile left because he disagreed with some of it... but I think it's likely that he was at odds with the original vision for that story arc from start and just didn't have enough influence to change it to what he wanted.  The fans may have liked his ideas better than the original ones... but I do believe it's the original ones we wound up with and not something fabricated only after L'Etoile left the company.