Andromeda Initiatives Purpose - Why the hate?

Plus, the Moon is close by.  It's not like we went from orbiting the Earth straight to Proxima Centauri BECAUSE IT'S THERE!

Skipping? There are still people in the milky way. As far as we are concerned, we re going to explore and colonize. That's worth an investment. Look at Elon Musk and spaceX. You say there is no reason to go yet there is no reason not to go and the reasons to go are legit. This is like star trek. 

As I said before: Elon Musk stands to profit from going to Mars far better than going to Andromeda would. Exploration and Colonization is not worth the money to an investor when they will not be even communicating with the Milky Way for hundreds if not thousands of years. Odds are going to be that the investor is long dead before any return on that investment comes back, even if they're a longer lived species like a Krogan or Asari.

There being people still exploring the Milky Way doesn't mean that it's all tapped out and there is nothing left for another exploration project, especially one suited for long voyages considering how dependent we are in the original trilogy on the mass relays to get around.

In Star Trek the Enterprise was typically exploring the unexplored areas inside the Federation, which is basically what I'm saying the Initiative should have done rather than fly all the way out to the Delta quadrant simply because it's there. The one ship that did go to the Delta quadrant, Voyager, was only there because of an accident that resulted in them being stranded there. The series is about them trying to get back home rather than colonizing the area. In Deep Space 9, the addition of the wormhole removes all of the problems in traveling incredible distances.

I'm all for exploration and if we were heading out into deep space I'd be one of the first to sign up for it, but from a logistics point of view it still doesn't make a whole lot of sense to go to Andromeda unless there is something there that we can't find in the Milky Way that's valuable. This isn't just a little bit further than we've ever been before or even weeks or months further. This is a massive one way trip, and it takes about 6 Human lifespans to even get there.

I beg to differ, there are rich people on this planet to fritter away money on crazy ventures all the time.  There are, tragically, also many of them who fritter away fortunes on horse races, gambling, drugs, expensive hobbies, hookers, etc., etc., etc.

Why build a bunch if islands in the ocean off Dubai when we haven't built on every scrap of land on earth yet?  Certainly, it would be cheaper to just build more tall buildings in the desert... and less risky too... what's going to happen if there's a typhoon or earthquake?  What about the concern for Vanatu (a natural island slowly being inundated due to rising water levels).  Certainly building a ski hill in the desert isn't the most lucrative use for that rich person's money.  why not invest to develop a top-notch resort in an area that isn't 110-degrees in the shade?

I don't see why we should just expect the people in the Mass Effect universe to be any more "logical" than people on earth IRL.

In addition, I think going to Mars has a huge potential to just represent a huge sink hole for it's investors.  If you're going to wind up just paying taxes with that money... why not throw it away on making yourself famous instead?  Sheer ego drives a lot of investments... not just prospective profits.

Okay, let's assume I'm some rich guy in the Mass Effect universe. Human life span is expanded and about 150 from what I remember.

Go ahead and convince me of where the profit is for me in giving up billions of my own credits for a project that will be at best about 25% of the way to where it's going by the time I'm dead.

Even for an Asari, 600 years is a not insignificant percentage of their life span just to get there before they can begin setting up the operation and sending anything back which is another 600 years unless we invent a faster method of getting there.

Yes, one of the more intresting questions will be indeed who ponied up the dough for this trip, and more importantly why.

Part of me dreads, well never know, it just happened.

I have a feeling it might be an illusive man. 

Is that where it was built?

If you accepted that Shepard did die at the start of ME2 and was actually revived from being brain-dead for 2 years then going to Andromeda is possible too, but I'd prefer it if BioWare only sparsely use these insane plot-jumps.

Speaking of "MAC". If this game fails they have to fire him. They have to. I won't stand anymore of his work because I could totally see this being so seemingly mismanaged beacuse of his leniency. He does not seem particularly concerned over how bad the development seems to have gone of this game in any of the interview in which he causally brings up that they're simply "polishing". whilist showing off unfinished assets for the third time at E3.

It's logical to think that the most powerful Human-centric organization with seemingly limitless resources tried to embed themselves in some way to a project as massive and ambitious as the Andromeda Initiative, especially the project was launched during the time when Cerberus was still active. In fact, to say otherwise was just simply illogical, really. It's one of those 2+2 is 4 situations, like "duh, water is wet" kind of thing. I don't know why simply pointing this out would irritate people.

Unless Bioware wrote a retcon or something explaining why Cerberus didn't try.... I would love to hear their explanation for this if they chose this route.

Just an assumption. The only one's who know for sure is Bioware

That doesn't explain what I as an investor would get out of giving my money to the project, which if the investor isn't a long lived species then they're going to have died of old age before the arks even get to Andromeda.

Given how expensive the project would be I don't see a single person being able to fund it. Especially with experimental things like the ODSY drives they're using.