The Paragon and Renegade system should be restored.

IMO these were the real 'Renegade' options and the downright evil ones were just 'renegade' due to the simplifications of a two-tier morality system.

Whatever issue people may have with the lines in MEA has nothing to do with the system itself. With no real morality system and just having tracking of your responses, you can conceivably set up whatever personality you want without being saddled by a meter that unlocks red and blue lines. As one who is actually playing this game, I don't believe it's worse at all. In ME1, I cheated the system with the Lorik Qui-in so I could unlock both the paragon and renegade-specific quests. I always thought it was kind of silly that the P/R system was actually used to unlock missions at all. Like, does Hackett divine that I'm being naughty? 

They just need more options for different attitudes that aren't tied to some arbitrary meter. So one should feel forced to go full paragon or renegade in fear of conversation checks failing and instead follow how they actually feel at the time. They can be a hard ass to enemies, a softy to friends, etc. More choice is good and the old system felt like you were forced to make certain choices to get your meter to move in a certain direction. And not every action is that black and white.

While Paragon/Renegade was amusing, it wasn't realistic or even practical. That system was merely a leftover of the Dark/Light system in KotOR 1 that BioWare decided to stick with. In Star Wars, for obvious reasons, having clear differences between Dark and Light makes sense. For Mass Effect? Not so much. My other issue with Paragon/Renegade is it really forced you to either be "good" Shepard or "bad" Shepard the entire time. Otherwise, you'd be locked out of content or you'd just be bipolar and range from being nice but then being a dick at random. I couldn't take half of the Renegade options seriously though.

This new approach just is more manageable, more realistic, and provides more personal flare. We are the hero, so ultimately we are going to do the "right" thing anyway. Having various shades of choices allows for more customization while not having the issue of having starkly different outcomes. It also means Ryder is never completely out of character doing something that's beyond stupid. Yes, you can't be a dick anymore. Then again, Shepard probably should have never had that option to start.

No

Fair point. 

As someone who generally always plays these sorts of games as the ideal good guy, it didn't actually occur to me that the bad guy / ruthless / asshole options are very limited in this game 

I like the ME:A system better, but I think it could use improvement moving forward. Often times, when given four options for responding, some of them appear too similar and there isn't enough to really differentiate between them.

Furthermore, I like the idea that my dialogue or decisions in a given moment will have weight, rather than my choices over time. The Paragon/Renegade system rewarded the latter and it felt too constrictive.

I like that my Ryder can be a sympathetic hardass and that, ultimately, I can still put together a great ending for myself. It's very similar to The Witcher 3 which largely based the end game on what you did in key moments, rather than ALL your decisions over a given time.

I don't think we need a paragon/renegade system back. I was all for removing it.

However, that did not mean I didn't want the rpotagonist not to be able to express different opinions anymore (which is unfortunately what happened).

The ME:A dialogue wheel is a joke. No matter what I choose, Ryder will always essentially say the same thing, just in different ways. That's not what a dialogue system should be aboout IMO. This is especially jarring in ME:A because I feel that I actually want to say something different in a lot of circumstances.
For example, I have to be best friends with everyone in my crew, the only thing I get to decide is whether I give them logical or emotional support. Why can't I be antagonistic towards certain people or at least actions? There are lot's of situations where I wanted to get more hostile towards people and just cannot be. That's frustrating.

I don't want the system back where certain dialogue options are greyed out because I didn't amass enough paragon/renegade points but I do want a system where my character is able to portray different personality styles. This used to be a role playing game series after all.