Interesting excerpt from Mac interview regarding Andromeda as a series and where it's going next

Mr. Walters is a hack. Unless they replace him with a real writer ME is doomed.

I don't find safety in thinking about "what used to work fine". We got autodialogue in ME3, remember? We were used to kickass, adrenaline-inducing endings and then we got Starchild. Don't assume things will keep up to quality, but do cross your fingers.

A thing they can do if they're loathing the thought of respecting our choices is they can make save-import into Andromeda 2 works so we play as the sibling whose only pre-determined story is the canon of the main plot that cannot be changed via stories (except for one small thing).

I think it would be sad though and I don't think every player would be okay with having to play as the opposite gender in order to import their save.

I would rather continue with Ryder and discover those new races myself. It would make sense for the Pathfinder to be the one exploring more clusters.

Not really sure what to say. I think story wise Andromeda was terrible. I liked it only because it was in the ME universe. If you stripped out the ME, this story fails incredibly hard for me. I was pretty saddened by the ending as well. It was quite lame.

I don't really expect them to catch lightning in a bottle twice like ME1 and Shepard, but this game felt uninspired to a fault.

Does that mean Kramer Vanguard-charges Ferry's door open each episode?

The only thing I want to hear from Mac in regards to the next ME game is "I'm not in charge of it or writing it."

We knew that we wanted to start telling other stories in that sort of world, and then we just started to ask ourselves, "Well, if we were going to, how do we get back to doing it the way we did it before?" And I think that was one of the keys of going to Andromeda, was not so much to distance ourselves from the trilogy but to actually put the developers and everybody working on it in a place where they could be back to thinking in a space where almost anything is possible.

Yeah, right.

99% of the Milky Way hasn't been explored....

Sadly, in Mac's world, it's been 100% synthesised.....

Mmh, I can see where you are coming from. But personally, I think that MEA only scratched the surface of what this setting has to offer regarding story and character development. At the end, there are at least three big plothooks left open that could be explored further, as well as very interesting potential conflicts to come between the different parties once the dust settles and the victory celebrations give way to everyday problems and conflicts.

It might not be enough for a whole trilogy, but I feel there's definitely enough material for at least one more game before we move on to other times and/or places!

I think they're doing another unofficial trilogy that has more contained titles that can leave the protagonist (at least Ryder for now) whenever it doesn't work out, and in this 'trilogy', they can experiment with many more ideas than the setting of the Milky Way would more easily allow, and they can take or leave any of it (in a larger form of the little lore bits in the OT) as they please.

I do expect a 'not-Normandy' in all these games but the format could end up still rather different than the Normandy. I can certainly see myself playing a character ruling from above in a capital-ship-functional 'Normandy/Tempest'. The ship 'hub' always has to be small or at least designed intuitively enough to be able to easily move around it, so this format is never going to be drastically messed with. But experimented on? They have more room than ever to do that. Frankly, MEA is primarily experimenting a 'ME1'. We can see further as we go.



I wouldn't mind continuing with Ryder, but if they do, I encourage Bioware to do the following:
1)Much more customization (including even in 'RP' sense, like biographies and a little bit of story choice during 'events') in MP. Hopefully the progress of 'weekend events' in ME3 to these sorta 'story chapters' in MEA is a progression towards this.
2)Not be afraid to cut away, in a future game, to other characters when appropriate in SP campaign.
3)Try out smaller campaigns for release. It actually doesn't have to always be a major title, it just needs to be GOOD, and well, unique enough to make it worth it. Think Mass Effect Infiltrator but not a mobile game but a good title. Imagine getting ME every 1-2 years (instead of 2-5) and the developers get to use the data from admittedly smaller titles for use in the Ryder ones. This may be a concerning idea, but if it provides more regular profits from the studio...
I dunno, I think I'd just love playing a shorter campaign (10-20 hour speedrun compared to 20-30, 50 hours completionism compared to 100+, and using existing engine and many existing assets) as an asari, salarian, turian, etc, as the Heleus Cluster develops. Let the developers get used to that, while still focusing on Ryder/hoomanity.

I guess the 'limitless possibilities' of ME3 endings were a lie.

I've been around since BioBoards. I assume you have as well so I'm sure you remember the petulant whining that went on nonstop for months after ME2 came out.