A plea to Casey Hudson.

To be fair to Mac I think he has done some good character story work.  I just think handling the overall story and being in charge is a little much for him.

Look. I don't really think he fucked up the endings, to be honest. You mileage will vary. There's no may about it.

He created an ending which kept people talking for FIVE YEARS. That is a sign of good writing. Not bad writing. Bad writing is like, hmmm? Wonder what Commando is doing now? WTF cares? Srsly? Why do they keep on making Alien movies? 'Cause the writing is THAT god damned good.

That's never going to happen since Drew isn't moving back to Canada. Not to mention, Drew is all in on Star Wars, which is his real passion anyway. I can't wait for BioWare Austin to reveal their unannounced project that Drew is working on. Rumor has it that it will be the spiritual successor to KOTOR 1.

Some people been happy with ME3 ending, some people don't - but there is one thing about Casey you cannot argue - he put a lot of himself in ME trilogy, both heart and vision, and many touchable memorable moments...
And this is why Andromeda is a fail when you try to compare it to trilogy - after 67 hours in Andromeda, I didn't find EVEN ONE very emotional moment when I could say WOW, as i did many times in trilogy... after Virmire, after killing The Council, after getting SR-2...

This needs a poll.

*Sips Ryncol*

Wasn't Drew Karpyshyn the mind behind Mass Effect 1 and 2? And wasn't it because of him leaving that the dark-matter-as-the-big-enemy thing was scapped and instead they went with Casper and rainbows?

It's funny, because, now that i think about it, in Andromeda they actually reutilized the guy's idea, in the form of the scourge

Please come back to BioWare.

Please.   God, these morons are destroying your legacy.  Please don't tell me that Mass Effect was a fuckup that placed it at eye level with Star Wars.  Lore wise, storytelling wise, scientifically, just please god come back.

 

It was like any other night...It was almost midnight and the end of one terrible day and the beginning of yet another. It'd been like this as far back as he could remember...

How long had it been now? Three years? Five? It all seemed to just blur into one long stream of booze, multi-colored cupcakes, and internet comments bemoaning what should have been his greatest moment.

Instead it had been his undoing. So many years of sweat, blood, and tears poured into crafting the ultimate fantasy roleplaying experience...all the script drafts, PR bullshit Q&As, the 3am crisis meeting the day before going gold trying to decide what face to use for Tali before Eric the intern found that damned stock photo...all of that in hopes that one day his genius would be recognized...so that one day he would hear those sweet precious five little words...

"It's better than The Witcher"

But no...in a single decision it all came crumbling down.

Why did he do it? Was it hubris? Had he been watching too much Battle Star Galactica or playing too much Deus Ex?

He would try to piece it all together but the speculation became too much.

He would try to call Super Mac, but he wouldn't ever return his calls.

He'd become a piraha... a persona non grata.

He shambled his way through the dark hallway of his flat towards his computer.

He was going to do it again. Like returning to the scene of the crime he clicked his top bookmark "Unofficial BSN"

Why did he keep doing this to himself, he never understood. He knew the heavy risk and knew there would be no priiize.

It would be the same night...like every night befo...

Wait, something was different.

He rubbed his sore eyes, they must have been betraying them. He focused as hard as he could and waited for the room to stop spinning. This...this had to be some joke or troll thread.

"A Plea to Casey Hudson"

His heart began beating faster, dare he click? Dare he hope perchance to dream once more? He nervously hovered his finger over the mouse unable to move forward...Finally the weight of holding his finger became too much and he fell upon his mouse with great strength.

In an instant the thread came to life...and so did he...

"Come back" they said...they praised his genius...they saw that he WAS Mass Effect...Without him it was comparatively a Cleveland Steamer...or as they say in Canada a Toronto Boiler.

But...oh no! The desperation...they cried out in horror for his return and had convinced themselves this was their last shot. Oh if they only knew how long he had waited for his children to call to him, to summon him once more to glory. He knew what he had to do...

He stood up and walked to the kitchen sink with determination, the kind he hadn't felt in oh so long...he unscrewed the cap to bottle of Jack he had been nursing all day and began to pour into the sink. He wouldn't let it control him, or destroy him...he refused.

In that moment he looked up to see his own reflection in the kitchen window...where once there was a hollow broken shell of a man, there now stood game developer.

He inhaled deeply and nodded as he slowly let out the first new breath only a man reborn could feel.

"Don't worry," he whispered softly "I'm coming goishen"

But why? Why do you want Casey Hudson back? It's like getting over the flu or worse and saying, "Gee, I'd like to be sick again. But this time maybe sicker?!"

Indeed, I simply don't think he is capable of a Project Lead position. If he is restricted to a Character Writer, I have absolutely no problem with him being around, he writes characters really really good. Everyone plays Bioware games for the characters, we all know this. However I don't exactly agree with his mindset of "Sacrifice story for more character stuff". A good balance between these things is, imo, crucial for an RPG.