Thank you BioWare.

Firstly, I'm "hoping" for nothing. I quite like the fact that the decisions we make don't necessarily play out immediately. Lots of them wouldn't have huge differences in the short term, and would only be evident in long term implications.

Let me quote you once more here: "(...) Bioware didnt follow up with a decision/change that would have direct impact on the lives of many and simply brush it aside and pretend that everything is the same." YOU are the one assigning such motivations/feelings to the decisions we make, not Bioware. Calling it juvenile that you don't have an immediate reaction to the contagion quest, or Charlatan being in charge (would the everyday lives of people drastically change? Not likely, in my opinion, at least not overnight) is, in my opinion, asinine and borderline "negative nancy" thinking.

I said at the start of my post that ME:A is a "journey over destination" game, and many of the decisions we make during the journey could have quite drastic differences...in the long term. Short term? Not so much. Which is why I mentioned a sequel. No, I'm not "hoping" the decisions make a difference in the sequel. I'm saying that they could only REALLY have an impact if a sequel were to take place. You may dislike these kinds of decisions, but they're perfectly valid story telling devices if you look at it from the "journey/destination" perspective.

But calling them childish and juvenile because "I didn't like them" is...well, I know full well how text can make things seem more aggressive than intended so I won't finish that phrase, since I'm really not trying to be confrontational.

In my opinion, the "decisions mean nothing" complaint rings a bit hollow.  Let me explain.  ME:A, to me, is VERY MUCH a "journey over destination" type of game.  The "major decisions" of the original trilogy did lead to differences, but those difference didn't really matter in the long run.  And in many ways, trying to herd all of the divergent paths into a manageable direction could lead to some coding nightmares if they DID make huge differences in the game.  Which is why if we let the council die in ME1, we still wind up with the same council, just different names.  I think even the same VA's, so it was a cosmetic difference at best.  The only decision that truly affected your playthrough of the trilogy was the Virmire Survivor, and that didn't affect the whole story itself, just which squadmember was with us during that story.

We don't know yet if any of the smaller decision will have any impact in future sequels (Sloane vs Charlatan on Kadara, for example) but even if they don't, they serve to define how you handled each situation.  Contagion quest:  Did you save the woman and let the angaran go?  Or did you let her die (since she was dying anyway) to prevent the Roekkar from gaining a potentially devastating bioweapon?  Neither outcome made any real difference within the game itself, but they do have different outcomes.

And even if the outcomes aren't fully fleshed out in sequels, I still maintain that in ME:A, the journey is more important than the destination.  How you choose in that moment is more important than the results of the decision.  I really liked that Bioware gave us MANY of these decision points that helped us to define our Ryder a little more.  Pragmatic or altruistic?  You don't see it as much in the conversation options for much of the game, one of the weaker points of ME:A to be honest (although I didn't find most of the conversations bad, per se, but improvements are always welcome) but you saw that dichotomy in many of the choices we're presented with.  I thought it was a fairly fluid, fitting way to bring that kind of thing into the game.  Implementation could definitely improve, no arguments here, but I think some people (not necessarily you) take this point and blow it too far out of proportion.

As far as juvenile writing goes, I will admit some of the dialogue was a bit cringey, but overall I would put the writing on par with the original trilogy.  I wonder why this idea of bad writing and childish/juvenile/teen fanfic levels of writing came from.  I honestly would like specific examples of this, so I can see where people are coming from.

-Facepalm-

Another of those who skim read out of context posters? Bioware themselves said: We are taking note on how TW3 does side quest and we look to implement something similar.

So, they did. And I cannot comment on their attempt? What they got right and what they got wrong?

Before commenting, try to read everything and get the context right.

So apparently you just happy that Andromeda ended up being much worse game and thats ok as long as its not a copy of the Witcher 3?  I think many people could disagree...

So first off a disclaimer.  I really liked the Witcher 3.  It is oe of my favorite games of all time and it might wind up being the better of the two games between it and Andromeda.  This is not in the spirit of trying to pick a fight between the two communities.  Rather, acknowledging that BioWare stuck to their guns.  

So that being said...

Thank you BioWare.  It would have been so easy, so very very very easy, to ape Witcher 3.  To just make Mass Effect Andromeda a carbon copy of it, a dark, depressing, universe where the player character gets almost nothing right and can't really stand on their own two feet and one of the choices you make truly matter at the end.  A dark game, sure, a mature game, sure, but a game which does not pause to examine or consider any of the issues it brings up with any depth.  But given the commercial and critical success of the Witcher it would have been easy to just copy it.  Or have EA copy it.  

Yet Andromeda is very much its own thing.  With its own tone.  Not too dark, not too light, like Inquisition before it, it has moments of both which provides depth and context.  Its a game which borrowed from the success of the Witcher, namely in how BioWare approached the side quests, took that element, put a BioWare stamp on it, and even managed to improve on it in some areas.  This is especially noteworthy because you still see a lot of posters on this board complaining that the game is nothing but a collection of fetch quests.  Well, I cannot speak to that.  But I can speak to feeling overwhelmed at the quality quests and content in the game.  A feeling I have never gotten in a game.  I have bee overwhelmed by the amount of sheer quests and things to do in a game, Skyrim, until the point it became boring and I turned it off, but I have never been overwhelmed by the feeling there is so m uch quality content to do in any game that it is almost paralyzing.  Especially after missions like Sleeping Dragons and Contagion and the Firefighters.  The Loyalty Missions.  Ryder Family Secrets.  And many others, it encourages me to play the others because....I do not know when the next great moment is.  

Anyways, this game has been getting a lot of flack recently, and some of it is well earned.  But I can appreciate that they did not give into the industry hype of the day. 

Thank you Bioware for releasing a game I enjoy playing so much that my computer time is straining my marriage.

So first off a disclaimer.  I really liked the Witcher 3. A dark game, sure, a mature game, sure, but a game which does not pause to examine or consider any of the issues it brings up with any depth.

Agreed. If there's anything The Witcher series excels at, it's providing depth and gravitas to really sensitive and uncomfortable issues for many folks. It's something that's just largely unique to that franchise, which is part of the reason I believe the series is so loved and adored. I've certainly always appreciated the realness of TW going back to the first game.

Mass Effect is amazing, but it's ultimately just another space opera. I'm not really expecting to deal with domestic violence, drug or alcohol abuse, or discrimination. Some of those topics are touched on in Andromeda, but it's certainly never to the level of what you'd see in The Witcher 3. At the same time, that's perfectly okay. Mass Effect isn't entirely about those issues and it's fine for it to focus more on exploration and the adventures of the Pathfinder.