Sky-Byte-Haiku

So I just read an interview where Bioware was talking about directions for the Mass Effect world now that Shepard is out of the picture, and all they were talking about was the possibility of doing spin-offs that focused on already established characters. What? What is this? I don’t want to play Garrus or Grunt or Aria or anyone else that we’ve already met. I want to play a new character whose appearance and personality I can customize. Why? Because it’s a unique creative experience that only a few game companies offer, and none in the way that Bioware does. I can buy twenty plus games that have an un-customizable PC that I may be able to make some minor decisions with but for the most part has a fixed personality. Those games can be fun too, but there are loads of them. Bioware has something really unique going, and in this fan’s opinion opting for a more traditional game style would be a huge mistake. I can certainly say that I would be less interested in purchasing a Bioware title if it didn’t offer me the option to customize my character’s appearance and personality.

On top of that, who wants to play through as Garrus when you already know what happens to him? And how much freedom would there really be for the player to make choices if everything eventually has to line up with the version of events in ME1-3? You know he leaves C-Sec, you know he becomes Archangel, you know everything he does while he’s with Shepard. You even know that he wasn’t particularly fond of following rules while he worked for C-Sec. You already have a big chunk of his life mapped out that’s unchangeable if you want the continuity to hold up, plus you have an established personality that doesn’t leave much room for personal expression on the part of the player. Even most first person shooters are starting to go with characters that, while somewhat fixed, can be good or bad depending on the player’s choices. The problem is that we know who Garrus is. Sure, there’s some flexibility in his character when Shepard first meets him, but in the end he makes the same decisions regardless of whether Shepard tries to sway him toward lawfulness or rebellion. So that’s not even an avenue of exploration. Unless Bioware allows us to make decisions that are way out of character there just isn’t a lot of opportunity here for the player to customize their experience.

How about Grunt, Aria, and the dozen or so other characters they threw out there? Same problem. Maybe we know less about their histories, but we know where they end up and what their personalities are like. There’s just not much left to explore with these characters as the PC. It might be cool to see them as NPCs again, there’s real potential there if handled well.

Basically, gamers like making choices. Not necessarily plot or relationship choices, some prefer to make battle or equipment related decisions, but in the end they are playing games because they are interactive and creative. If they didn’t want that they’d watch a movie. Even more so with Bioware’s audience. There’s a reason the Mass Effect series did well: people liked it. They liked the way it was structured. And, indeed, there’s a lot it did very well. It allowed players to choose how much customization they wanted to do, which I think is one reason it appeals to so many different kinds of players. If you want, you can make a unique appearance for your character and explore their personality through NPC interactions as well as side and main quests. Or, if you’re more interested in the tactical side of things you can go with a preexisting appearance and jump right in. Ignore those pesky companions if they’re not your thing, it’s all up to you. Shepard is also an ingenious PC because while she/he has a well defined personality (great for shooter fans) there’s still a lot of room within that personality for the player to decide how it will manifest in interactions and plot decisions. This was one of the things that was missing from Dragon Age 2’s Hawk. A character like this needs a well defined but still flexible personality. Hawk was all Play-Do without the fun tools to make him into spaghetti or cookies or whatever (okay, maybe I need to re-think that metaphor a little..). His dialogue was poorly written, too vague personality-wise, and not compellingly acted. We didn’t feel like we were working within a personality. But Shepard is Shepard, renegade or paragon, and yet different for each player. I can’t say exactly how they did it, but Shepard is a masterpiece of a PC, suited to many different kinds of players. I got a little sidetracked there, but the point is that Bioware should continue to explore a player-customized experience, because they’re doing it well and it’s why their games are so popular.

I guess that’s it. I just had to rant about that. I feel better now, which is the point of rants. Thanks for reading, and definitely consider letting Bioware know what YOU want in a Mass Effect spin-off. Once I’ve cooled off I might just sit down and re-write this in a well thought out, level headed way and do just that.