At the end of the day it is business, its about dollars and cents, as long is ME is a commercially successful franchise it should continue until it isnt anymore or there are better revenue generators. All this talk on the internet about SJWs etc, well think the only reason Bioware/EA listens(if that's even the case) is once again dollars and cents, if they truly believe by making an ugly sara ryder will make tons of female fans happy and boost sales significantly, then maybe they will do it, but I seriously doubt this is the case, else this game wouldnt have nudity now isnt it? I am of course speculating here I am not part of the company and wouldnt know what their strategies are. If I need to bet and put money on it, think it's a matter of competence or time. They designed something, totally not as hot as the model but seems ok like a normal person and decided to go with it, not anticipating the huge fallout after that. As for time and resources spent, I question the need to have a hundred planets, its almost like a tick in the checkbox, oh since another game has this so I need to have it as well. First of all, the planet scanning is really boring(the first 10 planets were great, when i hit the 50thI absolutely hated it. It's boring and all that effort doesnt yield any returns. at a later stage of the game when more of the galaxy map opens up. It is unlikely that players will still be in desperate need of resources. Flying all the way and scanning and suvi says I detected something, and wow it's a crater... or a river.... how exciting. I would rather have something like ME2 where there are some chance of running into an encounter, group of pirates/new animals that needs to be scanned... Anything other than... A mountain.
Am not so bothered about the little annoying bugs, am more into the storyline and as long as I enjoy the game I will support it, if I dont then I wont. The original ME series was excellent(regardless of its ending), MEA doesnt give me the same emotional attachment as its predecessor. It's still enjoyable though, although a little lacking. In other words, it has positive returns but performing way below benchmark. Could be worst if it was the other way around isnt it.
I have no doubt that this 'let's make female characters ugly' theory is just tin foil hat silliness.
@adrest4 wrote:
I have no doubt that this 'let's make female characters ugly' theory is just tin foil hat silliness.
Mainly because they're not ugly, like, at all. They're not gratuitous eye candy (which apparently is what a lot of gamers want) but they're DEFINITELY not ugly. To the point where for me Cora is probably one of the most attractive characters I've ever seen in a videogame.
Not only do I agree with you about the characters overall, I think it's a shame that this even reached debate status. I stumbled over this tread and felt I should read it because of how strongly it started off, but I think it's a shame that it's such a heated debate.
Yes, pandering to any group, I disagree with. I think the writers tell the story they want and if they change things because "this might offend", they don't deserve to tell their story. Have the courage to tell the story as it's meant and the fans will support it. Those who are not fans will blast it regardless.
Those people who are offended should have the strength of character to accept that not everyone will tell the story to their liking. Accept that! If they can't understand that, they've been catered to all their lives and will one day suffer a rude awakening. Good luck. Sorry it might be at the cost of us seeing another Mass Effect...
But I do not think these characters need to run around in underwear to be "attractive". If that's what people are looking for, there's better venues than a video game for that. (This I stand by from what back when Lara Croft was still brand new and there were calendars of her - did anyone notice she was PIXELS???? I digress...) While Cora is not my favorite, I do think she looks great. The only race I don't find attractive is the Krogan. (Yes, perhaps I'm a little superficial there... sorry!)
My only gripe with the game so far is that one quest will not let me advance it in (End of Watch). If that's the only one, I still find the game amazing and already hope there's another. Could the game use some polish? Sure, but in the end, it's still a high end game and one I'm happy to own!
Thanks
In your opening remarks you said that EA rushes development etc. Right at the very end maybe. They did need a few more months and EA said no. Push it out the door as is. The real problem is who EA puts in charge and EA itself. Name one single franchise that EA has taken the rights to that has gotten better or even stayed as good. None. Just like Mass Effect.
The biggest thing that is being missed in this whole debate on this game are not the bugs and poor animation people keep complaining about. Multi-player and open world are not what makes a game a Mass Effect game. Andromeda should be called only that. Andromeda, loosely based on the Mass Effect universe. It's lack of story, depth and ability to draw you in and make you care about the characters is where this game fails. I finished this game with 107 hours simply because I am a completionist and did everything that wasn't broken or 100% put there with no thought except as filler. It's just another OK game with a lot of spammed enemy AI over and over again at per-determined locations (like games we used to get ten and twenty years ago) and it's all because of who runs EA and who they put in charge of their subsidiaries once they have done enough damage to force out the original people.
Here's another example, EA bought the rights to NFL names and the NFL Players Association. 2K sports had a football game that last year they were allowed to use official names and it was many times better than Madden. If EA had not been awarded said rights, we would have at least one decent football game to play. Instead we have what is essentially the same game we had eight years ago which is essentially the same game from eight years before that. Parts of that game are still being used from the original few years. Mediocre.
EA is at fault for the state of Mass Effect and the fact that if they do not make serious improvement, they won't make another one, and this will be just another dead franchise that could have been. I really don't think it matters. With a story like this, and voice acting that is worse than the acting in most porno films. The plot lines are so obvious and the whole story is just a rehash. It's exactly the same as the trilogy with bigger worlds and a cheap story and characters who could have been killed off one by one and the majority of people wouldn't care..
