laecraft wrote...
That sniper from the trailer? You guys think he's recruitable? I watched the video, and it gave me the impression that he's a symbol, representing the humanity on Earth which is desperately holding on while Shepard is gathering forces of galaxy. I thought he's just here to create an emotional connection to Earth and make you care.
The irony, though. That guy takes - what, maybe five seconds of screen time? And there are people who are already attached to him enough to want him on their team. It just shows that Bioware doesn't need two games to make you care and attached to characters. They can easily do it in five seconds of time. It's an answer to anyone who doubts that they can care about the strangers we meet in ME3.
Oh, you will care. And you'll forget all about your old teammates, too. Just you wait.
I don't... I don't actually think ol' Nigel is gonna be recruitable. I agree that he is a symbol, and that Bioware is probably really frustrated by how much people love him, considering they accidentally gave him more personality and faith in Shepard than any other human squadmate*. Chicks dig a british accent, Bioware. We also dig a sniper. You should have figured this out by now, but nooooooo-ooooooooooooooo.
Anyway, sure you can form a quick attatchment to a character. You can also
completely fail to. It's a roll of the dice. Out of the five most popular characters I see come up in all the surveys (and I am obsessed with the surveys, you guys), four are characters who have at least appeared in both of the games (Garrus, Tali, Wrex, Liara). Nobody's forgetting about them, unless they get distracted by an
especially spectacular butt. I will agree that if they somehow come up with an
even better butt in ME3, people may forget about Miranda. However, such a butt may warp the fabric of space-time. I think it is a risk they cannot afford to take.
Onward! All characters in ME1 and ME2 had two missions specifically related to them and not-that-closely related to the plot - their recruitment mission and their loyalty mission. Characters appearing in both have even more development, from bonus missions in the first one. Several popular characters have plot irrelevant personal issues as their development missions (I'm looking at you, Garrus and Miranda.) If the best way to develop a certain character is a plot-irrelevant mission, ME3 is neither the time nor the place for it, so we can only include new characters whose development can be done neatly within the already-established confines of the plot. It'd be tricky to make half a dozen seamless, new, backstory-revealing missions seem like the natural progression of saving the galaxy. For returning characters, we already have all that stuff, so the new stuff doesn't need to be as thorough. There was more freedom to do whatever was best for character development, in ME2.
Jacob is the exception that proves the rule, here - he's the character people are least attached to. He came with us at the start of ME2, so he didn't get a real "recruitment mission," and his loyalty mission was completely irrelevant to the plot, added nothing to the world, and honestly wasn't that important to his character, either. (Garrus, Thane, and Miranda also have 'purely personal' sidequests, but they at least seem to care deeply about the result. Jacob says point-blank that he wasn't really all that bothered by it, after the mission. And that's fine, cool, but then why did we waste time doing it?) Jacob is proof positive that providing character development in a single game is hit-or-miss, a delicate proposition that cannot be counted upon to work every time.
Other than Dat Mass, the most popular new squadmates in ME2 are Mordin, Legion, and sometimes Jack. Now, all three of these are good examples of how to introduce a new character who has plot relevance. Their loyalty missions all deliver valuable plot progression (Jack provides further evidence that Cerberus is evil and can't ethics right. Mordin finally gives us insight into the Salarians and also into the Genophage, and Legion similarly Geths it up, with the bonus that his recruitment mission is also a central plot mission.) Other than Tali, pretty much nobody's recruitment or loyalty has anything to do with anything. They were designed to optimally develop character, rather than foreword the plot. We don't have that option in ME3.
So I think when it comes to characters in ME3, we'll get 2-3 new characters who are closely tied to story-relevant missions that reveal plot points, similar to Mordin, Legion, or Jack's loyalty missions. I think their recruitment missions will also need to synch with the plot, similar to Legion's. Two to three new plot relevant dudes is what they can manage, and that's what we'll probably get. Everybody else will likely be old friends.
*This is a joke. I'm going to make a lot more of them in this post. Saddle up, my friends.
Modifié par CulturalGeekGirl, 27 avril 2011 - 12:17 .
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