24 réponses à ce sujet

[Kidd]

Oops, I misposted this at first. Oh well, here goes =)

I was thinking about the future of the ME franchise just now. It's not feasible for us to be importing save games for all eternity, nor is it that we would endure hours of recap comics. Not to mention hardware wise it's likely really difficult to import saves from 360/ps3 onto the 720/ps4.

Imagine in the future when the 9th Mass Effect game comes out. Commander Shepard was like ten years ago at least by that point. Is it really feasible we'll be sitting there, booting ME9 up and picking whether that old action hero Commander Shepard saved the Rachni or not?

So I was thinking that perhaps the ME series needs to set up some kind of canon for the future to build from. Perhaps we will once more see different people's games deviate into their own canons from that point on, but we seem to need a canon to be set soon. What races live past ME3, exactly? What does the Council look like? These are important questions that all future ME games will need to be able to answer, even when save importing becomes impossible.

Perhaps the multiple branching endings in ME3 will all somehow set up a unified world for the future. All of our Shepards will have radically different paths, but in the end the universe will look the same and everyone remembers the great hero Shepard from past times, when humanity was still new in the galaxy. Perhaps all Rachni will die in ME3, no matter what? Or perhaps the Rachni will return, no matter what (considering that Cerberus had Rachni in ME1, it's obvious there can be more survivors than the one queen Shepard may have saved)? Perhaps, after ME3, a new Council will be put in power?

Thoughts, people?

Modifié par KiddDaBeauty, 05 juillet 2011 - 11:45 .

[GodWood]

...elaborate?

[LordNige]

Hopefully if any spin off's are made they can use your ME3 save as the canon, much like DA2 did with DA:O saves since the plots weren't directly related.

[Kidd]

Sorry for the mistake. The OP exists now =D

[Raygereio]

There are several ways of doing this once save import become to complicated to pull off. I've listed them from - in my opinion - bad to good:

-Simply scrap the whole idea of player-specific-canon and set a BioWare standard from which games are made.
-Give a menu at the start of the game where you can set a couple of options concerning canon and continuity.
-Avoid the issue all together by having the next game make as few and ambiguous references to the previous games as possible. Yes, that means no cameos.

Modifié par Raygereio, 05 juillet 2011 - 11:55 .

[GodWood]

I'd like to think that ME lore's history is rich enough to support other games without needing to have any games set post-ME3 (see Rachni Wars, Krogan Rebellions, Morning War etc) HOWEVER apparently the general market seems to be less interested in something if it doesn't allow you to be a human (despite human companions being the least popular...)


Soooooo I dunno

[Kidd]

Raygereio wrote...

bad to good:

-Simply scrap the whole idea of player-specific-canon and set a BioWare standard from which games are made.
-Give a menu at the start of the game where you can set a couple of options concerning canon and continuity.
-Avoid the issue all together by having the next game make as few and ambiguous references to the previous games as possible. Yes, that means no cameos.

The problem is that as the franchise grows larger and larger, it gets increasingly more and more difficult to always make vague references to things. It's fully possible to say "Shepard" and never mention whether Shepard was a biotic, male or female, for instance. But to always tip toe around what the Council consists of (which should have a pretty big effect on how the races look upon each other, culturally) is pretty difficult. Not to mention of course whether or not rachni exist as a race at all.

In future games we'll be performing great feats as well, unless all future ME games are to be about some trash in the streets of Omega. After a while we will have touched upon the universe in so many corners, remaining vague ought to become nigh-impossible. At least, that's how I feel. Do you believe it isn't so?

Modifié par KiddDaBeauty, 05 juillet 2011 - 11:59 .

[tishyw]

OP I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you on this, for several reasons -
1.  This is the route they took with DA2, it was quite clear that the end of DA2 was designed so that no matter who your Hawke sided with, the end result would always be the same. And it was bad, very, very bad.
2.  We've been told that ME3 is the end of Shepard's story.
3.  And most importantly, I'd MUCH rather Bioware design the end of ME3 so that it takes into account all the decisions I've made over the 3 games I've played, and has an ending that represents them, than an ending that lays the ground-work for a game that I may never play!

[Goneaviking]

I think they should just design ME3 to be ME3, the culmination of the trilogy. If they choose to make spin-offs whether as single titles or as series, they should just choose the ending that will best support the story they want to tell and not obsess over the hundreds of choices that players made during the trilogy.

Why should it matter outside the trilogy whether I had Wrex shot in the face in the first game, or whether I sold Legion as scrap metal to Cerberus in the second or whether I set loose a killer plague on the Salarians because they just annoyed me in the third if it doesn't directly tie in with the story being told?

[HawkerFury]

in kotor 2 you chose the galactic history while talking to the fool (well there where only four options to play around with realy.

so BW could simply have an opening dialoge where two people talk of shep and its decided if he was paragon, renegade, male or female. qwestions like who he dated will be avoided if possible and all the qwests will be affected will be paragon resolved if good shep and renegade resolve if bad shep.

i know it is a bummer for some people who played there shep not on the good guy bad guy line (like my first second and a few more sheps) but its the only way to do it without it becoming ANOYYING.

[Ianamus]

I'm hoping for many endings, but I do worry about them having to create a canon for future games. We could be talking about the survival of entre species here- even if you can import your game there would probably be far too many different options. One answer would be to set all future games before the Reaper conflict, so that there is no clash, but this could limit what they can do.

[Luigitornado]

I don't think it'll be that hard.

Like how ME:1 allowed you to pick a back story for Shep, why not just pick a back story for the galaxy? Obviously the game won't work in that big of a context if the Reapers win...kind of like if Commander Shepard dies at the end of ME:2

[Mims]

We don't know the extent of the changes ME3 will have on the mass effect universe yet. It'll either go two ways. Either A] future games will leave some things ambiguous, or possibly draw sparse info from ME3 savestates. or B] Take place in the past, either slightly before ME1, or slightly after ME2. This also would allow them to use non-dead characters as cameos or news infos easily. If you think of the past, they could even reuse Shepard as a younger cadet.

Or they take the third option, (and likely option) which is to set it 100-200 years in the future, ala KOTOR. Some characters, like Grunt, Legion, Liara and possibly even Wrex could still return as cameos. But major plot changes are no longer the most pressing events in the galaxy.

[Smeelia]

I think it'd be a shame if they don't do any more games in the Mass Effect universe at least, it's such an interesting setting that there's plenty of untapped potential.

Aside from some particularly major events, they probably could get away with keeping a lot of things ambiguous.  Most people don't know anything about what Shepard is dealing with and are just getting on with their daily lives.  A few events would be more noticeable (like the attack on the Citadel and probably a lot of ME3) but they could even set games at the same time as Shepard is going around without having the stories meet at all.

I wouldn't mind some games set in past events that are mentioned in the game, there are a lot of details that could have more to them than we know about and plenty of little bits of information (such as the planet info screens) that could be used as a basis for a whole story.

[Bogsnot1]

At some point in time, they will have to establish the canon game universe, as there will be far too many variables to consider over the course of the 3 games.
There will be a "hardcore" fanbase who will want any game set 500 years in the future to still contains Wrex, Legion, Liara, Grunt, and whatever offspring Shepard managed to spawn during his/her various courtships.

That said, a small handful of key choices, such as Genophage, Rachni and Geth/Quarian conflict could be possible to set individual flavour and add replayability to any future games of the franchise

[Finis Valorum]

We all know the canon is going to be John Shepard, soldier and straight male renedouche.
If you played the ME trilogy any other way well you're just going to be out of luck in any future ME games.

[Alamar2078]

Personally I would hate the idea that no matter what decisions Shepard makes in ME1-3 that the ME universe is "identical" afterwards.

Personally I would say if B/W makes games set after the events of ME3 that they just impose their own continuity and go from there.

[Gandalf-the-Fabulous]

Dont worry guys I am sure that the ending of ME3 will render all the choices you made throughout the series as bland and pointless as possible as to not hinder the viability of making as many lame spin offs and sequels as cheaply as possible.

All the choices and decisions you made through the series will all lead to the same effect, the Mass Effect.

[maddenking2010]

I figure if they did this, there be a couple pregame setups that would establish how things turned out in ME3, sort of how you would pick your shepards background and service history in ME1, you could get a roster of the the major decisions and choose accordingly to your tastes

[Fordtransit]

Well there are ways around evrything in sci fi universe.
1. You didnt save racnhi - ok some escaped from cerberus or Noveria had other secret labs you didnt know, - and voila - we have a racni.
2. Sent Legion to recycling - well failure to report in at predistined deadline by Legion to Geth network - automagicly triggers production of second model with backup programs stored in geth main hubs
3. Did not get the qure for genophage - well someone else did, you jus didnt know at a time.
4. Killed justicar- well she just died in fight after me3 final fight.
5. Killed the crew of normandy and half of you team? No problem, ME 4 will have new cast enyway.

So all in all togetherness and copmlexity:

- even when ME3 is the ending of each individual Shep we played, and at endgame we will have an individual outcome,

there are easy ways of setting canon for next games.

All things continiue to move according to story writer tellings, you just pick the road to walk. High or low, in style or .. well somehow.

And all what is needed to establish new canon for the next ones, is One DLC. You know, Alliance intel tells racnhi and geth fighting reapers in some far off world, Krogans are all getting better somehow...

Thats the beauty of scifi.

[DCarter]

They stated interest in making a mass effect MMO which could be amazing but judging by the old republic being a starwars re-skin of WoW/EQ with tacked on dialog trees it could be awful. The most plausible outcome is some choices are kept as canon and others are disregarded.

[AlanC9]

Fordtransit wrote...

Well there are ways around evrything in sci fi universe.
1. You didnt save racnhi - ok some escaped from cerberus or Noveria had other secret labs you didnt know, - and voila - we have a racni.
2. Sent Legion to recycling - well failure to report in at predistined deadline by Legion to Geth network - automagicly triggers production of second model with backup programs stored in geth main hubs
3. Did not get the qure for genophage - well someone else did, you jus didnt know at a time.
4. Killed justicar- well she just died in fight after me3 final fight.

Ick. These are as awful as KotOR 2's start. Whatever you did in KotOR, it all comes out exactly the same.

[DWH1982]

I hate this idea.

The whole point of the ME series was for your decisions to matter. If you end up with the same outcome no matter what you do, then your decisions are actually pointless.

I'm likely to get flamed for this: But I'd rather the ME franchise end with just three games than be forced to accept a "canon" ending that renders all of my decisions moot. It's bad enough that one of the novels put Udina on the Council, regardless of the fact that I NEVER select him. The last thing I want is for every other decision I make in game to be ultimately pointless, as well.

[Fordtransit]

No no no no--
-- i hope your decisions make the biggest impact how DO You "save the day", at what cost etc. And the ME3 Will End this story. When its ended - everyone in their own way - the nev canon can be esthablished, to tell other storyes. But your decisions should matter a lot now, before canon kicks in. I hope.

TThere should not be transfer or save to ME4, or is there? The new guy in your team. What is he doing? Why he is there?

[Pepper4]

The boss fights of LotSB were great.