laecraft wrote...
Paragon / Renegade system is flawed, random, too vague an entity, exists to mask linearity, and has no parallel IRL. It must be replaced with something realistic and tangible, like loyalty to factions system.
The choices, too, should be tied to choosing your side, and the consequences of them should be very clear and immediate - even imminent - instead of reaching far into the vague, uncertain future, completely out of Shepard's control and sight, unless he's a seer who can predict how this particular choice would turn out when tossed into the vastness and complexity of the galaxy for a year or so.
For example, I support Cerberus and TIM, and this is easy to define and consistent. You could guess how my Shepard would act in certain situations - according to his goals and loyalties. You wouldn't know in advance how Paragon or Renegade Shepard should act, until you see the colour of the options.
Consider Legion's LM, where both options are almost completely indistinguishable, and the consequences are impossible to predict. With a sigh of relief, people press the blue "win" option. Mission accomplished. No need to really choose. All of that is counterproductive, enforces further the linearity, and helps hypocrisy flourish.
To carry over our choices into the next game is apparently too grand an undertaking. What's more, it's unnecessary, because too much time passes between games, people forget the less significant choices, or they could drop out of the series, or new people would come who don't care about what happened before, or the game company could drop out.
What we really need is to make our choices matter right now, in the very game we're playing, without waiting for the last few lines of the epilogue of the last game of the series in the far, uncertain future.
Playing games is about instant gratification. Who wants to wait for years for the reward? If and when by the time we finally reach that promised destination, and we discover that none of our choices matter after all (who cares what was before? what matters is that we got here!), it's not going to be a satisfying conclusion.
Hmm...some good points. I have to respectfully disagree with you, though.
1.) In Legion's LM, the end decision is whether you want to wipe out the heretics or re-write them. If you re-write the heretics to accept the geths' logic, there is a possibility that they will help Shepard fight the Reapers. That has been hinted at what's to come. If you wipe out the heretics completely, you don't gain any allies. I don't think it's about hypocrisy, it's about taking as many potential confederates to battle as possible.
2.) During ME3, we will see the effects of our decisions (albeit finally). The decisions we make will have rewards or consequences. For instance, we know that Liara becomes the SB. Since Cerberus had intel as to where the SB's HQ are, it's likely that they will go after her. Shepard has to rescue Liara. On that mission, the Broker's HQ is in flames. You can choose to try and save as much data as possible (since she may be incapacitated at the time) or get Liara the heck outta there before you have to fight off another wave of Cerberus troops. If you get the data, you get more resources but cannot take Liara with you immediately on the next mission. If you make the choice to get outta dodge, you sacrifice intel but probably get some bonus points with Liara.
3.) Paragon/Renegade is flawed, yes, but remember, this is the 1st RPG to not force you to make completely morally right and wrong decisions. It's not about win vs. lose--remember, Cerberus will not be an ally in the 3rd game, so if you blew up the Collector base, all you get is a bunch of pats on the back from your crew members. They still manage somehow to get ahold of the technology from it (this is from Retribution), so this is the decision that irks me. I prefer to think of the system as 'by the book' vs 'my way or the high way'. Here's an example of how a renegade decision could backfire on you. On Tali's LM, you could choose to share the data of the experiments her father was performing to get Admiral X'en's favor and lose Tali's loyalty, BS your way through the trial through either charm or intimidate points, or if you helped Veetor or Kal'Reegar out, you can rally the crowd. If you lose Tali's loyalty and she doesn't get exiled, it's highly likely that she won't rush to help you when you're fighting the Reapers. Again, this is not about right and wrong, it's about gathering as many friends as possible to an impossible fight.
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