Marzipan15 wrote...
these are some thoughts i shared about the whole issue of a mass effect sequel on another board. basically we were discussing how a sequel can be made without a canon ending, and someone suggested that if they do an me4 sequel, they do a q&a session like in me2 and me3 where you get to choose what decisions you made here are some ideas i posted, and apologies if these have already been covered; i just joined in the convo and was quite frankly too lazy to read through 32 pages. here we go:
problem with using a q&a thing for the sequel is that the variables that would be present in a sequel would be a lot more drastic than the ones found in me1 and me2. the variables in me1 & me2 were more "localized" and personal to shepard... particular individuals dead, particular people promoted, etc.
the variables in me3 have far more far-reaching galactic consequences. we're talking potentially entire races potentially extinct. so whereas in me2 and me3 you simply swapped ashley for kaidan, wreav for wrex, padok for mordin etc. with little trouble, in the sequel you'd have to be able to swap the entire geth race for the entire quarian race... and then you have to take into account the possibility of both races being dead, if you chose the geth over the quarians during the story and then chose the "destroy" option at the end. krogans would likely have to have a very minimal role since you may have killed off the entire race in me3, but that would make no sense if you did cure the genophage, since their survival should mean that they would play a huge role in galactic politics going forward.
yeah we potentially killed off a race in me1 (the rachni). but they worked around that by having the reapers create an a.i. construct of the queen. so what, they're going to have a.i. constructs of every race that was potentially killed off in me3 as a possible option? i doubt that would fly.
so yeah i can't imagine how they could possibly make a sequel without choosing a canon ending, unless they're seriously willing to program essentially 2-3 or more entirely different storylines into one package... which wouldn't be such a bad thing at all actually.
on a side, somewhat unrelated note, i think it's a horrible idea that they're planning to make me1 into a movie. to put a 40 hour story into a max 3.5 hour movie sounds ridiculous. i guess the idea is that they would focus on the central story, but even that would be a stretch. and really for me a big part of the fun of me1 was exploring the new universe and learning the mythology of it all. if they only focus on the story and completely skip the exploration, the story would be missing crucial context and feel like a really empty experience, especially for those of us who played the trilogy. not to mention the characters would just feel wrong and stupid with different actors playing them. plus then the movie would be establishing some canon decisions: ashley or kaidan, rachni queen, wrex lives or dies, etc. it's not like they can poll the audience as the movie is rolling or something.
so my idea is that the mass effect movie should be a prequel trilogy, maybe covering the first contact war or the discovery of the mars archives or something like that. through the course of the trilogy they introduce the new races and talk about some of the history of the universe, and thereby establish the context for the universe. then the original mass effect fans are happy as we get a whole new story rather than an overly compressed version of one we already played that messes with the decisions we made while playing it, new mass effect fans are happy because they are slowly introduced to the universe rather than rushed through a complicated story, and bioware/ea is happy because now they have a whole new generation of people who are introduced to the mass effect universe and will now buy the trilogy cos they want to see what happens after the story in the movie. win-win-win.
so the movies should be prequels, and the new game should be a sequel if and only if they're seriously willing to devote the time necessary to take into account every possible variable, no matter how big, that took place during the trilogy. if not, then leave the endings alone and make a side story. but no matter what i'd be against their choosing a canon ending.
added this a few days later:
actually, after a little thought, i realized something that might work for a sequel without imposing a canon ending. there were plenty of races that didn't have a prominent role in the trilogy that could step up and fill in the shoes of any races that might be dead. for example, if your game ended with both the quarians and geth dead, a race like the drell could step up and fill their roles. if the quarians and/or geth survived, then they assume their usual role and the drell remain a fringe "referenced" race, as in the trilogy.
or the flip side, the quarians and geth are relegated to fringe roles off the bat, with the explanation that they are busy rebuilding rannoch, and therefore cannot contribute to whatever new danger the new storyline is about. and if they're dead, then because they were relegated to fringe roles anyway, no great loss to the overall story.
similarly if the krogan are dead, the yahg could step up and fill that void. if the krogan are alive, the yahg are still trapped on their world. it would still require some stretches and liberal use of alternate storylines; quarians and geth do not exactly replace each other in the universe, and races like the drell, as cool as they are, certainly don't fulfill anywhere near the same function as those guys. so for the races to be done justice, the storyline would still need the flexibility of potentially going in fairly drastic different directions based on which races are spotlighted. but still, it's an option, if bioware is willing to put in that work.
the downside to this of course is that you can't have it all. for those of us who were able to save all the races it would be great to have a new story in which the krogan, quarians, geth, drell, and [/i]yahg and the numerous other races are all a big part of it. and if the quarians, geth, and krogan remain the "default" races, then those of us who saved everyone couldn't experience the story that includes the other races that step up. perhaps if all the races survived, then over the course of the new story they will give us options of which races we want to work with, which races should take those prominent roles, without killing or alienating the other races?
I hear if you spin this quote around quickly you will get white text
Retour en haut
is that there is NOT going to be any ME4, so...
