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Keep Human as the only playable race


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#251
Ajensis

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I'd really hate to be limited to just being a human again, they are so boring

 

I see this a lot and I wonder: do you consider the original trilogy boring too, playing as Shepard? Would it have been vastly better with a choice of race?

 

I think a human-only protagonist works well because it allows us to experience the unfamiliar from a familiar vantage point. The focus is on our surroundings, seeing the exotic aliens around us and experiencing their culture, not being an alien ourselves. If they had to do it right, we'd need some kind of introduction into what it means to be turian, or asari, or krogan, or whatever. Could they do this for even one race without it being a considerable cost to the overall game? Isn't it more likely that playable races would mean 'humans in anything but physical appearance', maybe with some inconsequential dialogue variation added here and there?

 

There are a lot of arguments against playable races throughout the thread, but I keep seeing new faces (I think?) enter the thread and say basically the same thing, earning a handful of likes in the process, but without addressing any of the multiple issues that would follow from their requests.


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#252
Barquiel

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I see this a lot and I wonder: do you consider the original trilogy boring too, playing as Shepard? Would it have been vastly better with a choice of race?


Well, playing as Shepard is definitely not the reason why I enjoyed the Mass Effect series. I love the setting...and many squadmates/other NPCs. But Shepard? Not really. Would it have been better with a choice of race? Maybe, it obviously depends on how well the story/protagonist is written (I think BW did it well enough in DA:I). But it would be nice for someone else to hold the trump card occasionally. Following the age old trope of "humans are special" is old, and quite frankly, boring. That's why I don't care about the "humanity's role within the galactic society" theme.
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#253
Guest_CrunchyisLife_*

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I see this a lot and I wonder: do you consider the original trilogy boring too, playing as Shepard? Would it have been vastly better with a choice of race?

 

I think a human-only protagonist works well because it allows us to experience the unfamiliar from a familiar vantage point. The focus is on our surroundings, seeing the exotic aliens around us and experiencing their culture, not being an alien ourselves. If they had to do it right, we'd need some kind of introduction into what it means to be turian, or asari, or krogan, or whatever. Could they do this for even one race without it being a considerable cost to the overall game? Isn't it more likely that playable races would mean 'humans in anything but physical appearance', maybe with some inconsequential dialogue variation added here and there?

 

There are a lot of arguments against playable races throughout the thread, but I keep seeing new faces (I think?) enter the thread and say basically the same thing, earning a handful of likes in the process, but without addressing any of the multiple issues that would follow from their requests.

I agree with this. As much as I would like to play as an Asari, I do not want to be a human in a costume. If the game can give us a DAO style setup with playable species having background stories in the earliest part of the game, then yes. If all species play identically start to finish with just random shout outs being an indicator of our chosen species, no thanks.


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#254
Tex

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You guys are my chosen race. Everyone else are non-sapient accessories.


"Sigh" You lost me years ago God and your choice to make us your chosen race was just folly man is a disgusting and vile creature who deserves nothing more than extinction.

#255
I Am Robot

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well I was gone for a few weeks, can anyone give me a summary of the past 6 pages? 



#256
daselk

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Yeah I'd prefer they focus on and spend their cash on doing humans well. Totally ok with aliens for multiplayer.



#257
God

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"Sigh" You lost me years ago God and your choice to make us your chosen race was just folly man is a disgusting and vile creature who deserves nothing more than extinction.

 

No, they're just carrying out my divine work against sinful heathens.

 

But really, we're not that bad. I think you should really have a lot more faith in your fellow man. They might surprise you. Flawed yes, but we're still capable and certainly not worthy of extinction.



#258
God

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well I was gone for a few weeks, can anyone give me a summary of the past 6 pages? 

 

People who want humans only for PC's vs. people who want alien origin PC's.

 

As far as I can tell, most people want to be humans only.



#259
Ajensis

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(...) Following the age old trope of "humans are special" is old, and quite frankly, boring. That's why I don't care about the "humanity's role within the galactic society" theme.

 

Being a human PC doesn't equal "humans are special", nor that our role within galactic society must be a theme. Those are very different things. I wasn't fond of the focus on Earth in ME3 (either?), but that wasn't an automatic extension of Shepard being human, that was a choice from the designers to portray the story that way.

 

well I was gone for a few weeks, can anyone give me a summary of the past 6 pages? 

 

I don't think you've missed much. The first several pages saw the most interaction and discussion, now it's mostly just the same sentiments repeated a few times.



#260
Arppis

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I'm ok with aliens being a playable race. But yeah, it might be hard to implement into the game. Depending on how the story is built.

 

But I think there won't be another choice for character, as the next game has you play as N7 character yet again. Bit boring imo, wish it was just group of renegade mercs, knee deep in trouble and they have to work their way out of that! That would be sweet.

 

Ah well, I hope the multiplayer atleast becomes as nice as the 3rd game's multiplayer was AND GIVE US CUSTOMIZABLE CHARACTERS FOR IT PLEASE!



#261
Ianamus

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Back in Mass Effect 1 it made sense to only be able to play as a human becase humanity had only recently come into contact with aliens, you knew nothing about the setting, and you went in playing as a character who also knew nothing about the different alien races. So you and Shepard learn about alien culture, biology and history together.

 

But now we know all about the different species, have visited their homeworlds and have played as them in multiplayer. Depending on when and where the game is set humanity and it's relationship with the other species might not be as central to the plot as it was in the original trilogy. It might not be a major factor of the story at all.

 

The only real reason to have the restriction in the next game would be to make things easier for the developers, but easier doesn't mean better, and taking the leap and having multiple playable races like Origins and Inquisition could result in a better game. It would certainly help stop the next protagonist, whoever they are, just feeling like Shepard 2.0 and the story feeling like a rehash of ME1/2. We've seen the whole "humanity trying to fit in with the galactic scene" thing, it's time for them to do something new.

 

I also don't think it would be as difficult as people are making it out to be. Most of the extra cost would be on additional dialogue lines and voice filters. Many of the animations would already be there in the form of non-human party members and NPC's. There were mods for the Mass Effect games that could change Shepards appaence to that of members of the different species, and in most situations it looked fine.


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#262
RoboticWater

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Back in Mass Effect 1 it made sense to only be able to play as a human becase humanity had only recently come into contact with aliens, you knew nothing about the setting, and you went in playing as a character who also knew nothing about the different alien races. So you and Shepard learn about alien culture, biology and history together.

 

But now we know all about the different species, have visited their homeworlds and have played as them in multiplayer. Depending on when and where the game is set humanity and it's relationship with the other species might not be as central to the plot as it was in the original trilogy. It might not be a major factor of the story at all.

 

The only real reason to have the restriction in the next game would be to make things easier for the developers, but easier doesn't mean better, and taking the leap and having multiple playable races like Origins and Inquisition could result in a better game. It would certainly help stop the next protagonist, whoever they are, just feeling like Shepard 2.0 and the story feeling like a rehash of ME1/2. We've seen the whole "humanity trying to fit in with the galactic scene" thing, it's time for them to do something new.

 

I also don't think it would be as difficult as people are making it out to be. Most of the extra cost would be on additional dialogue lines and voice filters. Many of the animations would already be there in the form of non-human party members and NPC's. There were mods for the Mass Effect games that could change Shepards appaence to that of members of the different species, and in most situations it looked fine.

It's not as easy as it sounds. No, dialog and animations are generally not the cost intensive aspects of games, but fitting all the variance of multiple races into every aspect of the game isn't a trivial task. Turians would need special facial animations for their mandibles and more rigid faces, salarians would probably need a lot of tweaking and stretching to get their animations right, quarians can't kiss on the lips, and krogan don't exactly fit everywhere. Effectively, BioWare would need to accommodate every additional race into every cinematic either by making a branching path or generalizing the scene. The former takes more effort, and the latter closes the door to some critical story paths. I can't imagine Cerberus would hire an alien, and I don't see a krogan sneaking around in vents.

 

Also, what's this alien's name going to be? Either we'll be stuck with a quarian named something like Shepard, or we'll have to deal with some incredibly generic epithet in even the most intimate of conversations. (I can only take so many "I love you, Captain"'s)

 

My point is that BioWare hopefully know what they're doing and will spend their resources intelligently. While multiple races would enhance the next Mass Effect, I don't see any need for it and given the drawbacks, I don't think it's the wisest decision.

 

I also think BioWare has yet to nail down a perfect protagonist. Other than differences in the romance palette and short background missions, the ME series basically ignores the characteristics of your Shepard. From an egalitarian perspective, that's totally fine, but I think it'd be interesting to delve deeper into gender issues, personal history, and player class. That wouldn't be as easy with more options to deal with.


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#263
Vilegrim

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Yeah, after reading Eclipse Phase, it's almost like it IS Mass Effect only more technologically advanced in many ways. The Pandora Gates, the TITANS (Reapers), the techno horror of the setting.
 
It would be pretty easy to adapt as Mass Effect RPG. Only minus the morphs and resleeving and cortical stacks and backups.



TITANS and the ETI are way more terrifying than The Reapers imho, because they aren't 'the same tech but better' they are post singularity super intelligences we have no hope against, our tech betrays us, our minds can be instantly hacked by image or sound, the exsurgent virus can get us as computer virus, nano plague or biological virus, moving between states depending on the target...and they are just what was not worth taking out system....yea.