184 réponses à ce sujet

[Majestic Jazz]

I liked the appeal of ME1.  We humans were on the cusp of entering the Galactic community.  We had to earn our place amongst the aliens.  There was so much to learn, so many neat places to go.....   so much to do that it boggled the mind.  Heck, I still remember my first time on the Citadel - so incredibly lost and amazed at the size of it all.

 

Walking on barren planets with the howl of wind coming through my helmet and seeing spectacular vistas was part of that immersiveness.  The game made you feel tiny at times - and vulnerable (human).  There was no telling when a Thresher Maw would burst up out of the ground or a surprise Geth attack would occur.  Add into that a Galactic mystery that destroyed civillizations, chasing a rogue SPECTRE.....  andyou had a really immersive experience that captured you.

 

I understand the human centric point of view for the series.  We are humans - and we think like humans.  Our very lives are human centric, so it follows.

 

I am not sure what you're trying to say. Are you saying that you like the human centric plot or you do not? The main body of you reply makes it seem like you are against a human centric plot but your last sentence makes it seem like you are tolerable with a human centric plot. 

[Tonymac]

I am not sure what you're trying to say. Are you saying that you like the human centric plot or you do not? The main body of you reply makes it seem like you are against a human centric plot but your last sentence makes it seem like you are tolerable with a human centric plot. 

 

All humans know is the human point of view - so yes, I think the next game should have a human centric plot.  To me it makes perfect sense for the main character to be human.

[katamuro]

I think people have different understanding of what "human centric" plot means. 

Some think that its about the whole of humanity being the top in the galaxy.

Others think its about having a human main character. 

I think a human main character makes sense especially for a more personal game that ME series always were. 

[Vortex13]

I won't mind a human protagonist for ME:Next as it requires the least amount of mental hoops to jump through when writing a narrative, but I do hope that the plot will explore actual alien societies and cultures; and not just some concept of human culture with an alien texture slapped over it. I would like to see more species like the Rachni, aliens that are vastly different from us not only in appearance but also in perspective; as much as I enjoyed characters like Garus and Wrex, they were pretty much rubber fore-headed humans simply due to how similar they were to us in their personalities and motivations.

 

 

I would also like to see these 'alien' aliens to have a neutral representation in the setting. The Mass Effect series started out strong in this area, the other species were different from us, but they weren't inherently better or worse; this culminated in the form of Legion and the window into the Geth he offered players in ME 2. The  ME 2 Geth didn't have any desire to become like us, they were uniquely different and that suited them just fine. Unfortunately, as the series moved on the differences between the myriad of species became warped and one sided (IMO); if an alien didn't immediately mesh with our way of doing things, or looking at things they became villains, the joke race; or in the case of the Geth; was 'fixed' to be made like us.

 

 

One of the reasons why I like science fiction over the fantasy genre, is because you get to go out and see these strange and wondrous aliens and locations in the universe, you get to experience the 'other' without it automatically having a negative connotation. It's frustrating to me when I see a sic-fi series revert to the fantasy troupe of 'goodly' races, and ME definitely fell in that hole by the end of the third game (IMO).

[katamuro]

I won't mind a human protagonist for ME:Next as it requires the least amount of mental hoops to jump through when writing a narrative, but I do hope that the plot will explore actual alien societies and cultures; and not just some concept of human culture with an alien texture slapped over it. I would like to see more species like the Rachni, aliens that are vastly different from us not only in appearance but also in perspective; as much as I enjoyed characters like Garus and Wrex, they were pretty much rubber fore-headed humans simply due to how similar they were to us in their personalities and motivations.

 

 

I would also like to see these 'alien' aliens to have a neutral representation in the setting. The Mass Effect series started out strong in this area, the other species were different from us, but they weren't inherently better or worse; this culminated in the form of Legion and the window into the Geth he offered players in ME 2. The  ME 2 Geth didn't have any desire to become like us, they were uniquely different and that suited them just fine. Unfortunately, as the series moved on the differences between the myriad of species became warped and one sided (IMO); if an alien didn't immediately mesh with our way of doing things, or looking at things they became villains, the joke race; or in the case of the Geth; was 'fixed' to be made like us.

 

 

One of the reasons why I like science fiction over the fantasy genre, is because you get to go out and see these strange and wondrous aliens and locations in the universe, you get to experience the 'other' without it automatically having a negative connotation. It's frustrating to me when I see a sic-fi series revert to the fantasy troupe of 'goodly' races, and ME definitely fell in that hole by the end of the third game (IMO).

 

While truly alien aliens are cool, they are also hard to write into the story like mass effect. Or at least as anything but npc's you dont interact much. For example how would they work in a squad? The reason why we get humanoid aliens as squad mates and friends is also because they are easier to relate to. Writing a believable interaction between truly alien aliens and humans is hard and any meaningful interaction with them would be limited. 

Solaris(the book but I guess the movie works too) explains it a bit. And really ME is one of the better examples of scifi with believable aliens that you can interact with. I have read attempts by authors to create truly alien aliens and stick them in situations where they have to interact with humans, most of those are disasters. 

[Wulfram]

A human centric story is fine, a human centric setting isn't.

 

I want us to see a huge, diverse galaxy of which humanity only makes up a modest part.  We can see this universe from a human perspective, but that doesn't mean the galaxy should revolve around us.

[Texhnolyze101]

I hope not. Humans are the most boring aspect of any game that has multiple species or races.

[Heimdall]

Let me clarify something, when I mentioned supporting species options for the next protagonist, I'm thinking of a game set far in the future, a future where the different species live in a much more integrated civilization with a smaller gap in cultural distance.

[Vortex13]

While truly alien aliens are cool, they are also hard to write into the story like mass effect. Or at least as anything but npc's you dont interact much. For example how would they work in a squad? The reason why we get humanoid aliens as squad mates and friends is also because they are easier to relate to. Writing a believable interaction between truly alien aliens and humans is hard and any meaningful interaction with them would be limited. 

Solaris(the book but I guess the movie works too) explains it a bit. And really ME is one of the better examples of scifi with believable aliens that you can interact with. I have read attempts by authors to create truly alien aliens and stick them in situations where they have to interact with humans, most of those are disasters. 

 

 

Legion in ME 2 was a squad mate that held rather a 'alien' perspective about the setting. What he talked about wasn't something incomprehensible, but neither was it something that we as the human audience could immediately relate to, and that was a good thing (IMO). We were able to see how something with a completely different frame of reference on the universe acted; we were able to see how this alien society thrived despite being nothing like our own civilization. 

 

 

Using a non-humanoid form is not necessary for a truly alien species to function; though it does help to further sell the 'otherness' of the species in question. I will admit to a preference to aliens like the Rachni, as I really enjoy the concept of incectoid aliens, but their unique way of talking, their hive mentality is what helped shaped them into one of the few 'alien' aliens of the Mass Effect setting.

 

 

 

 

 

<Slightly off topic/rant-y>

I would love to see a full fledged, non-humanoid alien as a companion; a Rachni, Hanar, or Elcor fully animated and 'realistically' depicted in the setting. Personally, if I were BioWare I would devote less time trying to reinventing the wheel with new human animations and mo-cap sessions and instead devote my animators towards bringing the non-human elements to life. You would think that the sheer amount of human animations like walking, running, jumping, etc. would have already been done by someone. There is a huge library of human animations, rigging skeletons, models, etc. that BioWare can pull from from other Frostbite games like Battlefield, or even Dragon Age: Inquisition that can work just as easily in Mass Effect: Next.

 

Every game out there that deals with us humans does animation work on our myriad of motion and movement possibilities, but how many games out there have that same level of quality towards the non-human side of things? If nothing else, having a fully fledged non-humanoid companion would at least help BioWare stand out from the crowd.

[Tex]

Let me clarify something, when I mentioned supporting species options for the next protagonist, I'm thinking of a game set far in the future, a future where the different species live in a much more integrated civilization with a smaller gap in cultural distance.

I'd be okay with this as long as it didn't mean that every race took everything from humanity and prity much all become human especially with religious points that would just be stupid.

[Heimdall]

I'd be okay with this as long as it didn't mean that every race took everything from humanity and prity much all become human especially with religious points that would just be stupid.

I'd argue that the species most likely to be available if species choice became a thing (Asari, Turians) are already pretty darn human.

[Milana]

While playing as different races is good in theory, it certainly didnt go well in Inquisition. The cutscenes are too weird if you are not human or elf(though male elves underwent some awful mutation) and theres barely much difference in story. 

 

So if bioware cant handle it, they should just stick with human-like species.

[Tex]

It's funny because there isn't really a need for a hight difference for every race unlike in Inqusition also a lot of people including myself felt that the extra races were indeed worth being added too the game.

[RIPRemusTheTurian]

I think the best way to avoid a 'human centric' plot would be to have alien protagonists, even if most of the distinction is headcanon. I don't expect my character's race to be referenced much, I want to be a turian because they're awesome and unique to mass effect.

 

 

Let me clarify something, when I mentioned supporting species options for the next protagonist, I'm thinking of a game set far in the future, a future where the different species live in a much more integrated civilization with a smaller gap in cultural distance.

 

I'd like to think that everyone's cultures are integrated after uniting against the reapers. And if we're not going to be given the role of 'the outsider race', there's no point in forcing us to be human.

[Wulfram]

I'd like to think that everyone's cultures are integrated after uniting against the reapers. And if we're not going to be given the role of 'the outsider race', there's no point in forcing us to be human.

 

The reaper war was rather too short to cause a major cultural shift, I'd think.

 

I mean, two world wars didn't bring Britain and France together and the French don't even have tentacle heads.

[ImDedicatedToMyApologies]

I hope not. I think at this point the ME universe is sophisticated and us fans are familiar with it enough as to not treat the alien races as "strangers". I personally wish ME4 will be based around the Turian or Drell.

Although EA might force Bioware to make it human oriented since ME4 is a new beginning of the franchise, and using a human as the protagonist would draw new players.

[ImDedicatedToMyApologies]

While playing as different races is good in theory, it certainly didnt go well in Inquisition. The cutscenes are too weird if you are not human or elf(though male elves underwent some awful mutation) and theres barely much difference in story. 

 

So if bioware cant handle it, they should just stick with human-like species.

that's because you can choose between 4 races, despite the storyline is designed to center around just one race - the almighty human. Although I personally find the difference between player race to be sufficient, but that is because I don't expect them to differentiate the missions too much - better let everyone play it than hide it from 3/4 of the players.

We are not asking ME4 to have us choose between Turian/Asari/human or anything like that (in which case the protagonist will probably just be a generic C-sec officer). We are asking them to only dedicate the story to one race which is not human. Have us play as a Turian Cabal! or an Asari Justicar! or a Drell operative! etc.

[RIPRemusTheTurian]

The reaper war was rather too short to cause a major cultural shift, I'd think.

 

I mean, two world wars didn't bring Britain and France together and the French don't even have tentacle heads.

 

True, maybe 'culture' is the wrong word.

 

My thinking is that a theme of ME3 was everybody working together, and that they'd have to continue to rely on each other while repairing galaxy. Less of France and Britain becoming one country, and more like the increased tolerance/communication between them.

 

Again, the big plots of ME were putting aside racial differences. I think playing as an asari or turian would alleviate an otherwise human centric plot (see, this is  kind of relevant to the topic, not just another alien hero argument).

[Milana]

that's because you can choose between 4 races, despite the storyline is designed to center around just one race - the almighty human. Although I personally find the difference between player race to be sufficient, but that is because I don't expect them to differentiate the missions too much - better let everyone play it than hide it from 3/4 of the players.

We are not asking ME4 to have us choose between Turian/Asari/human or anything like that (in which case the protagonist will probably just be a generic C-sec officer). We are asking them to only dedicate the story to one race which is not human. Have us play as a Turian Cabal! or an Asari Justicar! or a Drell operative! etc.

Oh. Sry guess i misunderstood. 

 

Still for me its kinda strange not to want it to be human-centric(meaning u play as human, not everything around is only about humans). We are all kinda human,no?

[ImDedicatedToMyApologies]

Oh. Sry guess i misunderstood.

Still for me its kinda strange not to want it to be human-centric(meaning u play as human, not everything around is only about humans). We are all kinda human,no?

It is perfectly reasonable to not want to play as an alien, but tbh the chance of a human protagonist is still pretty high, which is why we are here. To speculate something unlikely because we wouldn't be able to talk about it otherwise. And to try to convince ourselves that it is more likely to happen than it actually is.

[Andrew Lucas]

The next Mass Effect will probably have a human as the only PC, maybe not so human centric like the previous two games, and it's better this way, the resources that would have been required to create a multi species protagonists can then be used to improve some other stuff.

[RIPRemusTheTurian]

Every time I push for alien protagonists, I mean OPTIONAL alien protagonists. Even if a human character would be more tied to the main plot, I would still want to play as a turian. I think that a race choice would mean a lot to many people without detracting from the experience of someone who's set on playing as a human.

 

That being said, I think that we're fighting a losing battle.

 

Until BioWare actually announces the protagonist's race, I'll protest by only playing turian kits in MP. I'm not sure what this will do, but it'll help me feel better.

[windsea]

Yeah the story isVERY Human centric, hopefully they fix that but seeing as we are going to be somehow related to the N7s, so most likely human, and are driving the Mako, which is alliance tech, i fear MEnot4 is going to follow suit.

 

 

Still it is a bit funny, while the plot is very Human centric and that forces the Humans are special trope, I do think The Alliance/Humanity is pretty well done in the setting. They have a nice mix of weaknesses and strengths in reaction to them. 

[Tex]

Every time I push for alien protagonists, I mean OPTIONAL alien protagonists. Even if a human character would be more tied to the main plot, I would still want to play as a turian. I think that a race choice would mean a lot to many people without detracting from the experience of someone who's set on playing as a human.
 
That being said, I think that we're fighting a losing battle.
 
Until BioWare actually announces the protagonist's race, I'll protest by only playing turian kits in MP. I'm not sure what this will do, but it'll help me feel better.

Yeah I personaly would be happy with being able to play Asari and-or female turian also I can't see how especially with the the asari atleast would take up much resources to add into the game. I must admit though I definitely have more respect for the turian's thanks to mass effect 3's multiplayer the female turian class is my personal favourite gotta love those poisen claws.

[katamuro]

I still think humans are going to be the only option. Its far easier to write and far easier for most people to relate to. Also unlike the other species it is far easier for us to jump into our own shoes as human and go around the galaxy seeing it from human perspective. Also gives a better place to play off the differences of other species compared to humans. Allows for establishment of species without an in-depth info dump on who they are or what they do. 

After all batarians=slavers/pirates/thugs, quick and easy established in ME1 and stays true for most of the games. Then asari=art/diplomacy/biotic babes. Turians=militaristic/Space romans/garrus. Quarians=suits/techies/sexy accent(for me at least, I love Tali's accent and voice plus admiral Xen's voice, Claudia Black) and so on. You can of course ask deeper about culture and society, get codex entries that you read through to get a deeper understanding but that first impression, that thing that allows you to immediately grasp what the other species main points are would be a bit off when playing as a different species than human. 

I know it would have been interesting to play as other species but I prefer for the ME writers to create a more deeply personal story about a human than divide their time and resources writing 6 different protagonists(asari,turians,quarians,salarians,humans,krogan).