47 réponses à ce sujet

[Cainhurst Crow]

So with the new mass effect taking place in another galaxy, there seems to be a surge of head-canon theories for how we end up in said galaxy, and all of them rely heavily on space magic to be successful. A lot of highly improbable stuff happening that many on the forums are calling for, just so they can have the game they want.

 

It seems there are some who aren't bothered by magical ex machinas that get the plot facilitated and moving, even if they fly in the face of reason, logic, or common sense.

 

Since the Off-Topic is the bastion of both the sane and the hopelessly deranged, what are you thoughts on plot magic? Does it bother you? Not bother you? Sometimes depending on the story and mood?

[Decepticon Leader Sully]

No its SCIENCE. there is a difference.

Science.

SCIENCE

[Kaiser Arian XVII]

Dead reapers tech or kind of wormhole can be the explanation.

I'm fine with it.

[Olivia Wilde]

Why do people assume the Mass Relays are only in one galaxy?

[Metalfros]

Space Magic is just laziness of the writers to explain plot holes. And btw, wrong forum dude.

[Geth Supremacy]

more like technology we haven't discovered.....yet.

 

Same concept as people hundreds of years ago saying I want to get in a metal tube and fly around the world.  I want to talk to someone across the country right now.  Magic then.  Reality now.  Nasa tested a warp drive last year.

 

Graphene is also interesting.

 

 

At the end of the day it matters little to me.  A game is a game and I can have fun with it, so to answer your question.  No.  It does not bother me.

[Olivia Wilde]

Space Magic is just laziness of the writers to explain plot holes. And btw, wrong forum dude.

Ironic, though..something in off topic that belongs somewhere else instead of the other way

[Br3admax]

Why do people assume the Mass Relays are only in one galaxy?

They are made specifically to reach the Citadel, and the reapers couldn't have been too far in dark space if they were still able to get back without them.

[Simfam]

Nah.

 

Space Magic is fine as long as it fits.

 

Conversely.

 

Techno babble is also fine as long as it fits.

 

Look what Space Magic did to ME

 

Look what techno babble did to Star Wars.

[Fast Jimmy]

When you agree to go out with a sci-fi piece of fiction set in space, you know going in that a certain amount of space magic is expected... and as long as we are all consenting individuals, it can be fun and enjoyable.

But when the fiction pulls out their space magic at the restaurant table, right in the middle of the date, with no prompting or forewarning, that's when I get disgusted. I'm the kind of girl who needs to be wined and dined by the lore before just hopping into bed with some random space magic. I've got standards.

[Kaiser Arian XVII]

When you agree to go out with a sci-fi piece of fiction set in space, you know going in that a certain amount of space magic is expected... and as long as we are all consenting individuals, it can be fun and enjoyable.

 

Yes. I know some people that consider sci-fi blasphemous (to science and reality) and find it despicable!

[Fast Jimmy]

The Reapers were tasked with solving a general problem between synthetics and organics. The Harvest was only Plan B, but ultimately they were seeking a more ideal solution. In the Catalyst's mind, the ideal was Synthesis. Or something at least more permanent like it.

If they had better ideas in mind than the Harvest all this time, then they would be open to gathering more data than just simply focusing on the Milky Way and enacting Plan B over and over again. No scientist would willingly close themselves out to information... especially a computer. If they knew about Andromeda, they would have at least wanted to observe what new variables would help with Plan A. Instead they just waited for Shepard to make it possible out of the blue.

And if they couldn't get to Andromeda (which seems pretty doubtful), then that means whoever created this ME:N method of space travel is even more advanced. Even though the Reapers had tens of millions of years to perfect their technology and were virtually perceived as gods.

---

Anyways. I don't mind space magic. As long as it's clever. Not necessarily rational or scientific, but clever...where it kind of covers the bases and ties up loose ends well. Like a good con. Mass Effect didn't always do this. It relied on hand-waving and dismissiveness, instead of cleverness.

Technically, the Reapers were tasked with preventing conflicts between synthetics and organics under the Leviathans' control. Which was limited to just the Milky Way...? But either way, poor writing makes this entire situation with Andromeda less plot hand waving and more full body plot convulsing.

[Fast Jimmy]

Yes. I know some people that consider sci-fi blasphemous (to science and reality) and find it despicable!

Maybe one day we'll meet "the one" and settle down with its Space Magic forever, starting up a family of fan fiction to wrestle around the living room floor.

Until then, always use plot protection - always carry a pack of cynicism condums, Magnum size.

[Fast Jimmy]

Well... Why would just be limited to the Milky Way then? No one gives me an answer on this.

The problem itself is kind of general and abstract. And I think computers would look for a general algorithm or pattern and not simply focus on specific expressions of the problem (like the Milky Way).

It's like asking the answer to 2+2. The answer isn't just 4 oranges or 4 apples. But simply "4". They could go to the corners of the universe and look for all the expressions of "4" out there, apply it to the Milky Way.

I hope I'm articulating this right.. I'll try again later if this doesn't work for you.

It does. And I agree with you, honestly.

Thing is, I've long ago been resigned to the fact that the logic price of admission to ride the story of the next Mass Effect game was WAAAAAAAAAY too high for me to pay, so I'm just spitballing ideas on how they might approach such things. If they even approach them at all, really... the less said about the Reapers and the Milky Way, the better. I think picking a canon would have been more logical than inventing some ludicrous way to escape the galaxy to get away from the smoking crater that they left the lore in, but that ship has sailed, clearly.

[Kaiser Arian XVII]

 

REAL.SPACE.MAGIC

[Fidite Nemini]

Depends.

 

Are we talking about space magic as it being intended as space magic, or are we talking about bad writing shoehorning effects/changes/whatever when the own game's lore doesn't suffice to explain it?

 

Now, disregarding ME:A, because we simply don't know anything about its lore and how the whole thing took off to Andromeda which means we can't go cry space magic as we don't exactly know what limitations are imposed in that game's lore (sure, it's based on ME1-3, but we don't know what timeframe we're looking at and which technological differences may be present).

 

If a game wants to have space magic for space magic's sake (after all, proper space magic makes for fun gameplay, no explanation required), then it's completely fine.

But if a game tries to be somewhat authentic and takes pains to mask its fictional content by providing rules, backgrounds and imposing limitations, only to at one point say screw the rules SPACE MAGIC TIME because a twist in story or whatever simply can't be properly framed within the game's lore, then it's bad.

 

Let's not forget that space magic, especially in Mass Effect context, is little else than ridiculing subpar writing that is unnecessarily stretching a players suspension of disbelief. Flinging a guy around like a ragdoll with biotics? That's cool I guess, it comes down to Mass Effect fields and how they work with altering mass, so lowering a targets mass and inertia with a biotically induced mass effect makes him more susceptible to outside forces and can be pushed around as if they were a soap bubble. But biotics sucking life from targets? That's not what we were told how mass effects work. How can manipulating mass suck out the life from someone and add that lifeforce to yourself? Whaaaaaaaat??? -> Space magic.

[MisterJB]

That something like the Crucible exists doesn't bother me. I imagine what we do today would seem like magic to someone who lived 200 or even 100 years ago and the Reapers are billions of years old.

That we find it precisely when we needed it the most, that bothers me.

[Kaiser Arian XVII]

^ That Von Daniken stuff makes me batty. Worse than any space magic stuff. One, because he doesn't call it "fiction". Two it's straight up crank thinking and conspiracy theories.

 

Don't tell me you're a fan. I thought you were cool.

 

I'm a fan since 1999.

 

Now listen to this in order to refrain from heart problems:

 

[Jeremiah12LGeek]

No. It respects my personal space, and lets me do my own thing.

[In Exile]

When you agree to go out with a sci-fi piece of fiction set in space, you know going in that a certain amount of space magic is expected... and as long as we are all consenting individuals, it can be fun and enjoyable.

But when the fiction pulls out their space magic at the restaurant table, right in the middle of the date, with no prompting or forewarning, that's when I get disgusted. I'm the kind of girl who needs to be wined and dined by the lore before just hopping into bed with some random space magic. I've got standards.

 

The difficult balancing act is that once you introduce the gibberish/nonsense that justifies the setting, it's hard to keep coherence. The answer to that is meticulous research once you've come up with your impossible idea. Let's take the Quarians. Lots of problems immunology wise with the set up of their weakened immune system. But once we accept that part (which really should look different), we're still subjected to a lot of nonsense within that framework.