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[LinksOcarina]

So the website I write for is doing a "Best Games of Gen 7" theme week. I got lucky enough to pick one of the games and I chose the Mass Effect Trilogy as my submission. The article up if you want to read my reasoning here, but the gist of my argument is beyond the capabilities of the game or the series, but rather how it was fairly large impact to the point of entering a more mainstream culture. 

 

See, we can pick apart the games to death all we want, they all have flaws in them, but think about how it changed things for a moment. We have the push for cinematic role-playing experiences, for different role-playing systems that allow deeper character interaction and development. We have the use of sci-fi tropes made new again, or at least another perspective on the same tropes, be it done well or not. And we have the evolution of role-playing through the mechanics, the voiced protagonist, blocking scenes, interaction with characters, the works.

 

Beyond that, we have a fandom. A cultural touchstone that is wide-spread because of things like videos on youtube, or even debates on the culture, theology, philosophy and the importance of Mass Effect in that prism. We see people doing cosplay, wearing N7 shirts, celebrating N7 Day; and downloading a mod to "fix" an ending to the trilogy.

 

I make this argument in my piece, but the Mass Effect trilogy is our generations Star Wars. It may not be on the level of that franchise in terms of actual impact, but it's getting there; and with things like Andromeda in the wings, tons of comics and books and who else knows what out there, it is only a matter of time before Mass Effect becomes that level of importance for pop culture. We can weigh and measure how it goes against other video games maybe, but for my money, none is as important as Mass Effect regarding how it is influencing people outside of video games. 

 

What do you all think? How impactful was Mass Effect to mainstream culture? 

[Han Shot First]

Comparing Mass Effect to Star Wars in terms of cultural impact would be greatly exaggerating Mass Effect's reach. The Mass Effect series was popular, but only among a subset of gamers. Most people in the general public probably haven't heard of the series, and if they have, they know little about it. In contrast the original Star Wars films have been seen by billions of people. 

 

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum once had a Star Wars exhibit. Its been spoofed in other movies and cartoons, has been referenced in commercials, and bands like Metallica have done covers of songs from the soundtrack. There are Star Wars themed attractions at Disney parks. NASA carried Luke Skywalker's lightsaber prop from Return of the Jedi into orbit on one of its shuttles, and Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative was nicknamed Star Wars after the movies. Barack Obama also used the phrase Jedi mind trick in a speech.

 

I love the Mass Effect series, but its cultural impact is not even remotely close to that of Star Wars.

[LinksOcarina]

Comparing Mass Effect to Star Wars in terms of cultural impact would be greatly exaggerating Mass Effect's reach. The Mass Effect series was popular, but only among a subset of gamers. Most people in the general public probably haven't heard of the series, and if they have, they know little about it. In contrast the original Star Wars films have been seen by billions of people. 

 

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum once had a Star Wars exhibit. Its been spoofed in other movies and cartoons, has been referenced in commercials, and bands like Metallica have done covers of songs from the soundtrack. There are Star Wars themed attractions at Disney parks. NASA carried Luke Skywalker's lightsaber prop from Return of the Jedi into orbit on one of its shuttles, and Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative was nicknamed Star Wars after the movies. Barack Obama also used the phrase Jedi mind trick in a speech.

 

I love the Mass Effect series, but its cultural impact is not even remotely close to that of Star Wars.

 

Yet we have people already talking and comparing it to Star Wars now. I fully admit it will never hit that magic number or get a Disney theme park, but that is not really the point. 

 

It should also be noted that the Smithsonian stuff was done year later; it takes time to become that phenonemon now a days.

 

The point is not just hyperbole, but really how it has become something more than just a game series, which is step one on that process of becoming more mainstream. 

[MrFob]

Hmmmm, have to admit, I'm skeptical as well.

You are right that ME has a rather large and active community. And there is definitely a lot of merchandise beyond just the games. But then, I am wondering, how far outside if the core community does all of this really penetrate? Does it do so more than other games of the same generation?

You have pretty tough competition there with game series like Halo, the Modern Warfare branch of CoD or action adventures like Assassins Creed or the Gen 7 GTA games.

Don't get me wrong, for ME is indeed one of the greatest Gen 7 titles but I would forward unique and (at the time) rather revolutionary features, such as the save game import, the cinematic dialogue system, the meticulous world building and the TPS/RPG hybrid mechanics. I don't however think I would go so far as to claim that ME stands out from other huge Gen 7 game franchises in terms of its overall cultural impact.

[Han Shot First]

I think Mass Effect's cultural impact doesn't reach outside geekdom. I think that's the key difference between Mass Effect and other Sci Fi series like Star Wars or Star Trek. Both of those series have had a large cultural impact beyond just people interested in Sci Fi.

 

In order for Mass Effect to have that sort of cultural impact that Star Wars does, it would need to be adapted to film, and those films would have to be hits on the scale of the Star Wars films or Avatar. The video games themselves just don't have a broad enough reach to influence culture outside gamers or Sci Fi geeks.

 

Mass Effect also hasn't had the impact within the video game industry on the scale of the impact that the original Star Wars films had on the movie industry. 

 

Time Magazine - 10 Ways Star Wars Changed The Movie Industry

[LinksOcarina]

I think Mass Effect's cultural impact doesn't reach outside geekdom. I think that's the key difference between Mass Effect and other Sci Fi series like Star Wars or Star Trek. Both of those series have had a large cultural impact beyond just people interested in Sci Fi.

 

In order for Mass Effect to have that sort of cultural impact that Star Wars does, it would need to be adapted to film, and those films would have to be hits on the scale of the Star Wars films or Avatar. The video games themselves just don't have a broad enough reach to influence culture outside gamers or Sci Fi geeks.

 

Mass Effect also hasn't had the impact within the video game industry on the scale of the impact that the original Star Wars films had on the movie industry. 

 

Time Magazine - 10 Ways Star Wars Changed The Movie Industry

 

Well, if that movie ever does come out, we shall see what happens then if it becomes a major hit.

 

I stand by my assertions in the end. If nothing else, it's something to think about at least. I feel like in ten, twenty years we shall still be talking about Mass Effect with regards to relevancy in that form.

[Kabooooom]

Honestly, Halo has had a way larger cultural impact than Mass Effect if you are comparing Sci fi games.

As much as I love Mass Effect, and as much as I love Sci fi, I think you're off the mark here. Star Wars took the world by storm pretty much on the opening day. No one had ever seen anything like it. It captivated the minds of the public, still on the heels of the space race and the moon landing. It represented a future that seemed, although fantastical, exciting and plausible in its own sort of sense within the rules and boundaries of its lore.

Since then, a crazy number of books, spinoffs, and games have been made.

Mass Effect can't even touch Star Wars. Despite that, I do think Mass Effect is superior to Star Wars in almost every imaginable way. Oh well.

[Bizantura]

I live in Europe but in the corner of Antwerp where I live hardly anybody knows Mass effect besides the store that sell games stuff.

 

I think scifi hype is more a american thing anyways.

[prosthetic soul]

An impact on mainstream culture? 

 

Yeah, that's one way of putting it I suppose. 

[SwobyJ]

Very little impact on mainstream culture.

 

For now.

 

If the franchise continues, with success, through this decade, I could see my mind changing.

 

Mentioned earlier was the 'doesn't have a film' argument, and I agree with it, but again, only for now. The relevancy of having a big theater film definitely still matters, but I tend to think we've hit the peak of that, and the next 1-2 decades will show that it is the online popularity that sticks and becomes the mainstream (even as the older 1-2 generations still try to hang on to their movie theaters and television channels and music CDs). 

 

My speculation is that if Mass Effect continues with 1... but more like 2, 3 more *increasingly successful* games, to a spectacular push by marketing, into the 2020s, its impact on the mainstream will be less 'oh that occasional person who has N7 on their things and relates to technology and society with Mass Effect story concepts', and more 'clear subculture that is known to and part of mainstream culture', like Star Wars can be.

 

But I'm also someone who thinks that if the Episode 1-3 of Star Wars didn't happen, we wouldn't be caring nearly as much about Star Wars today. It'd still be a thing, but not as known to more than one generation of people (those who saw the originals decades ago).

 

Mass Effect is also a mostly American thing. Yes, Canadians of course know it and some Europeans know it, etc, but it is hardly a global phenomenon. 

 

In terms of the trilogy so far, I think Mass Effect just caps off at being loved by parts of subcultures. This is still millions of people, but not the tens, hundreds of millions, that makes things 'mainstream' enough for me to count it as that. It has the potential, but it isn't there yet. Maybe a Mass Effect film this decade would have helped a lot in that, maybe not. But for now, EA would need to push the games hard, do them damn well, and somehow capture mainstream attention through several channels.

 

TLDR; we need more games and they need to do well and push into the mainstream harder, and we need video games to increase in relevance to the mainstream like they have gradually been year by year. Until then, they're still niche in relation to the mainstream.