367 réponses à ce sujet

[JoltDealer]

Is Drew a good writer?  I think it's all a matter of perspective and personal tastes.  That being said, writing for games -- even for Bioware -- can be a bit tedious.  Several game writers have stated that more often than not, story elements and entire plots are altered, replaced, or removed to better suit what the game developers are doing.  A story is written to fit the game and not the other way around.  

 

Each of the games that Drew has worked on are among my favorites, primarily for their stories.  Of the twenty or so novels that I have actually finished from cover to cover, half of them were written by Drew.  Needless to say, his writing style works for me and I am a huge fan of his work.  I'm glad to see him back in the Bioware stable.

[Ahglock]

Good for ToR I guess.  I don't play it so wont help me much.  I like his story writing in the games of his I've played. 

 

His books overall seem to be well received with solid to really good reviews.  So I suspect he is a fairly talented writer.  But people like to ****** so whatever. 

[spinachdiaper]

Just watch Bioware put him on DA4 instead of ME:A.

[Undead Han]

Good for ToR I guess.  I don't play it so wont help me much.  I like his story writing in the games of his I've played. 

 

His books overall seem to be well received with solid to really good reviews.  So I suspect he is a fairly talented writer.  But people like to ****** so whatever. 

 

His books are okay. The first book was better than the rest. 

 

Like Mac Walters he had a fixation with Cerberus and they play a much larger role in the books than the Reapers.

[dreamgazer]

The results still might not have pleased fans either. He has a point.

Damn right he does. Dark energy is the proof.

[LPPrince]

Glad to hear he's back, tho I wish he were involved in something I MIGHT play. TOR is a no, so I'll look forward to whatever he works on besides that. Would be nice if he were involved in Andromeda.

[Ahglock]

His books are okay. The first book was better than the rest. 

 

Like Mac Walters he had a fixation with Cerberus and they play a much larger role in the books than the Reapers.

 

He probably grew up with the GiJoe cartoons and wanted to shoehorn Cobra into the ME universe.(that's who they always reminded me of.  This huge terrorist organization that constantly fails, has weird sci-fi projects that work but get disrupted by the heroes and fly around displaying their insignia in public and no one notices it)  His chaos Born novels are sporting 3.5-4.0 stars on amazon, his star wars novels seem to be 4.0+ stars.  With fandom, reviews are rarely totally accurate because if you don't like something its 1 star or if generous 2 stars, its fairly extreme results getting balanced out. 

 

I guess my issue is I don't think anyone was calling him the Shakespeare of our generation.  So all the "he is over rated" knocks just seem out of left field and fairly petty.

[dreamgazer]

You're missing the point entirely.

Not at all. Dark energy has the perceived problems of the shipped ending, only dialed up several degrees.

It really bothers me that the most outspoken fans of the series don't know or support the idea that Dark Energy was actually the basis of mass effect. Eezo wouldn't work without it, Therefore no Mass Effect fields, Therefore no Mass Effect in the first place.

Oh, I get that just fine. The problem comes in the Reapers perpetuating the use of technology that's actually destroying the universe.

[dreamgazer]

As i have stated before in other threads, Judging a preliminarily concept in detail is a faulty approach. Judging how well the concept implements into the franchise and whether it "Feels" right is the right way to approach preliminarily concepts. I don't think the Dark Energy ending had the same problems, No. But then I'd have to explain my thorough analysis of the ME universe and why ME3 fell short. And that would take a LOT of time.

You can also judge an idea by its foundation, and the dark energy concept was plainly broken at its core, more so than the shipped ending. And yes, it does have many of the same problems that people had with what we got.

[Lonely Heart Poet]

Welcome back, Drew! Always enjoyed your writing in the games and in the novels. Always liked what you also did for us Star Wars fans.
Was it you or was is just a combination of great group work, your ideas and a lot of luck, but nothing beats the athmosphere and the fun in Mass Effect 1.

[spinachdiaper]

I think the Dark Energy ending wouldn't of happened anyway and the core idea of it would of been extremely revised into something slightly better than the default and extended cut endings. The lesson to be learned from all this is the complete about face reaction to the end boss of ME2 is what likely drove home this need to do most of what transpired in ME3's ending.

[Vapaa]

I guess my issue is I don't think anyone was calling him the Shakespeare of our generation.  So all the "he is over rated" knocks just seem out of left field and fairly petty.

Nobody did, but during the fallout of ME3's ending, there was constant talk of "Drew's plan for ME" and how the Dark energy plot was the second coming of Casey Hudson and how evil Mac tossed aside saint Drew's "original plan", etc...

The community was the one responsible for overrating Drew, and the ending's backlash was one hell of an echo chamber.

You can also judge an idea by its foundation, and the dark energy concept was plainly broken at its core, more so than the shipped ending. And yes, it does have many of the same problems that people had with what we got.

I'd rather have the current stories where the Reapers are basically a logic error made by a dumb AI than the "Reapers were the good guys all along *puppy eyes*".

In fact I find the origin and motivation of the Reapers to be mostly fine, what bothers me are the corny realisation, messy storytelling and tacked on "solutions" of the whole thing. Not all enemies have to be redeemable to work.

[Dean_the_Young]

Nah, I'm talking about subplot with Dark Matter (apparently caused by usage of Eezo), but it was scrapped for Synthetics/Organics theme.

 

Less 'scrapped' and more 'a fuzzy idea,' and one that would have been equally meme-able.

 

"Yo Dawg, I heard you don't like using the mass effect so we left mass effect tech across the galaxy so that you could mass effect your way to the mass effect faster."

 

Plus, it'd be even stupider for the Reapers to let e-zero civilization rise at all, rather than putting probes on every planet and every system. At least the synthetics rational gives a tolerance for letting a galactic civilization even start.
 

[Decepticon Leader Sully]

[Linkenski]

Yeah, im not wholly excited, but i do think he's above Mac.

But to those who keep saying Dark Energy this and Dark Energy that, remember the ENTIRETY of Mass Effect 3 would've been different if Drew had been the lead writer. Perhaps it sounds really dumb given what we know ME3 to be, but that's not to say it couldn't have worked, if it had proper foreshadowing and revelations along the way, ME1 contradictions be damned.

[WildOrchid]

His books are okay. The first book was better than the rest. 

 

Like Mac Walters he had a fixation with Cerberus and they play a much larger role in the books than the Reapers.

 

That being said, as long as Cerberus isn't even mentioned in MEA, i'll be good.

[Dean_the_Young]

As i have stated before in other threads, Judging a preliminarily concept in detail is a faulty approach. Judging how well the concept implements into the franchise and whether it "Feels" right is the right way to approach preliminarily concepts. I don't think the Dark Energy ending had the same problems, No. But then I'd have to explain my thorough analysis of the ME universe and why ME3 fell short. And that would take a LOT of time.

 

Just describe it in the context of ME1, then, since ME1 came out before there was any idea of what the Reapers ultimate motivations and trilogy end-state was.

 

How does ME1 make sense if the Reapers goal is to prevent the use of e-zero tech? The entire basis of the cycle, and for thinking that the Protheans were responsible for the Mass Relays, is that the Reapers left e-zero tech in a way that the galaxy would predictably build around it. Galactic civilization built itself around the hated e-zero, and didn't look for alternatives because e-zero was what was left for them.

 

Why? You have to resolve that for the goal to make sense of allowing any galactic civilization to develop- especially since the dark energy concept, as presented, was a cumulative thing: that the Human Reaper was supposed to be a saving throw to save the universe. If the Reapers were willing to commit systemic genocide to slow down the usage of ME, the Citadel system doesn't make sense: just make probes over every planet and nuke the space flight or e-zero ones.

 

It's the same structural weakness that makes the 'Reapers harvest for the purpose replication' a bad idea for a primary motivations. If creating new Reapers is a priority, the Cycle is a horrible way to go about it: farming organics would be faster, more efficient, and without the pesky wars destroying Reapers along the way.

[SolNebula]

Drew!!!! Buddy! finish quickly your job there for SWTOR and bring your ass over here to ME. Maybe the one after Andromeda.

 

Legitimately happy.

[Isaidlunch]

Let's review what he's written:

 

Kotor: Generic star-warsy plot with a plot twist that's great if you didn't see it coming but doesn't really change anything or matter at all. No moral ambiguity whatsoever in typical star wars fashion, villains are just evil because they like being evil. Companions aren't that great and are either memorable for comic relief, being annoying or being attractive. Overall a fun story but not much more than that.

 

ME1: Generic and average sci-fi plot filled with scenes that feel so forced that you can't take them seriously. Introduces some moral ambiguity and Saren is a step up from Malak, although he's a racist and really really stupid. Some companions are surprisingly well-written, while others come off as pure ****** material (Liara) or talking encylopedias (Tali). I'll let you guess which two characters Drew wrote. Overall a fun story but not much more than that.

 

ME2: Mostly the same as ME1, doesn't feel as weird and companions are much more interesting but missing a plot. Overall a fun...

 

Revan: Complete trash written for manchildren. Tramples all over Kotor 2 by turning the Exile into a Revan fangirl and retconning how the whole wounds in the Force thing worked, while blatantly ripping off Nihilus to make a new villain (the Emperor). The entire book is a chore to read and even reading the scene where Revan & Exile are murdered is as exciting as reading my shopping list. Tries way too hard to make Revan + Scourge edgy and cool. Overall NOT a fun story and I wish I had read Deception instead.

 

SWTOR (Knight story): Continuation of Revan but not as awful. Still average, still generic and offers as much moral ambiguity as Kotor did, you're either a pushover or a maniac who murders anyone in sight. Companions aren't memorable except for Kira. Overall a decent story but not much more than that.

 

 

 

TLDR: He's a hack

[Mathias]

Let's review what he's written:

 

Kotor: Generic star-warsy plot with a plot twist that's great if you didn't see it coming but doesn't really change anything or matter at all. No moral ambiguity whatsoever in typical star wars fashion, villains are just evil because they like being evil. Companions aren't that great and are either memorable for comic relief, being annoying or being attractive. Overall a fun story but not much more than that.

 

ME1: Generic and average sci-fi plot filled with scenes that feel so forced that you can't take them seriously. Introduces some moral ambiguity and Saren is a step up from Malak, although he's a racist and really really stupid. Some companions are surprisingly well-written, while others come off as pure ****** material (Liara) or talking encylopedias (Tali). I'll let you guess which two characters Drew wrote. Overall a fun story but not much more than that.

 

ME2: Mostly the same as ME1, doesn't feel as weird and companions are much more interesting but missing a plot. Overall a fun...

 

Revan: Complete trash written for manchildren. Tramples all over Kotor 2 by turning the Exile into a Revan fangirl and retconning how the whole wounds in the Force thing worked, while blatantly ripping off Nihilus to make a new villain (the Emperor). The entire book is a chore to read and even reading the scene where Revan & Exile are murdered is as exciting as reading my shopping list. Tries way too hard to make Revan + Scourge edgy and cool. Overall NOT a fun story and I wish I had read Deception instead.

 

SWTOR (Knight story): Continuation of Revan but not as awful. Still average, still generic and offers as much moral ambiguity as Kotor did, you're either a pushover or a maniac who murders anyone in sight. Companions aren't memorable except for Kira. Overall a decent story but not much more than that.

 

 

 

TLDR: He's a hack

 

Careful not to cut yourself with all that edge.

[Mathias]

Btw we're bashing on Mass Effect 1's story now?

 

Oh yeah I remember getting that memo, and then proceeded to spit right on it. Mass Effect 1 rules, all damn day.

[SolNebula]

Btw we're bashing on Mass Effect 1's story now?

 

Oh yeah I remember getting that memo, and then proceeded to spit right on it. Mass Effect 1 rules, all damn day.

 

Yeah with ME2 lack of story and ME3 absurd ending....I'd take ME1 "inconsistencies" anyday.