111 réponses à ce sujet

[KingofTime]

Dont know if you folks noticed but the aliens in Mass Effect dont seem alien to me, in fact the only alien thing about them is their appearance(except asari). Their like reskinned humans and that sucks. Fictional aliens dont need to act human just so they can be relatble or likeable, humans do NOT need to be the default standard(stop with the bias).

 

This is pretty racist when you think about, insinuating that aliens have to act human in order for people to like them. Please have more alien characters act less human and more alien, whatever that may be. Thanks for reading.

[Fidite Nemini]

Please have more alien characters act less human and more alien, whatever that be.

 

There is your problem.

 

The inherent problem of writing an alien is the writers and the audience are human.

[Chealec]

There is your problem.

 

The inherent problem of writing an alien is the writers and the audience are human.

 

Speak for yourself earthling ( https://xkcd.com/1530/ )

 

[Donk]

Franchise needs more of this

 

[KingofTime]

There is your problem.

 

The inherent problem of writing an alien is the writers and the audience are human.

Exactly.

[Sartoz]

                                                                                                      <<<<<<<<<<()>>>>>>>>>>

 

"Realistically", then, too much alieness means that your Strike Team can't have human+aliens as a coherent unit, precisely because of the amplified differences, that you suggest. Taking it further, it means that your squad selection will be from a group that can integrate as a unit and defeats any possibility of having a mix.

 

Now, the Hanar and Alcor do project their uniqueness in the Citadel... but you can't have that in a combat unit. Imagine an Alcor giving orders in a firefight. By the time he finishes, your team is dead.

 

Mind, Garrus was not much of an alien... neither is Bull for that matter... these two are a FAIL in the alien culture dept.

 

 

 

[Han Shot First]

There is your problem.

 

The inherent problem of writing an alien is the writers and the audience are human.

 

This.

 

It is also a technical issue.

 

You need to design many of the alien species to have a humanoid shape so that they can function as squadmates in the gameplay portions. Truly alien species, like the Hanar or Elcor for example, would need a lot of extra work to make them function as squadmates compared to those who can share the same animations as human characters, like the Asari or Quarians.

 

That isn't to say that the series can't introduce some more alien species that are very alien in appearance, but they're never going to be a majority, and it would be slightly unfair to criticize the devs for having humanoid aliens considering all the extra work, time, and money that would need to go into making every alien unique and function differently from humans. 

 

Humanoid aliens also may not be as far-fetched as some imagine. Convergent evolution could produce something that is at least broadly similar to us. They wouldn't look exactly like us, but bipeds with two arms and hands and a head with two eyes, a nose, and a mouth in the same place as ours...it is certainly possible.

 

The only species whose appearance ever bothered me in the series was the Quarians, after Tali's reveal. I thought they were the one species that veered too closely to humans. Even the Asari, who are very human-like, appear alien compared to the Quarians.

[Broganisity]

[Kalas Magnus]

Franchise needs more of this

 

yes. more.

 

the media wont know what to do...

[Mcfly616]

There is your problem.

 

The inherent problem of writing an alien is the writers and the audience are human.

 plenty of human writers have shown that it's possible to write alien characters/creatures that are nothing like humans.

 

 

As for implementing new and different character models that aren't bipedal humanoids, well, they've had plenty of time to evolve the experience in that way. This has been a good long dev cycle. There should be noticeable leaps in a multitude of aspects regarding the gameplay experience.

[Fidite Nemini]

 plenty of human writers have shown that it's possible to write alien characters/creatures that are nothing like humans.

 

In an environment where the human player is supposed to interact with those?

 

I can't think of any good examples from the top of my head, though I don't claim to have an extensive knowledge on that.

[Ahglock]

plenty of human writers have shown that it's possible to write alien characters/creatures that are nothing like humans.

I'm sure some have. But pretty much everything I've seen that is described as truly alien isn't. It's just some exposition we don't understand it and can't because it's lived longer than we can comprehend or sees things we can't see in the whatever wavelength in its out of phase existence blah blah but end up acting in fairly human rational if maybe jerky ways.

[Heimaxx]

OP do you have an example of what you would like to see?  For me the alien races were believable as alien races since we have never actually seen a real alien.  

 

Also to agree with the point someone else made here, it would be really challenging if they made it too far away from a human form since they would have to think of a new way to animate the body.  Bioware even had trouble making a disabled person, they said Iron bull was not going to have an arm at one point but the taking for them to reanimate an entire body was too much, probably will be something similar to what will happen if they steer too far away from the human shape

[Mcfly616]

In an environment where the human player is supposed to interact with those?

 As if that's some sort of threshold that can't be reached...

 

 

Harder to write something that doesn't act human than it is to show people something that doesn't look human. 

[Friera]

Franchise needs more of this

 

 

I had to stare at it for 20 seconds... Most ugly thing I have ever seen...

[Fidite Nemini]

 As if that's some sort of threshold that can't be reached...

 

It is. Something truly alien, as opposed to just alien-looking, means it can't be understood by trying to understand it by human standards. That may be of no concern if it's just a plot device, but a character has to be understandable to some degree to interact with it, otherwise you might just aswell be interacting with a RNG.

[AtreiyaN7]

Elcor, hanar, the volus - existing ME species that aren't near-human if you ask me. At any rate, you might notice similar body shapes and features have evolved in entirely unrelated species that live in the same environments. Dolphins and sharks are entirely unrelated, yet they ended up with similar body types because the streamlined form and the fins, etc. provided the most biomechanically advantageous way to move through water.

 

The dolphin/shark thing is a case on convergent evolution. Now even if you pop over to a different planet, if that planet is an Earth analogue in almost every away, then I expect that convergent evolution would lead to us seeing aliens who share similar features to those of humans in terms of body types, means of locomotion, placement of the sensory organs, etc.

 

Technically, we aren't perfect biomechanical machines (since human bipedal locomotion is actually kind of a weird thing), but regardless, upright walking (and running) provides a lot of advantages. I think we would share more characteristics and features with aliens that evolve under similar Earth-like conditions than you might expect due to convergent evolution. If you're going to see any wildly non-human aliens, well, I think that's only really likely to happen on extremely non-Earth-like worlds (or Earth-like worlds with some bizarre quirks). Let's say you hypothetically find a silicon-based lifeform, now that is something I wouldn't expect to look like us.

[SinisterSquash]

 

 

The only species whose appearance ever bothered me in the series was the Quarians, after Tali's reveal. I thought they were the one species that veered too closely to humans. Even the Asari, who are very human-like, appear alien compared to the Quarians.

 

I'm really glad they did it though. Most of the alien male love interests have not been very attractive.

 

So instead of this...  (why, bioWare, why)

 By Kolakis (deviantart)

 

We can have this...  hopefully...

By katakanasta (deviantart)

 

 

Elcor, hanar, the volus - existing ME species that aren't near-human if you ask me. At any rate, you might notice similar body shapes and features have evolved in entirely unrelated species that live in the same environments. Dolphins and sharks are entirely unrelated, yet they ended up with similar body types because the streamlined form and the fins, etc. provided the most biomechanically advantageous way to move through water.

 

The dolphin/shark thing is a case on convergent evolution. Now even if you pop over to a different planet, if that planet is an Earth analogue in almost every away, then I expect that convergent evolution would lead to us seeing aliens who share similar features to those of humans in terms of body types, means of locomotion, placement of the sensory organs, etc.

 

Technically, we aren't perfect biomechanical machines (since human bipedal locomotion is actually kind of a weird thing), but regardless, upright walking (and running) provides a lot of advantages. I think we would share more characteristics and features with aliens that evolve under similar Earth-like conditions than you might expect due to convergent evolution. If you're going to see any wildly non-human aliens, well, I think that's only really likely to happen on extremely non-Earth-like worlds (or Earth-like worlds with some bizarre quirks). Let's say you hypothetically find a silicon-based lifeform, now that is something I wouldn't expect to look like us.

 

To take your dolphin analogy a bit farther. Intelligent animals, like dolphins, also have extreme curiosity. They seek out other unrealated and physically dissimilar animals, like humans, to communicate and interact with. So even an extremely intelligent, spacefaring, sapient alien speaking or gesturing in ways we cannot comprehend may attempt to interact with us out of curiosity.

 

And there is always this...

 

[Sifr]

It was a shame that they ended up making the Geth increasingly more "human" as the games went on (especially in ME3), when they were presented as utterly alien in the first two games in both their actions and way of thinking. It'd be nice to have an AI character for once in fiction that doesn't want to end up being a "real boy" and instead embraces their nature as something inherently non-human.

[Kalas Magnus]

 

 

 

oh my!.

 

that dolphin is...

...assertive

[Lady Artifice]

This is space fantasy. I'm okay with a cast of mostly humanish aliens, and the game's design might demand it. 

 

I would like to see more non earthly cultural references and idiosyncrasies, though. Quite a coincidences that Turians use air quotes exactly the same way they're used in western culture on earth. 

 

Or perhaps that instance was for Shepard's benefit, just like how half of the aliens Shepard encountered seemed to be extremely well versed in human culture. To be fair, it's very difficult to imagine something completely alien to us. Imagination generally doesn't work that way. We need a reference point, a place to start. Ardat Yakshi are pulled together from the mythologies of a few different human cultures, right down to the name. We can trace everything in the Mass Effect universe back to something in our own world, because as much as we might like to create something truly new and unique, that's a lot easier said than done. 

[SinisterSquash]

To be fair, it's very difficult to imagine something completely alien to us. Imagination generally doesn't work that way. We need a reference point, a place to start. Ardat Yakshi are pulled together from the mythologies of a few different human cultures, right down to the name. We can trace everything in the Mass Effect universe back to something in our own world, because as much as we might like to create something truly new and unique, that's a lot easier said than done. 

The rachni queen was very alien...scary alien...well, a puppy-dog eyed, Disney version of the alien franchise xenomorph queen.

 

 

 

 

 

The rachni see, taste, feel, smell, and understand in color. It sounds like human synesthesia.

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=t-BMiNe-Z3s

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=GLHOdqUEW0k

[Larry-3]

If Mass Effect aliens appearing to human bothers you, then you would not like Star Trek. Most of every alien the Enterprise crew encounter are basically humans with birth defects.

Anyway, I would not mind some aliens looking similar to humans.

[SinisterSquash]

If Mass Effect aliens appearing to human bothers you, then you would not like Star Trek. Most of every alien the Enterprise crew encounter are basically humans with birth defects.

Anyway, I would not mind some aliens looking similar to humans.

 

In Star Trek our resemblance with all aliens is explained, as all look human because...

 

[dgcatanisiri]

I do think that the aliens in the trilogy were fairly human, but a lot of it had less to do with their appearances and more to do with their attitudes. There was little exploration of the people, of the cultures, the things that separated them humanity. Asari are monogendered, depending on what animal life is like on Thessia, they may not have had a concept of 'gender' until they encountered aliens, and so that would have shaped EVERYTHING about their society. Thane speaks of the differences of human and drell brains, the separation of the body and the mind. Salarians are 90% male, with their females so respected that they rarely are seen offworld, yet they are still frequently using the term '******.' There's so much about these aliens that could be truly alien to our ways of thinking, in their cultures and societies, but the games just ended treating them more like humans with hair-tentacles and masks and manibles.

 

I mean, just the fact that I refer to the asari as having 'hair-tentacles' is an example of that - they should have a term for that that they use instead, and the same with the non-birthing parent. Instead, we have Liara using the term 'father' and 'dad' to refer to Matriarch Aethyta. These are gendered terms, the asari shouldn't be using them.

 

BioWare has a world-building problem. They give surface creations - 'oh, this is a monogendered species,' 'oh, this society is matriarchal' - but they don't think through how different that makes the societies in question, how changing THIS thing also change THOSE things.