the lack of official books about Shepard...i know that would be very difficult due to the game itself. Shepard can be very different depending of genre and players chosen personality, but i feel so sad not knowing more stories about him (to me is a him). Even if told by another character POV.
Fanfic, there are some good ones but it is not the same thing.
Even the few official books that exist, only refer to shepard very vaguely. I would ,ove to read more from the official writers of the game
Oh, its not like that thing doesn't happen..
I understand but, well...books are not canon, and maybe we could agree that there is one Shepard that rules all...i can say or i think if you want, that most players play male Shepard and paragon personality.... i think only 16 per cent choose to play femshep. So the books could cover what Shepard means for the majority of the players
But wouldn t be necessary to be Shepard itself...there are so many options to tell stories about Mass Effect...and why so few directly related to him? at least we could read about how Shepard actions affected others something like that.
Shepard is such a extraordinary character.
Fans should have more stories about him 
Oh, its not like that thing doesn't happen..
and totally ruins the whole character for everyone and I kill him twice every week.
Keep Shepard ambiguous and none of this canon nonsense. And the last time Drew Karpyshyn was handed a woman playable character to canonized, he killed her off out of convenience. That's what will happen to the female Commander Shepard. So, no.
Sigh. I had hoped to never remember this.
As soon as I post that, I logged on to my Lady Wrath and went to Yavin 4 just to kill him again. "I am Jedi and Sith. FALL!!"
I'm going to kill him again with my Jedi Battlemaster.
I understand but, well...books are not canon, and maybe we could agree that there is one Shepard that rules all...i can say or i think if you want, that most players play male Shepard and paragon personality.... i think only 16 per cent choose to play femshep. So the books could cover what Shepard means for the majority of the players
But wouldn t be necessary to be Shepard itself...there are so many options to tell stories about Mass Effect...and why so few directly related to him? at least we could read about how Shepard actions affected others something like that.
Shepard is such a extraordinary character.
Fans should have more stories about him
The three Mass Effect novels, the comics, the mini games and the movie are all directly referenced in the game. While not all of them are correct but they're all made canon. Kai Leng, Maya Brooks, James Vega, Aria T'Loak and Petrovsky, Paul Grayson, Jon Grissom and Kahlee Sanders, Saren, Miranda and Jacob are all characters that exist in other formats before the games was published and they're all made canon.
If Bioware endorsed another novel titled "Mass Effect : Commander Shepard", it will be fronted by a man with Mark Vanderloo's fake tan and pout, flanked by Ashley (Kaidan is always dead) and Garrus. It will be about him swooping in and save the galaxy with his best buddy Vakarian and a triangle romance between him and Ashley and Liara. He will be universally adored by everyone because of his heroism and shockingly good looks. Also because he's a pure Paragon, he will be known as the one person who can talk everyone into committing suicide. But wanting a direct canon from the writers based on an old polls simply because majority play only Paragon Soldier Vanderloo BroShep who save Ashley and romance Liara isn't doing anyone any favors.
Mass Effect series is an interactive game, everyone like to play Commander Shepard differently. We don't like it when other people decide that the gender we choose for our hero is wrong, our love interest is wrong, our choice of who we considered as best friend is wrong, our choice of morality is wrong because protagonist only deserve to have extreme one-sided morality and archetype. This is what Bioware never get, they gave the tools to create our own characters and they simply decide on a stick figure to represent everyone.
Bioware have bad bad track records with their main characters. They gave Revan the Kai Leng treatment. They gave The Exile the stuffed in the fridge fangirl treatment. FemWarden who romanced Alistair and Dark Ritual. Hawke got Virmired. Bioware already snubbed FemShep in her own franchise (and they realize this and they're still apologizing) to favor their golden blue steel boy. All eight class characters in SWTOR was renamed as The Outlander with very minor differences between each of them. I love and still playing Bioware games but I really don't have any faith in them anymore particularly in this.
I'm never going to read that "Revan" book.
And no, I don't think it's a good idea for Bioware to write books about any player characters. Fans get so obsessed with what is or is not canon sometimes. Can you imagine if they wrote a book about the Hero of Ferelden? How many people would be upset over that. I can only imagine it would be almost as bad for Commander Shepard. If you want your Shepards story to continue then why not write about him yourself? He's your character after all.
By the way does someone know what is happening with the Mass Effect movie? That was going to be about Commander Shepard, right? Was it cancelled?
I'm never going to read that "Revan" book.
And no, I don't think it's a good idea for Bioware to write books about any player characters. Fans get so obsessed with what is or is not canon sometimes. Can you imagine if they wrote a book about the Hero of Ferelden? How many people would be upset over that. I can only imagine it would be almost as bad for Commander Shepard. If you want your Shepards story to continue then why not write about him yourself? He's your character after all.
Considering that Shepard is the PC in a trilogy and you've got three different PCs in the Dragon Age games, and from my own observations, people are much more invested in Shepard than in their Warden, their Hawke, or their Inquisitor. Now, this is just my opinion based on observations on the forum, but I don't see the same level of attachment to the DA PCs that I do to Shepard. Attempting to create a canon Shepard would be a disaster of Biblical proportions. Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria, etc.
Monica21, good to know. I wasn't sure about how most people feel about their Shepard. I mean with the default appearance and everything he feels more like a Hawke kind of Bioware character than the Warden for example. But it's good to know that people feel like she/he is completely their own character.
Monica21, good to know. I wasn't sure about how most people feel about their Shepard. I mean with the default appearance and everything he feels more like a Hawke kind of Bioware character than the Warden for example. But it's good to know that people feel like she/he is completely their own character.
I've played ME Trilogy through about 15 times now and constructed Shep's with very different personalities and core beliefs and all of them feel like my own creation. There are, naturally, some limits imposed by the dialogue available in the game. However, as I've strayed further and further away from just playing my Shep as either a Paragon or a Renegade and paid less and less attention to where things are placed on the dialogue wheels and keyed in more on what I thought that Shepard character might say or react to in that circumstance, I've been pleasantly surprised by the variances in the dialogue available and the changes in reactions of the sub-characters to that dialogue throughout the whole trilogy. Playing through multiple times, of course, has also enabled me to fine-tune the dialogue I'm choosing based on knowing what will actually be said rather than on just the phrasing used in the dialogue wheel.
I enjoy ready the fanfictions that different people write, but I would really hate to see BioWare write a book now about Shepard since I would then feel pressure to sculpt my next Shepard in keeping with their book rather than explore a new and different Shepard (not necessarily in line with my own character and beliefs) each time I play through the game.
As soon as I post that, I logged on to my Lady Wrath and went to Yavin 4 just to kill him again. "I am Jedi and Sith. FALL!!"
I'm going to kill him again with my Jedi Battlemaster.
The three Mass Effect novels, the comics, the mini games and the movie are all directly referenced in the game. While not all of them are correct but they're all made canon. Kai Leng, Maya Brooks, James Vega, Aria T'Loak and Petrovsky, Paul Grayson, Jon Grissom and Kahlee Sanders, Saren, Miranda and Jacob are all characters that exist in other formats before the games was published and they're all made canon.
If Bioware endorsed another novel titled "Mass Effect : Commander Shepard", it will be fronted by a man with Mark Vanderloo's fake tan and pout, flanked by Ashley (Kaidan is always dead) and Garrus. It will be about him swooping in and save the galaxy with his best buddy Vakarian and a triangle romance between him and Ashley and Liara. He will be universally adored by everyone because of his heroism and shockingly good looks. Also because he's a pure Paragon, he will be known as the one person who can talk everyone into committing suicide. But wanting a direct canon from the writers based on an old polls simply because majority play only Paragon Soldier Vanderloo BroShep who save Ashley and romance Liara isn't doing anyone any favors.
Mass Effect series is an interactive game, everyone like to play Commander Shepard differently. We don't like it when other people decide that the gender we choose for our hero is wrong, our love interest is wrong, our choice of who we considered as best friend is wrong, our choice of morality is wrong because protagonist only deserve to have extreme one-sided morality and archetype. This is what Bioware never get, they gave the tools to create our own characters and they simply decide on a stick figure to represent everyone.
Bioware have bad bad track records with their main characters. They gave Revan the Kai Leng treatment. They gave The Exile the stuffed in the fridge fangirl treatment. FemWarden who romanced Alistair and Dark Ritual. Hawke got Virmired. Bioware already snubbed FemShep in her own franchise (and they realize this and they're still apologizing) to favor their golden blue steel boy. All eight class characters in SWTOR was renamed as The Outlander with very minor differences between each of them. I love and still playing Bioware games but I really don't have any faith in them anymore particularly in this.
Shepard's story ended with Mass Effect 3. It is okay to want more. Fanfiction are here for a reason.
Why books have to be canon? if Bioware allowed i think there would be some writers available to wrote stories with or about Shepard. Star Trek books are not canon.
The point is i think Bioware doesn t allow any writer to publish stories about Mass Effect.
Dude if you publish a book no one's going to care about academic discussions about what level of canon it is.
If you want to get pedantic about it, then sure, Star Trek handles the novels by establishing they're a lower level of canon than TV series. Star Wars integrates everything absolutely. And so far Bioware have also taken the line that if they publish tie-in fiction, it's canon. They dealt with that in Dragon Age by establishing a canon timeline and series of events, and in Mass Effect by scrupulously avoiding references to Shepard's gender, physical appearance or love interest.
So, if Bioware follows precedent then yes, the novels will be canon, and the burden will be on them to make it clear it's not, which would be confusing from a marketing perspective ("hey kids, buy this book about Shepard that totally isn't about the real version of Shepard, and nothing that happens in it is what really happened in the official version of the story!").
But honestly that'd be true even if Bioware didn't have that background. It'll be true even to people buying the book who have no idea how Bioware have handled tie-in fiction in the past.
You make a book with a specific version of Shepard - that's the version people will start claiming is the "real" one.
And like, sure, fine, most people play white, male, heterosexual, paragon Shepard. But like, why does that mean that we need books about that too? Sure most players are straight, white, heterosexual, paragon Shepard. But you can be a straight, white dude in a gabillion other games. Mass Effect is one of the very few games where you can choose to be something else.
Asking for novels specifically about that version of Shepard, is pretty much asking to make Shepard a straight, white guy too. But, he already is for you, and that is 100% fine. It's absolutely fine - I like to play a version of Shepard that reflects some of my basic attributes too. But...it doesn't need to be made true for everyone else also.
And like, sure, fine, most people play white, male, heterosexual, paragon Shepard.
It'd probably be all of those except Paragon. Default Shep starts with a Renegade boost (15 to 5, I think). And every default state afterwards is kinda Renegade. Rachni, Wrex, Council dead.. Udina Council.. Suicide mission almost botched.
But most players play him Paragon so I still think that's most likely. Well...paragade. Paragon but with the badass Renegade interrupts.
That said, I don't think we should look to Default Shep's imports for canon. Basically they just give you the worse possible setup in order to make importing worth something. Like...if you weren't there to make a choice, we default to the bad one/the one where you didn't do the mission, etc. The minimum. By that logic, ME3 Shepard probably achieved the bare minimum necessary to turn the Crucible on.
Default Shep is basically Fail!Shep. They wouldn't use that as a basis for an iconic tale about her/him, I don't think.
Oh, its not like that thing doesn't happen..
and totally ruins the whole character for everyone and I kill him twice every week.Keep Shepard ambiguous and none of this canon nonsense. And the last time Drew Karpyshyn was handed a woman playable character to canonized, he killed her off out of convenience. That's what will happen to the female Commander Shepard. So, no.
Also I do consider it one of the worst of Drew Karpshyn's works. That is a major part of the backlash, in my personal opinion.
By the way does someone know what is happening with the Mass Effect movie? That was going to be about Commander Shepard, right? Was it cancelled?
It's still in development hell AFAIK. If it is ever made, it'll likely be in the same category as those Halo movies that keep popping up on Netflix. As in direct to video/streaming with no theatrical release and substandard effects and actors.
The best answer is this one. It is on the wiki:
While the game allowed the player to make certain choices as Commander Shepard that affected the plot, including the Commander's gender, this will not be possible in the film medium. As such, the film's writer will be choosing a path that "...best supports the narrative of the movie and the motivations of its characters," while the Commander Shepard of the film will be a male.[6
"...best supports the narrative of the movie and the motivations of its characters," while the Commander Shepard of the film will be a male.
This can perfectly be applied to the books.
Dude if you publish a book no one's going to care about academic discussions about what level of canon it is.
If you want to get pedantic about it, then sure, Star Trek handles the novels by establishing they're a lower level of canon than TV series.
In Star Trek books are not canon. There is no lower or higher canon.
And StarWars turned the whole expanded universe into non canon, after Disney took over and made a new movie.
Star Wars Rebels is pulling things from TOR universe especially now that they try to include Malachor, Rakata Prime etc. They cannot directly reference any characters but at least they're doing something to relate the franchise together. Great Hyperspace War is canon. Honestly, TOR universe is good enough to stand on its own without the cumbersome to relate itself to the movies and it was set thousands of years before the prequels. Although I already canoned that Poe is my Revan's and Carth Onasi's descendant, so I'm already happy as it is.
Either way, I'm a lot MORE happy if there's more books/film/tv about companions like Mass Effect Foundation. Stories of Ashley's childhood, Kaidan's post BaAT, Jack during her stay in Pragia, Miranda with her father and finding out she had a sister, Tali's life before her Pilgrimage, Liara growing up with her mother, Zaeed building the Blue Suns, Wrex and his father during the Krogan Rebellion etc. There's no need to canon Shepard when there's more other stories they could tell without worrying about pleasing everyone.
Either way, I'm a lot MORE happy if there's more books/film/tv about companions like Mass Effect Foundation. Stories of Ashley's childhood, Kaidan's post BaAT, Jack during her stay in Pragia, Miranda with her father and finding out she had a sister, Tali's life before her Pilgrimage, Liara growing up with her mother, Zaeed building the Blue Suns, Wrex and his father during the Krogan Rebellion etc. There's no need to canon Shepard when there's more other stories they could tell without worrying about pleasing everyone.
I m still convinced we deserved a book about Shepard and the catalyst story. A shame really.
I m still convinced we deserved a book about Shepard and the catalyst story. A shame really.
Yeah, I'm going to change my mind on this. They might as well have written one... no one seems happy not having it anyways.
Either way, I'm a lot MORE happy if there's more books/film/tv about companions like Mass Effect Foundation. Stories of Ashley's childhood, Kaidan's post BaAT, Jack during her stay in Pragia, Miranda with her father and finding out she had a sister, Tali's life before her Pilgrimage, Liara growing up with her mother, Zaeed building the Blue Suns, Wrex and his father during the Krogan Rebellion etc. There's no need to canon Shepard when there's more other stories they could tell without worrying about pleasing everyone.
Books like that would be insta-purchase tbh!
Books like that would be insta-purchase tbh!
You know, this is a very good idea for a short online serial. I have no ideas for next week Camp NaNo anyway and I need to get into my writing groove back.
You know what I regret? That any video game tie in books are made at all.
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