Good question. In the Milky Way, it was the Council who decided who was granted colonization rights. Who will decide this in ME:A is something the game will have to answer somehow.
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The concept of "colonization rights" in the Helius Cluster is non existent. The fact is that colonization is a survival priority and makes everything else meaningless as no colonization = a non survival option.
What makes humanity special is that we won't accept the status quo "just because", and if something's wrong, we WILL NOT STOP until it's either fixed or dead.
We don't take crap from those who say we can't, and instead we either do it anyway or find out who won't let us then kick them into next week.
And that terrifies our peers, that we will not acquiesce, we will not falter, and we will not stop until we've made things right again.
There's power in having heart, and no species has more heart than humanity.
Why should humanity be special in that respect?
The other species would have had to overcome similar environmental challenges as our ancient ancestors, and would not have become masters of their own planet, let alone reach the stars...without the same intellectual curiosity, adaptability, resiliency, or determination.
Every time throughout human history when we've thought ourselves special, the universe has proven us wrong. The geocentric model of the universe went down in flames, as did the idea that we were created fully formed and separate from the animal kingdom by a divine being. The safe money is on that trend continuing if and when we ever find alien life.
The Humans Are Special trope is objectively stupid.
That's not how business works. If you are in a video game industry you are supposed to cater to gamers and give what they want, and it's the video game designers job to create a game what people crave for and to create ways to make their video games better than their previous games. It's never about what BioWare or EA wants and if that's the case they going to ****** a whole lot of people off and go to someone else who can meet their demands and making better games than BioWare. Believe it or not BioWare is challenged by developers like CD Projeckt Red and Bethesda and other devs that can make better RPGs than them, if BioWare wants to stay relevant they have to listen to fans and listen to critics so they can be consistent of making games and learn from their mistakes and fix them. But we'll wait and see what they can offer to the table.<<<<<<<<<<(0)>>>>>>>>>>
Giving us the Bird?
Look, the Bio studio's main responsibility, as a game developer, is to be a successful one. EA, as a publisher, is to to sell the game and make money. If these two goals are opposite of your "wants", then that too bad because their goals take priority.
The remaining 0.1% are cats hitting controllers, walking on keyboards and jumping at the television screen.
Great. My secret is out.
That's not how business works. If you are in a video game industry you are supposed to cater to gamers and give what they want, and it's the video game designers job to create a game what people crave for and to create ways to make their video games better than their previous games. It's never about what BioWare or EA wants and if that's the case they going to ****** a whole lot of people off and go to someone else who can meet their demands and making better games than BioWare. Believe it or not BioWare is challenged by developers like CD Projeckt Red and Bethesda and other devs that can make better RPGs than them, if BioWare wants to stay relevant they have to listen to fans and listen to critics so they can be consistent of making games and learn from their mistakes and fix them. But we'll wait and see what they can offer to the table.
Worst post I've ever seen on the BSN. Holy crap.
Hey if you don't like what I said oh well.Worst post I've ever seen on the BSN. Holy crap.
In fantasy RPGs, when given the choice I always pick an elf. Why? Why not. But I know that is never really amounts to anything.
I've only finished DAI with an elf(couldn't bring myself to get more than halfway through subsequent playthroughs) but as an elf I didn't notice much at all in the way of unique dialogue and nothing of any significance in way of stat bonuses or perks. A few people here and there prefaces the things they were always going to say with "Hey, you're an elf" and I got an extremely minor penalty to my Court approval bar at the beginning of the Orlesian ball, but that's all being an elf equated to. I played a Dalish elf but I seemed to know less about Dalish culture than every shem around me. Every time one of those Elf-specific dialogue options popped up, instead of my character explaining something elfy to my crew it was me asking my non-Dalish, non-elf crew to explain Dalish culture to me. In the half-playthrough I did as a Tal-Vashoth I didn't even have those moments. And I had no unique armor/clothing to wear.
And adding races to MEA would require WAY more work. It's not worth it, as evidenced by DAI's thoroughly lacking narrative and gameworld.
It's the hyperbole that throws me a little. You just listed a few distinctions of an Elf playthrough yourself, but that doesn't mesh with the bolded comment. I definitely agree that the implementation had it's flaws, and that it leaves a lot of things wanting, but the fact that the distinction exists is self evident. I don't know what you would consider RP differences that "really amount" to something.
Those are concepts that are almost universal to humans. When I was a kid, before I read X-Men or anything like that I would pretend to be able to move stuff with my mind. Same goes for being immortal. Who wouldn't want superpowers/to be immortal? And again, anything we can come up with won't be particularly alien so what's the point of throwing good resources at it? Even Hanako is going to buy the game, despite constant protest over this, so what's the benefit?
I don't think that there is one. I somehow managed to get myself into this debate by just explaining what "blue and orange morality," is supposed to mean, but I'm still in favor of a human protagonist.
I think elf amounted to plenty in DAO. Stat wise, especially for mage. But City Elf is about the closest you'll get to a "Human Commoner" type.... at least until Hawke. It's a good basis to play with social class, than anything elfy. Dwarf Commoner does this too, but I think the elf is more relevant. I like them both though..
Can't say the same for DAI. The race options have no sincere literary motive behind them. They're just meant to appease some people. I can't have fun with something with such a lame reason to be in the game.
They are catering to their demographic, obviously. 99.9% of Mass Effect players are humans who disproportionately care about human things.
The remaining 0.1% are cats hitting controllers, walking on keyboards and jumping at the television screen.
I think the main problem is not the humans' attitude. After all, we have a history full of haughty self-centered bullies. The main problem, from a writing perspective, is that the humans get away with it every single time because Bioware says so. We have to take the writers' word for it and we have to believe the reasons they give make sense. Once or twice can be, but it all becomes too much. The best equivalent would be CKII's Sunset Invasion happening in real life. Unbelievable, isn't it?
And not only that, it's also sold as a positive value. When a human complains about the limits imposed to them, we are always given the option to sympathize. When it's aliens complaining, they are either weak, bitter, obstructive, out-dated or outright terrorists. Ok, ME1 tended to be more nuanced in that regard, with more options for Shepard to express their views regarding the issue. After all, however, the story gets more and more human-centric.
I realized the extent of it when I played Thane's loyality mission for the first time. When you think that a corrupt crook like Joram Talid has a point (trope!), it means that the writing team may not be sending such a convincing message as they think.
I see your point, and I agree.
Just because you CAN shout from the rooftops and give someone "what for!" doesn't mean you SHOULD, or that it's the best course of action.
But in the context of Mass Effect, we do see the negative AND positive of such defiance.
Humanity is considered to be a bit of a bully, which is why many members of differing species view humans with disdain, distrust, or outright hostility.
Even if you play as the Paragonest of Paragons, there is still a bit of friction there (and if your the Renegadiest Renegade, then heaven help you there).
The Reapers whole game plan relied heavily on the "lesser races" developing along a predetermined path, and that's why the Protheans were so "easily" conquered.
The current cycle was/is different because the civilizations were NOT homogenized, and humanity was/is very much leading the charge in that regard.
There's a phrase: "Any virtue taken to an extreme is a vice."
Each race has their own "virtue", but we see how that can be a bad thing.
The Asari are very patient, but it's that lengthy response time that ends up with them losing Thessia.
The Salarians are very knowledgeable, but taken too far is what resulted in the genophage being an acceptable military option.
The Turians are very stalwart and honorable, but have difficulty accepting anything other than their own opinions.
Whereas the Humans "virtue" is that they refuse to adhere to any one specific idea by default, of course, CERBERUS takes that idea and runs with it, and we all know what happened to them.
The reason that defiance is portrayed as mostly positive is because that is precisely what was needed to give the galaxy a fighting chance against the Reapers.
As to the reason a story like this is human-centric, a big part of it is that the writers all human (unless I'm mistaken). Even the best truly-alien characters are at least part-human for precisely that reason, and it's an ingrained part of our psyche to want to be more, to BE SOMETHING GREATER, which is where and why these tropes manifest themselves.
I note my bias as a human character in games where there's multiple options, and I prefer playing the "Hero" over the "Anti-Hero", so I note that bias as well; which is probably why I don't have any issue with the "HUMANS ARE SPECIAL" tropes.
But there are many reasons why those tropes are in play so often, as mentioned above. It's unreasonable to expect them to NOT be in these games in any capacity, and there are plenty of other games out there where you can play as a human (or not) and play as a pathetic scum-bag (or a clever jerk, or whatever) if that's what you really want to do.
I like Mass Effect for (among many things) it's ability to portray the positives AND negatives, and how sometimes they may not be what you think.
I also imagine that there's another species (I'll call them Hajokians) out there with a game like this and their fans are talking about how they want a game that doesn't have a "Hajokians Are Special", and if we ever meet them, it will be equal parts "Hey Neighbor!" and "Do I really sound like that?"
Most of the demo is also straight white males, too. Should we only be allowed to play as that?
Takes obvious joke post.
Responds seriously.
So is that the turkey meme or the penguin meme? I have trouble telling sometimes.
Why should humanity be special in that respect?
The other species would have had to overcome similar environmental challenges as our ancient ancestors, and would not have become masters of their own planet, let alone reach the stars...without the same intellectual curiosity, adaptability, resiliency, or determination.
Every time throughout human history when we've thought ourselves special, the universe has proven us wrong. The geocentric model of the universe went down in flames, as did the idea that we were created fully formed and separate from the animal kingdom by a divine being. The safe money is on that trend continuing if and when we ever find alien life.
The Humans Are Special trope is objectively stupid.
Then play something else.
Takes obvious joke post.
Responds seriously.
I don't care for "humans are special" either.
Neither do the vast majority of stories. Yet they still have human protagonists many times. You can still write a human centered story without being silly about it. Not every plot is about dominating or being dominated. lol. Especially on a racial level. That's a huge leap... why does this subject always get to that?
As fun as it would be to play as an alien character, it's better to have a set human protagonist with a somewhat defined backstory than a nearly blank slate like DA:I's Inquisitor. The Inquisitor was by far, the least interesting of Bioware's recent protagonists. Needing to account for large variances in background just resulted in a rather bland protagonist whose differences from one background to the next were primarily cosmetic.
Multiple playable species also isn't worth reduced cinematic dialogue.
That said, the Bioware devs really need to stop with the Humans Are Special trope. You can have a human protagonist without the story being a circle jerk for narcissists.
I agree to some point. There are really only two protagonists that work well in consort with the story in DA:I, Human Inquisitor and female Dalish MAGE, the rest feel tacked on to the story. I am specifically referring to the protagonists in relationship to the story written and how the game provides feedback with regards to their perspective. There is almost zero insight given to a surface dwarf's perspective or a Tal-Vashoth perspective. Even the Dalish perspective is almost almost non existent, what we do get is insight in the the elven history through the romance of Solas which is best realised to it's fullest with a mage character and solas will only romance a female elf. DA:I's story just isn't written with any alien perspective. The Elven history revelations are all done from a protagonist's ignorance which could have worked with any race, but is only unlocked because of Solas' orientation and race gate and even then is only fully unlocked with a mage. If Solas was Bi and would romance any race then it would have taken only a few tweaks to the existing dialogue because there is no alien perspective written for the protagonist, simply the perspective of being ignorant to the truth.
Origins was another good game that really dropped the ball when people talk about the great job Bioware does with integrating race into the game it is almost exclusively from the perspective of the experience the player gets from the origin prologue. Once you get the ostagar you lose any unique perspective based on race.
Shepard works because it is the story of an human N7 soldier with slight variance to their background becoming the first human spectre who goes on to save the galaxy. I agree that because they don't waste any resources on the trappings of race they are able to write a tighter protagonist's story that works 'tighter' within the plot elements of the larger story.
I would argue that Bioware isn't as guilty of the humans are special trope as players accuse them of, they didn't start with that trope in ME1 and they abandoned it in one of the possible endings for ME3. Yes it loomed rather large in Me2 but I think much of that was because the game is told from Shepard's perspective while in an organization that goes on and on about human exceptionalism, which I never took as Bioware following the trope so much as Bioware using Human exceptionalism as a substitute for American exceptionalism for social commentary. And this type of substitute for social commentary is a stable of science fiction.
Why should humanity be special in that respect?
The other species would have had to overcome similar environmental challenges as our ancient ancestors, and would not have become masters of their own planet, let alone reach the stars...without the same intellectual curiosity, adaptability, resiliency, or determination.
Every time throughout human history when we've thought ourselves special, the universe has proven us wrong. The geocentric model of the universe went down in flames, as did the idea that we were created fully formed and separate from the animal kingdom by a divine being. The safe money is on that trend continuing if and when we ever find alien life.
The Humans Are Special trope is objectively stupid.
We are objectively special. What has gone down in flames is that we're divinely ordained, but that's not the same thing as not being special. Einstein was not chosen by Zeus to conceive of a new mathematical and theoretical way of viewing the universe. But it's idiotic to say that he wasn't "special" in the literal meaning of the word: "better, greater, or otherwise different from what is usual.".
Humans are special. Compared to other species, we are most certainly special. IRL. Who knows what happens if we find alien life? But there's no reason why we couldn't be better. We could also be worse. Some random person may outperform everyone in her life - she might not. But if she does, then she's special. And it's not some impossible or absurd proposition that she might just be that good.
Let's flip this around: why should any other race be any better than humans at anything? In a world where humans are a late-comer to space travel, why should other species be better in virtue of having gotten there first? Were the professors in Zurich "better" than, again, Einstein in virtue of the fact that they were professors (got there first)?
What is objectively stupid is the idea that there's anything relevant about how fantastical alien species are portrayed beyond the Aesop that the author of a story wants to tell about humans and humanity.
We are objectively special. What has gone down in flames is that we're divinely ordained, but that's not the same thing as not being special. Einstein was not chosen by Zeus to conceive of a new mathematical and theoretical way of viewing the universe. But it's idiotic to say that he wasn't "special" in the literal meaning of the word: "better, greater, or otherwise different from what is usual.".
Humans are special. Compared to other species, we are most certainly special. IRL. Who knows what happens if we find alien life? But there's no reason why we couldn't be better. We could also be worse. Some random person may outperform everyone in her life - she might not. But if she does, then she's special. And it's not some impossible or absurd proposition that she might just be that good.
Einstein is special compared to you and me and just about every other human not named Isaac Newton. Any alien species that mastered space travel however would have had their own Einstein(s), otherwise they wouldn't be space-faring. Einstein, would not be special in comparison to that alien version of himself.
These games aren't supposed to be about every aspect in the world anyways. Not yet at least.
They're pioneer and exploration stories. Hence, human stories.
They overdo the special-ness stuff, I'll agree there... but essentially the stories are human in nature. Change the story, then maybe we can start talking about something else.
Einstein is special compared to you and me and just about every other human not named Isaac Newton. Any alien species that mastered space travel however would have had their own Einstein(s), otherwise they wouldn't be space-faring. Einstein, would not be special in comparison to that alien version of himself.
You're missing the point. "Special" is a comparative descriptor. It makes no sense to talk about it without a reference. Ignoring the anthropocentric assumption that alien species cannot naturally be space-faring, the point is that "special" is not about some manifest or divine destiny.
On Earth, humanity is arguably "special" compared to other species. Yet even within our own species, individuals are potentially "special". That humanity happens to be better than most species is no different form Einstein happening to be "better" than most of his contemporaries.
Sure, there could be better aliens. Or they could all be dumber, less capable, and we could be better. In reality, there's no moral or agency behind ability - it's just circumstance.
I can appreciate that you don't favour the literary point made in a "Humans are Special' story. It very much sounds like you want to make an entirely different point about the human condition. That's fair.
But otherwise, there's no point to this beyond the literary. The coincidental fact of whether humans are better (or worse) than other space-faring species - if such a thing is even ultimately possible - is nothing more than an accident of nature, no different than the very fact of our existence.
It's reasoning backwards from probability to reality, which is one of my biggest pet peeves.
It means human is the obvious choice for a single race character, I think the main point is that having a set race allows for a more engaging story and more inmersive interaction with npcs. Unlike for example playing a Dalish Elf in Inquisition who barely knows anything about it's culture (outside of headcanon), talks like a regular human without using any dalish terms and is basically refered to as a human 99% of the time dialogue wise.
Having a single race allows themes like ME1's "humans are second class citizens" which simply wouldn't work with multi race. And well, if there is going to be only one race then it's obviously going to be human.
I'm very okay with it. Had no interest or desire to play as an alien. I will bang asari tho but got no interest in role playing one aha.
It means human is the obvious choice for a single race character, I think the main point is that having a set race allows for a more engaging story and more inmersive interaction with npcs. Unlike for example playing a Dalish Elf in Inquisition who barely knows anything about it's culture (outside of headcanon), talks like a regular human without using any dalish terms and is basically refered to as a human 99% of the time dialogue wise.
Having a single race allows themes like ME1's "humans are second class citizens" which simply wouldn't work with multi race. And well, if there is going to be only one race then it's obviously going to be human.
To be fair, ME1's Shepard also was weirdly ignorant about humanity at times. They did a good job with the early dialogue though to cover up Shepard's ignorance by having Shepard volunteer information. It was a good use of a voiced PC.
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