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[GeneralXIV]

Haha, I thought she looked a little weird somehow. Appearance wise, I mean x

[Undead Han]

Are you William C. Dietz's publicist or something? Look, I said that Bioware deserved some of the blame, but they are not the only ones.  I'm afraid some of the buck stops with your client.

 

Bioware bringing Dietz aboard isn't the first time someone brought an outside writer in to expand a fictional universe.

 

The Star Wars universe is one of the more famous examples, where there now must be literally hundreds of books or comics written by a variety of authors. I haven't read all of them and wouldn't pretend that they maintain absolute consistency with the films or prior books, but as far as I'm aware, the EU has not had anything as terribly inconsistent with the Star Wars universe as Deception was with Mass Effect.

 

The difference is that George Lucas, or people who work for Lucas, always worked closely with outside authors and exercised some quality control, bringing them up to speed, and telling them what they could and could not write. A couple of those authors have complained about it, but while the constraints placed on their creativity might have been irksome, it maintained some basic level of consistency across the series.

 

Maybe I turned up the hyperbole a bit in saying that Bioware was entirely to blame. Sure, assuming a strict deadline wasn't a factor Dietz could have put a bit more effort into it, like actually reading the three books that preceded his own. The great bulk of the blame however would still lie with Bioware. They brought him in, and then either didn't bring him up to speed on the characters he was writing, supervise the work he was doing, or tell him no enough. Mistakes like Gillian Anderson magically transforming into a non-autistic adult or Hendel Mitra no longer being gay are Bioware's fault. That should never have made it into a final draft.

[Prince Enigmatic]

 

 

 Mistakes like Gillian Anderson magically transforming into a non-autistic adult or Hendel Mitra no longer being gay are Bioware's fault. That should never have made it into a final draft.

 

Key examples why I didn't buy Deception, especially after liking Ascension and Gillian and Hendel.

 

Mass Effect universe lore inconsistencies are one thing, completely changing established stuff in the previous two books is just mind boggling to me, moreso for the book having gotten through publishing. It showed a lack of concern or care for fans and readers of the previous books, out of the blue changing stuff like that to suit I presume the writer's personal desires for the characters and plotting of the novel. 

[JamesFaith]

Bioware ultimately was entirely to blame.

 

There should have been someone from Bioware working with the author to make sure the book's story and characters were consistent with the game universe and the books that came before it. Either Bioware did not do that, or the person assigned to that task did not do their job.

 

Yes, BW dropped the ball here but I wouldnť be so harsh on them. By my opinion it was more combination of  three things:

 

1. Dietz before and during writing boasted how he played all games, read all books and made many notes from them. He was also author of quite many books from shared universes and videogames (Star Wars, Halo, StarCraft...) so it looked that he knew his job. Unfortunately his abilities very obviously overrated and his preparation exaggerated.

 

2. It was first cooperation with freelancer for BW, all previous books were written by their core employers. For this part BW clearly underestimated situation and too much believed in Dietz.

 

3. ME3 was in final phase of preparation when editing of Deception supposed to happen so my guess is no one important had time for it and editing was made by some lowgrade guy who miserably failed in his job.

 

But second cooperation between BW and freelancer author Liane Merciel ended quite well so they probably learned their lesson. 

[Heimdall]

I don't know about the others, but if they had done a bit more research into who they were hiring, they might have realized that Dietz's Halo book is widely considered one of the worst tie in novels of the franchise.

[JamesFaith]

I don't know about the others, but if they had done a bit more research into who they were hiring, they might have realized that Dietz's Halo book is widely considered one of the worst tie in novels of the franchise.

 

Even when I despite Dietz's work, unpopularity of Halo:Flood wasn't entirely his fault. Flood was only book in series which was planned as simple retelling of events in game without adding something new. All others books described events not seen in any game which made them far more interesting.

[N7Jamaican]

How would y'all feel if DIetz was a writer on Andromeda?

[JamesFaith]

How would y'all feel if DIetz was a writing on Andromeda?

 

After six weeks I spent translating Deception and desperately trying to make it more readable?

 

Damn, I would probably start drinking before our not-happy reunion. 

[GaroTD]

Did they fixed deception yet?

[Undead Han]

Did they fixed deception yet?

 

Deception is never getting a rewrite. That was only promised after it initially released, and there was still a lot of negative feedback coming in.

 

Bioware and the publisher would likely lose money with a rewrite because there'd be very little demand to purchase a revised edition, so they've since back-tracked and quietly pretend that Deception never happened.

 

I think at this point the novel is officially non-canon.

[GaroTD]

Thanks for the info I mean, that was to be expected. I have official fan fiction from BW on my shelf.

[N7Jamaican]

Deception is never getting a rewrite. That was only promised after it initially released, and there was still a lot of negative feedback coming in.

 

Bioware and the publisher would likely lose money with a rewrite because there'd be very little demand to purchase a revised edition, so they've since back-tracked and quietly pretend that Deception never happened.

 

I think at this point the novel is officially non-canon.

 

I would rather read a novel written by a toddler playing in their alphabet cereal. 

[ElitePinecone]

But second cooperation between BW and freelancer author Liane Merciel ended quite well so they probably learned their lesson. 

 

That's a good point - I think Merciel was a fan of DA even before she wrote the book, too. Dietz just pumps out tie-in novels for half a dozen different IPs every year. We should also keep in mind that some of the Deception errors weren't even about the lore, it was just basic writing screwups like the same character being called two different names in the space of three pages because nobody proofread it.

 

I also got the impression that the DA team leadership were paying more attention to their tie-in stuff, just because Mark and Mike (and David I guess) seemed more enthusiastic about the story and lore of their own universe and more inclined to be strict about everything being perfect.

 

I'm pretty confident that after the negative headlines they got for Deception, BW will edit Initiation really well this time around though.

 

Even when I despite Dietz's work, unpopularity of Halo:Flood wasn't entirely his fault. Flood was only book in series which was planned as simple retelling of events in game without adding something new. All others books described events not seen in any game which made them far more interesting.

 

I actually really liked The Flood, it expanded on what we played through in the game in a pretty interesting and intelligent way. There were still lots of lore contradictions with the previous novel that Eric Nylund wrote, but it was definitely better written than Deception. 

[NRieh]

EU has not had anything as terribly inconsistent with the Star Wars universe as Deception was with Mass Effect.

 
EU is anything but "consistant". It has good, bad and ugly. More of the latter, I'm afraid, but some novels are decent indeed.
 

The difference is that George Lucas, or people who work for Lucas, always worked closely with outside authors and exercised some quality control, bringing them up to speed, and telling them what they could and could not write.

I've got two words for you then.

Holiday. Special. 
 

 

I also got the impression that the DA team leadership were paying more attention to their tie-in stuff

Well, all the DA novels (other than Masked Empire) came from D. Gaider himself, and he just happened to be a better novel writer, at least when it comes to details and characters. Don't get me wrong, I respect Dew as a game-writing lead, and I love games he worked on, but his 'off-screen' characters are mostly shallow, non-existent even.

 

Take 'Calling' and  compare any of the Maric's party (e.g. Genevieve, Utha, Nicolas, Kell) with, let's say Kahlee Sanders. The task is simple - describe each of them without mentioning either actions or appearance\features. Honestly, if I was asked to do such thing, the only word for Kahlee would be 'Blond' (which is appearance, yeah), and she's supposed to be a cool and significant lead female character.

 

The only more or less interesting character from ME novels I can think of was Paul Grayson. Underrated and mistreated, if you ask me.Gilian comes close, but we don't have much of her before it's Deception. 

 

As for the consistancy, DA stuff has its share of timeline-bugs, plot-issues and 'wtf's, ranging from tiny to critical ones.

[Addictress]

As much as I love to hear about new ME content, I really-really hate it when they put lore, events and characters crucial for the game plot outside the game.

ME1-->ME2? The transition was 100% seamless. Prequel could add some flavour, but nothing important. We hear all that from Anderson, and the details are prety much irrelevant, Anderson is fleshed out as a character via the in-game content.

ME2-->ME3? Not so much, because to avod the multiple 'wtfs' one had to play 2 DLCs (LotSB for Liara, Arrival for the trial and all the batarian hatered) read a comic (to know why da hell that Vega-guy is acting like he's Shep's best buddy), read two novels (Kai Leng+Anderson+Sanders). And even that did not guarantee the full 'seamlessness', because moments like Anderson-not-in-the-Council-anymore had never been explained.

The worst example is DAI, because I have no idea what that plot feels like without Legacy DLC, Asunder and Masked Epmire. Cole was handled in a decent way, but Rhys, Fiona, Celene, Gaspard or Briala? It just won't make much sense(if any at all).The in-game content was lacking (to say the least).

Oh, and DAO->> DA2 did not require any explainations, and neither are DAO prequels crucial for the in-game plot.

I really-really hope that they are not going to follow the DAI\ME3 patterns here.

Truth

[Sartoz]

                                                                                      <<<<<<<<<<(0)>>>>>>>>>>

 

Having seen the BF1 teaser, especially the destructible terrain and the "Red Baron" flying, ME:A may very well blow our expectations out of the water. This is supported by Shinobi's posts. I know he is a ME fan but he is singing the Hallelujahs.

 

Mass Effect: Initiation better not disappoint.

[Prince Enigmatic]

I'd definitely be interested in reading Initiation, I mean it can't do any worse than Deception, since for starters Initiation to a certain extent is a clean slate in the book series, as its pretty much assured its not going to be following from the events of the first three books plus Deception.

[Dubozz]

I hope nobody will be killed by a toothbrush in this book.

[Prince Enigmatic]

And no cereal thieves. 

 

Or hamburger adjectives.

[Arcian]

I bet people thought Deception would be "neat".

People thought ME3 would be "neat".
 
People think ME:A will be "neat".
 
People are idiots.

How would y'all feel if DIetz was a writer on Andromeda?

I would spend an inordinate amount of time in the angry dome.

[Cheviot]

How would y'all feel if DIetz was a writer on Andromeda?

Undead Han would love it, since he believes that Dietz deserves absolutely no blame for writing Deception.

[Laughing_Man]

Undead Han would love it, since he believes that Dietz deserves absolutely no blame for writing Deception.

 

I don't think that he implied at any point that Dietz actually did a good job.

 

What he said was that it is the responsibility of the company or persons holding the rights to an IP to oversee what others are doing with their IP.

Especially in order to prevent something like "Deception".

 

And considering how blatant the lore violations in this book are, I would hazard a guess that no one actually checked the book until it was too late to change things.

[SKAR]

How would y'all feel if DIetz was a writer on Andromeda?

I don't know now. Karen Travis on the other hand......

[CosmicGnosis]

People thought ME3 would be "neat".
 
People think ME:A will be "neat".
 
People are idiots.

And there it is. I love ME3, and I'm an idiot.

[Hadeedak]

People thought ME3 would be "neat".
 

 

ME3 is neat. My optimism remains untarnished, though I don't know if I'll bump into this book. I usually avoid video game books after some letdowns in my teen years with a franchise I loved.