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[The Elder King]

 
To a degree it is, actually.
 
This was the majority of her post on ME, and I bet she will just jump at the opportunity to "right wrongs" and force her political views into the universe. I'm simply not interested in what she has to say about those subjects, I'm interested in Mass Effect.

 
Knowing about something and caring about something are two different things.

There's nothing that says she doesn't care about the lore. 

Plus, after Deception I think Bioware would do a better job at keeping the materials of the book, both the lore stuff and other stuff, close to the games or their views. And expecially on the lore I doubt she'd have much freedom. The events in the book, even if in different ways, will be mentioned and explained in the games, so any screwups would have a bigger resonance then the already terrible Deception.

[Laughing_Man]

There's nothing that says she doesn't care about the lore.

No, but she seems to care more about other things than lore, in regards to ME.

 

I didn't read all the books, but I hoped that this one might be better somehow, was also interested to read about the new direction the story takes with Andromeda. It's disappointing that Bioware's choice of a writer seems to be more about someone with the "correct" political opinion, rather than experience in writing Sci-Fi. But again, not really surprising.

[straykat]

No, but she seems to care more about other things than lore, in regards to ME.

 

I didn't read all the books, but I hoped that this one might be better somehow, was also interested to read about the new direction the story takes with Andromeda. It's disappointing that Bioware's choice of a writer seems to be more about someone with the "correct" political opinion, rather than experience in writing Sci-Fi.

 

It does seem like they're trying a bit hard.

 

That's the main annoying thing about it. Regardless of content. It could still be good, I guess.

[The Elder King]

No, but she seems to care more about other things than lore, in regards to ME.

 

I didn't read all the books, but I hoped that this one might be better somehow, was also interested to read about the new direction the story takes with Andromeda. It's disappointing that Bioware's choice of a writer seems to be more about someone with the "correct" political opinion, rather than experience in writing Sci-Fi.

Fair enough. I guess you can wait and see in the reviews how she wrote it and, if the stuff she might wrote that doesn't interest you outweighs the lore part of the game. 

Anyway, in general I found the DA books better then the ME counterparts (not considering the debacle of Deception), so it's not like my standards are that high in general. I'm mostly interested to find out how the whole project to go to Andromeda starts, and why. 

[straykat]

Fair enough. I guess you can wait and see in the reviews how she wrote it and, if the stuff she might wrote that doesn't interest you outweighs the lore part of the game. 

Anyway, in general I found the DA books better then the ME counterparts (not considering the debacle of Deception), so it's not like my standards are that high in general. I'm mostly interested to find out how the whole project to go to Andromeda starts, and why. 

 

The DA books are better than the games.

 

....Except for not being games.

[The Elder King]

The DA books are better than the games.

 

....Except for not being games.

Eh, I enjoy them for different reasons. Roleplaying in all three games was an experience I wouldn't trade for any DA book, though my best experiences in roleplaying were with the first game.

[straykat]

Eh, I enjoy them for different reasons. Roleplaying in all three games was an experience I wouldn't trade for any DA book, though my best experiences in roleplaying were with the first game.

 

That's the thing though. They're not my ideal of RPG experiences. Most digital games aren't.. It's too oriented on exceptional protagonists. I end up enjoying the games because of the other stuff (characters, world, interactivity). The novels are better to me because they can avoid that stuff. Even the last hero of "Ferelden" wasn't like our character (Loghain).

[The Elder King]

That's the thing though. They're not my ideal of RPG experiences. Most digital games aren't.. It's too oriented on exceptional protagonists. I end up enjoying the games because of the other stuff (characters, world, interactivity). The novels are better to me because they can avoid that stuff. Even the last hero of "Ferelden" wasn't like our character (Loghain).

Fair enough. My roleplaying experience isn't about the main plot itself though, it's more about the events in the game, the relationship with the other characters and the world. DAO's main selling to me wasn't the plot to stop the Blight, but all the stuff around it. The origins helped a lot as well, since they helped me set the motivations and the emotions of my characters in the events on the game, with the other characters, and the subplots.

[SolNebula]

A legit ME novel? Color me interested....much better than the damn comics

 

Now that I know the author is a sjw I guess I'll pass

[ElitePinecone]

rather than experience in writing Sci-Fi

 

She's literally been nominated more than once for the most prestigious science fiction and speculative fiction awards in the world. 

 

She wrote a novel last year on the geophysics of exoplanets. 

[T-Rex321]

They could make a game based on the first contact war. That would be interesting. However it would be based on killing the aliens that we love

[The Elder King]

They could make a game based on the first contact war. That would be interesting. However it would be based on killing the aliens that we love

Not everyone likes the turians.

I don't think they'll ever do a prequel. I recall reading that Bioware made a poll or something similar after ME3 and not many were interested.

[In Exile]

Do I even want to know where this conversation has gone?

It's a bunch of people who want games to reflect their political views debating whether developers making games and tie products should have them reflect their (the fans) political vies or their own (the developers) political views.

[ElitePinecone]

So an ISBN search for the book came up with Titan Books' (the publisher's) catalogue of new releases for Autumn 2016 (which for whatever reason actually means new releases from July-Dec 2016).  

 

I had to use the cached version of the page because it looks like it was removed from the final copy. 

 

https://webcache.goo...n&ct=clnk&gl=au

 

MASS EFFECT ANDROMEDA: INITIATION Author(s): Published: Price: Format: ISBN: Specs: Synopsis:

Lead Title

 

N. K. Jemisin (W) 29 November 2016 £7.99 Paperback 9781785651564 TBC Mass Effect is one of the most successful and critically acclaimed games of its type. The last game moved about 6 million units—it's the largest licensed brand for Electronic Arts. These canonical novels that tie-in with the concept of the next game release. The novels are scheduled to begin release with the next Mass Effect game in 2015.

 

Mass Effect Andromeda will be released for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.

[En Es Ef Dubyu]

It's a bunch of people who want games to reflect their political views debating whether developers making games and tie products should have them reflect their (the fans) political vies or their own (the developers) political views.

Yep.

 

 

I really want to know what this writer did that was so heinous, so outrageous, that some feel the novel is doomed? Are her views wrong, incorrect, bad? What evidence do we have that she will even rewrite ME to reflect her views? Can people not express themselves on a personal level on the internet without fearing they will have jobs taken from them? Is she unfit to write a ME novel somehow because she expressed her opinion on her personal experiences when playing through the trilogy? What? Why? WTF.

 

I'm more concerned that she loved, really loved everything about ME3's plot/conclusion because Cerberus and its possible ties to Andromeda. But again, her 2014 blog was so vague and just an initial reaction to her first time playing the game. I assume she has gone back through the games again with the intent to understand the world of ME, so she can get things right for this novel.

Modifié par StarSprinkled, 07 mai 2016 - 03:33 .

[NRieh]

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.

[The Elder King]

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.

The events on the book (the start and execution of the Andromeda plan) might be different from the game, where we could be already in Andromeda, with decades passing between the two. So the characters in the book might not appear in the game, and they'll probably have no relationship with the PC. Same goes for the events and lore, which will the the 'past', and will be explained through some dialogues and codexes (like the history of the humans' rise in the galactic community before ME).

[NRieh]

 

The events on the book (the start and execution of the Andromeda plan) might be different from the game, where we could be already in Andromeda, with decades passing between the two. So the characters in the book might not appear in the game, and they'll probably have no relationship with the PC. Same goes for the events and lore, which will the the 'past', and will be explained through some dialogues and codexes (like the history of the humans' rise in the galactic community before ME).

It does not matter how far or how close the book gets to the actual MEA timeline, it appears to explain some lore and details about the Andromeda project and\or the Andromeda  setting, which certainly would put those who miss it at a disadvantage.  Where one would get a spoken linewith a codex entry another would get a meaning and a deeper context. Same like with DAI and its Orlais plot.

 

Note, that I'm not speaking about relying on the previous games' content here. It's ok to understand more in the 4th game because one had played 1,2 &3. People who hop into the TV series beginning with the season 4, 13th episode should have guessed that they, you know, might have missed something.  

In-game lore and events, however should only rely on the game itself. Same as understanding a movie should not be followed by an hour of explainations from the director. 

 

Also note, that I don't say anything about the book itself. Yet. For all we know it might be totally irrelevant for the MEA (e.g. Star Wars:Aftermath, which is a stand-alone fiction which has nothing to do with the ep8) But we've already seen best buddy Vega in ME3, and we've already had a shadow placeholders instead of Gaspard Briala in DAI. 

[ElitePinecone]

It does not matter how far or how close the book gets to the actual MEA timeline, it appears to explain some lore and details about the Andromeda project and\or the Andromeda  setting, which certainly would put those who miss it at a disadvantage. 

 

Hm, I feel like campaigning against tie-in stuff is a bit of a lost cause at this point, especially with "transmedia" being such a popular buzzword in major franchises. I mean, just off the top of my head this sort of thing is done all the time in the Halo series (to the point that I have absolutely no idea what's going on because I haven't read the last twenty books), it's been introduced in a major way with post-Disney Star Wars, and Destiny doesn't even have a story unless you spend ten hours reading all the grimoire cards on Bungie's website outside the game. 

 

I do think that the way Bioware handles explaining their stories is much better than most other franchises, though, and that people probably won't be disadvantaged in terms of understanding Andromeda if they don't read Initiation. Given how important ARKCON and Pathfinder are to the backstory of the entire game and the new setting (if that''s what Initiation will indeed explain), the game is surely going to go out of its way to repeatedly explain them to us in the first few missions and conversations. 

 

I played Mass Effect 1 (which is ridiculously full of exposition and backstory, to the point that Shepard looks really dumb for not knowing about galactic history or politics) before I read Revelation, and didn't feel disadvantaged in the slightest. The game does a totally adequate job of explaining Spectres, first contact, humanity's relationships with other species... and that's just in the first hour or two. Bioware's writers know that we're going to need context and backstory for why we're in Andromeda, why Ryder (Rider?) is a Pathfinder, and what our goal is, and I'm certain that it will be outined pretty well in dialogue and the Codex.

[In Exile]

Yep.


I really want to know what this writer did that was so heinous, so outrageous, that some feel the novel is doomed? Are her views wrong, incorrect, bad? What evidence do we have that she will even rewrite ME to reflect her views? Can people not express themselves on a personal level on the internet without fearing they will have jobs taken from them? Is she unfit to write a ME novel somehow because she expressed her opinion on her personal experiences when playing through the trilogy? What? Why? WTF.

I'm more concerned that she loved, really loved everything about ME3's plot/conclusion because Cerberus and its possible ties to Andromeda. But again, her 2014 blog was so vague and just an initial reaction to her first time playing the game. I assume she has gone back through the games again with the intent to understand the world of ME, so she can get things right for this novel.

She's actually right that ME3 was a game long epilogue. Every major plot sequence after Palaven was basically about wrapping up a long running plot. What's worrying to me is that she doesn't think the ending is a thematic disaster.

[Shechinah]

What's worrying to me is that she doesn't think the ending is a thematic disaster.

 

Might be that she is being polite and holding her opinions about it to herself so as to not unnecessarily dredge up bad memories for her employers and a number of fans of the franchise?

 

I'll have to see what she's said about it for myself.
 

[straykat]

She's actually right that ME3 was a game long epilogue. Every major plot sequence after Palaven was basically about wrapping up a long running plot. What's worrying to me is that she doesn't think the ending is a thematic disaster.

 

I don't think it's a disaster either. Probably moreso now because they insist on doing more games... But still.

 

My complaint about ME3 still revolves around the ME2 squad. They weren't done justice. Not to my tastes at least.

[In Exile]

I don't think it's a disaster either. Probably moreso now because they insist on doing more games... But still.

My complaint about ME3 still revolves around the ME2 squad. They weren't done justice. Not to my tastes at least.

I thought they got as fair treatment as possible without effectively draining a huge and unreasonable chunk of resources. Their missions were each created with then in mind, with their prominence being sorted by basic popularity.

[straykat]

I thought they got as fair treatment as possible without effectively draining a huge and unreasonable chunk of resources. Their missions were each created with then in mind, with their prominence being sorted by basic popularity.

 

It's all kind of isolated though. I probably would have been happier seeing more on Earth and having everyone together just once. After the suicide mission, you better step up your game.

 

Priority Earth. That's the ending that truly sucks. Not the absolute final ending, to me.

[NRieh]

 

I played Mass Effect 1 (which is ridiculously full of exposition and backstory, to the point that Shepard looks really dumb for not knowing about galactic history or politics) before I read Revelation, and didn't feel disadvantaged in the slightest. The game does a totally adequate job of explaining Spectres, first contact, humanity's relationships with other species... and that's just in the first hour or two. Bioware's writers know that we're going to need context and backstory for why we're in Andromeda, why Ryder (Rider?) is a Pathfinder, and what our goal is, and I'm certain that it will be outined pretty well in dialogue and the Codex.

As I've mentioned, -->ME1<-->ME2 was a good example of how to handle the 'external' media and go for the in-game established content. Someone can obect, that ME1 is the first game, hence the independance and quantity\quality of the details, but ME2 is the second installment, and it does not rely upon anything but ME1 and itself.

 

I'd rather have another 'irrelevant' book, to be honest. Irrelevant=\= bad, it expands, adds flavours, sprinkles with some details. Even Disney did it with their 'Aftermath' (which is far from the worst example from the ex-SW:EU, if you ask me). But I also realize that it's all about money, and people are more likely to buy a direct MEA prequel, than some sort of 'irrelevant' spin-off. Still...a girl can dream, right?