27 réponses à ce sujet

[DaftPaycheck]

Popular literature is popular to reference.

[Lmaoboat]

Well I haven't brushed up on my theology lately, but I don't recall God's plan for mankind being pureeing them to make a giant robot with.

[ItsFreakinJesus]

I can't think of a only one story driven RPG that I've played that didn't have biblical references in some way, and that's Persona 4.





There's religious influences in a lot of things. Whether you believe in religion or not, there's a ridiculous amount of plot themes that are ripe for aping.

[ArchyGuy]

The stories from the Bible are themselves borrowed from older stories. They represent many archetypes that are seen in Cultures the world over. That said, the story of Mass Effect still needs to be accessible to western audiences despite the fact it is set in a foreign future. References to the Bible likely have less to do with religion and more to do with the need to find a way for the player to relate to the plight of Shepard. Or something.

[XX55XX]

In Dragon Age, the "Chantry" in the game is a complete ripoff the Roman Catholic Church and its doctrines.

[Alexandus]

Every idea or concept is based on a collection of ideas and concepts which in turn are predicated on more ideas and concepts. That chain goes on for a looong time, until you get to:

*looking at a stone* This..is...rock!

[Hepzi3]

Lmaoboat wrote...

Well I haven't brushed up on my theology lately, but I don't recall God's plan for mankind being pureeing them to make a giant robot with.

LMAO.

[Gill Kaiser]

The only similarity I see is Shepard being raised from the dead and acting as humanity's saviour.

Nazara is vaguely biblical, but that's probably because the Reapers are meant to be unknowable mechanical gods.

Legion doesn't count, because he was named specifically for a passage from the bible.

[Doomlord52]

Yea, there's a few direct references (like legion), and I agree, refencing some stuff from now in a game in the future does help the story (a tiny bit...), I find ME2 went a little bit to far. ME1 was kind of cool as there were only vague character references + ashley williams, which was beleivable, but in ME2 there seems to be a lot more religious stuff around...



Thats just what I saw in a single playthrouhg (and yes, i've seen EVERYTHING in ME1.. did EVERY quest / planet).

[UltimateRC]

The Bible is a derivative work in itself. Lots of quite broad themes in there that would be difficult to not include at all.

[adam_grif]

Vague biblical allusions does not an inspiration make. It has very little substance in common with the bible.

[KyleR92]

this might be a stretch but in the bible it also says we will be given new powerful bodies, and in ME2 humans are given new bodies i.e being turned into powerful reapers

[NICKjnp]

KyleR92 wrote...

this might be a stretch but in the bible it also says we will be given new powerful bodies, and in ME2 humans are given new bodies i.e being turned into powerful reapers

yep... that was a big stretch.

[this isnt my name]

Luc0s wrote...

I'm not a bible-believing Christian (I'm pretty much atheist, but that doesn't matter), but I can't help seeing a lot of anology between Mass Effect and the bible.

The refference to the bible are at some points pretty obvious, such as Legion ("My name is Legion, for we are many."), but I see other, less obvious simularities.

Sovereign's name was Nazara according to Legion. Is this a refference to Nazareth aka Jesus of Nazareth?

Maybe this is a little far-fetched, but could it be that:

The Reapers symbolize 'God'.
Sovereign symbolizes the return of the prophet (Jesus?).
The Reaper's 50.000 years cleansing cycle symbolizes "Noah's flood"?

If someone from the BioWare team reads this: Can you confirm of discard the idea that you took inspiration from religious stories and/or mythology for the story of Mass Effect?

Umm Im going with no, because well lots of reasons, main being Bible God is supposedly good, Reapers are supposidly evil, and Harbinger probobally dosent have a son...  So lots of reasons say no...

KyleR92 wrote...

this might be a stretch but in the bible
it also says we will be given new powerful bodies, and in ME2 humans
are given new bodies i.e being turned into powerful reapers

Yes that part also mention how the dead would be brought back to be judged, how satan would be a 7 headed dragon and gather an army and be killed. Stuff like that. So Again going with a no here.

[Collider]

You can say anything is "inspired" by the Bible if you stretch it out enough. The Bible has plenty of literary elements of literature in general, religious or not. A lot of what is in the Bible can be taken metaphorically, and a lot of it is figurative and poetic.

[Godur]

one of the more obvious biblical references is the lazarus project I think.

[BrokenPolygon]

It also has a bunch of Greek Mythology, Hindu, and Lovecraftian inspiration as well. Nobody really notices though because the majority of the western world is a lot more familiar with Christianity than those of other literary works. I don't see anybody referencing how the Reapers are similar to this:
"That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons even death may die."

But if there are more christian references than you are used to seeing, so what? Christianity even if you don't agree with you must admit tells a very epic tale of the conflict between good and evil. It is pretty much the definition of what epic is. And hearing about concepts like that inspires the players into thinking about how important this battle is, because like I said, a lot of the western world has a good deal of contact with that religion, and bioware knows this.

Frankly though, the only outright references I have seen in ME2 though are Lazarus and Legion. Everything beyond that is real subtle.

[WarlordFil]

It's not just Christianity that ME is drawing from. Most people might NOT be familiar with the idea of the Yakshi from Hindu/Buddhist/Jain mythology, but the name of Morinth's condition (Ardat-Yakshi) is drawn from a Hindu/Buddhist/Jain demon who waylays male travellers with her beauty. A very apt metaphor that does NOT have a christian parallel.



Note: When I say Christian "myth" I don't mean to imply disrespect but rather to imply that I am looking at Christianity as a series of stories/literature, as opposed to as religious truth. Plenty of people, myself included, who aren't Christian still know and work with the images in Christian "mythology."



Christian references do not necessarily mean promoting Christianity in a religious sense. They are using the references as ways to evoke themes. The Legion line is a well known passage to the notion of "the one that is many". Disney's Gargoyles used it too (the episode with Coldstone, Coldsteel and Coldfire is called Legion.) In the actual Bible, Legion is a man possessed by demons. Not the sort of thing one usually wants to promote.



The idea of Shepard as a Jesus figure could also be said as Shepard as an Osiris figure, who also died for his people and rose again, but most people think of Christian myth rather than Egyptian myth.



Garrus as Archangel is, again, a metaphor. Most people in the West know the image of the archangel as a powerful warrior on the side of good and also the concept of a Judgment Day, both of which apply to Garrus, so the metaphor's apt.

[Ecael]

KyleR92 wrote...

this might be a stretch but in the bible it also says we will be given new powerful bodies, and in ME2 humans are given new bodies i.e being turned into powerful reapers

My favorite chapter of the Bible is where Jesus fights the pirates.

http://www.youtube.c...LE1v9yc#t=0m27s

Modifié par Ecael, 18 avril 2010 - 10:09 .

[Onyx Jaguar]

No Jesus resurrection pics? I'm disappointed. This thread was certainly resurrected.

[Onyx Jaguar]

Ecael wrote...

KyleR92 wrote...

this might be a stretch but in the bible it also says we will be given new powerful bodies, and in ME2 humans are given new bodies i.e being turned into powerful reapers

My favorite chapter of the Bible is where Jesus fights the pirates.

http://www.youtube.c...LE1v9yc#t=0m27s

wait, what?  Mark Meer? O_O

EDIT:  IT MAKES NO SENSE D:

Modifié par Onyx Jaguar, 18 avril 2010 - 10:11 .

[Maria Caliban]

Lmaoboat wrote...

Well I haven't brushed up on my theology lately, but I don't recall God's plan for mankind being pureeing them to make a giant robot with.

Everyone will learn what the church fathers are hiding from us when Commander Shepard Dan Brown writes his next novel.

[adam_grif]

Y'all smegheads posting in a necro thread. Notice how my last post in this thread says "2 months ago".

Ecael wrote...

KyleR92 wrote...

this might be a stretch but in the bible it also says we will be given new powerful bodies, and in ME2 humans are given new bodies i.e being turned into powerful reapers

My favorite chapter of the Bible is where Jesus fights the pirates.

http://www.youtube.c...LE1v9yc#t=0m27s

My favorite part of the bible is where Commander Nazarath, after having spent the last few months gathering his elite team of 12 diciples (Matthias is available as DLC to replace Judas, but wasn't released until after his resurrection, so not many players knew about it. He's there so you can cruise around with your complement of 12 if you didn't feel like starting over with NG+), he storms the temple in a daring commando raid and takes out the corrupt Rabbis. In my version I chose to destroy the temple rather than risk it fall into Roman hands.