Thursday, February 16, 2012

traitormagnus asks: What do you hope EA/BioWare does with Mass Effect post-ME3?

That's a really tough one to answer at this point, without knowing the plot of ME3 and all the potential outcomes the story might have. They've gone so deep in the "this is YOUR Shepard! These are YOUR choices!" mentality that to do anything outside of the main series becomes really awkward and difficult. In a perfect world (and what I predict will happen) is that the events of ME3, even if you get the best of all possible endings, will shake up and destroy so much of the Mass Effect universe as we know it (especially where humans are concerned) that they can jump ahead, say, 200 years, when Shepard will be dead, humans will have mostly returned to earth to recolonize, the rest of the galaxy will have been so busy with rebuilding and repopulating to have made little in the way of technological advancements, and we can establish a baseline setting not too far removed from ME1, minus a customizable Shepard running around ruining all things canon with her choices, and the looming threat of the Reapers dealt with.

That would be an ideal setup to start working on an MMO, which is something I would kill several men to see become a reality... but it's not something I'm going to lose sleep over, because the likelihood of ANY big-budget MMO actually becoming a reality is so low, the development time we'd be looking at if they started it tomorrow would be nigh-on 5 years, and it's hard to say whether ME has the penetration to be worth that kind of risk at all (Star Wars: The Old Republic is about the safest, most marketable property you could possibly base an MMO on, and the jury is still out on whether it will have the long-term success EA is counting on).

What I think is more likely, looking at the big push EA has taken to market ME3 and the inclusion (and marketing) of the multiplayer in particular, is that we'll be getting some gaiden games for a little bit while EA/Bioware decides where to take the real meat of the franchise yet. Maybe there'll be an MMO someday, maybe there'll be another trilogy on the next generation, but in the meantime I'm thinking we'll get some simpler, smaller in scope games and some expansion on the multiplayer offerings of ME3. The collective whining of the hardcore fans and RPG buffs will cause planet-wide deafness in small animals, but I would LOVE it if they took this as an opportunity to try out some different genres and make games that are smaller in scope but explore a single part of the universe in greater detail. What about an FPS like Star Wars: Republic Commando that's all about what it's like to be a grunt in various species' armies? (oh, the backlash they'd get when they announced that one.) How about an action/adventure/mystery game about being an investigator for C-Sec? A sim about managing a colony? A puzzle game about being an engineer repairing ships in the Migrant Fleet!? The possibilities are endless!

Ultimately, I'm hoping they take their time to figure out the next big step for the franchise, and in the meantime, take a chance on expanding on the interesting parts of the universe to try and turn it into the hugely popular expanded universe it's always had the potential to be, rather than cynically trying to retread the OH MAN COMMANDER SHEP SO AWESOME GOTTA SAVE THE HUMANS GO ALLIANCE! that they imagine catches the attention of the lowest common denominator.

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