OH GOD BIOWARE WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE

[Arcanum]

Originally Posted by Arcanum

Oh. Ok. I just assumed you were using the diluted "epic=awesome" definition, since it's been so damn long since I've seen/heard someone use it in the original sense (outside of university classes, of course).

Actually, my original reaction still stands. Despite the game-crossing choices and "consequences" of your actions (quotation marks because there aren't really any consequences to a lot of your choices), there are still a few games that I find provide a more enthralling narrative than Mass Effect. (Plus I always found the conversations in ME to be immersion breaking, since Shepard and whoever just sit there staring at each other while Shepard tries to think of something to say while I read the dialogue choices).

[Loyal]

As someone who's never looked into or cared about G4... someone explain to me why I should be upset about this person being cast? It doesn't seem all that different from any other well-known fan of a franchise being given a part in it.

Originally Posted by Aerozord

what is with people taking what I say out of context today

I can only assume people are losing patience with taking what you say at face value.

[Kim]

Snake's upset about it because putting the woman host of a popular nerd show into a game and making her romanceable implies some very pathetic and not very nice things about their reasons for doing so and about their opinion of their audience and the audience itself and of gaming culture's treatment of women in such positions etc etc etc. It's just a big ol' problematic ball of ~stuff~ that I'm too lazy to really get into at the moment.

It's not the first time they've really done this, though, so I'm not really surprised, and I can't get too upset because I lost all motivation to care about ME3 months ago.

[Aerozord]

Originally Posted by Liz

Snake's upset about it because putting the woman host of a popular nerd show into a game and making her romanceable implies some very pathetic and not very nice things about their reasons for doing so and about their opinion of their audience and the audience itself and of gaming culture's treatment of women in such positions etc etc etc. It's just a big ol' problematic ball of ~stuff~ that I'm too lazy to really get into at the moment.

It's not the first time they've really done this, though, so I'm not really surprised, and I can't get too upset because I lost all motivation to care about ME3 months ago.

Legit reason to be upset, but not really surprised when alien lesbian sex was like half the marketing of the first game. Though really this is more of societal thing then gaming. I mean how many movies cast attractive celebrities then throw in a gratuitous sex scene just to titillate people in the trailer.

[Kim]

Originally Posted by Aerozord

Legit reason to be upset, but not really surprised when alien lesbian sex was like half the marketing of the first game. Though really this is more of societal thing then gaming. I mean how many movies cast attractive celebrities then throw in a gratuitous sex scene just to titillate people in the trailer.

I'm inclined to say it's still worse with gaming, though even if it isn't, there's a big difference when it's impacting things you care about as opposed to stuff you don't.

[Osterbaum]

Wow, I didn't realize that even this many people thought the same. I thought I might be a bit too cynical. I'm kinda afraid that I wont be able to accept anything less from ME3 than better than ME1 and ME2 combined.

[BahamutFlare]

This news is disappointing. Mass Effect 2 was brilliant. If all this is true, then I may not get into this game.

[Osterbaum]

I also haven't yet heard if the game wil be Origin-exclusive. If it is, that is another deterrent for me actually getting the game.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Just saw the picture. Ho-lee what the hell D:

Def' nearing the rectal core of the uncanney butt valley. Like someone grafted the sphincter to a neck and flash froze the crap that bubbled up.

Other than that the second thought that came to mind was I hope the great Reporter Punch makes a grand return.

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by Kerensky287

I don't get why this is significant. Like, at all.

It's fanservice. That's all it is. It won't appeal to all of the fans, but then again, it doesn't have to.

I think you just touched on the exact reason that this is significant.

Mass Effect, like the original game, appealed to me precisely because, in the efforts to create a new universe of science fiction, it took itself seriously. It did its painstaking research. It wasn't trying to appeal to the masses with some bullshit romance option cameos.

...This is basically all about giving nerdy male gamers a fantasy of sleeping with some girl whose popularity in nerd culture stems solely from her appearance and her willingness to become a sex symbol. I am not comfortable with that in my Mass Effect. Hell, I'm not certain I'd be comfortable with it in any game, but especially not Mass Effect, and especially if they're investing hordes of man-hours into making this character while refusing to bring Mordin's VA back, and especially if they're investing man-hours into this when they could have used that time and effort to make another ME2 character or two come back in squadmate roles.

I mean if you're going to thrust Chobot into a cameo, could you at least not make her into a romanceable character, or use her likeness? Is there any way you could possibly set the bar lower not just for the game, but for nerd culture in general? What does it say about us dorks and nerd culture generally that Bioware thinks we're so desperate that they think giving us a Jessica Chobot love scene is really fucking appropriate?

(Also let's not compare Martin Sheen with Chobot, Sheen is a legit actor, and he's not romanceable anyway. The apt comparison would be if Hunger Games brought in Robert Pattinson to play a character virtually identical to Edward from Twilight solely to play upon young women's fantasies and sell more tickets. Only this is actually worse because it's an interactive medium and the romance is intended to be between 'you' and a 'Chobot clone'. But imagine if like ME's creators were like "We want to make this game appeal more to women, so here's Edward Cullen as a romanceable character!" Wouldn't that infuriate you? Why is this is any more permissible just because the character is aimed for the 'target' audience?)

(...And with Miranda at least they tried to make her a fairly intriguing character who didn't precisely resemble the actress. I mean, they failed, Miranda's a bit of a dud character and I never cared for her much, but it didn't feel quite this blatant an attempt to pander to nerd masturbatory fantasies.)

...Really, this entire game feels rushed, sloppy, and just a mess of contradictions. There's things about my impressions of it that I simply can't talk about right now, but I can't say my 'faith' in this franchise could possibly be any lower. I can say that my objections to the "released script" reflect not just on the quality of the written dialogue, but rather on some of the broader general plot ideas, and that spells doom and gloom, no amount of great voice-acting or great visuals can save that.

I understand it's still ingrained in the psyche of hordes of ME fans to reflexively defend the franchise but at one point or another enough evidence just sticks to the wall.