Dick Justice
Banned
I expect nothing but the utmost subtlety and quality from Bioware in approaching this subject matter. After all, the allegories to racism in DA2 with blood mages were so well done.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Rumor: Mass Effect Andromeda is about Colonialism
- Thread starter anexanhume
- Start date
I'll always be a fan of me1. It's sort of retro, reminds me of a space suit you'd see in the movie 2001, but a military grade. It's simple, sleek and the only problem is that they came in ugly colors and patterns.
Also why is the armor so padded if they are using personal force fields as shields. I wish the series would go back to its more Sci fi roots where things existed because of a watsonian purpose.
I don't know, the more I read and see about Andromeda the less I like it. Mass Effect had this unique, yet familiar retro space exploration design which now became a more random Sci-Fi/Crysis style.
Add that to the disappointment of not being able to explore our own Galaxy which again, would be a much more interesting setting. Why should I care about the existing Milky Way alien races again? Why did BioWare even bother creating a deep and believable lore when they distance themselves from everything which made Mass Effect what it was? The "in a galaxy far far away" thing may work for some franchises but ultimately destroys the appeal of the original trilogy, imo.
Maybe I'm just judging a book by its cover, but this game could as well be its own IP. Maybe Andromeda should be considered to be a spin-off, after all?
Add that to the disappointment of not being able to explore our own Galaxy which again, would be a much more interesting setting. Why should I care about the existing Milky Way alien races again? Why did BioWare even bother creating a deep and believable lore when they distance themselves from everything which made Mass Effect what it was? The "in a galaxy far far away" thing may work for some franchises but ultimately destroys the appeal of the original trilogy, imo.
Maybe I'm just judging a book by its cover, but this game could as well be its own IP. Maybe Andromeda should be considered to be a spin-off, after all?
I think what's fun about that image is that it tries to actually give the guy a personality beyond being a bumbling fool looking for gold and riches.
I mean, he's still there to extract resources from the world, but he has a well defined vision for why he views himself as superior, credits his opponent as a threat that could drive him off, and goes on to detail why he feels he still wins in the end regardless.
You get the sense of a character who spent a lot of time thinking through the situation and trying to put his point out there in an articulate yet brutal fashion. He's clearly the villain, and you're not supposed to agree with him, but he doesn't feel like a cardboard cutout the same way that someone who threw out two sentences about "These foolish natives are in the way of my gold, off with them!" would.
A lot of the best villains are those where you get the sense of an intelligent person who has a well formed, clear perspective that explains why they believe the things they do instead of mustache twirling villains who are evil for the sake of being evil, or people suffering from overwhelming ignorance that's solved by sitting down in a five minute conversation that never takes place until the person is dying on the floor.
If we go back far enough in time, these types of stories always portrayed the native inhabitants are mindless savage monsters, and these days, the opposite tends to be true. If BioWare actually did try something with more depth to each side, even if it's clear the overall idea is that you're very much in the wrong, it would be a lot more interesting than what we normally get out of them. Having a game where you're in the boots of the colonialist and doing a whole lot of things you know are wrong because you feel you're serving some greater purpose would be an interesting way to try and tackle that.
That said, I expect the game to be absolutely nothing like that. I'm expecting that you will be fighting evil monster people who have a deathgrip on the Andromeda galaxy and liberating a bunch of downtrodden races from their rule while building a home for yourself in the process.
It's inspired by utility of movement. ME1's armor is inherently nonsensical.
I'll always be a fan of me1. It's sort of retro, reminds me of a space suit you'd see in the movie 2001, but a military grade. It's simple, sleek and the only problem is that they came in ugly colors and patterns.
Also why is the armor so padded if they are using personal force fields as shields. I wish the series would go back to its more Sci fi roots where things existed because of a watsonian purpose.
The Lamonster
Member
I just want ME2 + uncharted worlds.
What did he mean by this?
Member
Here's hoping I can culturally appropriate alien hairstyles
jhmtehgamr20xx
Banned
Eh I doubt it. It's a AAA blockbuster, they usually use these sort of things as window dressing. Can't get too real about it.
DouglasteR
Member
I cant wait to forge new empires.
And remove those pesky native aliens ! Someone has to do it - FOR THE EMPEROR !
Pretty reductionist assessment. Considering the majority of Andromeda is unlikely to be colonized at all (like the Milky Way) I highly doubt every situation is going to come down to asserting dominance over an already established species. Some situations will be presented in that vein, as it should be, but consider that the PC is a Pathfinder. There's going to be many many uncharted worlds to check out.
So it'll go like this ? https://youtu.be/AIguc0sQ0u4
Yeah, for all we know it could be about Milky Way refugees arriving in Donald Trump's Andromeda.
TC McQueen
Member
As long as there's new space bros and space chicks to hang out with, I'll be fine with the proposed plot.
George Oscar Bluth II
Banned
You can see the basic design of the default Shepard armour incorporated into the Andromeda suit. I actually really like it because of the whole spacesuit thing underneath.
FTFY
Yeah, it at least looks more flexible and generally wearable. Looks more like a space suit too.
Frozenprince
Banned
I just want a Space Opera again, not 2 which was all about one black ops mission or 3 which was a war movie.
Can I get that? Can I just get that.
Can I get that? Can I just get that.
Rats Off To Ya
Banned
Totally. I'm still not 100% sold on the premise, but as long as the character stuff is at top BioWare I'll be happy. The aimlessness of ME2's main plot never bothered me because the ancillary stuff was so compelling.
chrominance
Member
"Colonialism" implies a power imbalance that I don't think exists in Andromeda, based on the given description. The indigenous races sound like much larger threats, and the Andromeda project has no place to return to or use as a home base. This is not "let's mow down entire batallions of indigenous soldiers/fighters with Maxim guns."
It would actually be a lot more interesting to present that scenario to the player and ask them to consider the right ethical approach. The scenario painted in the survey, on the other hand, is very much "well fuck they're already shooting at us I guess we gotta shoot back." Not a lot of nuance in that scenario.
It would actually be a lot more interesting to present that scenario to the player and ask them to consider the right ethical approach. The scenario painted in the survey, on the other hand, is very much "well fuck they're already shooting at us I guess we gotta shoot back." Not a lot of nuance in that scenario.
TC McQueen
Member
Actually, thinking about it a little more... wouldn't the theme of this game be about refugees, not colonialism, per se? Because while the Milky Way folks are setting up colonies, they're only doing that because their galaxy's getting wrecked by the Reapers. The only difference between the Ark folks and say, Syrian refugees, is that the Ark people ran as far away as possible, into a place they knew nothing about and probably has empty planets no one cares about, while Syrians know where they're going and are flooding into populated areas.
Which seems to be the conventional justification for mowing down people in video games: "they shoot back, therefore it's okay to kill (hundreds of) them" - see Uncharted, Tomb Raider, etc.
Yes, it's just the way it's worded.
XANDER CAGE
Member
Bioware has a poor track record with handling tough topics in interesting ways but I really, really like the sound of a space colonialism game.
Granted, coming from the company that made a game called Inquisition where literally nothing about what makes inquisitions historically messed up in it, I can see why people are skeptical. But I love this idea on paper.
Granted, coming from the company that made a game called Inquisition where literally nothing about what makes inquisitions historically messed up in it, I can see why people are skeptical. But I love this idea on paper.
Zombie James
Banned
I didn't chuckle, I shook my head in disappointment.
Darryl M R
Member
White/European History: The Game?
But honestly I am looking forward to this and I want to see how they handle the topic.
But honestly I am looking forward to this and I want to see how they handle the topic.
MetroidPrimeRib
Banned
I'm sure this will be handled in a subtle and nuanced way.
People like to tell themselves otherwise, but Mass Effect has always been more of a third person shooter filled with customizations and RPG-lite elements. You can't compare the games to the likes of Final Fantasy or Witcher.
The opposite for me. Now they don't have to have ten copies of the same weapon in the name of loot.
They will though.
Sigh.
sounds so lame in comparison
timmyp53
Member
Bitch please.
shots fired
StrongBelwas
Banned
Except it's nowhere near as well written as the original.
TC McQueen
Member
Possibly. It could even have a dash of Star Trek: Deep Space 9 if the bad guys are xenophobic assholes who feel the need to control everything.
Pilgrimzero
Member
Just give me The Trilogy with all DLC in like an HD disc set or whatever.
Frozenprince
Banned
It also misses the point of the original in that it's meant to be the proud justifications of a villain.
I love Bioware, but come on... it's Bioware. You shouldn't be surprised at all.
Players would complain about it being too exaggerated and black-and-white.
Just look at how people said the racist lynching at the beginning of Bioshock Infinite was over-the-top and unrealistic. There's a lot of denial when it comes to historical atrocities.
Certainly there will be a few villainous humans in the new game, but hopefully BioWare goes out of their way to portray humanity in a more peaceful light. It would be refreshing to see this faction of humans as a species that is just trying to find a new home, and that doesn't want to kill off an indigenous peoples or incite an intergalactic conflict in order to get their way. Maybe there should be a mission that gives humanity the option to mortgage a planet, kind of like how rich people buy islands and whatnot.