Since Trionicus wrote an article about Mass Effect 3, I figured I would copy cat and also write one too.  However, I just couldn’t bring myself to actually play ME-3.  So being that I can’t expose juicy plot holes, bugs and things gone wrong then I’ll just have to tell you why I won’t bother to play it.

Let’s start with ME-1.  I boycotted this game because of the dial home feature.  I just don’t think it is ethical or legal.  Mass Effect is a game to be played offline, in the comfort of your home, with no extra monthly subscription fees.  Why would I need to connect to the net every 5 minutes just to prove I bought a copy?  Meanwhile, so called “pirates” are there enjoying the game privately with no EA spyware.  The only people that the dial home feature punishes are legit buyers, people who spend their hard earned cash on it.  That’s a big slap in the face.

Not only is the dial home feature unethical, but it was theorized to be causing the game to crash.  I say theorized, because I don’t know if it was proven, or officially stated from Bioware.  I seriously doubt Bioware would admit to it anyway.

I did try ME-1 twice.  I played the intro up until the part where you have to choose your past.  I chose carefully, believing that this would be important to the story and the characters would treat me differently.  However when I learned that my choices really didn’t affect the NPC’s conversations I felt cheated.  I wanted my time back that I spent choosing my background.

After some more encouragement and hype from Trionicus, I tried it once more.  But again was turned off when I made an evil decision right in front of an NPC crewmember, and he just pretended nothing happened and went on taking orders.  Don’t give me choices if they don’t matter!

Yea… so that’s about it.  And following along the series remotely, it’s just more of the same old thing.  Make a choice, doesn’t matter.  Romance an NPC, NPC dies or it doesn’t matter in the end anyway.  I felt like my choices mattered more in Fable, even though that was limited, and that’s not saying much.

I know there’s lots of die hard Mass Effect fans, and maybe they find something in the games that can keep them playing.  I have briefly listened to the story lines, and have felt non interested.  And the 3rd game, well its story was a bit confusing.  I didn’t have time to sort all that out to even begin to care.

Now I learn there’s a movie in the works possibly, and there are all these books and comics.  Wow.  It is just going to get marketed to death.  Maybe that’s a good thing, I think the series needs to die at 3.  How many times can BiowarEA bring back this dead hero, and people find it acceptable?

I’m not above playing a game that has no choice, I just don’t want to be tricked into it.  Just tell me on the box that this is a single player, semi-shooter, with almost no RPG elements, with a bad plot, where my choices don’t matter, and I must be connected to EA/Bioware’s umbilical cord at all times while I play it.  Then perhaps I’d think about paying for it and playing it.

See, I’m convinced people will buy a thing, even if its crappy, as long as they know what they pay for.  I call it “The Rancid Meat Theory,” which leads me into my next article.

 

–Elara

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