The Mass Effect 3/BioWare Thread

We're already at the point where computers look up pictures of cats on their own, so I think it shouldn't be too long.

 

But can the computer fap to the cat images?

 

Key word highlighted.

At most you may want a human-like interface to very inhuman AI that may or may not be actually sentient in its own right and may or may not have something in common with humans, usually by pure convergence.
This human interface has little bearing on whatever ethical conundrums the AI itself poses.

I guess the most human traditionally engineered (in other words not just organic beings tailored for some purpose or brain to circuitry copypasta) AI I can stomach in fiction is something along the lines of HAL 9000 or Daedalus from DX - characters in their own right, sometimes great, possessing their own will, but not very human behind their human facade (consider HAL's or Daedalus' motivations, for example), no matter how likeable or not you'll find them.

It's still horribly wasteful to engineer something from scratch mimicking evolutionary history of human brain.
If your best shot is copypasting brain or at least its overall connection structure into circutry, growing altered lifeforms in a vat, or sticking electrodes into living humans to directly control their drives and motivations, sure, but I wouldn't call any of those true AIs.

Azrael the cat
TBH I've always found some expectations regarding free will, consciousness and so on not just unreasonable, but frankly baffling.

For example if I have to make a decision, I need to arrive to that decision somehow. Given that *I'm* how my neurological circuitry works, how the fuck would I expect anything but work being done by it and tending towards particular outcome even before I'm made aware of what I choose? I mean, get real, how the bloody fuck can it be any other way around?

Another example - free will. Ok, so you don't fancy the possibility that everything you'll ever do is pre-determined - I can get behind that. Good news, if quantum effects can perturb the working of brain enough, it can randomize your future behaviour somewhat. What? You don't want determinism, but you don't want random either? Then what the fuck *do* you want?
"WAAAH!"? How about you "WAAAH!" yourself, you derpy shit?


:insert comical rage here:

 

I think Azreal the Cat is stoned when making these posts. Good read though.

 

That's how philosophizing looks like.

Yep.

 

I just wanted to blow off some steam here. Apparently the lead designer of Mass Effect 4 is replaying the whole trilogy now.....like not a year ago when they started ME4, but now......
And this is after making a huge song and dance about "forget the first 3 games, forget Shepard, because even while ME4 will be in ME universe there will be no connection...ever!"
So why the fuck is the lead designer replaying the friggin series now? It´s like they have run out of ideas and now they are reverting to previous series for ideas.
Bioware just keep wrapping themselves up in contradictions, i reckon they don´t know whether they are coming or going.

This cannot be a good omen. ME4 will be total disaster.

 

Have you seen the Bioware team photograph? Or their old republic tattoo's? Bioware is an asylum for sexually repressed spergs.

 

How is that a bad thing?

Edit: That was to Jetblack post, but why not to the other one as well.

 

Yeah, looking at other games in a series before you make a new game in said series is really fucking abominable. I mean.. looking at the old games?! What the fuck are they thinking!?

 

And here I was thinking it would be a masterpiece. Absolutely devastated.

 

Easy there, bro, easy.



Everything will be fine in the end, ok?

 

sure. this. the fact that he actually bothers to play the games. not the shit progression from somewhat action rpg me1 to somewhat more action movie less rpg me2 to complete and utter shit interactive movie devoid of rpg me3...

 

Fixed.

 

You spelled it wrong.

 

Thanks for going through the effort of emphasizing a few parts of the original post for me that make it in no way any less pointless.

 

Come back when the forums are voiced.

 

I'm not quite convinced the Mass Effect games are masterpieces. Maybe the 4th one from Bioware will convince me. We'll see.

 

Okay people, place your bets, place youur beeeets right here!
Which next-gen© bioware game will be the next big fan-tastrophe?
Will inquisition deal the death blow to dragon age or will ME4 be able to top the me3 disaster?
Let's get ready to raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamble!

 

I bet they'll cross over in horribly eldritch ways and the tweest will be that the Reapers are indoctrinated ancient unblighted dragons that are hoodwinked into thinking that the Darkspawn won and have infected the entire galaxy, which is why they keep trying to kill life repeatedly.

 

Or, whatever planet Dragon Age takes place on turns out to be a world in Mass Effect as well. And then Shepard shows up in his Dragon Age armor and everything starts to get weird.

 

Both games have been in development for ages, at least for EA products, so they're not likely to be a rushed mess like DA2 and ME3 were. We know DAI is going to try to rip off Skyrim somehow, and Bioware has never done anything even remotely sandboxy before so that has the potential to be hilarious. On the other hand, the Mass Effect series is the clusterfuck that won't die, starting off mediocre and getting worse with each game. If they try to set the game as a sequel, that gives plenty of opportunity for them to fuck up and piss off the fans.

I'd say it's still too close to call at this point, but my instincts tell me that both games will be bad. The only questions I really have are a) will it be worse than ME3, and b) will something piss off the biodrones and alienate Bioware's fanbase even more?

 

As it turns out Lhynn was right and we were fools for not believing him. The Indoctrination Theory was correct and Shepard could do nothing to stop the Reapers. When the Crucible was activated it caused a rift in reality which banned The Shepard to Thedas while also causing its recent Fade issues. Cue The Shepard reforming the Inquisition.

 

Heh. "Starts". Hehe.

 

We made jokes about a DA/ME crossover before ME3 came out. There might still be some at the beginning of this thread; IIRC it was created from a bunch of ME3 preview threads and like one thread bitching about DA2 originally.