Review Mass Effect 3: A Narratological Review

[Ulminati]

Huh. I can't post in that thread. I guess you need to have your account active for a while before posting, then.

Yep, thanks to all the racist fucks who kept harassing Stanley Woo your account has to be around for 30 days or 24 hours if you have a registered game in order to make a post.

Kinda like a Preemptive ding dong bannu then?

(Sorry. But like Hepler he does paint himself as a large target. (Oops, I did it again!))

 

[sgc_meltdown]

BUT...you can make almost any forum/community sound like shit if you try hard enough. Granted you don't really have to try all that hard to point out rpgcodex member failures but I think as a whole that magazine is better than the sum of its parts.

 

[DemonKing]

I've only just started playing ME3 (my gaming has been on hold while we integrate another kid into the mix at our place), and so far I am not getting a "this is as bad as DA2" vibe from it, although neither am I enjoying it as much as I did the rest of the series so far...and clearly it is a long way from some of Bio's pre-EA efforts like the BG series and KOTOR. It's kind of sad that DA2 was so badly executed, given that it dared to stray a little bit from the patented Bioware forumla. ME3 seems to be well and truely mired in it.

I'll withhold final judgement on ME3 till I'm finished but it certainly is quite cinematic (although having a new HD widescreen monitor and THX speakers helps). Sadly though there do seem to be fewer dialog options than in previous games and one can't help but think it's another rushed EA effort to satisfy stockholders rather than the target market.

 

[Jaesun]

This is really well done TNO. I think ultimately every single penny spent on making it Multi-player (because That's What Sells!™) ruined this. Period, and should have solely been spent on the main story.

And it shows.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

Hey, somebody do me a favor and post this link in that BSN thread. Thanks.
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...allenges-sci-fis-greatest-achievements.69876/

 

[sea]

This is really well done TNO. I think ultimately every single penny spent on making it Multi-player (because That's What Sells!™) ruined this. Period, and should have solely been spent on the main story.

And it shows.

Money won't fix shitty writing unless you just replace your writing staff. The multiplayer was developed by a completely different team, as well - the game was just rushed and obviously cobbled together from scraps of ideas.

 

[Jaesun]

This is really well done TNO. I think ultimately every single penny spent on making it Multi-player (because That's What Sells!™) ruined this. Period, and should have solely been spent on the main story.

And it shows.

Money won't fix shitty writing unless you just replace your writing staff.

That wan't the problem (for the most part). See Mass Effect 2. Other factors (and the multi-player) were the problem.

 

[Jaesun]

IIRC (except for one writer who left) the same writing team of ME2 was on ME3.

I wonder what went wrong.... MISTARY!

 

[Sceptic]

That wan't the problem (for the most part). See Mass Effect 2. Other factors (and the multi-player) were the problem.

Wait why do you think the multiplayer was the problem? It's the only redeemable feature of ME3.

 

[Jaesun]

That wan't the problem (for the most part). See Mass Effect 2. Other factors (and the multi-player) were the problem.

Wait why do you think the multiplayer was the problem? It's the only redeemable feature of ME3.

As stated previously, all the development time/money spent on that should have been spent on the single player game. But they focused on What Sells™

 

[Ulminati]

This is really well done TNO. I think ultimately every single penny spent on making it Multi-player (because That's What Sells!™) ruined this. Period, and should have solely been spent on the main story.

And it shows.

If the Codex Diversity Squad is to be beleived, Multiplayer is the only redeeming feature of this turd.

 

[Vamp]

BUT...you can make almost any forum/community sound like shit if you try hard enough. Granted you don't really have to try all that hard to point out rpgcodex member failures but I think as a whole that magazine is better than the sum of its parts.

Appropriately calibrated.

 

[hello friend]

That Amioran guy is strawmanning like a boss.

 

[861129]

Hey Amioran, since you seem to be reading... I (and others) can't post on BSN, so the discussion would be easier if you were to make an account here.

Oh, and since the RPGCodex elitists are watching (and commenting, playing the victims' part as I said they would):

Lol. Playing the victims' part in what sense?

"What a ****. Too bad it's in the game owners' circle jerk section. It would be fun to hear him explain exactly how he thinks Mass Effect treats 'the philosophical theme "order vs. chaos"' meaningfully. "

Already we have the first insults, good. I expected nothing better.

How could you expect anything better, given the abrasive tone and lack of actual arguments with which you yourself presented your point?

Apart that you can create an account without problems (this is the general discussion, you don't need to have a game of Bioware to use this forum part, so please don't play the part "I cannot... or... or... I will... I swear I will")

It says I don't have permission to post in that forum despite just creating the account "kronar the barbarian", which you can check. Apparently the account needs to be active for 30 days before posting.

then as I said I already explained all this, so if you are really interested (and you do not just want to insult and have the last word to look good at the eyes of the other great "experts" there) you can find those threads.

But to have a meaningful debate with me on this point (that goes above the usual insult or "I am right no matter what you say" reply) you would have at last to know the theme, a thing you obviously don't (given the fact that you don't have any idea of what I'm talking about and you either believe I'm making it up). So, apart insulting me and pretending you are right with your "friends" I don't think you will have nothing really serious to add, but you can at last try.

Hahahah. So this isn't an "I am right no matter what you say" reply? Come on, try us at least. Either argue the point or cut out the attitude.

Just two little hints: the major occidental religions are funded on the same philosophical theme (i.e. in the term of narrative of the same, the bible and the coran - the fall from heaven of Lucifer is a typical example). Most major philosophers wrote and debated about the theme (Kant, Shopenahuer, Nietzsche, Adorno, Heiddeger, Sartre, Ouspensky, Hegel, Csikszentmihalyi etc. etc.) and it is espounded in many books (as the Paradise Lost of Milton, for example, or the Ulysses of Joyce).

Yes, and the ancient Greeks and Conrad and Eliot and God knows who else. But the name dropping alone of great authors who treated on these themes won't help explain what Mass Effect supposedly says about these themes on a meaningful level. A primary school fantasy nerd's Catti-Brie fan fiction can "have" themes, as well, even of "order vs. chaos". It's a different thing to say something meaningful about them.

 

[Aeschylus]

Just two little hints: the major occidental religions are funded on the same philosophical theme (i.e. in the term of narrative of the same, the bible and the coran - the fall from heaven of Lucifer is a typical example). Most major philosophers wrote and debated about the theme (Kant, Shopenahuer, Nietzsche, Adorno, Heiddeger, Sartre, Ouspensky, Hegel, Csikszentmihalyi etc. etc.) and it is espounded in many books (as the Paradise Lost of Milton, for example, or the Ulysses of Joyce).

I can't be arsed to post on the BSN, but if anyone cares to dismiss that argument irrefutably, it is a classic example of faulty post-hoc logic. i.e. he is saying that 'these books contain the theme of order vs. chaos. These books are good. Mass Effect also contains the theme of order vs. chaos, therefore, Mass Effect is good'. It is the logical equivalent of saying on one of those standardized tests that 'All dogs are animals. Dogs eat meat. Cows are also animals. Therefore, all cows eat meat.'

 

[Valestein]

The multiplayer is vastly superior to the singleplayer(especially when playing with friends) in fact. I wish the whole game was multi that way we wouldn't have had to deal with shitty writing and game design(ex. inane DA2 style no content fetch quests and railroaded corridor shooting).

 

[Ulminati]

And the moral of the story is: "Don't attempt to write an epic on the merits of Chaos versus Order when your writing can barely carry Herp versus Derp". Should've stuck to campy b-movie schlock; dropped the gratuitus pandering to peoples e-waifus and focused on making an actual game to go with the cutscenes and corridors.

I mean, holy duck, people still play Wasteland? Wasteland? And still consider it a top tier title?

$3 million worth of kickstarter pledges say people still consider Wasteland a good game

December Man wrote...​

RPG Codex. LoL.​

Yea some of the guys that post there are not very nice.

Anyway the review was excellent, many points were spot on.The reviewer made a few mistakes regarding the lore and i had a higher opinion of the Tuchanka/Rannoch arc than he did. But otherwise, largely spot on, unfortunately.

Hello there, Biowarian BROs who haven't run away before coming this far.

You are absolutely correct. Some of us are very angry and not very nice. If you take a look at your own forums for a while you will notice the same holds true for quite a large portion of your own little circlejerk. The main difference between RPGCodex and the Bioboards is like watching a squabble between teenage boys and teenage girls.
In this relationshp, the Codex are the boys. If we think something we'll blurt it out loudly and to hell with it. The other boys will probably agree, but other times they just call us a dumbass. We will yell insults, compare dick size and probably come to blows a couple of times before eventually sharing a few cigs we pilfered from someones older BRO and agreeing that "all girls are icky".
The bioboards conversely are not able to enjoy such blunt honesty or risk ding dong bannu end of rhine. So what you get is a bunch of passive-aggressive primadonnas that approach anything that appears threatening from the relative safety of echoing the popular opinion in whatever clique you attached yourself to. From there, you will assault anything that dares reject your obvious superiority with malicious glee and savour the praise lavished upon you by your clique sisters for your brutal wit and savvy. Anything the boys say can be safely disregarded because all boys are dumb by definition.

Is there any more substance to our boards than yours? We'll probably never know. But at least over here we can say what we mean without wrapping it in false niceties. And we can rely on our fellow codex BROs to call us stupid when we are, instead of getting ito increasingly absurd discussions about philosophical topics it is painfully obvious to any outside observer that noone in the discussion actually comprehend. Nor do we need to wonder into what concentration camp that thread that dared go against marketing popular opinion went.

Fair codexia is a weird and wonderful place. Some posters betray a remarkable insight and there are many hilarious threads in GRPG, the workshop, the playground and the retardoland stickies. You just need to stop being so butthurt all the time and you might actually find them enjoyable.

 

[Havoc]

Reading your post Ulminati.

 

[Ulminati]

Hi Ulminati,

I suppose that without qualifying my statement, it does come off as a simple case of butthurtery, don't get me wrong, I think that a lot of the stuff on the site is interesting and I am in the process of checking it out, especially the recommended RPGS.

When i stated that

Yea, some of the guys that post there are not very nice​

I was referring to these statements from a linked thread

Gay sex with a ****​

And the "Gay****s from outer space" photo that proceeded that post.

Not only Gay****s from Outer Space is far more hard sci-fi than any​

Mass **** Popamole​

Also the fact that everyone simply ignored it as though these statement are par for the course.

Edit : The asterisks are covering that racist n-word.

Hello there Prosarian. It seems we are doomed to have our little tête-à-tête across our two respective boards, like moonstruck lovers in a paticularily campy romance novel (no homo!); as I can not be bothered to wait 30 days for a profile on your boards to be allowed to post.

Yes, swearing and cursing is par for the course around here. When it comes to biowarian franchises, focusing on satirizing them as a gay parade in space/mordor is paticularly tempting, as Bioware themselves have gone to great lengths to make e-waifus a pivotal selling point of their products. I beleive sufficient proof to back up this statement can be gathered by selecting 10 threads on BSN at random and counting the # of signiatures in which a user refers to their favouite virtual romance. What you need to understand to properly enjoy codex is that we swear about anything, like smelly, drunken, yet lovable sailors dragging whatever $60 trash is left at the wharf these days back home with us only to find it is bland and uninteresting and probably imparts the unwanted rash of DRM that stays with us long after it has left our domicile.

Several prominent posters on the codex are in fact members of the LBGTQWMPBLTETC (that acronym seems to gain an additional letter every 15-16 months or so, so I decided to future-proof it a bit) community and they have long since found acceptance in our little hivemind of hatred over here. Let me bestow upon you a decidedly NSFW (text only) morsel of the hilarity they provide us with:
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/want-to-see-nomask7.48825/

This is key to understanding the codex: If you use a word enough times, it loses its shock effect. Yes, sure, we'll call everyone (including you) a faggot nigger jew. But that just means that in our eyes, everyone is equal.
Several important mini-memes on the codex, such as throwing our jewgoldz at MCA, would not be feasible if everyone had to get upset and bother the mods for ding dong bannu every time someone neglected to sanitize their post to please every minor vocal interest group. Better to desentizise (sp?) people to the obvious trigger words for butthurt, foster an atmosphere of jolly sociopathy and let the actual content of peoples posts decide the value of a poster rather than whatever phrases they used to describe their ideas.

Even if 95% of the ideas are banalshitboring. Just like everywhere else.

 

[Oriebam]

Ulminati is lying. We have more substance hate everything, and we mean every single insult. You can't browse retardoland without an account, there are funny threads in the open forums, besides.

Thanks to that thread I became aware that there's a wasteland 1 browser port somewhere(look up dosdose). For some reason there isn't a ultima IV one, what a shame. now I won't need to fuck around with dosbox to pretend I'm oldschool, would brofist that BSN poster if I could

 

[Ulminati]

Retardoland stickies are reason enough in themselves to register a codex account. It's a comedy goldmine down there!

 

[commie]

I don't want Ulminati quoting some nigger faggot spearchucker jew on these boards.

 

[Ulminati]

Sorry Commie. I forgot how bioware posters offend your religious views

 

[Derper]

This shitflinging across boards is making my head hurt. Who's who? Who's writing what? Do any of our esteemed members have prince alberts accounts at bioware forums? Please stop.

 

[Jaesun]

I have an account on BSN. But I never go there THAT PLACE SCARES ME!