
Why Mass Effect is the Most Important Science Fiction Universe of Our Generation - kposehn
http://io9.com/5886178/why-mass-effect-is-the-most-important-science-fiction-universe-of-our-generation
======
ynniv
_Novels require descriptions, comics require painstaking drawings, films and
television require either hours of expression deadening makeup or expensive
CGI. In a video game, rendering an asari or a hanar requires the same amount
of work as a human._

It is easier to have alien life in both a novel (descriptive) and a comic
(visual) than in a video game (kinematic).

 _Want a cast of thousands? No problem. Need a mob of hundreds of individuals
representing fifteen different species rendered inside an colossal ancient
space station? No sweat._

Clearly this person has never made a video game.

 _I don’t need to explain why the option to have a non-white, non-male, non-
straight person as the main character of a blockbuster action science fiction
story is important._

But you do need to be explained the difference between shared and tailored
culture. Having a "diverse" hero of a popular television show has an affect on
society. Having a "diverse" hero of the instance of the video game that you
are playing has an affect on a single individual (and maybe some friends).

 _One can spend hours tweaking physical appearance (not mere a few options of
“races”) to get a character of any ethnicity and build. Oh, and sexuality is
an option too. Shepard is yours to design._

That's just windowdressing the choose your own adventure. The backstory that
you change won't affect the plot any more than picking a "race" in those
"unimpressive old games".

I opened this hoping for something insightful, but was presented with an
adolescent boy's wonder of a story written in a shiny medium. For all of the
alien diversity, every picture on the page is humanoid. For all of the glory
of the malleable video game, a descent novel would have twice the depth and
ten times the perceived diversity. He purports to appreciate the humility of
the portrayal of humanity, but it sounds like the whole story is about a rise
to power.

If you like Mass Effect this much, do yourself a favor and go read a good
book.

~~~
fufulabs
Wow, you are the type of person that put down new mediums. This attitude is
more dangerous as it will inhibit the new art form's potential by putting it
down in favor of an old but more importantly different medium. Books and games
are not exclusive to each other. Stop pulling down games when it wants to
aspire to a great storytelling format. Stop imposing your cynicism when
glimpses of ambition shows in games. Stop this shit.

~~~
glogla
This is not about new media. There are great games who tell awesome story (I
would suggest Planescape: Torment for the old ones, KOTOR2 for new ones, and
Aquaria for the indie ones). This is about Mass Effect specifically, which is
not really spectacular. It's power fantasy with good pacing and structure and
it borrows from movies in ways of soundtracks and atmosphere, yes. But the
universe it happens in is pretty boring compared to, say Eclipse Phase or The
Culture, the "diversity" is laughable, and I would suggest that characters who
are gay only in some playthroughs are pretty dangerous idea.

I would on the other hand argue that Mass Effect series is bad for the video
game industry -- for many people, it made voiced main character mainstream.
That is bad, because it's very expensive, so not only it makes video gaming
industry harder to enter for new businesses, it also makes even the rich
studios trim dialogue and actual choice in game to the lowest common
denominator.

However once again, this is not about new media. Check works of Paul DeMarinis
if you want new media, it's full of win.

~~~
vacri
I don't understand why Planescape: Torment gets so much love. I tried it out
because of the hype, and found it has an interesting world, but the story
itself was pretty vanilla, and the engine was just another form of isometric
D&D game. I was bored and gave up halfway though.

Sure, the story might have improved towards the end, but a good story should
have you throughout, and not make you drudge through the early stages.

~~~
unconed
Isn't it obvious? Torment wasn't a game, it was an interactive novel in
disguise. The most interesting stuff in the game doesn't happen in the top
half of the screen, it happens in the long lines of narrative and dialog at
the bottom.

------
vacri
I enjoyed both Mass Effects, and think that they're both well-polished, and
conducted in an interesting world. I don't think it's the most awesomest evar
as this article does, but a lot of the naysaying so far in the comments are
overfocusing on the negatives. But if we're talking about inclusiveness...

 _I don’t need to explain why the option to have a non-white, non-male, non-
straight person as the main character of a blockbuster action science fiction
story is important_

This highlights an interesting current even in mainstream culture - safe
depictions of homosexuality. Pretty much it's fine... as long as the
homosexuals in question are lesbians... and they have smoking hot bodies.
There are 12 romance options combined in both games. Four of them are for
either gender protagonist. One is a human woman. Three are of a race with only
one gender, that happens to look like human women. If you play with a male
main character, you won't be exposed to the slightest homosexual visual, even
if you really want it.

<http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Romance>

It brings in another interesting effect - wildly different races are wildly
different, crazy body types and so forth... as long as you're male. If you're
female... well... you get to look like a human female. Every turtle-man alien
we see is just that, a man. They have females, but we never get to see one.
Same thing happens in World of Warcraft - the male character models are really
different, but females all have similar body shapes.

~~~
InclinedPlane
This contrasts unfavorably with older media. In the broadcast television show
torchwood the main character is a bi-sexual male. In Iain M Banks popular
"Culture" series of novels it is common for some species to change gender, for
example.

in contrast, the extent to which the Mass Effect franchise pushes the envelope
of, say, the social norms of j. average suburban American community is roughly
on par with the average pg-13 movie.

~~~
Tloewald
The writer of the article didn't consider any novels to be in the running (or
non-US television shows really), so of course Banks didn't warrant
consideration (although humanity is in a pretty privileged spot in The
Culture, just not terrestrial humanity)

The general setup of Mass Effect vis a vis humanity's political significance
is pretty similar to Brin's Uplift Universe. We're small potatoes and upstarts
and most of the players hate us.

I'd also have to say that the article almost seems to ignore Mass Effect 2, in
which humans are (or can be, depending on what you did in the original) pretty
much running things. (that's how it was for me, and I believe the proximate
cause was that I didn't go out of mY way to save the council at the end of thE
first installment, because I hate the worn out "let millions die to save the
privileged few / my girlfriend" trope in action adventures.

~~~
nboshart
And the main character who saves the day in ME is a human. I thought that was
a weird thing to overlook in the article.

------
kylemaxwell
Perhaps the best piece I have ever read on io9 (which is admittedly not a high
bar to clear). I have a few quibbles with it, particularly the bit about not
having too many aliens that look " _suspiciously_ similar to humans," but in
general the conclusion is well-supported.

~~~
rcthompson
Yes, a lot of the species in Mass Effect are humanoid in shape, but when the
author says "suspiciously similar to humans", he really means "exactly
identical in appearance to humans except for one tiny difference", which is
the standard set by budgetary restrictions in live-action media. Most of the
major species in Mass Effect are indeed humanoid, but I don't think any of
them are nearly similar enough to humans that anyone would ever for an instant
mistake them for human (unless they've been to a lot of Blue Man Group
concerts).

~~~
jodrellblank
_but I don't think any of them are nearly similar enough to humans that anyone
would ever for an instant mistake them for human_

Really? The article says " _Run around the Citadel and you'll be damned if you
find more than two or three humans out of hundreds of citizens milling about,
shopkeepers hocking their wares, and government officials eyeing you
suspiciously. The entire government of the galaxy, known as the Council, is
run by non-humans._ "

That all sounds exceedingly human to me. You can't start an article with
_engulfs all of science fiction's greatest universes_ and then say that. There
are some /really/ great universes out there. A government? Seriously?

A _government_? A _mixed species_ government? Shopkeepers? Wares? This isn't
an amazing genre beating non-human future, this is small-town-humans-in-space-
in-weird-bodies. AI and FTL and life goes on? Multiple civilizations and
they're all basically equal in brainpower?

Take a read of this short story [http://robinhanson.typepad.com/files/three-
worlds-collide.pd...](http://robinhanson.typepad.com/files/three-worlds-
collide.pdf) and then say this game is Taking Non-Humans Seriously as a
concept.

------
Legion
I enjoyed Mass Effect, but Mass Effect 2 undid my interest in the series.

Mass Effect's locations offered some freedom of movement - they felt like
actual _places_.

Mass Effect 2's settings were extremely constrained by comparison - no longer
living locations to explore, but very much tight funnels that might as well
have had "== One Way =>" signs posted.

~~~
vacri
If you mean the ability to land on planets and then spend more time fighting
the bouncy vertical movement of your vehicle than actually moving around the
map, then yes, I guess ME1 had more freedom. I found them about the same in
terms of linearity, but I was very glad I didn't have the bounce-o-matic
sessions anymore.

~~~
jakeonthemove
What platform were you playing it on? I have the PC version and enjoyed every
moment in the Mako - it goes up, down and side to side like a boss, and you
don't even have to maneuver around obstacles :-)

~~~
vacri
PC here as well. Sure, you can drive over all but the nearly vertical
mountains... but hit the slightest bump and the Mako is like a superball. Mako
was fun at first, but planetside gets tedious fast: loading screen - bounce -
bounce - hit anomoly 1/2/3 and do same minigame for all - bounce - short,
unsatisfying vehicle firefight - loading screen. ME2 was much better - here's
a planet, grab the resources, if there's a special mission, _then_ you get a
loading screen.

------
sbierwagen
If you're wondering why a puff piece featuring the Mass Effect series is on
io9, it's because the third game in the series is coming out on March 6th.

~~~
TeMPOraL
...

I just went to the shop and bought ME 1 & 2\. Now I feel like a complete
idiot, as I knew that ME3 is coming out soon, and didn't connect the dots.

:/. I hope 1 & 2 even remotely match the description.

------
ableal
_It's the product of the best parts of Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar
Galactica and more_

The best, most inventive, written SF never made it to the movies/TV, or was
beaten to an unrecognizable pulp in the process.

No particular snobbery on this, just think you should be aware of it. If
"important" is equivalent to popular or well-known, that's another kettle of
fish. I'd say no.

~~~
m0nty
What makes SF so damn good is its ability to surprise and challenge us.
Unfortunately, that's exactly what Hollywood has decided mainstream audiences
are allergic to, so they recycle the same old tropes again and again. Anything
new and interesting must be shoe-horned into the familiar shapes, or ignored.

For example, how many times have you seen this one: hero's buddy is brutally,
callously murdered by generic bad-guy, he decides on revenge and possibly
discovers some love-interest at the same time. He is nearly beaten, but by
skill and courage wins through to triumph over the bad-guy, although not so
conclusively as to preclude the making of a sequel.

That is basically _the_ Hollywood plotline, with minor variations. It's
present in anything from Avatar to Beverley Hills Cop. The really good Sci Fi
makes a point of defying this cliché so it never gets to the screen. Given
what happens to SF when it _does_ make it (unrecognizable pulp) this is
probably A Good Thing.

------
tlear
Greatness of Mass Effect that I was able to exterminate Arachni, kill the
council and give collector base to the Cerberus. Humanity value in the story
is that they are new enough to challenge the order of things. Cerberus is the
ultimate startup accelerator!

~~~
jakeonthemove
Yeah, and then the head of Cerberus got indoctrinated and turned all their
resources against humanity... Damn, I'm going to have to replay ME2 just to
destroy the Collector base and generally try to fk with TIM :-D...

------
emc12
I guess this game never really clicked for me. It seemed too much like a video
game version of Babylon 5 on rails with predictable sub plot cliches. I
enjoyed it for sure, but I don't really consider much of it ground breaking or
revolutionary, as I've seen these plots in various other media forms for
decades, and the gameplay felt like any other BioWare RPG I've played.

~~~
Qz
The full voiceover (including player lines) was one of the big things that
really sold it for me -- it's really hard to go back to other RPGs and play a
silent nobody after playing mass effect (which was one of the reasons I never
go into Dragon Age (aside from it being bad)).

------
nazgulnarsil
The next generation is bookended by episodes about how small and limited human
awareness and reach are in the universe they inhabit. If anything I find TnG
much more realistic in that the enterprise almost always encounters beings
that are far more primitive or so advanced as to be somewhat incomprehensible.

------
sycren
I wonder what scientific developments or artist interpretations inspired by
Mass Effect could come around like those that have come around from Star Trek.
[http://roadtickle.com/things-we-have-now-that-star-trek-
inve...](http://roadtickle.com/things-we-have-now-that-star-trek-invented/)

~~~
rkalla
Maybe the LHC will give us the precursor to the Mass Effect
drives/relays/weapons?

Or giant talking mud-snail people... but I'll bank on the weapons I think.

------
caycep
Except I never understood why all the work in writing and researching this
rich universe and back story got wasted in the main story arc which was pure
hollywood b-movie action...kill-the-evil-cackling-bad-guy.

------
Confusion
Mass Effect? I've heard of that. The other universes he mentions, those I
_know_. I think he is overestimating the amount of people playing videogames
vs. the amount of people reading and watching television.

Of course, popularity is not a measure of importance, but it is a measure of
influence. I don't think Mass Effect is very influential. At least, none of
the authors I read have ever mentioned it, AFAIK.

