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Mass Effect: Most Important Sci-Fi Universe of Our Generation
MumboJumbo
Member UncommonPosts: 3,219
A Great read over at io9:
Why Mass Effect is the Most Important Science Fiction Universe of Our Generation
Mass Effect is epic. It's the product of the best parts of Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica and more with a protagonist who could be the love-child of Picard, Skywalker, and Starbuck. It's one of the most important pieces of science fiction narrative of our generation. Mass Effect goes so far beyond other fictional universes in ways that you may not have yet realized.It is cosmic in scope and scale. Basically, Mass Effect is the most important science fiction universe of our generation.
Here's why:
Science fiction fans have long debated over which fictional universe is the best. The Star Trek vs Star Wars contest is infamous into banality, with lesser skirmishes among fans of shows and books like Battlestar Galactica, Enders Game, Xenogenesis, Farscape, Dune, Firefly, Stargate, and others fleshing out the field. Don't mistake this piece as another pointless kerfuffle among obsessive basement dwellers. Mass Effect matters because of its ability to reflect on our society as a whole.
Science fiction is one of the best forms of social satire and critique. Want to sneak in some absolutely scandalous social mores, like, say, oh, I don't know, a black woman into a position of power in the 1960s? Put her on a starship command deck.
[Cont'd...]
Comments
Sounds like a comercial to me
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I am not very familiar with the Star Trek universe except for two movies and about 3 dozens of Next Generation episodes and I know that the Star Wars universe it's quite known but to me it's quite obvious that the Star Wars universe it's nothing compared to Dune for example. Yes, SW is appealing, the sides are very clear, it has a gazillion planets and races but when it comes to depth it's pretty shallow. But then again, so are most of the succesful movies, music, games etc.
The article is perhaps a little overdone, but it's a good read. And it outlines a lot of the reasons I find the ME universe more interesting than the more sterile-feeling Star Trek/Wars ones. As aluded to, if you had H.P. Lovecraft go and do a futuristic sci-fi, you could imagine some of these elements showing up.
A Modest Proposal for MMORPGs:
That the means of progression would not be mutually exclusive from the means of enjoyment.
I started hammering away a diatribe of a post explaining why I think the author of this article isn't a reader, and subsequently spent around thirty minutes searching the internet to find the books I was certain existed which were clearly better stories than Mass Effect. Long story short, I think he's probably right. This generation's science-fiction literature has been relatively shit, and ME looks great in comparison. Still, I feel like the people writing for Bioware are incapable of producing something more than what I would equate a dime store novel.
"This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)
My reasoning would be there's more attempt at science in this one than star wars and there's an attempt at less tropes than star trek. For sure, there is a lot of sci-fi literature that is likely "harder" sci-fi or more exceptional plots etc but for a mainstream Universe-Building... boy done good esp. the genetic references + reapers.
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
Sorry, but next to Firefly, Mass Effect is a steaming heap of shit.
Succinct. I'll look into this IP, I've been aware of it but not really paid it attention.
Someone pointed out Alastair Reynold's
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revelation_Space
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
I dunno, I never met a ME fan as dedicated as trekkies or star wars fans.
Give it a few years and an MMO. Never met anyone who was a huge Warcraft fan until WoW came out.
I don't care about innovation I care about fun.
No more so than Halo was.
The Uplift universe by David Brin. Single best Sci-Fi universe ever. Go check out the books, 6 in the series. I'd say the 2nd is the best.
Everything creates huge amounts of negativity on the internet, that's what the internet is for: Negativity, porn and lolcats.
Isn't Mass Effect kind of based on Babylon 5?
Anyway, what does our generation entail anyway? I found the movie 2001 more profound than the Mass Effect games personally but I'm not sure that movie would fit into this discussion.
I raise you Neal Asher's Polity.
There is NO miracle patch.
95% of what you see in beta won't change by launch.
Hope is not a stategy.
______________________________
"This kind of topic is like one of those little cartoon boxes held up by a stick on a string, with a piece of meat under it. In other words, bait."
I enjoy the Sage of the Seven Suns universe alot more then the Mass Effect one.
I've never even heard of Neal Asher, please expand.
Everything creates huge amounts of negativity on the internet, that's what the internet is for: Negativity, porn and lolcats.
Generation of 2000?
Guild Wars 2 Youtube Croatian Maniacs
My Guild Wars titles
I would say that Warhammer 40k is much richer that ME. The last decade has seen a great deal of new products associated with the Warhammer lore including tabletop games, paper rpgs, an animated movie, several games, a magazine and more. The books from the Horus Heresy alone offer a far richer sci-fi universe that every ME product combined.
Wait... when did this happen?
Everything creates huge amounts of negativity on the internet, that's what the internet is for: Negativity, porn and lolcats.
Perhaps it is. I didn't like the world of Mass Effect myself; way to clynical.
Scifi is dead to me anyway.
Aliens, Star Trek, Starwars 1, 2, 3, Robocop, bladerunner. Those were good scifi worlds.
Eh, I don't see it.
http://ultramarinesthemovie.com/
Oh yes it did
well i dont know about you guys,but the ME universe is quite good...i mean the detail on things and the way it works.I find it quite good.Its not as deep as others but its still one damn good universe to explore and the possibilities for it are endless BUT i dont think BW will exploit it in a good way,most probably the franchise will be destroyed but,lets hope for the best.
No there must be much beter Universes out there than ME. Likely they aren't very widely know... And no Star Trek or Star Wars aren't them, both are very simplistic and dimensionless, ST got somewhat better with DS9, but still...