Do you believe Shepard will be the main protagonist in the next Mass Effect game?

AxStapleton wrote:Did anyone look at the articles on the spectre terminals? One of them said that the galactic war economy at its current rate is going to collapse within a year.

I don't personally see how they'd be able to maintain a war against the Reapers for several decades.

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Spectre_Terminal#First_Irune_Financial_Report

Never underestimate the economic potentials hidden in a society. There are way more than you think (examples being USSR, UK, Germany during WWII).

Humakt83 wrote:

Restrider wrote:

DoomsdayDevice wrote:No maybe, yes or no.

Heavily depends on what they are doing with the coming DLC(s).

Agreed.

Yeah, let's wait for 3 to be over before deciding exactly what we want from 4.

Restrider wrote:

DoomsdayDevice wrote:No maybe, yes or no.

Heavily depends on what they are doing with the coming DLC(s).

Seconded.

While I answered that I do believe Shepard will once again be a protagonist in ME4, I am second guessing my response for OOC reasons, and not a PR thing.

The Development of the ME series has been handled by one studio this entire time, except for the MP portion of 3. The team that handled MP is the one that is now working on ME4, according to the sources in the industry and reports on such. They passed the IP from the original dev team to another, and ... while I would LOVE the series to stay along with what has been so far, I also would prefer that if they're switching dev teams and writers and all that they would also switch characters so that the chances of there being a dissonance/disconnect with the characters and all.

So, in conclusion, yes I think there will be a game with Shepard in it again, but I'm not 100% sure it's the very next one we get.

It really depends on if the Reapers are permanently defeated in ME3 or not. If they're not, and ME3 ends with just Earth being taken back, then Shepard better stay; the Reaper War is his fight, and he should finish it. We shouldn't have to say goodbye to Shepard when his story hasn't even really finished. If the Reapers are all killed, then Shepard deserves a little retirement, and Bioware would probably take the opportunity to introduce a new protagonist. Besides, a bunch of dead Reapers, total victory, and a retirement (or not...) plan is really the best send-off that Shepard could have.

Personally, I believe that the Reaper War doesn't end with ME3- Bioware really pushed the whole "Take back Earth" thing in all their pre-release advertisements, and it would be really hard to defeat all of the Reapers in a single DLC or even expansion pack without resorting to another Deus ex Machina. There's got to be more, so, yes, I believe Shepard is coming back for the next game also. :)

Thanks for all the great responses, ladies and gentlemen! =)

symbowles wrote:First, I believe any further DLC (or expansion pack...I'd like that) will not only reveal IT, but then allow us to continue fighting and defeat the reapers. So me3 is not just about breaking indoctrination, but also beating the reapers, and me4 will be a new story.

Fair enough, I can see that. I could easily be wrong about this, but I just don't see how we're going to beat the Reapers in one DLC. Unless the crucible is actually for real... (I mean: really?), or we get a lame kind of 'take out the droid control ship' ending in which we defeat all the Reapers by taking out Harbinger. They'd have to come up with somethng really good because in almost twelve full months of speculation, none of us have managed to come up with a good scenario.

I mean Arian's ending script was fantastic, but even he admitted to struggling with the crucible being a trap.

But yeah, all of you who think Shepard will finish the Reapers in a DLC could well be right.

Veridiano02 wrote:Also... I'm not indoctrinated. I'm 100% agree with IT.

Haha, don't worry about it. It's just a joke, and the joke might well be on me in the end.

To me, the way Bioware are handling this whole ending business, seen from all sides, just seems like a huge PR stunt to give us a fourth game with Shepard, after having it hammered into our heads since prehistoric times that ME would be a trilogy.

I just think that there's obviously something up, and it's as if they willingly and knowingly made the perfect recipe for the ultimate conspiracy theory. There's just toooooooooo damn much going on in this game for it all to be coincidence. Hell, the whole Leviathan DLC was an ode to the conspiracy theory, and guess what? The conspiracy turned out to be true. And it changed our understanding of galactic history as we knew it. No foreshadowing going on at all there.

The ending shows us Shepard dying. Every ending does. The one ending that doesn't, the one ending for which you have to do every possible thing in order to get it, is 'just an easter egg'? Shepard is alive LOL?

That would be the most epic troll ever.

The game shows us that Shepard dies. Reaper lies.
Bioware says that Shepard is dead/over.

Reaper lies.

I think they're going completely meta with this whole thing. In my opinion, if you believe that Bioware tried to indoctrinate the player in the ending, then it's not a huge stretch to think that any official PR that is being done by the company, will say whatever it takes to accomplish that unprecedented feat.

I mean, I seem to remember that most of us back in Mark I thought that Bioware was rewriting gaming history as we know it by producing the most epic 4th wall break of all time. I seem to remember that we all agreed that that was what Bioware was talking about when they talked about artistic integrity.

I mean come on, it's unprecedented. If IT is true, and Bioware are going to reveal it, then that is an epic accomplishment. They manipulated a significant portion of their fanbase into willingly siding with the biggest evil one can possibly imagine. That, in my opinion, is art.

And I think the PR is doing everything to maintain the illusion. They will not be able to keep this up forever.

Oh and remember that tweet? "Hang in there..."

BleedingUranium wrote:Shepard's story is his personal battle with Harbinger and indoctrination. I believe we'll get a post-choice DLC where we'll take Earth back, and almost certainly kill Harbinger, but not win the war, not yet.

See, here I was thinking that it all started with Shepard finding out about the Reapers, warning the galaxy about the Reapers, going head to head with the Reaper vanguard, then fighting the Reapers' minions, only to find out she had been played by Harbinger, then destroying a star system to slow the Reapers' arrival, then united the galaxy against the Reapers, and then finally confronted Harbinger again.

This isn't just about Harbinger. Shepard set out to stop the Reapers and destroy them. The hero is now at her lowest point. Happens in every story. Next comes the part where she rises again to kick ass. In my opinion it would make no sense at all for Shepard to suddenly retire and let someone else finish what she set out to do.

I mean no disrespect - I honestly do not understand it. lol

Restrider wrote:

DoomsdayDevice wrote:No maybe, yes or no.

Heavily depends on what they are doing with the coming DLC(s).

Why, of course!

Which is why it makes sense to poll it now, because if we'd had the DLC, we'd have a pretty damn good idea.

Also, if I gave a 'maybe' option, I'd probably get 90% maybes and a few odd yes or nos.

Humakt83 wrote:I'd rather want something fresh besides it is a bit ridiculous to claim that protagonist has to outlive antagonists because some teenager in another trilogy did.

You misunderstand. I'm not saying it has to be that way because of Luke. I'm using it as a parallel to illustrate how it would make me feel about the course of the narrative.

For me, Shepard retiring, after beating indoctrination, is a completely ridiculous idea. We're talking about the Shepard who wouldn't even let death stop her! Shepard NEVER gives up!

So what I'm saying is, Shepard giving up and letting someone else fight the Reapers, would be like Luke deciding to give up on trying to turn his father and letting the rebels solve their own problems.

That's how out of character it would be for me.

I think Shepard, like Javik, will rise from Ashes, as an examplar of victory, vengeance and viciousness.

I hope that clears that up.

But really, if you've seen my topic about hidden messages in the dialogue, then you'll know how I feel.

i think a new chracter is needed. more importantly, a character that is non-military, a character like the city elf or Dwarven commoner from da:o, some one who fights from the bottom save everything. also it allows them to slow down, to make a less dramatic story and focus on what mass effect used to be. an amazing story with amazing relations and a great combat system.

No offense, but... when was Mass Effect that and now a non-dramatic story? ME1 was fairly dramatic and the major plot pushed pretty hard.

In the next one? No. In a future one? Maybe.

CSSteele wrote:No offense, but... when was Mass Effect that and now a non-dramatic story? ME1 was fairly dramatic and the major plot pushed pretty hard.

in me1 you weren't deciding the fate of entire races, billions of people every fourth main mission. and i don't mean a scale of importance of the missions, i mean in me3 you would have massive decisions so much in the campaign it cheapened each decision and made you dehemuanize yourself to lives of the people you are effecting.

Maybe, but it was also a culmination of the decisions of the previous two games, with the two major stories of the first two acts, so it was kind of to be expected.

If your actions against Saren and Soveriegn failed in ME1, the galaxy would've been destroyed by the arrival of the Reapers.... soooo, you were deciding the fate of billions, IMO. Also, there was the decision between genocide of an entire race with the Rachni in which was kind of a big deal too.

As an aside, ME1 was a galaxy spanning plot centric story, where ME2 was far more character driven. Yes, it had plot and all that, but the characters drove it far more than 1, where the galaxy was as much of a character as the people. 2 didn't really have that effect, as it focused on the characters themselves and didn't have that same 'save the galaxy' plot. People complained and wanted the feel of ME1 back, and they gave it to us.

DoomsdayDevice wrote:Thanks for all the great responses, ladies and gentlemen! =)

symbowles wrote:First, I believe any further DLC (or expansion pack...I'd like that) will not only reveal IT, but then allow us to continue fighting and defeat the reapers. So me3 is not just about breaking indoctrination, but also beating the reapers, and me4 will be a new story.

Fair enough, I can see that. I could easily be wrong about this, but I just don't see how we're going to beat the Reapers in one DLC. Unless the crucible is actually for real... (I mean: really?), or we get a lame kind of 'take out the droid control ship' ending in which we defeat all the Reapers by taking out Harbinger. They'd have to come up with somethng really good because in almost twelve full months of speculation, none of us have managed to come up with a good scenario.

I mean Arian's ending script was fantastic, but even he admitted to struggling with the crucible being a trap.

But yeah, all of you who think Shepard will finish the Reapers in a DLC could well be right.

I agree that defeating the reapers in one DLC seems far fetched (which is why i really like the expansion pack idea :)) but I just can't see them dedicating the true me4 to defeating the reapers. It's going to be a new story that doesn't have galactic implications, because one does not simply out do the reapers.

And I hope and pray that I'm wrong, because I can never have enough of Shepard and the reapers. :*tinfoil*: