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mass effect

July 1st

…do we care deeply about such a character, if her love for us is predetermined at birth? If one day this person can feel on her own, how are we supposed to trust that person? But shouldn’t we trust that she cares about us?

Characters are a treasure to Patricia Hernandez of Kotaku as well, who writes of why not finishing Mass Effect 3 is her own ideal ending:

I mean, really, that’s why I was there, right? It wasn’t about defeating Saren, or the Illusive Man, or the Reapers, and it’s especially not about saving…

Assassin’s Creed III

…explain the AC3 finale. Ironically, it wasn’t Desmond’s self-sacrifice to save the world that proved the most controversial with players; it was his apparent betrayal of the Assassin ethos, and AC3’s unilateral imposition of this outcome that provoked the most outrage. Ben Babcock at Medium.com complained: “Minerva and Juno present Desmond with a choice, and it is literally the fate of the world. And what do I, the player, get to do? I get to watch. No one asks my opinion. There is no choice system here like at the end of Mass Effect 3.” Shubhankar Parijat at Gaming Bolt…

February 14th

…worlds as they relate to (or have been outpaced by) our own world, covering intersections of contemporary crisis, narrative payoff, and Black representation.

  • In Nioh 2, you learn to believe in a better future — and fight for it | Polygon Jeffrey Rousseau situates the historical fiction Nioh 2 in the contemporary context of our present moment.
  • Trash Fantasias, or Why Mass Effect 3’s Ending Was Bad Actually | Uncanny Magazine Katherine Cross makes the case for why Mass Effect 3‘s conclusion was bad when it could have been trash.
  • Owning the Mask | Unwinnable Phillip

May 9th

We open this week with two meditations on science fiction games, looking alternately at thoughtful stoytelling possibilities (King) and regressive and harmful abstractions (Alvey) which present themselves in the genre.

  • Returnal Is The Alien Prequel Prometheus Should Have Been | TheGamer Jade King unearths some thoughtful sci-fi horror storytelling connections in Returnal.
  • ‘Mass Effect 2: Overlord’ Should Have Stayed in 2010 | Waypoint M. Wesley Alvey revisits a fraught Mass Effect 2 DLC which strips its key autistic character of his self-determination, pathologizes and dehumanizes his neuroatypicality, and places him in a false moral equivalency with

May 30th

  • Righteous Skills | Reverse Shot Holly Green delves into Disco Elysium‘s unorthodox skill progression system and its impacts on character writing, narrative design, and examinations of dissasociative identity and trauma response.
  • Larger-arc contextualization, and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend – KEITH BURGUN GAMES Keith Burgun thinks through approaches to synthesizing moment-to-moment gameplay and story beats in games with larger storytelling arcs, looking to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend for some of the answers.
  • Mass Effect’s Choices Remain Its Greatest Success—And Greatest Failure | Waypoint Rowan Kaiser weighs choices against responsiveness in understanding Mass Effect‘s true contributions to game design and its enduring

July 4th

It’s my own fault. Last week I suggested a summer lethargy may have overtaken the games blogosphere, so naturally this week we’re swamped with cogent posts about all manner of games.

First is Dan Bruno at Cruise Elroy who has been playing Mass Effect, and who says, “I am not Shepard” [dead link, no mirror available], comparing the decision to record dialogue for the player character’s voice in ME to Dragon Age’s mute protagonist.

Matthew Armstrong at SnakeLinkSonic talks about ‘Pissing in your games’. He’s talking figuratively here, of course, but it’s about marking one’s territory and

ReadySet Zam archive

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1579/suraya-hawthorne-destiny-2s-token-human

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1578/cuphead-and-the-forgotten-joy-of-putting-the-controller-down

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1569/my-top-10-most-played-games-and-my-excuses-for-them

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1568/i-love-you-indiecade

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1562/a-few-ways-destiny-2-could-still-salvage-its-awful-writing

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1561/my-mail-order-neighbor

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1559/destiny-2s-failsafe-is-a-real-voice-among-player-propaganda

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1557/a-football-spiral-universe-what-17776-and-david-oreillys-everything-tell-us-about-art

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1555/the-economic-dread-of-little-red-lie-and-design-home

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1554/vision-cones-and-street-ball-how-an-obsession-with-hyperrealism-has-suffocated-modern-sports-games

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1552/why-dont-we-complete-games

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1549/uncharted-the-lost-legacy-is-proof-the-series-still-has-room-to-grow

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1548/bless-you-mr-jackpots-in-defense-of-twin-peaks-dougie-jones

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1538/adults-onlyish-a-history-of-nintendos-mature-games

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1537/two-steps-forward-three-steps-back-how-hellblade-reinforces-myths-about-mental-illness

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1535/please-just-this-once-dont-give-nintendo-your-money

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1534/whats-so-great-about-watching-pro-dota-in-person

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1532/wolfenstein-iis-picture-of-american-fascism-seems-more-prescient-than-ever

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1531/why-do-we-go-back-to-the-same-places-in-games

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1528/the-perils-of-nostalgia-starcraft-remastered-and-our-repackaged-past

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1526/overwatch-does-more-than-most-when-it-comes-to-gameplay-balancing

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1519/hitmans-npcs-are-fascinating

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1512/how-much-esports-should-we-watch

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1510/heres-why-it-hurts-when-tekken-7-cuts-your-favorite-character

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1508/destiny-is-a-lot-like-dancing

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1506/playerunknowns-battlegrounds-puts-teamwork-above-competition

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1504/its-not-too-late-to-get-into-destiny

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1502/a-billion-armed-bandit

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1499/an-apology-to-final-fantasy-xii

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1494/videogame-gardens-can-be-spaces-for-reflection

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1485/dead-cells-dark-souls-and-mass-effect-what-games-can-still-learn-from-early-access

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1453/persona-5-could-say-a-lot-more-if-it-didnt-constantly-objectify-ann

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1477/who-won-this-years-e3-devolver-actually

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1452/prey-turns-open-ended-game-design-inside-out

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1444/why-arent-we-adapting-more-games-into-comic-books

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1441/sketches-of-greatness-why-do-esports-excite-us-so-much

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1440/videogames-hip-hop-and-the-value-of-saying-yes

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1438/if-you-havent-checked-in-on-heroes-of-the-storm-in-a-while-heres-what-youre-missing

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1434/marvel-vs-capcom-infinite-and-the-chase-for-fighting-game-accessibility

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1432/puyo-puyo-tetris-is-an-esport-you-can-play-against-yourself

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1431/latin-american-representation-in-games-is-getting-better—-but-its-far-from-perfect

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1429/get-wrecked-why-esports-injuries-matter

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1425/little-nightmares-i-have-had

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1408/age-of-triumph-only-serves-to-highlight-destinys-biggest-shortcomings

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1401/why-persona-5s-silent-protagonist-works

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1400/nier-automata-may-have-26-endings-but-it-respects-my-time

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1396/do-we-really-need-to-like-horizon-zero-dawns-aloy

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1399/the-old-ways-arent-best-when-it-comes-to-survival-horror

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1388/the-10-mass-effect-scenes-thatll-fck-you-up-the-most

http://readyset.zam.com/article/1382/destinys-meta-shifts-are-fascinating

UPDATED: Blogs of the Round Table: January ’12 Roundup

…Lange at Second Truth writes about her experience role-playing as a straight man in ‘On Gettin Ladies…In Games‘.

Matt Kopas wrote this piece for The Borderhouse Blog which he admits wasn’t written with the theme explicitly in mind, but which still fits well enough under the heading – it’s on ‘Gameplay, Genderplay‘.

At Nonfiction Gaming, Eric Howell writes about empathising with the characters he played in both Mass Effect and Bastion in his contribution, ‘Choosing to Be the Other‘.

Patrick Stafford writes about ‘Roleplaying games and the fundamental problem of sympathetic characters‘ on his blog The Problem…

June 13th

…and possible friends.”

Second Draft

Re-releases and remakes (or even re-releases of remakes) are the name of the game(s) in our next section, as our next two featured authors make sense of what’s new, what isn’t, and what could have been.

  • Finding The Heart Of Midgar With Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade’s Photo Mode | TheGamer Jade King explores how Final Fantasy VII Remake‘s new–albeit limited–photo mode opens up its world a little more.
  • Mass Effect Isn’t Star Trek | Gamers with Glasses Christian Haines notes how Mass Effect‘s adherance to an action-focused format…

September 4th

…ship on fire.

Taylor Cocke at Scoreless is working on some more short vignettes of games (remember his Far Cry 2 stuff?). Now he’s doing Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Line Hollis at Robot Geek discusses what she terms ‘Leaning Games‘. Their choices, as she describes, are also employed in choose-your-own-adventures and AAA titles, to varying effect:

What this style really resembles is the story structure found in mainstream games with a “moral choice system,” like Bioshock, Infamous, or Mass Effect. The dead simplicity of the system in Bioshock is a particularly close match. Each Little…