Search Results for “mass effect” – Page 6

November 8th

…

We’ve got a couple of characer studies this week (or character-archetypes, in the case of Chris Compendio’s piece) operating with the benefit of hindsight by looking at how critical and player reception of these characters/tropes has shifted over time as we grow a little wiser and perhaps a little more wary.

An Ode to Miranda Lawson from Mass Effect | Fanbyte Natalie Flores gives one of Mass Effect‘s most maligned and misunderstood characters her due.
Video Game Presidents Were Meant to Be Funny (Until They Weren’t) | Fanbyte Chris Compendio chronicles the campy history and cynical

…

November 15th

…

Life is too short to play abusive games — KRITIQAL Nate Kiernan pushes back against the notion of games that are too big not to play–or cover.

Queerness In Mass Effect Is Messy, But Still Vital | TheGamer Bella Blondeau makes the case both that queer representation in the original Mass Effect trilogy absolutely sucks and that it’s an important focal point for the industry’s turn towards better queer representation in later games.

Imagining Decentralized Videogame Culture: Unprofessional Game Criticism Leeroy Lewin makes a call for a plural culture of videogames and their attendent criticism, one that

…

This Year in Videogame Blogging: 2020

…more open space than other media for portrayals of unexpected, other-worldly forms of sex, Sharang Biswas gives examples from tabletop and digital alike, including Consentacle, several LARPs, and work by Robert Yang and Avery Alder.

Disability

Geralt of Rivia: A disabled protagonist | Eurogamer.net Sara Thompson makes a strong case for The Witcher’s identity as a disabled character, drawing heavily on the books, and hopes that future adaptations of the stories will explore this in more depth.
Sick, Slow, Cyborg: Crip Futurity in Mass Effect | Game Studies Adan Jerreat-Poole reads Mass Effect through a…

August 8th

…you don’t.”

Queer Horizons

We turn now to thorny tensions in queer representation across games and series. Whether its the protracted fights for bare-minimum representation or the flawed and fraught depictions and allegories we actually receive in popular games, queerness remains… messy. Read on for more articulate insights.

Diversity and Videogames | Videodame Natalie Schriefer discusses the slow arc towards same-sex marriage in the Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games, looking both at their original development in Japan and their localization abroad.
Why Do We Talk About Mass Effect’s Asari as if They Are Women?…

October 2021

…with the concentration of private property are exposed by the non-impact of queerness on these structures in Crusader Kings III. (Autocaptions)

Let Us Now Consider Contentious Sequels

This October there was seemingly a lot of ‘content’ discussing or analysing mixed-reception sequels. I don’t know why! But I’m here for it.

The Inside Story of Mass Effect 3’s Endings, Finally Told – People Make Games (28:24)
Using interviews with former Bioware employees, Chris Bratt retells the story of concentrated and toxic backlash to the endings of Mass Effect 3, and how it (and decisions made

…

February 6th

…New Vegas.

For Commander Shepard, Ignorance Is Access | Unwinnable Ruth Cassidy pokes at the tension between Mass Effect‘s efforts to explore racial prejudices in the game’s story world through dialogue interactions and its priority of always keeping Shepard firmly in role of sympathetic protagonist.

“Mass Effect is a power fantasy for the player – and one particularly invested in defining power in strength and influence and agency. Shepard’s xenophobia and its invisibility are both tools to give players what they want: as much access to the game’s world as possible, without the social cost. Their…

March 7th

…date sci-fi genre trope and its use in Mass Effect 2.

Troy Goodfellow takes a gander at some of the literary adaptations video games have tried.

James Madigan over at Gamasutra gives the most thorough and scientific reasoning why it’s best to stick to your friend’s list.

The boys over at the Experience Points podcast discuss the use of examining the history of video game design as lessons for the future.

G. Christopher William over at Popmatters says, “Sorry Dante, but your princess is in another castle.”

Nick from Before Game Design examines Battlefield: Bad…

February 12th

…blog has some fascinating insight into gender in the world of Mass Effect in his piece ‘Dispatches From the Villain, Fem Shep‘. While he admits that he plays his male Shepard as a hero and his female Shepard as a borderline sociopath, he is amazed that his own “accidental misogyny” is not supported by the game world: “… scarcely anyone calls my Fem Shep ‘a bitch’. There are virtually no derogatory remarks belittling my capability to fight on account of my virtual boobs. No one makes a sarcastic remark about “my gender” and driving ability when I accidentally ramp the…

April 27th

…its subject and informs the other.

(End content warning section.)

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Nate Ewert-Krocker blows the dust off an old favorite from the 1990s and finds a case of gender, sexual and racial representation that exceeds much of today’s offerings. Meanwhile, Ontological Geek continues its Romance Month with this essay from Sara Davis, who criticizes the treatment of fantasy races in Mass Effect and Dragon Age as ‘sex classes’:

[T]hat is precisely what troubles me about the sexualization of certain races in BioWare fantasy worlds. Sexual and racial discrimination is written into…

September 26th

…mechanical and storytelling limitations of a TTRPG system trying to be everything for everyone, and posits some more focused alternatives.

Diary of a Hardline Shep, Part 2: Space Colonialism Is Still Colonialism | Sidequest Kael Langdon wonders about the kind of ideological worldbuilding that necessitates ‘evil’ races and unambiguous enemies for your Shepard to shoot.

“The only Batarians I interacted with in Mass Effect 1 were heartless criminals. They were slavers, they were raiders, they were drug smugglers. They existed in my bloody backstory and in combat encounters. As far as I know, the only Batarian…