Domino Worldbuilding and the Brilliance of Mass Effect

[@Avenger85438]

An interesting way they introduce the Aliens in Mas Effect 1, is that they establish the species culture then give you party members that are the opposite. Asari are mostly social and diplomatic, but Liara is shy and awkward. Turians are said to be sticker's for the rules, Garrus is a cowboy cop. Krogan are loved and hated for being bloodthirsty warriors, and Wrex is very somber and weary of war. They develop throughout the series, but it's a great starting point that shows, like Babylon 5's aliens, the dimensions a person from each race can have.

[@adamgray1753]

I think Grunt was necessary to show the "maximum" being a Krogan after Wrex. Once you got past Wrex's rough exterior he was an awesome friend to have around. In fact, it was similar for all of your teammates... except for Ashley the Space Racist. lol There was just always something that put me from Ashley. Kaiden.. he just needed an actual personality. Otherwise that dude was a plank of wood to me.

[@mischiefandmayhem8409]

And then I headbutted him... lolz :)

[@raighdarkhawk5298]

@@adamgray1753 I found Ashley much more interesting. A lot of people call her a space-racist, but, she had her reasons. Her prediction of the council races leaving humanity to fend for themselves was actually accurate throughout the entire trilogy. Plus, she grew as a character if you kept her around. In fact, she goes so far as to describe Tali as being like a sister to her. By contrast, Kaiden, while nice guy was super boring and had virtually no character development that I saw. He was the one I saved in my first play-through, but afterwards, I always saved Ash.

[@adamgray1753]

Ah, @@raighdarkhawk5298. I much preferred to my teams to be specifically Tali/Wrex or Tali/the Asari. I forgot her name. Mostly because Tali was great for anything computer hacking and whatnot. You always saved Ashley because Kaiden was too much of a plank of wood to you?

[@raighdarkhawk5298]

@@adamgray1753 "You always saved Ashley because Kaiden was too much of a plank of wood to you?" That was definitely part of it. He was a typical 'nice guy' but his character development was sorely lacking. He was pretty much the same throughout the series, with no real growth or change. Sure, you can leave a character's core personality alone, but still have them change and grow as a person. The writers succeeded in this with Ashley. She is a hard-line Alliance patriot and, to borrow from the Dark Horse Comic description of her "a soldier to the core." Yet, in 3 we see her allegiance, while still foremost to the Alliance, also expands to include the Council- which she previously hated. People hate her for this example I am about to give, but, she is willing to kill Shepard to protect the council, until the player convinces her you really are also trying to save the council. To me, that shows massive change and growth as a 'person' while still being true to her central personality.Sadly, the writers failed to develop Kaiden as well.

[@zygocact5947]

"You usually don't plow through an entire game in one setting. You're gonna take breaks to eat and sleep and maybe go to some sort of job." Y-yeah, totally haha

[@DarkCloudGather]

Even if you could, please don't do this. It isn't healthy for you, take breaks, drink water, move around.

[@megamike15]

you can easily go through mass effect 1 in a single sitting if you play it on easy.

[@jeffjensen8]

@@megamike15 Mass Effect 1? With all of the planet exploring and driving around? I think you might mean 2?

[@wuyev]

@@jeffjensen8 couldnt get myself to explore the planets the driving was so bad

[@palpytheemperorofelevators4937]

@@wuyev Wut?! That's honestly one of my favorite parts of Mass Effect. Exploring the unknown and crawling up mountainous terrain at a 70 degree angle. lol

[@Grogeous_Maximus]

The first ME had an actual writer creating the backstory; Drew Karpyshyn. That's what makes such a huge difference in that game.

[@T-Flame]

Of all the big name losses at Bio, Drew's departure hurt the most. Both times.

[@TheKrensada]

He's responsible for Anthem as well, so it wasn't all him.

[@T-Flame]

@@TheKrensada "Nope. I was never lead writer on Anthem and most of the lore was already made before I came onto the project." -Drew Karpyshyn on Twitter

[@njux1871]

@@TheKrensada To top that off, he also actively participated in writing Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic and wrote the Darth Bane trilogy. So he's also pretty much a Star Wars Godfather.

[@ericbryan113]

Very excited that he joined Archetype Entertainment with James Ohlen, . Very excited for whatever they're going to create.

[@randomusername6]

Shamus makes great videos HOWEVER they're not as popular as they should be THEREFORE I will post a comment to show my engagement to the algorithm

[@nilsjonsson1133]

Bep bop! I will now amplify engagent by reply.exe to your initial comment to serve the algorithm overlo[REDACTED] Bep bop!

[@cinebst]

Throwing one here too -- gotta appease the algorithm somehow

[@FangornAthran]

Oh great machine algorithm please accept this sacrifice to ensure a fruitful harvest for Shamus.

[@onemerlin]

And I will engage with your engagement, thus showing the algorithm that these videos create interaction and excitement in the comments.

[@THEArumin]

All hail the algorithm!

[@righteousham]

The more you spoke on how Mass Effect set up its world-building the more I realized how quickly the sequel abandoned that style of writing. Good video, glad to have found it.

[@spartanq7781]

Mass Effect is essentially a pointless reboot that's treated as a sequel. Resulting in all of the problems with Mass Effect 3.

[@moonman375]

shamus "writes a 75 parts long retrospective + other articles" also shamus "let me tell you about mass effect one more time" me: gimme more

[@tv_tim]

Yea, this makes me want to go back and read the whole Mass Effect write up he did again.

[@Ally5141]

I always loved the worldbuilding in Mass Effect, one of the best created worlds out there.

[@_Just_John]

After I finished Mass Effect 2 I told my friend I like Mass Effect universe much more than a Star Wars universe. He called me a blasphemer. But ME universe just feels more believable and makes much more sense than a SW one. I loved reading the codex entries and discovering history of different races. And I still hope there will be another good Mass Effect game.

[@CleverCover05]

Tell your friend it could be worse. You could decide you never really cared for star wars at all and just needed a reason to admit it out loud. Space fantasy knight just isn't my jam.

[@Fivetin]

I love Star Wars and Mass Effect a LOT. But I think you like ME more because you can relate to it much more. Because it's set in OUR universe. You playing as one of us, humans. And you see that all the story that is happened in real life is happened also in ME universe. Just like that soldier dialog in ME2 in Citadel about nuclear bomb that was dropped to Hiroshima, or Earth artifacts like Statue of Freedom head in Solomon Gunn's vault in Kasumi loyalty mission.

[@axelord4ever]

ME2 retconned and "explained" changes too much for me to enjoy the worldbuilding, and it was obvious the setting wasn't being handled by one guy anymore.

[@Coburnify]

ME is much better. Mainly bc the original star wars was a kids movie akin to a myth. It really wasn't SUPPOSED to have lore. Which is why the sequels suck. Also that entire universe is held up by the Skywalker family somehow. Mass Effect exists as a universe and you can make a story from any character of any alien race and have a fantastic story. Krogan genophage, first contact war, asasri going through the stages. All works. And the archetypes make sense. Its well thought out

[@justlikeyourfathersaid]

SW universe is really shallow tho, what do you mean lol Was aways just the jedis and hats it. No deept to it.

[@LukeSparrow221]

I remember playing this trilogy for the first time and being simply blown away by exactly this. The universe just felt so real thanks to this approach to world building.

[@Yora21]

I knew I was going to be blown away at the menu screen.

[@hojosconsal9913]

@@Yora21 me too lol that vigil song has something odd yet fascinating to it

[@ivanadaev1000]

Because of that, I actually hoped for New Horizons to find that Charon is not a planet, but a giant, dormant, ice-covered mass relay.

[@ivanadaev1000]

@@hojosconsal9913, the Vigil theme is actually space-themed re-arrangement of Bolero by Maurice Ravel.

[@baronsengir187]

And then season 8 came..uh..i mean the end of the third one

[@fyrentenimar]

Yeah, it annoys me that so many people think that games are the same as movies when it comes to stories (or only expect a movie type story in games, saying "well, it's a game, it's all about gameplay"). In my opinion, games are the best of movies and books rolled into one: they have the time to tell a detailed story, can be as detailed as they need, yet don't need to spent time on descriptions because we can see the world directly.

[@taiiat0]

i don't disagree, but i play games for the Gameplay - i appreciate good Narrative but ultimately the game can survive without a compelling Story - but if the Gameplay is flat or uninteresting, then a game is dead to me.

[@MarsofAritia]

I feel that games suffer from revolving everything around the player. the world pretty much starts and stops with the player, and the gameplay feels very disconnected from the narrative. You've got world ending threat but you can just mess around killing rats in your starting area all day. The best way to deal with that would be to remove the gameplay and completely railroad the player, but then you don't really have a game though. Actually, that kind of sounds like a VN, though all the ones I've seen either devolve into porn or time travel nonsense.

[@jakechinn6561]

@@taiiat0 It's funny, I'm the exact opposite. I find it very hard to enjoy any gameplay without being given a compelling reason to do, usually through the narrative. It can be goofy, stupid or serious but if I'm not invested in the narrative then the gameplay gets very repetitive very fast and I stop playing.

[@taiiat0]

@@jakechinn6561 for me the weighting is so heavily on Gameplay because my bullet list of importance ends up being ordered based on how often i must face/encounter it in the game - how you actually play it is there 99% of the time, so it's a critical point for me. if a game was super, super narrative heavy (i guess that would mean.... a lot of dialogue exchanges and/or Cutscenes? stuff that means you're definitely not playing the rest of the game anymore during it) then it would be important for the narrative to be compelling though, because i would have to deal with it pretty consistently. though, i'd argue that if a game is really good, the Gameplay won't be repetitive. :)

[@jakechinn6561]

@@taiiat0 Yeah I get that, our differences are basically How vs Why. You enjoy how you do something over why while I enjoy why I do something over how. Also I'd argue right back that all gameplay is inherently repetitive, there are many buttons and actions that can be used in different combinations to create engaging gameplay. For example all shooters essentially play the same but the good ones allow for greater variety of combinations.

[@txa1265]

Mass Effect is really the perfect game to focus on for this type of discussion - Classic Bioware was great at this, but earlier games had ‘known lore’ (Star Wars, AD&D) to lean on, whereas Mass Effect as you say had to manually build that world, and yet did it in a way that remained exciting and immersive. I had many discussions about this back in 2007 when it came out with those who basically said that they liked Mass Effect more than Star Wars because the world was more rich, detailed and interesting. While I don’t agree, I always found it a valid point and great source of discussions.

[@baudsp]

It could be interesting to compare with Jade Empire and Dragon Age, which are both original IP and were developed before and after the first Mass Effect.

[@baudsp]

@@owlfrog Yeah, I had a very good time with Jade Empire. I also don't think it could be done today by a Western studio without being drowned in screams of cultural appropriation.

[@Camelotsmoon]

I 100% agree with whoever liked the mass effect universe over star wars. In star wars you don't get to know the other species in the Galaxy at any depth whatsoever. Now maybe there's shit you need to read that's not in any of the shows or movies, but Mass effect puts it's entire universe front and center, so you can get entirely immersed in it. Star wars the only thing you're concerned about is Jedis, sith, empire, republic, rebellion and resistance....that's literally it...and the vast majority are humans..

[@Camelotsmoon]

@@owlfrog They're just a shadow of their former selves; to far in bed with EA to save themselves now. Sad thing is it'll happen to respawn eventually, just as it happened to bioware, dice, ect. At the very least we have the originals to play, it is sad that they can't create a good game if it saved their lives now though. For me, I'll give Mass effect a solid F, and hope it gets sold off to someone who can make a good game someday.

[@xelloskaczor5051]

While i understand what you are saying Mass Effect DID have a world to lean on, or rather cannibalize and that was Star Wars. ME pretty much took what it liked from SW and improved upon it, and discarded what it didnt like and replaced with something else. Up from space badass trying to save galaxy from weird ancient synthetic machinery of destruction (KOTOR 1 that they themselves made) Down to blue tentacle hair space babe race (Return of the Jedi)

[@nin_tendo6458]

"In terms of plot density and storytelling, games are closer to books." THANK YOU. I've been saying this since I was 15, I'm so happy to hear someone finally pointing this out. You have earned a sub my friend.

[@The-Autistic-Strategist]

I’ve always liked occasionally referring to games as “Interactive Media” It makes them sound a little more… refined, and fancy. lol (I stole this idea from my dad)

[@ZenoDovahkiin]

Since you mentioned open world games at the end: Large, militaristic empire/kingdom expands through war. Therefore, a huge strain is put onto the economy, as iron becomes scarce and a lot of the working populace is at the front instead of being productive. Therefore, the kingdom starts using condemned criminals as slaves in a work camp at iron deposits, creating a sort of prison colony. Therefore, taking many prisoners becomes conducive to strengthening the war effort. Therefore, people are condemned to forced labour ever more liberally, increasing the population of the prison colony making it harder to control the convicts and keep them from leaving. Therefore, mages are sent to raise a barrier to keep people from leaving. However, an unusual operation on this scale using magic is prone to fuckups, and thus the mages lock themselves and the guards up with the prisoners and lose control over the barrier, so nobody can leave. Therefore the king can't send reinforcements to the mines lest they become stuck there as well. Therefore, the prisoners rise up, kill the guards and anarchy breaks lose. Therefore, new oppressive, corrupt and exploitative structures establish themselves to fill the power vacuum. Therefore, a former prisoner now has real bargaining power against the king because he now largely controls the kingdom's supply of iron, putting him into position to demand whatever he wants, starting at food and alcohol all the way up to women (no shortage of convicts of either gender...). Therefore, ex prisoners who disagree with the new top dog's goals and want to destroy the barrier to regain their freedom defect into their own factions and hierarchies in conflict with the original ex prisoner leadership, who then carve out their own niches to do business with those that control trade with the outside world.

[@Ingel_Riday6690]

Ah, Gothic... too bad it was so buggy. The franchise gave The Elder Scrolls a run for its money for a while, though. Gothic 2 was good enough that it could stand toe to toe with Morrowind (though personally, I think Morrowind won the fight)… and then Gothic 3 killed the franchise with its horrible bugs, memory leaks, and poorly balanced gameplay. A shame, really.

[@adamfrisk956]

Ellwood Riesing However they got better again with Risen. Therefore the publisher forced them to milk the franchise. However they got they got irritated and didn’t give a toss with Risen 3. Therefore it’s gone the way of the Gothic.

[@Ingel_Riday6690]

@@adamfrisk956 Ah, Risen. Thanks for reminding me about that franchise. You're right, the first two were fun games as well.

[@whiskeysour1179]

Yeah I'd play that.

[@BruceLeedar]

Put simply, good original creative writing has a low perceived cost-benefit ratio in the marketplace of AAA games, so most of the times you see a AAA game with good writing it is due to fluke chance that quality writers somehow worked on a game and the producers didn't interfere. This also happens to create a barrier to entry for sophisticated writers, since publishers/developers prefer writers that can churn out 'acceptable', industry standard work quickly.

[@aaronchapin9331]

Well, the real problem is that it's not perceived. Good writing does have a relatively low ROI. Just look at the difference in sales between Witcher 1 and Witcher 3. Gameplay improvements drove much greater revenues than storytelling, which was already pretty good. Obviously I'd prefer more games like ME1, with this kind of world building. But, my job also isn't dependent on making bottom line figures net positive values.

[@SilentTree12]

Rest easy, Shamus.

[@RiceCracker87]

I always wondered why exactly I loved the mass effect universe but now I realise it's because of this 'therefore' and 'however' storyline. Everything happens for a reason and is connected to something else. Nothing happens purely to artificially advance the plot or add extra junk, everything is part of the universe and plot and I love that.

[@caltroop848]

Mass Effect is the only game that made me want to sit for hours reading the codex to find out every single detail about other races, wars and events. The Geth - Quarians war and the Asari are by far my favourite entries. I've just started downloading Mass Effect 2 and 3 for another playthrough

[@zehrayenigul7938]

This man’s videos are too underrated. Algorithm SHOW ME MORE OF THIS

[@NapoleonBonaparde]

The various civilizations did sort of know who built the mass effect relays, the Protheans, of course that is not the case but they were certain it was them. And the best part is the Rachni were less aggressive actually not at all compared to the Krogan, they were just influenced by the Reapers.

[@adamgray1753]

Yeah. You find this out by talking to the Rachni Queen herself. When I first played ME this was a jaw dropping event to me. Here you have a horror cockroach species queen, the last of her line apparently, but talking to her directly you get the distinct impression she is not a bloodthirsty monster, but someone who wants to atone for her people's past. I was like, "Oh whoa! I... I believe I actually sympathize with this. Dang!". So I let her go and forgot about her almost immediately due to immediate survival concerns. In ME2 it is quite startling to get any information from her again. The overall Shepard tone of "Just don't make me regret letting you live, alright?" was perfect to me. In ME3 it's pretty clear that the Rachni left to their own devices would always fall prey to the Reapers without some sort of form of protection from one or more other species. You saving the Queen yet again she turns out to become a massive helper for the War Effort. Not a bad turn of events if you ask me.

[@mjc0961]

@@adamgray1753 That was another place ME3 failed though. if you killed the queen in 1, 3 just goes "lawl doesn't matter the Reapers just made their own queen so now there's a queen again" 3 did some things right, but also sucked in a lot of ways too.

[@sinistersaint]

Favorite game trilogy ever. I've spent so many hours of my life playing these games over and over, while getting deep into the Renegade and Paragon consequences. I didn't even mind the ending of the third game after they patched it - however I believe they should have made the Leviathan DLC as actual in game content considering how much it explained about the Reapers. What a journey that series was.

[@soundofnellody262]

I played Mass Effect Tr. in 2014 for the first time. I was late for the party, yes. But ever since (10 years now) the world building, races and characters of ME are part of my life. I love to think+reflect about this universe, the races and their history, and the characters you meet.. and then discuss it with other fans.

[@hey01e5]

*pictures of assassin's creed games* "Did anyone EVER have a plan for this series?" lol, so true. these games have completely gone off the rails

[@roadent217]

Having only played the first 3 games in the series, and dropped the 4th one: Assassin's Creed clearly left a continuity hook with the cliffhanger of the fate of Desmond Miles, him having finally unlocked his Assassin powers (well, at least the Eagle Vision, letting him see Subject 16's writings) (yet, with Lucy's breakout of Desmond from the facility in the next game being really lazily done), but having finished Altair's arc. Altair defeats the Templar conspiracy, recovers the Piece of Eden, and, thematically, finally coming to the understanding of the ultimate Assassin's Creed - what the saying "Nothing is true, everything is permitted" actually means. Assassin's Creed 2, however, left the continuity hook in Ezio's story, leaving him confused with a vague prophecy directed to Desmond in the Sistine Chapel vault, since, I believe, the writers specifically underdeveloped Desmond's story in response to the negative audience reception of that part in the first game. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood seemingly finished Ezio's story with the Borgia conspiracy being utterly destroyed - but they once again left a plot hook in Desmond's story. Hence, I just couldn't get past Assassin's Creed: Revelations, which (besides bugging out on me), pointlessly revisited Ezio again, in Istanbul for some reason (???), with flashbacks to Altair's old life? Why? What's the point in that? And then I've heard that Assassin's Creed 3 (pfft) was poorly received, so I just dropped the series. So, yeah, the first game was practically mostly complete story wise, and Assassin's Creed 2 planned for at least one sequel, which was delivered.

[@baudsp]

Well at least the gameplay of AC 3 felt way improved compared to the previous one. Too bad I lost my save so I never finished it.

[@hey01e5]

@@baudsp to me, AC3's ending is when the series really started to get off the rails. love him or hate him, desmond's death was anti-climactic. i thought that desmond going from an average bartender to a deadly assassin was going to lead somewhere. at least black flag was pretty fun, but unity was boring and i never finished the game. did not play any assassin's creed game past unity.

[@baudsp]

@@hey01e5 I meant to play black flag since quite some time but I never started it

[@YorkJonhson]

It's a shame, because there apparently was a proper ending mapped out for Assassin's Creed from the beginning but Ubisoft dumped the original writer and story arc after the first few successes because they wanted the series to be able to go on indefinitely.

[@gorbtarguss1189]

I've always been so deathly envious of mass effects world building.

[@superslayerguy]

Fucking best game ever, I'll never forget how blown away I was when I first talked to Sovereign on Vermire "there lies a realm of existence so far beyond your own, you cannot even imagine it". Mass Effect took the science fiction genre to a whole new level I thought wasn't possible. I still find time to play the trilogy at least once a year

[@khoavuong]

I am engaging the youtube algorithm.

[@ekmatteau]

Good idea.

[@margony6921]

New here but good thinking!

[@harbl99]

Ah, _Mass Effect_ , the premier 'angrily hanging up on the idiot galactic council' simulator. The depth and fluidity of the hanging up mechanics have been oft imitated, but never bettered. Oh yes, and good worldbuilding too. The closest equivalent I can think of in non-games media are story arc'ed serials like _Babylon 5_ or _DS9_ , maybe _The Expanse_ .

[@strategossable1366]

"Is this some sort of game? Are you calling in a report just so you can cut us off again?" "YOU KNOW IT" Who knew that hanging up on bureaucrats would be the most entertaining part of a sci fi action game?

[@filipprucnal]

@@strategossable1366 "This never gets old, does it?"

[@ace0071000]

What I really love about ME1 is that those "galactic council idiots" are, actually, not that dumb. Sure, from Shepard's point of view they are just stubborn and "don't want to see the facts", but from their point of view the story looks a lot different. From their point of view, Shepard is a protege of a failed Spectre candidate that might have a personal vendetta against their top agent. Then said protege accuses the top agent of attacking a human colony with the help of self-isolated passively hostile murder robots (never seen in last 200 years) with no evidence except a testimony of a single smuggler, while talking about "visions" they've seen. When actual evidence is provided, they do fire said top agent, as well as throw a bone to humanity by making Shepard a Spectre and sending after the ex-agent. All throughout the game Shepard does a top of stuff that oversteps the bounds of their authority, while continuing his rambling about the visions. Is it really surprising the council doesn't take Shepard seriously?

[@aeonkwiz]

Drew Karpyshyn is indeed a God of storytelling and world building, too bad he's not working on video games anymore (and that he was given a backseat role during his later years in Bioware).

[@vladprus4019]

"too bad he's not working on video games anymore" Well, he will be writer of new sci-fi RPG from new studio made from former people from Bio-Ware.

[@aeonkwiz]

@@vladprus4019 Indeed, news broke after my comment, let's hope for the best, this Artifact Entertainment has everything it needs to be the new Bioware that CDPR refuses to be 😅

[@n.l.g.6401]

Oh my god, this is how I've been building the setting for the sci-fi TTRPG I'm running for my friends. I am a huge fan of Mass Effect and had no idea that its worldbuilding had such a subconscious impact on my creative process. Thank you for putting a name to the thing I've been trying so hard to pull off. Domino worldbuilding. Shit, that's going straight into my personal lexicon. BRB, gotta share this with my TTRPG group. I think the other GMs will appreciate it. Thank you so much for this video.

[@SleepyKamo]

Shamus Young, Mass Effect Scholar

[@CallMeChato]

Game wolds that made complete sense: Fallout New Vegas, Uncharted series, Skyrim, Mass Effect, Zelda Ocarina of Time. The alien races in Mass Effect are unparalleled. Lots of emotion in that series, which is why the ineptitude of Andromeda was so shocking. Nicely done vid.

[@LostShipMate]

Just discovered this channel, sad to hear that Shamus Young(Twenty Sided) died a little of a year ago. Time to binge this channel.

[@Pxinkill]

Bioware should watch this so they could understand what the ex- staff did.

[@lilixpictures6128]

@Jurassic Mindset If you say it that way, it seems that Andromeda wouldn't be as criticized if it wasn't a part of Mass Effect franchise.

[@RandyRandersonthefamous]

@Jurassic Mindset games companies ruined or cripples: titanfall 2 deus ex ME3 MEA ...

[@CleverCover05]

@@lilixpictures6128 maybe that was the problem. I was alright with it, but always found it lacking because I compared it to the incredible feeling I got from the very first cutscene with the original trilogy. With that one thought, I finally could connect to star wars prequel haters.

[@njux1871]

​@@CleverCover05 Though honestly, the Prequels offer so much more depth and new, creative ideas than Mass Effect: Andromeda, which gives just about 0 new things to the Mass Effect universe. The prequels gave a lot, thought out by the creator, whose passion was to tell a story, and that's what he did. That's something lacking in most big films and in even more games (relatively). People can hate those ideas, the problematic dialogue and George's love for CGI, but they cannot deny that it was creative, from the heart and with no monetary reason as the primary motivation. Can't really say that about Andromeda.

[@Varangian_af_Scaniae]

@Um dois Três "Andromeda is good" That's a statement that lost you all credibility. There isn't one good aspect of that game more than "pretty" worlds. Even a blind monkey can create beautiful worlds in Frostbite.

[@axelord4ever]

I vividly remember how much I enjoyed Mass Effect way back when, and also how much Mass Effect 2 irked me subsequently (the less said about ME3 the better). I've seen people complain about how a lot of exploration happened on barren wasteland planets (and some gripes about the mako handling), missing the point that the whole exploration schtick was *about* worldbuilding in and of itself. Sometime, exploration is a dead end, but very few games let you experience dead ends like that. The whole _if-there's-a-crack-in-the-wall-there-must-be-something-behind-it-let's-blow-it-up_ is nice but beside subverting expectations when there really isn't anything there, it's good to put some perspective on those moments where there is something hidden to discover. Feels less like you're being led around on a leash and more like you're exploring a world.

[@DGenHero]

The Domino Effect dude. Its right there.

[@clydemarshall8095]

You know, ME1 is actually my favorite one in the series.

[@clydemarshall8095]

@Caleb Imrie I mean, sure the gameplay wasn't quite as refined as in the sequels, but the worldbuilding and character interaction and the mystery of the Reapers felt most engaging and authentic in the first entry. ME2 had some great character moments but was too filled with contrivances for me to ignore. ME3 was alright, and it had its own narrative issues, but I genuinely enjoyed it for what it was.

[@robrick9361]

@@clydemarshall8095 "refined" means nothing when the sequels removed tons of mechanics and dumbed down what was left.

[@guyincognito7188]

I was rereading your Mass Effect retrospective not too long ago. I got to the end of ME1, the part where you analysed all the work put into setting up the sequels, that was thrown out and wasted in 2 and 3, and I had to stop reading there. It just made me so sad. So much potential wasted. I wrote the above before watching, assuming it would end up being sorta about this, more fool me! :) But yeah, Mass Effect, brilliant at both ends. And in most of the middle bits. Pity. Ya made me sad again, Shamus.

[@TheDeadfast]

The sequels were so disappointing. Mass Effect 2 pretty much just trod water story-wise. It had some good characters but at the end of the story you were exactly where the first game left you. Then the third game came in with the "they're coming for Earth!" drama and I honestly couldn't care less. They completely missed the mark as to what made the original game special: everything besides Earth.

[@baudsp]

All the good plot lines in ME3 were those built on the backstory of ME1, so at least there's that.

[@joelfilho2625]

@@TheDeadfast I'll have to argue against you here. While I admit Mass Effect 2 Didn't have that much impact on the story as a whole (though it did have great quests and exploration of the world it is set in, with quarians, Geth, Omega and Illium as fresh new places with cool stories), I have to say that the setup to ME3 was great. I agree with you that we don't much care about Earth itself but the game doesn't come at you with "They're coming for *Earth!* ", the game comes at you with "The unimaginably powerful ancient evil who you've been fighting against this whole time has arrived, is coming for *everyone* and it already fuckin' dabbed on the whole human alliance and is going to do the same to everyone else if you don't stop it!". It becomes an epic struggle against unimaginable odds as you try to bring all the alliances and friendships you cultivated in the other two games to bear against the Reapers. It brings great, weightful new plotlines, of which I particularly enjoy the quarian/geth war and the krogan genophage. Of course, it completely fucks up being renegade, turning being a ruthless, pragmatic tactician into being just an irredeemable asshole and I don't even think I need to say anything about what a monumental fucking screwup the ending was, but the journey itself felt epic and amazing. We both also can agree that Me2 and 3 watered down some important RPG mechanics too, but then again, that is kinda obvious.

[@adamgray1753]

Excellent post, @@joelfilho2625, about the original Mass Effect trilogy. My biggest disappointment with ME3 was the fact half of the game is missing. The Asari homeworld mission is severely rushed. From there you can clearly see where there should of been an entirely another half of ME3. Instead we get a terribly rushed (revenge) mission against the Illusive Man and his Cerberus faction then forced into the End Game stuff from there. I have thought over the years since EA completely destroyed the Mass Effect franchise that Andromeda was very easily able to be fit into the ME universe if it was done with tact. ME: A was poorly done in every way possible. I personally would of given it a shot if it was even described in ME2 or early ME3 that there was a super liveship that was being developed in ultra top security. You being Shepard was just being put in-the-know about the super liveship as a last ditch effort. Admiral Hackett would of told you that he and everyone else were not foolhardy enough to sink every last credit in the known galaxy for an untested supposedly super weapon against the Reapers. After all, it was proven that the blueprints were around for millions of years. So what really were the odds that the Reapers had completely missed this super weapon blueprint stuff this entire time? The previous question being part of the actual dialogue between Shepard and Admiral Hackett. The super liveship would of been using the pre-existing Mass Effect technologies, but would of been using the theorical "super" Mass Relay known as The Citadel. The reason being Admiral Hackett would of also let you know ever since it was known from the first game (provided you got at least 75% of the Keepers' info recorded) that there was something seriously off about The Citadel. Then looking into Virgil turned out that Admiral Hackett sent a black ops team in the day after the first game ended to Ios. Hackett's team went through the same Q & A session you went through, only had it recorded... in full 4K resolution! lol Seriously though, this is how the super liveship came to be and how it was going to be used, and why it was going to be used. So technically speaking Shepard could of been starring in ME: A if things were done correctly. ME3 did not have to be a "Shepard dies in this game, y'all!" type of thing. This could of been a "betrayal" of loyal Mass Effect gamers' trust, but in a good way. One that would of kept the ME franchise going and this time a very different tone. This different tone too would have to be handled with tact.

[@DefinitelyNotAnEggAhaha]

@@joelfilho2625 No, the game really does specifically come at you with "They're coming for Earth!" Just look at the advertising campaign, which centered entirely on the battle for Earth. Look at the opening level, set on Earth as it gets invaded. Look how the game ends with the Citadel being brought to Earth for no actual coherent reason. Look at how Shepard spends half the game trying to get other races to come help Earth. Look at the absurdly large role Cerberus plays in all this. The writers really did think that Earth was super important for some reason

[@somedwarvenwriter7535]

The first time I played Mass Effect I was blown away by how well written it was. I'd played other good RPGs before but I hadn't ever touched anything as amazing as ME. My girlfriend doesn't understand why I love the first Mass Effect game so much but this video exemplifies my reasoning. All of that writing is so neatly worked into the plot that it doesn't ever feel clunky or uncomfortable. Although there are some flaws in the later Mass Effect games, the whole series is amazing. I think I could play it a thousand times and never be bored.

[@AbuHajarAlBugatti]

Yeah I remember playing it on PC when it came out . was around 14 or something like that and blown away by how epic and real and unique it was. Especially öoving shows like Stargate, scifi films and having played TES Oblivion right before

[@yarpen26]

I played the first ME when I was sixteen, I was passing through that sort of edgy transition phase in which, while before you used to uncritically love anything, now you hate on everything. I disliked the lore at first and I posted comments on forums about how ridiculous the premise of every nation on Earth rallying behind a bunch of Americans representing them before aliens was, how said alien species had a mentality more akin to that of an average Westerner than a Westerner to a Japanese... Took me a while to fully appreciate the series for what it is, for the impressive lorebuilding, even if at the end of the day I think we can all agree that, no matter how much we would like it to, the intergalactic community would surely not look nearly this similar to ours. Also, while I still think BioWare could have ripped off the Rakata from KotOR a bit more subtly, the backstory to the Protheans is overall much more intriguing and the Reapers are by far the most fear-inducing SOBs I've ever seen in sci-fi (still remember the chills I was having during the Sovereign scene on Virmire).

[@ivorysamoan]

I think I have played through them all about 15 times...I've lost count. The best Jerry, the best.

[@Elite7555]

Yeah, the first time I was blown away too - by the hype. But the second time I noticed all those plot holes and inconsistencies - then the series becomes ridiculous. Seriously, a three member council and lawless space cowboys? Nobody ever questioned where Saren got this big arse ship from or what he does all day long? The beginning of ME 2 is even more ridiculous. Cerberus can be as powerful and wealthy as they will, but they can't repair broken cells. I agree, the games are fun and I have played them multiple times. But the plot is a mess.

[@jpacedo125]

“Should have paid more attention in history class” 13:49 earned my sub

[@N-Xrd]

RIP dude. It's a sad you're aren't around to see Elden Ring.

[@LiquidDIO]

Mass Effect was really close to what I consider a bit of a personal holy grail for me, as well as a metaphor for how well crafted things stand out over time from the dreck that was shat out after.

[@drakenstoc4885]

The Legend of Heroes: Trails series is a JRPG series that has a lot of great world building in it. It currently has three arcs: the Trails in the Sky arc(3 games), Zero no Kiseki/Ao no Kiseki arc(dubbed the Crossbell Arc by fans because it hasn't been officially localized yet - consists of 2 games), and the Cold Steel arc(4 games - 3 of them have been localized, with the 4th presumably on the way). There are a total of 9 games in the series so far, with a 10th game on the way. Each game is also pretty long... and also very text-heavy. My experience has been around 50 to 100 hours for each game(give or take). All of the games take place within the same world, so you see characters in multiple games/arcs, events that happen in one game/arc impacting things that happen in another game/arc, and so on. Each game within an arc leads into the next game in said arc, so if you were to play it, you would want to start with the first game in that particular arc(example: Sky FC > Sky SC > Sky The Third is how you would approach the Sky arc). Due to the overarching plot the games, and how they are all connected together, Trails fans usually suggest that you play the arcs in the order that they were released(Sky > Crossbell > Cold Steel - there ARE fan translations of Crossbell, after all). Personally, I think it's fine to play the arcs in any order you deem fit... but I do agree that, for optimal enjoyment, it's best to start with the Sky games. What really makes these games so crazy though is how they handle characters. Whether it's the main characters(playable, antagonist, or support), or the normal NPCs you find within towns, they all have backstories to them. They all have their own lives, and they actively live said lives throughout the course of the games. Whether you bother to involve yourself or not. And personally? I haven't ever regretted putting in the time to get to know all of the characters(even the NPCs - especially the NPCs, actually). For example, when you first start playing a Trails game, people usually recommend that you talk to all of the NPCs you meet after every story event. That is because the NPCs always have new dialog after just about every story event that takes place. They'll usually be doing something new as well. It gives the world of these games a "lived in" feeling, making the NPCs almost feel like sub-support characters(not necessarily on the level of a support character that'll actively help you throughout your journey, but still someone that you've come to know and like throughout the course of your journey... if that makes sense). There are plenty of other things too. Each Trails game has a series of in-game books to collect and read, with the books themselves often being based on characters within the game world itself(for example, a book series you can collect in the Sky games actually involve some characters that appear in the Cold Steel games). There are newspapers to collect as well, which typically cover events that are occurring around the time you gain access to that particular newspaper article. And then there are those books that you can read in the "environment". You usually can't collect these ones(there are some minor exceptions), but you can examine bookshelves and read them that way. These too add a lot of additional information on the world, such as how the technology of the world works, who helped to invent it, and so on. I could go into the backstory of the world itself, but doing so is a pain, lol. There are some videos out there that cover this much better than I ever could. That said, it is easily one of my favorite series, and one that I wish more people knew about. While the developer(Nihon Falcom) isn't particularly well known at this time, I've never once felt like I've been ripped off buying a Trails game. Every single game has been amazing in my opinion. The only real "weakness" the Trails games have is that they aren't graphically impressive... like, at all. But I'd take mediocre graphics any day for a game series with the level of attention to detail in it's characters, story and world building that the Trails series has. Seriously, if you're looking for an RPG series that'll surprise you the more you play it? Trails is it.

[@3Rayfire]

That gets you a Captain Picard clap sir, bravo. Coming into the first Mass Effect I just saw an interesting looking sci fi game...but it was made by the people who made the beautiful Jade Empire, so I was willing to give it a shot. Can you imagine coming into that game with no expectations, having read no reviews, and seen no trailers? It was the video game equivalent of Avengers: Endgame for me. A game that I wish I could use a MIB neuralyzer on myself so I can experience it completely fresh once again. I thought 2 was a masterpiece, and 3 had moments of brilliance that are the heights of the series despite that ending. Andromeda for all its faults is still a solid playing game, and the boundless potential there in the bones, bones that are still Mass Effect 1, make me mourn that they *quit* on the game so early. But it all goes back to Mass Effect 1. That's how solid the foundation is. That game affected everything about how I perceive and receive media, it's given me new appreciation of older stuff like DS9 and appreciation for newer stuff like the MCU. It gave new depth to my own writing, and makes me yearn for the style in other works. I would call it Simulated Sequential History, or Consequential Setting Construction, but I'm a bit verbose. Domino Worldbuilding is perfect.

[@tomusmc1993]

After watching your video I felt that i needed to outline my thoughts on it: Yes.

[@EphemeraEssays]

The developers of Disco Elysium put out an artbook on their game and included a really interesting bit that proves your point. The world they made is based on their D&D game that they've had going for a long time. They spent hundreds of in-game years within this world directly causing things to happen and creating their own history, and so the world of Disco Elysium has to exist as a series of "therefore X" because they were the ones causing all these things to happen. It works so damn well!

[@smeissner328]

The first Mass Effect is probably my favorite game of all time. I'm not educated on writing, so your Mass Effect retrospective did a brilliant job of explaining why I loved the first so much and just felt disappointed by the main story in the second and third. So here I am, liking and adding this to favorites before I even watch it :D

[@SoftExo]

Any given game out there will be hard pressed to replicate things like speaking with sovereign, or finding Vigil in what was effectively a giant Prothean tomb. Absolutely fascinating game.

[@deviledegg5664]

You wanna win a battle you bring the krogan, but if you wanna win the war you bring the turians

[@LinoWalker]

I loved your Mass Effect Retrospective, and I still read it sometimes, so any chance you get to talk about it, is a treat :)

[@MMmmmVarley]

Dear KZbin chaos algorithm of uncertainty, thank you for showing me this channel. Subbed.

[@penttikoivuniemi2146]

And then they hid a massive part of that lore and worldbuilding in the codex that maybe 1% of the players ever even opened. Probably less than 1% if we are being honest, I have played through the entire series several times, love it, and only looked at the codex once when I last replayed the games, in ME3, because I misclicked on it. Went "oh yeah, this thing exists," flipped through a couple of pages and continued playing.

[@WonderVis97]

Shamus: “I’m going to try and be a little more positive this time” Also Shamus: “lets make these game worlds a little less lazy, boring or aggressively stupid.”

[@wswordsmen]

All hail the algorithm, into which all content must go.

[@euchre90]

Agreed on every level! Drew Karpyshyn and team made an incredible job writing the first two Mass Effects. The worlds and characters are intricate and really evoke some sort of emotion. I still remember the first time I landed on the Citadel; so amazingly detailed, all these people you could talk to, all these amazing backstories, the atmosphere... Incredible. Yes.

[@Interbrigadist74]

Arguably the King of Domino Worldbuilding in Literature is George R. R. Martin. Everything happens as a consequence of something else and all the character‘s actions are more or less rational in the context of their environment and background.

[@grantryder352]

Oh my God your first 4 questions immediately told me how Fable's world building happened

[@fargusmaloy]

Great video. Actually highlightes the one thing that sets a good setting apart from the bad one's.

[@pricture]

Great video. No game has ever come close to the Mass Effect trilogy for me, and this helped me understand why.

[@IvanBaturaChannel]

I like that type of worldbuilding a lot, I guess now I have to try Mass Effect

[@SquidwardAF]

ah, yes, the good Mass Effect

[@spartanq7781]

Mass Effect 2 disrespects Mass Effect 1. Literally everything was changed for mass market appeal. EA ruined Mass Effect. It didn't help that the writing had taken a monumental downgrade and focuses far too much on fucking Cerberus!

[@robrick9361]

@@spartanq7781 Don't forget the complete removal of entire aspects of ME1's gameplay like exploration and the dumbing down of the RPG mechanics. In ME2 you can't even choose which weapons get those thermal clips, the stupid game just auto assigns them. The only good thing you can say about ME2's gameplay is that it's more polished but considering how restricted in scope the game's gameplay became that's really not impressive at all.

[@spartanq7781]

@@robrick9361 Actually Mother's Basement made a video discussing the gameplay changes. The late great curator of Mess Effect discussed the narrative regression. Mass Effect 2 being touted as the best one bothers me because it's a sequel that doesn't feel like a sequel. It almost feels strangely apologetic of the original. Mass Effect 3 is really just a worse Mass Effect 2 in every way sans combat. The scale of the universe gets even smaller despite seeing more of it. It's quite paradoxical really. The narrative spends time on Cerberus for some reason and I mean a lot of time when they really shouldn't have gotten any. Think about without so much attention on Cerberus the Krogan,Turrian,Salarian and Asari could have had far more screen time as well as given some to the Baterian storyline. All of which far more interesting than Cerberus. It also bugs me how we're gathering forces in the middle of the Reaper invasion when really it should have been our goal of Mass Effect 2 as well as finding a way to stop the Reapers. Then Mass Effect 3 could have been about aiding the other races as they do the same for us as we pull our resources together to stop them. There was no need for the crucible or the fucking star child or learning about the Reaper's goals. That way Mass Effect 4 could've have been about the conflict the Reapers were trying and failing to resolve for several eons. Honestly as the trilogy is the refusal ending is the only logical one as there really shouldn't be a way to stop the Reapers given all the borrowed time in universe wasted since the first game's credits rolled.

[@SirCrusher]

Oh, hello there! I've read all your articles on mass effect and liked them a lot. Didn't know you were on KZbin. "A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one"

[@ekszentrik]

You can BET I will use this term from now. It's a perfect description for a certain form of worldbuilding.

[@Kyodaiki]

You nailed why I loved the original Mass Effect just with the description of everything that happened before you got control of Shepard. It's the only game I've ever played that I sat on the Citadel and plowed through its entire cyclopedia to just absorb it's fantastically laid out world. It was only made better by being the only one (almost) fully read to you by a good voice actor.

[@Mueslinator]

I think RagnarRox (whom I just discovered two days ago, an who also has some pretty interesting takes on narrative in games) calls this "archaeological storytelling"; and I conceptualized it as "onion story telling"; It all just visualizes one common concept - Narrative Depth: When the audience digs into the story by asking "Why" or "How", going beyond the outer, visible layer of the story, digging deeper... Those stories have a layer that answers those questions. And the better ones supply more layers, deeper levels of digging. ...I just like the onion best, because of the tears.

[@yarpen26]

As an added bonus, crafting this kind of deep lore helps you yourself becoming a fan of the work you're creating. I know it from my own experience: there is a story I've been painstakingly working on for more than a decade and I hope to God that I will be able to publish it in this or another form before I die. The fact that the lore (alt-history stuff) is so deep and intricate, with "current" events being indirectly influenced by things from centuries ago: but all of it still makes sense and it's just so much fun to be thinking about it. Every once in a while I come up with a new backstory event and then it dawns on me how it could serve to make my "current" characters' motivations even more fleshed out. Immensely satisfying.

[@ryrin6091]

I've watched a couple of your videos and both have been great. You've earned a subscriber. And yeah I'd always felt that there was something special about the world building of Mass Effect. It's always been very enthralling to me to the point that I can read about it and listen to the dialogue about it countless times and not get tired of it.

[@MasterBlaster-ri5ms]

RIP dude you were a great youtuber

[@ScifiSiShredaholic]

This is quite possibly my second favourite video on youtube ever

[@joelhopper4203]

My mind was blown, brain bits to the ceiling, with the first Mass Effect game. On par at least with seeing Fellowship of The Ring for the first time in terms of immersion and pure curiosity. I would seriously pay years worth of salary in order to experience something like that again.

[@nathan.dunahoo]

Gosh I love your Videos!

[@spawnofapathy]

This was what Mass Effect Andromeda was missing in its world building. So little new world building and everything felt arbitrary rather than a cause and effect.

[@ianspeck9071]

Your content is always engaging and thoughtful, Mr. Young!

[@SpaceMonke99]

The flawed masterpiece, here for another lesson. I love this game to death, it's storytelling and world building have been a huge influence for me and my own writing. It's so wonderfully rich and I am saddened by the way it went on to be so criminally disrespected by what followed. ME1 will always hold a special place in my heart. It's the game where everything felt the most interesting and like an adventure to me, discovering new tid bits of lore along the way, each all the more fascinating than the last.

[@dantenotavailable]

I regret that i have but one like to give. This is a great video. There's an easy second part as well because you mention that this style of world building provides a great foundation for future sequels and we have 3 sequel games to evaluate and maybe get something from. Would love to see that video.

[@rippspeck]

First time viewer and I gotta admit: that intro where you say you're a negative guy got me hooked instantly. I really enjoy people who don't mince their words. Honesty and cynicism are the same thing most of the time. Now after actually watching the whole thing, I can assure you that I am dancing for our corporate masters. And I like it. Because you're a cool guy.

[@JohnVanderbeck]

Mass Effect is my absolute favorite series of games and one of the most fun fictional worlds for me. However 2 and 3 are the most fun for me to PLAY because as much as I always say i WANT open world freedom, I find the games benefit more form the streamlining and linear-ish momentum. Its why Arkham Asylum is better than the follow up games from a story perspective. Its what I like to call the "The world i ending and only I can save it - oh wait side quest!" problem. ME1's over all story to me got washed down by the open world and sheer deluge of side quests, where as ME2 and 3 may have taken away a lot of your freedom, but replaced it with a much tighter focused story. Andromeda suffered from a lot of what ME1 did which is actually why the game lost me more than anything else. Sure it had some serious technical problems, but more than that I never felt the sense of focus and drive to push forward that ME2 and ME3 gave me.

[@sinistersaint]

Agreed on all accounts. I loved ME1, but when ME2 came out I lost my damn mind over how much smoother the mechanics had become, how beautiful the graphics were, and how well the character developments advanced. Also - Arkham Asylum is the best of the B-man games simply because Mark Hamill harasses you via TV screens and loud speakers the entire game.

[@PerogiPalooka]

Your video and thoughts are really hitting me with similar vibes as "The Shandification of Fallout" It's 7 years old by now, but give that video a look, I think you'll enjoy it.

[@dragonhold4]

Because plot holes are easier to point out (11:40) and to handle some of the chaos of a large open-world (7:30), V.J.Lakshman uses a technique he calls "conflict mapping" when writing stories for video games. Source: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mHmofnlpbrWJpa8 _VJ On Writing_

[@domm6812]

Yes! Agree so much. And thank you for acknowledging Mass Effect 1's brilliance. People keep harping on about ME2 as the best, but ME1 has so much more depth and atmosphere and world building. Brilliant.

[@paulclark2410]

Mass Effect Trilogy, in my top games of all time.

[@peripheralarbor]

I feel like, as long as the chain is followed with diligence, it doesn't matter whether the dominoes are going forward or backward in time. It's fine to start with "the story needs a badguy" and work backward into the moral-socio-political landscape that made the rise of that "badguy" possible, or even inevitable. But the point stands that, once you know the story you want to tell, it's very difficult to put in the work required to ramify the vignette into a cohesive setting.

[@nathanbrown8680]

I suspect that starting at the endpoint of "the story needs a badguy" and working backwards makes you more prone to plagiarizing history. And unfortunately many will lazily plagiarize the first real "badguy" they can think of, which is almost invariably the same guy and whose rise most people don't really understand in any sort of depth. While Bioware didn't fall into this trap, their backstory for the Reapers, who I'm pretty sure were done in reverse as you're suggesting, is pretty weak. The Leviathans had a problem with other races building AIs that went rogue so they made an AI and gave it self replication tech and military hardware and were surprised when it went rogue. That's like if the Salarians had uplifted dozens of races and all of them had rebelled exactly like the Krogans and their solution was to uplift another primitive race and give them even better weapons to solve all of the other rebellions.

[@peripheralarbor]

@@nathanbrown8680 While it's true that "plagiarizing" historical figures is a temptation, it's better than one dimensional characters with no motivation. While I agree this is lazy, I don't think it's exactly a problem. As for the Reapers, they were so much better when they were an incomprehensible cybernetic eldritch horror. If only they had drawn from historical sources there too. Ah well.

[@BAAa-tw7lo]

This video put the word on what I've felt was so great about Mass Effect, and why I loved it so much. I dearly wish we would see its like again. For those interested in this video's content, go read Shamus Young's entire essay on Mass Effect. It's super detailed and super thorough, giving due criticism and worthy praise on the game trilogy in a meticulous manner.

[@5punkybob]

When ME came out I didn't even know about it until a mate finished it and lent it to me. I took two sick days off work... And setup the projector.

[@cafespy6906]

I think that the reluctance to see this medium as a valid art form is what is holding it back . Oh there are many who do view it that way but the idea is far from universal not to mention that there is even a tendency among many to actively resist any tendency to acknowledge video games as art whatsoever. That is why I am glad you are mentioning these things. It is my sincere hope that you will inspire a well deserved reconsideration of the literary merits of this exciting medium.

[@yarpen26]

I'm afraid video games are gonna stay with the comic book curse. They sure will be influential but are unlikely to ever truly reach the mainstream. Superheroes didn't really become household names until after there were films and TV shows made of them. Almost everybody watches Marvel flicks but few and far between read comics they were based on. There are literally hundreds of movie and book characters you can quote and parody and most people, regardless of age and gender, will catch onto what you're referring to-with games, you can only do that with Lara or Mario, and even that would probably get you some confused "Who?" from quite a few people. Some gamers hope that in time the current gaming generation will become parents and politicians and attitudes will change-but comic books prove that it might never actually come to pass. While in various genres, books and movies are enjoyed by everybody: male, female, young and old, in roughly similar proportions. On the other hand, games, much like comics before them, still continue to be stuck in the young male category. Most action flicks have at worst 40+% female audiences, whereas I seriously doubt that the proportion of women who ever played ME reaches even 10% of the grand total. As for now, it seems that dedication to hardcore gaming diminishes with age. Maybe it's because it takes up more of your time than reading a book or watching a movie. Or maybe because as you grow older you are going to be less and less effective as a gamer, whereas other genres don't require your dexterity. I don't know.

[@cafespy6906]

@@yarpen26 I am 51 yrs old and whereas my mind is considerably less flexible than it was in my youth its OK because that is what difficulty settings are for. I do know however that I am an exception to the rule so , I reluctantly agree with you. I just feel that video games have an artistic potential on par with opera in that it is a marriage of visual and literary arts. I have had the experience of actually being brought to tears or being moved to want to take a walk to be alone with my thoughts to contemplate an outcome in a game. There is no such thing as an opera that interacted with its audience and moved them through their own decisions . One would think a writer would be thrilled at the prospect. I hope you are wrong about its future, but i fear you may be right.

[@yarpen26]

@@cafespy6906 True, video games are an extremely prolific garden to grow your story in, in way unattainable to other genres. But the fact that you can't really get with them to _almost_ everybody, the way you can with novels and films, deters people from trying it out, even if they are gamers themselves. The industry might reach new levels of revenues, might be lauded for being "more profitable than Hollywood" but it's solely because games and DLCs are easily the most expensive piece of media you can get hold of. It's 100% plausible that, say, 100 million people spending $60 each will give you more than 500 million people who need only to spend some $10 (or whatever) for a movie ticket. But they're still five times fewer in number.

[@UteChewb]

Your description of worldbuilding, or domino worlbuilding is pretty much the recommended way it's done when writing a novel, or series of them. Beats me why it isn't done more often in games since detailed worldbuilding solves a lot of effort. The idea applies to lots of things not just games but also software, where the design phase should take the most effort because if you don't do that then you will spend forever fixing bugs adding last minute broken features etc.

[@Zekonos1]

i liked the first dead space for this as well! it was cool to see the farms and stuff, see how the people lived on this massive ship for years

[@dddfeardi]

The "Hitler rose to power" history of events goes all the way back to Charlemagne...or his grandsons, anyway. Charlemagne only had one heir, Louis the Pious, so Louis got the whole empire. Louis had three heirs, who each inherited a chunk of the empire. Charles the Bald got West Francia (Western France), Louis the German got East Francia (western Germany), and Lothair I got Middle Francia: the Low Countries, northern Italy, eastern France, Switzerland, and *Alsace-Lorraine*. Due to some inheritance shenanigans, bits of Middle Francia got tossed back and forth between East and West Francia before the entire Carolingian empire finally collapsed into successor kingdoms with the overthrow of Charles II the Fat. The pieces of Middle Francia -- Alsace-Lorraine especially -- were claimed by many of the successor kingdoms repeatedly throughout the centuries, with France and the Germanic states (and later the united Germany) warring repeatedly over the region. As a border region between the two cultures, both cultures have mixed there over the centuries, with both languages being spoken, and so both sides viewed it as "their" territory from a nationalist point of view. It was also considered an area of strategic importance, sitting right up against the Rhine, France viewing it as natural border and Germany viewing it as position France could easily defend and use to launch an invasion. As result, the German Empire demanded Alsace-Lorraine after their victory in the Franco-Prussian War, which inflamed French animosity toward the Germans, which exacerbated the colonial tensions and led into the mutual defense agreements part of your list. It's amazing to think how the course of European history might have changed if Louis the Pious only had one heir or if Charles the Fat was a good enough king to not get deposed.

[@mick-ericboettge8683]

I think this is the reason why I keep coming back to the mass effect trilogy, each playthrough there seems to be more to discover and it's so interesting, engaging and plausible. Whereas other narrative driven games I also thoroughly enjoyed on their own merits, have little to no replay value coz the lore is either hidden in pages of collectible notes or straight up forgettable.

[@forestwells5820]

Ah, the good old days of EA when we got gems like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, C&C, and others. They have fallen from grace in recent years, which is why I am so amazingly nervous about Dragon Age 4. Origins was great, 2 had some issues but was still good, Inquisition was better (save for the "gotta hold a button to auto-attack but you could be hitting air" combat mechanic). So I wonder what DA4 will be like, and which world state they'll decide is cannon. Meanwhile, this isn't bad advice for authors either. By building the world this way, you can have interactions ready to go to make the characters and world feel that much more alive. Though some degree of "and then that happened" can still work, especially if it builds toward something but doesn't directly trigger anything. Still, I like this type of world-building. A nice tool to add to the writing tool box.

[@e.corellius4495]

the good old days of EA?! lol, every game you mentioned was made BEFORE EA owned the creator, and once EA owed it, well it went to shit. there is no "good old days" of EA because EA is the ones that killed those "good old days"

[@3Rayfire]

Listen to Corellius he knows what he's talking about.

[@GoodPunk]

AFAIK this is called Iceberg Storytelling, when you only see the tip of the Iceberg but everything feels natural and makes sense because there's so much underlying story-telling and worldbuilding to tie it all together. :)

[@roland4623]

great video essay. i always wonder why there aren't more of these on Mass Effect! subscribed.

[@Thesavagesouls]

I discovered your channel with Fallout and now i'm spiraling into watching all your analysis.

[@VanDalles]

Grate vid, it's nice to hear about this great game from time to time.

[@okankyoto]

Hell, the entire setting derives from consequences- "What if there was a material that when charged could change the apparent mass of matter within a field?" From that one deviation from reality, all the subsequent tech and science fiction is derived and it makes sense. How do you get ships moving at the speed of light or faster while having mass? Solved! How do we have anti-gravity tech? Solved! How do people get super wizard powers? Solved!

[@MadMorgie6318]

I would describe this world building as 'consequentialist', since events are based off what came before, the consequences of the decisions, good and ill, weal and woe, that were made before. Admittedly, that word already has a meaning in legal and ethics theory, but it's big and chewy, and I like that in a word.

[@carlovitali7223]

Every time i hear the world verisimilitude I can't stop myself from imagining a bunch of surfers/sci-fi novelists saying "very simulation, dude!"

[@ShamusYoung]

Same, same.

[@ex2bot]

Smart video. Probably my favorite series of all time.

[@gethgod2350]

This deserves so many more views

[@Visigoth_]

Excellent video, I never thought of it that way. 👍

[@zacharyreichert5035]

RIP

[@tcmugutc01]

RIP EDI. Nobody else worth to get sad over but her

[@valerioversace9604]

Absolutely loved this video. I just feel like, while domino world building is great and interesting and makes for a layered and nuanced foundation for any kind of fiction, it's often something that is lost along the way as that piece of fiction becomes a franchise. "Domino worldbuilding makes a good framework for future teams" That's amazing in theory and it really should be however more often whoever comes next doesn't just sees the surface elements of the world you built and completely misses the point and the nuances. Mass Effect is an example where follow ups completely missed the point Fallout is an example (loved your video about Bethesda's Fallout btw) where follow ups completely missed the point Watchmen is another great example (the comic book is built upon a guy accidentally becoming real-life Superman in the US, therefore the US wins the Vietnam war, therefore the Cold War doesn't end when it's supposed to, therefore some guy comes up with some contrived plan to avoid the inevitable upcoming nuclear apocalypse) of follow ups completely missing the point Mike Carey's Lucifer (itself derived from Sandman) is another example where (perhaps intentionally) the adaption completely missed the point Constantine Fables I could probably go on with examples of world that were specifically laid out in a "domino" way where follow ups or adaptions totally missed the point and every time fell completely flat, and the audience probably won't even realize why they feel flat

[@whiskeysour1179]

Dude Assassin's Creed 2 got me with the J. J. Abrams mystery box trap. I'm replaying it and I still like it but I realize SO MUCH of my love for the game came from imagining what it was hinting at, where the series would go... And now I know and I want to go back to before any more came out. Because none of it was planned, none of it lives up to a high school kid's dedicated theorizing, and none of it answers the original questions in any satisfying way.