T w e n t y S i d e d
Over the years, I’ve gotten quite a few requests from people for a book version of my Mass Effect Retrospective. That sounds strange to me. Haven’t you already read it? And can’t you read it anytime you like? But I don’t know. The heart wants what the heart wants.
I got an email this week suggesting that now might be a good time to do this, since Mass Effect Remastered is coming out in a couple of months. This could essentially be a “remastered” version of the retrospective. You could get it as an e-book, or you could even murder a tree for one if that’s more your style.
So what “improvements” would this new version have?
- The new “no comments” design of books allows you to enjoy the work without the endless pestering of people who are wittier and better informed than the author. Corrections? Typo police? Not in this version! Read the book and pretend it’s 1994 again!
- Speaking of typos, there will will be allot fewer of thems! Google Docs is a lot better at find incorrect graham are these days and otto-correct is seven smarter about choosing the right worms.
- While we’re correcting things, we thought we’d correct some actual mistakes. Like that one post about orbital bombardment where I messed up my Wolfram Alpha inputs and was off by two orders of magnitude, which everyone thought was inexcusable except my one astrophysicist buddy who said it was “close enough”. Or the very next post where I muddled my point because I didn’t have a firm grip on the Asari religions before I started ranting. It’s like a retcon where I get to pretend I don’t make mistakes!
- The print version of the book exists as a physical object that can be foisted on other people! Yes, you can cause them to have a copy of the book… even if you don’t know their email! Haha. Now you’re holding a small object full of complaining! Take that, Mac Walters!
- More freedom! In the old boring blog version, you couldn’t give me money. This time you’ll have the option to pay for the book if you want.
- No DRM. BECAUSE WHY WOULD ANYONE PUT DRM ON A BOOK THAT WAS A BLOG THAT WAS AND IS STILL FREE? THIS IS NOT A RHETORICAL QUESTION, UBISOFT. I WANT YOU TO THINK ABOUT THE MECHANICS OF THIS PROBLEM BECAUSE YOU’VE CLEARLY NEVER EXAMINED THE IMPLICATIONS OF THIS TECHNOLOGY BEFORE DESPITE YOUR FREQUENT RELIANCE ON IT. THERE ARE REAL ECONOMIC SYSTEMS INVOLVED IN THESE TRANSACTIONS AND YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND THEIR IMPACT ON THE COST / BENEFIT CURVE. By the way, did you know that Watch Dogs Legion is already on the torrents? Just sayin’.
- Internet-free! Are you tired of needing an internet connection to read my wild-eyed rants? No? Oh, internet is pretty much a solved problem for you these days? You’ve pretty much got wifi everywhere you need it? Okay then. Good for you, I guess. Well, if that problem… somehow… becomes a problem again, then you can buy my book and enjoy it without the hassle of also listening to Spotify at the same time.
- New material! While proofing and formatting the posts into book chapters, I sometimes re-read the original text and got angry all over again and added a few more unhinged paragraphs of pointless assault on dead horses.
- Andromeda! Will be included. For some reason.
The planned release date is either just before or just after the remaster comes out.
I was very sick of Mass Effect by the time I finished with Andromeda. I didn’t think I’d ever want to come back to this material. But as I was painstakingly translating the book to the new format, I had to proof the stuff I was editing. And that means I had to read it. For the millionth time. But after taking a break from the franchise, I found some passages I thought were fun, interesting, or funny. As of this writing, I’m currently working on Chapter #45, and I’m not quite sick of the process yet.
For the last few days, I thought the remaster came out on MARCH 14. So I’ve been doing super-crunch all-day shifts trying to get this done. Needless to say, the working conditions here are deplorable. I tried to unionize, but I could only get one signature in support. Besides, the last thing I need is a stupid Union telling me how to run my business.
Anyway, this morning I finally double-checked the release day and saw it was MAY 14. Not March. May. What can I say? They both start with M and remembering things is hard.
Anyway, I’m out of crunch mode now and I’m allowed to spend time with my family again. But there’s good news, too. I also have time to play more Prodeus. Have you tried it? It’s pretty awesome.
So that’s the state of… whatever it is we do here. If you have suggestions for the ME Retrospective, then it’s best to make them sooner rather than later.
Have a good weekend.
EDIT: Some people are confused and think this is a joke. This is not a joke. This is a real thing. If it’s a bad idea, then it’s a bad idea I’m doing on purpose.
Silent Hill 2 Plot Analysis
A long-form analysis on one of the greatest horror games ever made.
The Best of 2012
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2012.
Linux vs. Windows
Finally, the age-old debate has been settled.
Tenpenny Tower
Bethesda felt the need to jam a morality system into Fallout 3, and they blew it. Good and evil make no sense and the moral compass points sideways.
Blistering Stupidity of Fallout 3
Yeah, this game is a classic. But the story is idiotic, incoherent, thematically confused, and patronizing.
I… is this real?
Yes
One thing I noticed, the names of alien species in ME aren’t capitalised. It’s just asari. I know that species are normally capitalised in SF, but they just had to go and do things differently. Even though it looks wrong. It *should* be Asari, but it isn’t.
Well you don’t type “Humans” with a capital H either.
I do when I’m writing SF. I want everything to be consistent.
If the Mass Effect peeps use lowercase letters for all species, then it is consistent, is it not?
Go with Terran, then. ;-)
What about ‘Humanity’?
Don’t you mean ‘Yumanity’?
Humynity?
Huge Manatee?
Hugh Man O’Tea?
Shamus pointed this out during the Andromeda retrospective, if I remember right. Species weren’t getting capitalized, while planets and political entities were. I presumed most science fiction alien species end up capitalized since they were basically inheriting the proper-noun reference to their home planet (Klingons being the exception that proves the rule). Since no Mass Effect species bears its homeworld’s name, none of the names get capitalized.
In terms of editing suggestions, this might be a good thing to move into a ‘front matter’ section, along with Shamus’ convention of referring to ‘the writer’ and any other ground rules for the writing.
Oh, that’s interesting. So like we capitalize “Roman” or “German” when referring to a person from those places.
When you point that out, it suddenly strikes me as odd that most other sci-fi does the capitalizing. I can’t imagine a world where planet- spring civilizations would have most people refer to themselves or others as inhabitants of the species’ origin planet. It seems like it would be terribly rude, like referring to all Latinos as “Mexicans”
Latinos are from Latin America. Mexicans are from Mexico.
Just a pet peeve of mine: I’d very much love to retire the phrase ‘the exception that proves the rule’. Exceptions don’t prove rules. They simply don’t disprove them.
The only context in which this phrase should be used is if the exception is so clearly and easily recognized as an exception, it highlights how rare it is to deviate from a universally understood rule.
I get that. As a mathematician, the existence of a counterexample makes me want to drill down and define things more precisely. However, for most people, it seems rules are significantly more malleable.
For what it’s worth, I was working from the presumption that the phrase used ‘prove’ as a Shakespearean ‘test,’ since I’m used to reading that style of English. However, a cursory Wikipedia check indicates a lack of linguistic evidence for that origin. As a result, I will most likely avoid the phrase in the future.
themoreyouknow.jpg
Huh. I hadn’t even considered the ‘test’ definition of the word ‘prove’. And when I look up ‘prove’ in Merriam-Webster, the definition meaning ‘test’ gives the example “the exception that proves the rule”.
So yeah, that phrase might actually have more validity than I’ve given it credit.
themoreyouknow.png
I don’t buy it. If ‘prove’ means ‘test’ then every exception is proving the rule, so the “which proves the rule” is redundant and we’re right back to “just call it an exception”.
Last time NInety-Three brought up something like “No Parking On Sundays” is an exception that proves the rule that normally you can park there. But I’ve never seen someone use the phrase to refer to that kind of exception in practice.
Well, yes, if the definition is ‘to test’, then every exception would necessarily ‘prove’ the rule.
However, I think you’re right: if every exception ‘proves’ the rule, then the phrase should be “an exception that proves the rule”, and not “the exception that proves the rule”, which implies that some exceptions don’t.
Vindication!
That’d most likely be a matter of context. In math, using the definite article implies uniqueness, as opposed to merely one of (possibly uncountably) many options.
However, the Wikipedia search I mentioned earlier suggested a legal origin of the phrase — translated from Latin, if I remember correctly. In that setting, a single example may be enough to achieve the desired argumentative goal, which is the existence of the ‘rule’ in the first place. That could lead to the parlance shifting toward a definite article for the exception, since it’s really only a means to the end.
Of course, this is totally speculation on my part. I just teach logic to college students a few times a year.
This is correct. It is proper to capitalize based on the proper name of a location, i.e. I live in Austin, Texas. So I am an Austinite, a Texan, a human, an Earthling, a person, etc.
You could provide speculative drawings of alien pingas from each species
Is it April 1st?
May the 14th be with you! I’ll definitely check out the ebook… the ME retrospective was what brought me to this site and it was a crucial step for me in getting over the death of my first love (Bioware).
(The remaster is basically just lens flare and worse Shepard models from what I’ve seen, so I’m not hyped for it. I am however, against everyone’s better judgment, getting hyped for the new game. I KNOW it’s going to suck. After ME3, Andromeda, and Anthem, the chance that Bioware’s frozen corpse makes a good Mass Effect game in the style of ME1 is basically zero. But for some reason, my brain is getting me hyped anyway!)
“a crucial step for me in getting over the death of my first love (Bioware).”
You got over it? Please tell me your secret.
“the chance that Bioware’s frozen corpse makes a good Mass Effect game in the style of ME1 is basically zero. But for some reason, my brain is getting me hyped anyway!”
I see. We are in the same hopeless spiral. It’s like going to their gravestone to see if they spontaneously pop back up for no reason.
Perhaps I should turn to the Ryncol to drown my sorrows…
Honestly Andromeda helped me get over it. It was like the final season of Heroes or Games of Thrones, it just kicks the fan out of you.
That’s horribly depressing. I’ve avoided Andromeda entirely, but comparing it to GoT S8 makes me unreasonably sad.
Andromeda is NOT as bad as GoT S8 though! It’s more aggressively mediocre than a giant middle finger to the public.
I’m still interested in both ME4 and DA4* but I think it needs to be said that it’s a different type of interest, more of a “I’m hoping for some nice action set pieces, a few cool one liners and that the plot doesn’t completely suck” Michael Bay thing.
Bear in mind that despite being “still interested” I have not bought, much less played, Andromeda yet so make of that what you will…
*A community I’m hanging with online is absolutely bonkers about the DA setting so it helps keep my interest up.
Is that even possible? Because it’s the disturbing, uncanny Shephard models that keep me from purchasing any of the Mass Effect games now that they are old and cheap. The character models in Knights of the Old Republic are cartoonish and non-lifelike enough that they don’t bother me, but there’s something about the models in Mass Effect, especially when I see them in motion, that gives me the gibblies.
I’ve never minded the ME1 character models. The remaster of Femshep at least looks way worse to me. YMMV, I guess, but she’s just lost all her intensity – she doesn’t look like a veteran, she looks like she’s cosplaying Shepard for her Instagram page. Male shep seems to have a somewhat similar problem, but that could be the lighting. I admit I (obviously) don’t know yet whether the character creator can salvage the situation.
(Also, those pics are from Eden Prime, and they got rid of the striking deep red sky of the original. I assume that many other unique visual elements from ME1 will also be dismissed as bad design and changed.)
One of the many sins of ME3 was having a poll for the design of the female shepherd for some advertising, with most of the choices looking like they were 14 years old. Looks like that design is retconned to be the default model.
I’ve read the original default is still in there as an option, though I’m not sure what that one looks like remastered. At least with a single trilogy-wide character creator you only have to fiddle with all those settings once.
And yeah, I never liked the poll approach either; it’s not like they ever did a poll for male Shepard. All of them are still better than ME3 Ashley though. (I didn’t even recognize her!)
I remember that poll. Six options, and four had the same face. So…’choose her hair colour’, essentially.
To me it looks like that remastered FemShep is an attempt to compromise between the ME1/2 and ME3 looks (that is, before and after that poll)
I am genuinely excited for ME Remastered, ME4 and DA4, unironically.
After you hit rock bottom, the only way to go is up.
Also, I don’t hate Andromeda, it had lots of good ideas, characters and moments that got lost in its poor execution, bugs, a crappy main story with an even crappier villain, and Ubisoft-style gameplay (I mean, Inquisition has the same gameplay, but it works well there for some reason..)
Prodeus is cool, there is no denying that, even though it isn’t complete yet. In fact, there are quite a few retro shooters out there: DUSK and Amid Evil are ones I’ve played myself and can confirm are good. There are also Nightmare Reaper, Perilous Warp, Wrath: Aeon of Ruin, Hedon, Brutal Fate – not terribly enthused about that one -, Dread Templar, HROT… there’s quite a few of them.
Nightmare Reaper, Wrath: AoR, and HROT are currently in Early Access but seem pretty interesting. Dread Templar and Brutal Fate is in development, Hedon and Perilous Warp are complete, as are DUSK and Amid Evil. There’s others, but those are the ones I’m familiar with.
On a different note, Crosscode is a J-RPG centered around platforming, puzzles, and combat, with occasional combinations of the three. The graphics are retro-inspired but the gameplay is… very smooth, very well done. The puzzles can get really complex, especially once you get past the first dungeon, the platforming is usually pretty straightforward, and the combat is quite satisfying, especially once you start unlocking some of the flashier special moves. Enemies are visually distinct and have distinct attack patterns and weaknesses, there’s secrets to discover and quests to go through… it’s quite fun, and I’d love to see you write a series about it. There’s a free demo out on both Steam and GOG, so you don’t have to spend money to try it out.
Shooters used to be so much fun before CoD ruined everything. I’d kind of forgotten why I liked FPS in the first place. It’s nice to have a reminder!
Wasn’t it Halo that ruined shooters? Regenerating health, two-weapon limit, over-reliance on cover… To me, the old CoD’s were just more linear versions of proper shooters. Not even half as egregious as all those Halo wannabes that later dominated the genre.
Halo, for all its faults, had decent AI and demanded that the player have situational awareness. After the first one, CoD was just clicking on heads with occasional pauses to wipe jam off the screen.
For me it was largely a matter of level design. I’ve played ye olde Dooms but the defining shooters for me were the likes of Blood and Duke3D with their environmental variety and some gimmick/novelty levels. I will readily admit that I like the “oomph” some of the later shooters can express and I’m a big fan of physics both in guns and in the environment (hello “Red Faction:Guerilla”) but with the cost of assets going up and thus limiting how many environments can be used and with the central focus of FPSes being realistic military hurrahs… I’m just not a fan of games that are set too close in reality.
100% this ^
I used to think I’m a RPG/strategy games guy, but this new wave of retro shooters reminded me that actually a good shooter is all I need.
It even made me interested in playing Arcane Dimensions for Quake, which turned out to be actually awesome – the hype didn’t lie!
Should give Project Warlock a look see, is pretty good, if not exactly super deep.
I’ve heard of that one, but I can’t say that I like the ending, where /…/, hey, how do you do spoilers on this system anyway?
Crosscode made me come to terms with being bad at puzzles. It took me half an hour of struggling with a puzzle to realize the developers literally drew the solution on the ground.
Yeah, true. The puzzles get really complex once you get past the ice dungeon, and they’re not usually what you’d call simple even before that. I find the combat and exploration rather interesting, though, and for the puzzles there’s always walkthroughs. Crosscode may be obscure, but not so obscure that it doesn’t have fans.
Just a heads up for anyone interested. DUSK is finished, but a proper map editor and co-op are in the works and Amid Evil has a standalone expansion/prequel coming.
Both game updates are filed under SOONtm.
That actually does look like a lot of fun. Is it a rogue-like? It doesn’t describe it as such but at this point I’m skeptical of all retro throwbacks aiming for that old skool feeling of action also being a rogue-like.
NOT roguelike. When you die, you appear at the most recent checkpoint. However- the end-of-level summary clocks how many times you died. So you can die as a much as you want, if you can handle the shame of seeing a non-zero number after “DEATHS”.
Wait, save points? Dare I ask if there are manual saves? Because that’s a possible sticking point for me. Doom had them, Quake did, too – and almost all the good recent retro shooters also have them. I can stomach save points if the game is lenient enough to have me not notice them much (Project Warlock being an example for that).
But if it’s punishing *and* doesn’t come with manual saves, that’s a paddlin’.
It doesn’t at the moment, but it’s still in Early Access.
Sorry, no, no manual saves in Prodeus. At least not yet – it seems to be a fairly common change request on the Steam forum. There are also quite a few different difficulty levels you can choose from, so it seems like you could dial down the challenge until you learn the level layout.
Thanks for the reply!
Manual saves for me are not about the difficulty, it’s about being in control over how much and what to replay if I snuff it. That’s also why manual saves through limited means (e.g. the soul tethers in Wrath: AoR) irk me less than any system that relies on automatic saves completely.
So, I do enjoy a challenging difficulty (e.g. playing Quake on Hard/Nightmare, or Amid Evil on Normal and above), but I do [i]not[/i] enjoy repeating stuff I just successfully played through. It’s the fastest way of getting me to quit, and then resign from a game in a “You know what, I’d rather wash the dishes- at least that’s productive tedium” way.
…So, I guess I’ll hope for a change to the save system.
I bailed on Arkham Asylum because it didn’t seem to have a manual save and I was never really sure when it actually saved. The issue for me isn’t replay value but because my time can be limited and sporadic — especially in the evenings — I need to be able to save when necessary without having to push through to the next save point if I look at the time and note that I really need to go do something else shortly.
Yes, I can understand that. Fortunately, adding quicksaves seems to be a pretty common request on the Steam forum, and since the game is still in dev they might end up adding that function. Hopefully.
Adding to wishlist.
Well, internet is not a solved problem for me, and I always appreciate having an internet-free option for keeping busy, so I’ll probably get a copy (especially if there’s new stuff*). I’ll miss reading the comments, though, those added a lot to the rant.
* Speaking of the new stuff is it going to be exclusive to the book, or will you publish it here as well? Or is there not enough to justify en entry in the blog?
As for Prodeus, it looks nice, but I’ve sworn off Early Access, so it’ll have to wait until full release before I even consider it. Got burnt too many times.
That sounds like a worthwhile project Shamus, I actually first stumbled onto your blog when you were halfway with the Mass Effect Analysis, from then I checked back every other week or so for the next entry. I didn’t become a frequent visitor until the final chapters.
Come to think of it wasn’t there a big site revamp around that time? I remember the layout being distinctevely different during my early time here, with forums and so on.
Now about the analysis, my only fundamental point of disagreement (as opposed to trivial differences in interperation) is the notion of Admiral Gerrel as the clear villain in the Rannoch arc, and a too sympathetic portrayal of the Geth in general. The nature of the arc was always much more grey, it doesn’t appear to have been Bioware’s intent to make players clearly favour the Geth of the Quarians or vice versa.
I really wanted to make this clear for some reason beceause other than that it was a fantastic read!
Neat! What I’m excited for the most is the fact that you’ll be able to do the conclusions to each game with the benefit of hindsight. One of the things I don’t like about rereading the retrospective today is how you end the rant on the third game with a tiny sliver of hope that Andromeda will be able to redeem the series. So I’ll be glad to see that sliver of hope erased :D
On a more serious note, during your Andromeda Retrospective, there were some segments where you said how you would have approached the setting and storyline. You said that you had many more than what you shared with us. If possible, I’d love to see those ideas added to the book.
The big thing is I can easily put it on an ereader. Better for my eyes, easier to read all that good stuff.
“Speaking of typos, there will will be allot fewer of thems!”
*their
*they’re
* the’ir
th’r
*þer
Always up for reading more Shamus ranting about Mass Effect. And having it on an eReader sounds great!
Also, I’ mrereading sections, and there really is something marvelous about Shamus starting a section with the header:
I Have Questions
Though as a suggestion, maybe it’s better if it’s all in caps? I.e
I HAVE QUESTIONS
Well, I’ve already pencilled in plans to murder at least two trees in ~~March~~May, so I figure they may as well be the ones used to make 2 copies of this book I guess. So, a sound business decision overall for you, I’d say.
Is there gonna be any option/avenue to get a copy of the ebook with a physical purchase, incidentally?
I believe the digital version will be pay-what-you-want, so yes!
How about you title it “Unofficial Mass Effect Trilogy Strategy Guide”, just to screw with people? Also, maybe release a special hardcover edition with a “Shamus Young in N7 armor” Funko POP.
But seriously, super looking forward to this, and getting two copies. One for reading and another one to bury in a time capsule for future generations to have after societys imminent collapse. Or to gift a friend, whatever happens first.
Wait, wasn’t Shamus was nominated for a Hugo Award for his retrospective, right? Sure, it was by the Rabid Puppies voting bloc, but as misinformation goes, it’d be worth putting on a book jacket…
The site itself was nominated, and I don’t think the retrospective was finished in the year the nomination was given for (I remember looking it up to use in a discussion and noted that I couldn’t use that an example of his work for the nomination).
Good stuff, loved that series.
Speaking of ME series on this site, is Bob Case/MrBTongue’s Hypothetical ME4 ever coming back? I liked the direction in which it was going.
I re-read the retrospective on a fairly regular basis, but still would be interested in the physical copy, since I can read that when I’m NOT at a computer and can read it more straight through. The web version will always be better for those times when I’m compiling and the like and need something to keep my mind from the boredom.
As for suggestions, I’m not sure how it would work wrt copyright, but looking at the comment sections and seeing if there are interesting arguments or points that you might want to highlight, discuss or rebut might be useful.
It looks like a nice proyect!
Are you going to talk about the last remaster or something like that? (I’m not in touch with the latest ME news)
Hire Mark Meer to record the audiobook.
No, it must be Jennifer Hale! She’s the better voice! And yes, do that even when treated Shepard as Male-Shep!
Hire them both and switch between them randomly. Like, mid-word.
Jennifer Hale reads the dialogue. Mark Meer says “I should go.”
You know, I thought to myself, “I should suggest Jennifer Hale read the audiobook.”
Then I thought, “You know what would annoy a very specific kind of person?”
It seems to have failed …
My brain hurt.
*hertz
did you mean ‘Heinz’?
Ah, just the joke I wanted to quote to say how much I love it.
Yep, leave it to Graham and Otto to find the correct worms!
Now whenever I get into an argument about Mass Effect, I can follow up my “you could write a book about how badly it went off the rails” statements with “in fact, someone has!” so thanks for making that dream a reality
I disagree with you so hard on Mass Effect (I think 2 is better than 1, and 3 is the best) so this is not for me XD But as someone who’s followed you since the DM of the Rings days, I really love this idea and I hope there might be a future series at some point I’d be more interested in. It’s really cool!
I for one can’t wait to give your retrospective of the Mass Effect series another read-through!
I would totally be up for buying the ebook version.
Like my boy/girl/person/meat popsicle V said, “Give me the deeds, Shamus”. Where, when, how, etc…
When you check back hours later and see how autocorrect ate your post…
But in all seriousness, Shamus, how is this going to be available to order and do you have a timeframe?
I have NO idea on the ordering. I want to do a “pay what you want” kind of deal. I might be able to set that up with a simple store page and a PayPal button here on the site. I don’t know. I want to make something low-tech, future-proof, that I don’t need to look after, and I don’t need to give anyone else a cut*.
It will probably launch around the week of May 14, close to the remaster of the game.
*I don’t mind a little payment processing, but I don’t want to sign up with some monolith that takes a 30% bite.
Zelle skips the PayPal 3% cut in the US, but obviously it’s not available to people without a US (major) bank account. I have no idea what the demographics are around here.
With the remaster coming I’d been thinking about ME1 and the one section on Virmire where you get to choose whether to give yourself more enemies in order to alleviate the strain on the Salarian assault force or not. Honestly this “choice” isn’t even a choice since how many enemies you face is negligible, there’s no threat and no reason not to. This also brings to mind the Paragon/Renegade system where it turns out 92% of players went Paragon. Also Renegade aka “pragmatism” was in reality “be a douche” so of course not many people chose it. So what I wish happened was that the player choosing to call down more enemies on their heads directly led to you needing to leave Ashley or Kaidan to die. Them being surrounded with no way out? All because you called in more enemies. An actual consequence for your Paragon stance. Now obviously this one event would piss all the players off but again you’re literally told when you make the choice that you’ll be making everything harder on yourself. Granted I’m ignoring all the problems having both of them alive in ME2 and 3 would bring but dangit just imagining players faces when they discover they could have actually saved them both would be glorious. Because as it stands being Paragon and “virtuous” never has any consequences.
I loved that Renegade was “be a douche” in ME2. I essentially RP’ed my Shephard as pissed off she was brought back to life just to work for a terrorist organisation to save a galaxy that didn’t give a crap about the problem. So she dealt with it by being an asshole to as many people as possible.
Save electricity! Kill a tree!
Just out of curiosity do we have a guesstimate on the price of a dead tree copy + shipping cost (preferably to Canada)?
Two questions:
1. Will you do signed versions?
2. What will it cost me to get a “I am Shamus Young and this is my favorite book on the Citadel” signature?
This post was written with the perfect amount of derangement I expect from a writer having to edit their own work in a crunch time. I love it.
YES!!!
Your ME retrospective is one of my most reread “books” that I uh… “have”. I’ve considered pestering you over email to urge you to consider making it a physical book that you sell to me, personally, but I see you’ve preempted my emails and saved us both a minor inconvenience.
I’ll be enthusiastically purchasing a copy as soon as it becomes available.
I am definitely buying this. Too bad there isn’t a “Pre-order” button, I would click on something like that for the first time in my life.
Oh, and also hi. Been lurking here since 2015 but the ME Retrospective turned me into a regular visitor.
Finally, another reason to show those damn trees who’s the boss! (Yes I’ve been battling wood elves in TWW2 lately, why do you ask?)
I’d love to narrate an audiobook version for you if that’s something that’d interest you. I’ve produced 7 audiobooks and plugging away at two more. Fun fact: I used your Mass Effect retrospective to practice my narration skills in the beginning before I was getting paid! I’m happy for you Shamus, I think a print version of your rants will be a hit.
Shamus, have you considered releasing your ME retrospective as a several-hour youtube video? Even if it was “just” the audiobook version of this print edition, I feel a many hours long ME video (or several ME videos?) released right around the time ME Remastered drops would be too juicy for The Algorithm to ignore. The length and relevance would get a lot of eyeballs on the video, and the quality of your analysis would probably keep a lot of people around for the long haul.
Not sure how feasible it is, or how much getting tons of YouTube views is all that helpful to you, but figured I’d share the idea anyway.
I really enjoyed reading your retrospective the first time around, and I’m psyched to re-read it in ebook form! It’d also be interesting if you appended it with an Extended Cut ending after the Legendary Edition comes out, if you get a chance to play that and it’s sufficiently different from the originals to get into…
I would legit buy a physical version of the ME Retrospective and System Shock fanfiction.
I’d love to get both as well! Definitely getting MER (more so if you produce a fem-shep version), but never read your SS book so would love to get that at the same time (as shipping to Aus is $$).
You should do a Dragon Age retrospective also. It would really compliment the ME retrospective and give a broader picture of the transformation of Bioware over the decade.
Will there be a prologue that retrospects on the retrospective? Or an epilogue?
Will it be print on demand?
Do you remember complaining about Mass Effect? Me, too! Relive all the amazing moments from 2012 like reading hundreds of posts on the Bioware forums from that one weird guy pretending to be a marketing expert and people sending cupcakes to Alberta for some reason. See all your favorite characters from the Mass Effect complaining saga like Marauder Shields, Husk 1 and 2, and MrBtongue! Mass Effect Retrospective: Remastered Special Platinum Complaining Edition. Preorder now!
I kid, of course (and thoroughly enjoyed the ME Retrospective). Still, even our complaints have become throwbacks to a previous decade. We live, eat, and breathe nostalgia, it seems…
Are you allowed to do this? Posting for free on the site is one thing but will the lawyers let you sell (and maybe profit from) something based on someone else’s IP?
As YouTube takedowns have proven over the decades, it matters less what the laws say and more what the lawyers are willing to do.
I should be 100% in the clear, since this series is both criticism and educational, and both are very firmly and broadly covered under fair use. But EA might pick a fight with me anyway. You never know. I’m going to publish and then we’ll see what happens.
If MovieBob could sell a book analyzing Super Mario 3 levels. I don’t see why you couldn’t do what’s essentially the same thing with Mass Effect.
A little late to the discussion here, but I assume there will be a foreword by Neil Polenske?