# Talk:Mass Effect (video game)

Shouldn't the "mass effect" section go into greater detail about how mass effect fields are created? Most importantly the discovery of Element Zero, how it increases mass under positive charge, decreases mass under negative charge, and how biotics require trace amounts of Element Zero within their nervous system to use powers?
It could also be useful (without spoiling) if the explanation of mass effect fields within the game's guns, armor and space ships be included without a full codex disclosure? The brief explanation from a game developer seems sort of lacking to me.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jabrahamcollins (talk • contribs) 08:06, 22 February 2010 (UTC) 

That's what the Mass Effect Wikia is for. Wikipedia is for general knowledge. Leo-Roy! review/gb 07:34, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

Hi, i just don't think mass effect fits in this category, i think it's just "sci fi", even with elements of "hard sci fi"...
--Starlingmaximilian (talk) 16:37, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

If i don't ger response soon i will edit it myself.. --190.174.137.190 (talk) 01:15, 14 March 2010 (UTC)
Curious, how is Mass Effect NOT: "Space opera is a genre of science fiction that emphasizes romantic adventure, interstellar travel, and space battles where the main storyline is centered around interstellar conflict and character drama." Is there any particular reason Mass Effect wouldn't fall into a category defined this way? ialsoagree (talk) 22:30, 22 March 2010 (UTC)
John Doe may beat mass effect without the experience of a romance, in this case John didn't played a "space opera" just a sci-fi game with some elements (very few acctualy, but some) of "hard sci-fi" and mainly "military sci-fi" --Starlingmaximilian (talk) 20:13, 29 April 2010 (UTC)
And some people will play with romance, so I see that point as convoluted at best. As to the other criteria: "interstellar travel and space battles" as well as being centered around "interstellar conflict and character drama" then Mass Effect still qualifies for the category as it meets all of those criteria. ialsoagree (talk) 22:26, 11 May 2010 (UTC)
You can't say mass effect is a "space opera" just because "some people" may play with romance, so you may as well say that mass effect is a "gay themed game" just because you can make love with alenko being a male shephard? you are talking nonsense, the game should be categorized just by the elements you MUST see followong the main storyline till the end of the game, and about  "interstellar travel and space battles" as well as being centered around "interstellar conflict and character drama" you can see that in military sci-fi as well. --Starlingmaximilian (talk) 06:50, 19 May 2010 (UTC)
Faulty analogy: You can't have an M!Shepard/Kaidan relationship. It was cut. Secondly, this is the type of romance meant, not relationships (though they're not mutually exclusive). Finally, this argument is pointless. This is all your interpretation of the genre. What you need are sources saying one way or the other. And so far, most of the things I've seen previously about ME have stated space opera if they bring the genre up. --ThejadefalconSing your songThe bird's seeds 15:21, 28 June 2010 (UTC)
Yes you are right, i watched a video on youtube and i thought it was male shepard having sex with alenko, but it really wass a female character with a "male skin" on.  Anyway, is so stupid what you say, people is sometimes wrong and you can't say that ME is "space opera" just because you found 100000000 people who says so, you can state that god, obvnis, vampires, zombies, etc exist with your stupid argument, i don't need any cite, i'm using logic and discussing, and i repeat, if you can avoid certain aspects of the game, like romance, you can't say that it has "romance related themes" and thats just because you may not encounter or like tu use such feature, will you say that "god of war" is a sex related game because (if you want to) two girls blows kratos cock?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Starlingmaximilian (talk • contribs) 07:12, 18 August 2010 (UTC)
I think you need to look up on the rules on how Wikipedia works. I don't care how many people say X is Y. The citations are the defining aspect of what Wikipedia is. "This is all your interpretation of the genre. What you need are sources saying one way or the other." --ThejadefalconSing your songThe bird's seeds 11:07, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
A quick google search yielded several results, including articles from MSNBC and a random blog post titled Mass Effect – The Best Space Opera of All Time. The google search results showed a link with a quote from Bioware's own website, but my computer wouldn't load the page right now so I couldn't check it out for myself. And here's another one from Wired that's actually about ME2. The opening sentence from WP:V states: "The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth—whether readers can check that material in Wikipedia has already been published by a reliable source, not whether editors think it is true." Wired and MSNBC are pretty reliable sources. I believe that the game is a space opera – though that doesn't really matter – and within five seconds I found sources to back it up. With more effort I'm sure that I could find more. Does anyone have any contradictory evidence? JohnnyPolo24 (talk) 12:56, 25 August 2010 (UTC)
whether it is a space opera or not, it's still sci-fi and i just noticed thats it's not mentioned as such, only " action role-playing game". I would like to change it to include sci-fi, if there are no objections. Or someone else could do it too.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.12.183.130 (talk) 13:26, 10 June 2012 (UTC)

Got an edit I disagree on with another user. I'm bringing it to the talk page to let others check it out (and because edit summaries are limited). Disagreed edit, my first edit (could be taken for hostility, was not my intention, forgive me if you thought I was being), counter edit, bringing it here. I personally think that, while, yes, the source should be upgraded, I believe that this is a popular enough meme to reference in the article, much like how "The cake is a lie" is referenced in the Portal article. Like "The cake is a lie", "alien sideboob" also has it's own redirect page heading towards the relevant area. It was also the focus of a redirect for discussion back in last June and was a featured redirect when that was still running. As I am still highly inactive on Wikipedia due to personal issues, I may be slow to respond. --ThejadefalconSing your songThe bird's seeds 21:46, 26 June 2010 (UTC)

If I remember correctly, Jack Thompson famously came out in support of BioWare against FOX. If we can find any sources for that, it would be pertinent to the article; it's basically one of the industry's biggest opponent saying to someone "you know, in this case, they're right and you're wrong." Sceptre (talk) 21:31, 3 July 2010 (UTC)

This and other articles on video games really should contain sales figures (with the last known date specified). Anyone know where we could find some consistently reliable sales figures for video games? I'd like to include other games. JettaMann (talk) 14:16, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Mass Effect (series) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you.  —RM bot 17:31, 9 March 2011 (UTC)

In the "Characters" section, I believe there is an attempt at humor (that I appreciate) using Mass Effect 2's Harbinger line, "assuming direct control," to refer to the player controlling Commander Shephard.  It makes the sentence clunky, in my opinion, and as funny as it may be, is somewhat unprofessional, but if people disagree I wouldn't complain.  — Law of Entropy (talk) 04:58, 20 April 2011 (UTC)

Agreed. Even if this joke wasn't getting old, it would still sound silly and not very encyclopaedia-like. Xtremeboi7 (talk) 04:04, 15 January 2015 (UTC)--

 You're invited to join the discussion at Talk:Illusive Man#Request for comment. czar · · 02:42, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

Could this game be classified as open world?ECW28 (talk) 08:37, 12 March 2015 (UTC)

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This review is transcluded from Talk:Mass Effect (video game)/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.
Reviewer: Cognissonance (talk · contribs) 20:41, 21 October 2016 (UTC)
I like how the article looks. Let's see how we can get it to  status. Cognissonance (talk) 20:41, 21 October 2016 (UTC)


### Lead
critical acclaim — Per Metacritic: "universal acclaim".
I don't think the game qualifies for "universal acclaim" because the PC and PS3 versions received "generally favorable" reviews according to Metacritic, so it's 2 vs 1. The game also received a fair amount of criticism by multiple publications, and Metacritic scores should not be used as a barometer in order to prove whether it's "universal acclaim" or not because individual scores can be pretty inconsistent.


### Gameplay
"which depend on the class the player chose" — Present tense consistency: "which depend on the class chosen by the player".
Fixed
"each class is only effective on the weapons" — Improve prose: "each class is only effective with the weapons".
Fixed
"Most of the game's main quests are combat missions, while secondary quests generally involve the player gathering items or interacting with non-player characters" is identical to what it says in the lead. Rewrite so that it presents the information differently.
Done


#### Combat
"the player can pause the action to show up the squad's user interface" — Simplify: "the player can pause the action to display the squad's user interface".
Fixed
"the player can use grenades which can latch" — Minimize repetition: "the player can use grenades which latch".
Fixed


### Synopsis
#### Setting and characters
Commander Shepard — Link to Commander Shepard
Already wikilinked in the Gameplay sections. It is not recomended to duplicate wikilinks in the body, per Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Linking.
Consider adding the images of Mark Meer and Jennifer Hale from the character's Wiki to illustrate the text.
Done


#### Plot
"There, Shepards learns that" — Correction: "There, Shepard learns that".
Fixed


### Development
"originally for the Xbox successor, the Xbox 360" — Simplify: "originally for its successor, the Xbox 360".
Fixed
"and having a big technological basis" — Minimize repetition: "and having a considerable technological basis".
Done
"This approach allows us to create that kind of truly unprecedented level of intensity and cinematic power, while giving the player as much customization and role-playing ability as we've ever offered before" should be paraphrased.
Done
Amped News Xbox 360 (source 18) doesn't connect to the original url. Add the parameter deadurl=yes to the code so it links to the archived version.
Done
"create conversations where characters would converse" — Minimize repetition: "create conversations where characters would speak".
Fixed
"Creating a big sense of discovery was a major goal" — Minimize repetition: "Creating a great sense of discovery was a major goal".
Fixed
Add deadurl=yes to source 25 as well.
Done
An image of either lead writer Drew Karpyshyn or composer Jack Wall needs to be inserted.
Added an image of Jack Wall
"Although each of the game's planets" — Minimize repetition: "Despite that each of the game's planets".
Changed it to "Despite of the fact that + [sentence]" as "Despite that + [sentence]" is not correct.
"and Karpyshyn had to make sure" — Improve prose: "and it behoved Karpyshyn to make sure".
Done
"the amount of volume they had to write" — Improve prose: "the amount of volume required of them to write".
I don't think "required of them to write" is gramatically correct. It doesn't sound right in my opinion.
"were major influences on the atmosphere" — Minimize repetition: "were significant influences on the atmosphere".
Done
"marry the electronic instrument palatte" — Clarify: "marry the electronic instrument palatte [sic]". You may also link to Sic.
Done
"Although a total of 110 minutes of music was written" — Minimize repetition: "While a total of 110 minutes of music was written".
Done


### Marketing and release
Xbox 360 — Link to Xbox 360
Already wikilinked in the Development section.


### Downloadable content
IGN — Link to IGN
Already wikilinked in the Marketing and release section.
Microsoft Windows — Link to Microsoft Windows
Already wikilinked in the Marketing and release section.
"divided up into four" — Simplify: "divided into four".
Done


### Reception
"Mass Effect received critical acclaim" — Per Metacritic: "Mass Effect received universal acclaim".
Same as above
IGN — Link to IGN
Already wikilinked in the Marketing and release section.
"The publication also criticized cast of characters" — Improve flow: "The publication also criticized the cast of characters".
Fixed
Eurogamer — Link to Eurogamer
Already wikilinked in the Downloadable content section.
"which confuses players before they know what the main game is all about" — WP:POV: "observing that it would confuse players before being privy to what the main game was about".
I prefer "observing that it would confuse players before they know what the main game is about" because it's simpler.
"did not blend well with its action elements" — Minimize repetition: "did not blend well with its action".
Done
"but the Mako sections were criticized" — Minimize repetition: "but the Mako sections were disparaged".
Done


#### Accolades
"their list of The Top 25" — Improve flow: "their list of Top 25".
Done


#### Controversy
"came under fire" can be made more formal with "came under scrutiny".
Fixed
"Kevin McCullough, who employed false statements such as" — WP:POV: "Kevin McCullough, who employed statements such as"
Done


### Sequel
"With the use of a completed saved game" — Clarify: "With the import of a completed saved game".
Done
"received numerous year-end awards" — Minimize repetition: "received multiple year-end awards".
Done
Industry Gamers (source 115) was 404 Not Found and needs the deadurl=yes parameter.
Done


### Overall
It is reasonably well written.
a (prose, spelling, and grammar):  b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists): 

It is factually accurate and verifiable.
a (reference section):  b (citations to reliable sources):  c (OR):  d (copyvio and plagiarism): 
Sources 18, 25 and 115 need repair.
It is broad in its coverage.
a (major aspects):  b (focused): 

It follows the neutral point of view policy.
Fair representation without bias: 
Solely in reference to reception and controversy sections.
It is stable.
No edit wars, etc.: 

It is illustrated by images and other media, where possible and appropriate.
a (images are tagged and non-free content have fair use rationales):  b (appropriate use with suitable captions): 
Not where possible.
Overall: It doesn't take much to improve the article and satisfy... The Criteria. Putting it on hold for now.
Pass/Fail: 
@Niwi3: Cognissonance (talk) 00:01, 22 October 2016 (UTC)

Thank you for your detailed and excellent review, really appreciated. I fixed most of the issues you brought up and left some comments above. Please let me know what you think. Thanks! --Niwi3 (talk) 12:17, 22 October 2016 (UTC)

It is reasonably well written.
a (prose, spelling, and grammar):  b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists): 
It follows the neutral point of view policy.
Fair representation without bias: 

Pass/Fail: 
@Niwi3: All is sated. Cognissonance (talk) 15:38, 22 October 2016 (UTC)

The article says that the story branches at certain points based on the choices you make in the game. Could someone provide some examples? I have played the game but didn't notice anything except at the end whether you choose for the council to survive or not. SharkD  Talk  06:08, 25 June 2017 (UTC)