Yeah, except instead of gutting you he gives you a role in a mafia game.

...so the other players can gut you. I see.

...I thought they killed you.

...well, that's reassuring.

Man, stick with the original!

Damn straight! ORIGINAL DEADBUG GANGSTA!

I'm you!

Oh yeah? Then how would I know you keep a picture of Bea Arthur in your sock drawer!?

Yeah, man, give me that Bea Arthur back!

All these Wadey-come-latelys, man I swear

I know, right? Heck, I WAS the original Pool... er, Bug.

Eh, I thought that was Rokk

OKAY, THAT'S IT! I'm Gonna...

What?

Er... sulk. And watch SDSU beat Gonzaga.

I don't know why I trust you with our bracket.

Bumping this:

http://www.mafiathesyndicate.com/php...hp?f=79&t=1291

I'll be starting the next Hybridity on Sunday night, so if there's anyone else that wants to join, please reconfirm in the signup thread by that time.


P.S. Yes I am Candyman, but don't tell anyone.

Hey y'all, just letting you know that the crossover is tentatively scheduled to begin on the 28th. There are still two slots reserved for HCR folks, so if anyone else would like to take part don't hesitate to let malakim or I know.

So just started another Mass Effect playthrough (skipping 1) and remembered something about Bioware... they present their moral 'paths' as much more complex than the actual choices usually are.

KOTOR: "The Dark Side is not evil, it is about how one should follow your personal desires."

Jade Empire: "Followers of the Closed Fist aren't evil, they merely believe strength is the utmost virtue."

Mass Effect: "Renegade isn't evil, it's just sarcastic and willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done."

Actual blue vs red choice: "Would you like to save this entire race from genocide, or insult your crew members while spitting on a mass grave and laughing?"

This Renegade playthrough may be harder than I thought.

Yeah, Renegade in ME2 and 3 aren't as bad as the first game, but still... I think Closed Fist in Jade Empire was the most disappointing of those moral choices. At least with the Dark Side you know what you're getting.

Yeah, that was the only disappointing thing about Jade Empire (which otherwise is the most underrated/overlooked of their games, imo). They go out of their way to say Closed Fist isn't evil, only to make it seem pretty dang evil most of the time.

The only thing I'm worried about going Renegade is having enough points to get through all the loyalty stuff without having to be a total ass to everybody I meet. Like I was all flirty with Chambers and somehow I got Paragon points.

(Also it's weird not being FemShep.)

From what I recall of ME1 though, the renegade and paragon choices were just strange.

Sacrificing thousands of lives to save 3 dickhead politicians doesn't seem like a renegade choice, and I recall the first playthrough I had, I was pretty far on the blue side then I made the choice to save the actual the strike force to make sure Sovereign went down because I thought it was the correct choice, then I get all these renegade indicators. It confused me.

The Rachni was another one for somewhat different reasons. If you decide to kill the Queen, I don't think it's a "Renegade" option, but it's treated as one.

I think Feros was the only mission that was pretty clearly evil or good and the choice was not confusing.

By the time ME2 came out Renegade just meant you aligned with Cerberus over the Alliance, which was a better "quandry" as it were. I will say the Legion loyalty mission was a bit nebulous on morality as well, but the game rewarded you with a right and a "wrong" decision based on what you're trying to accomplish alignment wise, when both choices were not "good" choices.

Well, saving the Council shows you're more interested in galactic unity than Humanity First, so that's why it was Paragon not Renegade to save the Council.

The Rachni... well, Paragon is about second chances I guess? And genocide is pretty Renegade, no matter how you justify it.

That's not how they present saving the council. In the midst of the height of the battle they tell you that they want to divert half your force and put them in harms way to save them something that has no strategic value in the life and death struggle that you are in at the time.

It has nothing to do with Humanity first, I wouldn't sacrifice any military asset at that point, human or otherwise, it's pragmatism not about being a renegade. Plus on top of that if you factor in the actual loss of life, it potentially put more lives at risk to save them.

As for the Rachni, you mean the ones who committed genocide, even worse because they were ignorant? On top of that the whole mission proved that they were easily manipulated. Plus then the game gives a big ol pile of #### you in the 3rd game because you have to end up fighting them no matter what you do. At that point you're only passing judgement on one queen not committing genocide (semantic arguments aside). I usually picked to let the Queen live, but i can definitely see how executing her at that point is a perfectly reasonable and correct option even if it's a sad situation. What's even more annoying, the true Paragon choice, turning them over to the proper authorities, is not even treated as a real option.


My point isn't about what you think the right decision is, it's about rewarding or penalizing a player for making a morally grey decision with a system that attributes a black and white (or Red and Blue) grading scale on those decision. It's the inherit problem with the final choice (disregarding how all the choices have essentially the same result and how stupid the last 10 minutes were). Granted it's asking way too much for a company to be able to have an ending or even a world state that can account for the potential choices you are supposed to make.