BioWare asks if fans want Mass Effect prequel

I would like to avoid a prequel. So rarely does it end well. One developer said something along the lines of "it would be cool to see Garrus in his C-Sec days, see what made him who we love" Hell no. Leave blanks like that blank. Let the fans fill it up if they want to. Trying to explain the magic only takes it away. Look at Star Wars. Had to tell the Darth Vader story, sigh. 

Now a sequel is much more interesting IMO. I'd like to see a time skip of say 500 years or something. Follow a person (player can choose race, please) who has lost family to the Shadow Broker and is on a hunt for revenge. The Broker can still easily be Laira. That encounter can ONLY be interesting, no matter you opinion on the asari. The newcomer is confronted with a more standard Paragon/Renegade thing. The old fan comes with baggage  I like the thought of that. And I just pulled this out of my ass in 2 min, and I am a horrible writer.

tl ;dr
I would much rather that BioWare tries to create new magic, than rely on what already exists. Vote Sequel.

Don't know about others, but to me playing a Me game without shepard and his crew in it would be like playing an Tomb Raider without Lara croft, or watching an "Die Hard" movie without Bruce Willis in it, besides after the way Me3 ended...and the suggestion from bioware for the gamers to keep their saves...So yes, i would like it to keep up with shepard, the way the ending went to me seemed like shepard was on earth all this time wounded, and the ending happened in his head while he was between life and death "fighting" to live.

I doubt this will ever come to fruition, but I'd love to see a character living on shanxi during the first contact war, but is NOT a soldier in any way. This mean that instead of picking a class at the beginning of the game you would have to pick up different skills along the way and optimise them to suit your playstyle. This would add  very meaningful progression throughout the game - though it mean combat alone would have to be either slowed down or ramped up in difficulty for the skills to even be of use.

It also adds an interesting perspective instead of just a run of the mill soldier, he (or she) wouldn't be so cavalier about killing to begin with. It adds an interesting angle for character development too, as this character would be seriously effected by the destruction of his home, and instead of having to stay strong like a soldier, the writers can really go to town on his/her emotions.

Though they'd need a great voice actor and a lot of inginuity in terms of story-writing and incorperation into gameplay.

gunna be an fps with maybe one or two  rpg elements thrown in

First contact war with two protagonists. Turian and Human, like Halo 3 I believe. Could be phenomenal.

First contact war would make for a great story, as humans are integrated into galactic civilization, and honestly after the lame ending to ME3, I would really like them to not continue the story from that point. It wouldn't even make sense anyway. I would prefer to see them expand the history of the established universe instead.

Sequel please. Prequels lead to nowhere in most of the cases (Or lead to the events of a game we played years ago, alas, events we already know)

I don't see the problem.. People complaining about a prequel because we already know what happens with the Reapers. What about a game that takes place during the Rachni Wars or earlier conflicts in Mass Effect history? A chance to expand on all kinds of areas like the Hanar world, Batarian space, Yahg, contact war, Skylian Blitz, or even the time of the Protheans. These might sound lame, but there are so many possibilities for further games in the Mass Effect universe. Though I can agree it would be very difficult to make a proper sequel. I can't really think of anything that could come after the defeat of something as terrifying as the Reapers.

If the next game isn't a sequel, I'm not buying it. I already know how the story plays out for everything since the Leviathans.

Having a cyclic enemy like the Reapers, we already know that they always win. Why someone would want to play a game where you know exactly how it's going to end is beyond me.

the "you're choices don't matter" isn't even as bad as the ending being random imo. the reapers reasons for doing what they do was so stupid and it came out of nowhere, good endings should tie everything together. another thing that annoys me which i just thought of is how they were just trying to be real mainstream with ME3. im pretty sure they got rid of the motion blur and they even took out the film grain goddamnit!

Hell No! They ruined the series with Mass Effect 3 Ending! What's the point now going back? Scratching an already metaphorically speaking opened wound? This game series was all about choices and consequences players made in the past over Mass Effect 1&2. What we got instead? Nonsense, many questions and gaps. I do not mind if the developers wanted so desperately to Kill Shepard and get done with it. I do mind though that they game, come what make, concludes to the same lame ending! So either they will start afresh making Mass Effect 4 based on thousands years ahead or I cannot see the point going back again now that we know that our efforts are in vain!    

The stories are made to go backwards. I would love to see the next ME story play out as an Asari commando during the Krogan Rebellions. The Citadel would be in play and the Mass Effect relays, so we would still have some similarities to fall back on.

I have to say I would much prefer a sequel as we already know alot of the history from the codex. In a sequel you can have a story which you don't already have a baseline knowledge.

I'd rather see a sequel, with new tech & weapons. It might be a good idea that all the races, united after the Reaper invasion develop the technology, or find a secret Mass Relay, to travel to another galaxy where a new, greater threat looms. Whatever BioWare decide to do, lets hope they don't muck up the last 10 minutes of the game....again.

Afterwards imo. We already know that any and all choices you would make in a prequel still lead to you "picking which slightly different way you want to fail" ending. Even if it were featuring other characters we still know that everything you do is pointless.

I don't care what they do so long as the new story stretches out over three games and the third ends when arch- villains are all revealed as the henchmen of a previously unknown villain who's using them to solve abstract problems like "why can't we all get along?"  OMG so deep!

Yes a prequel would be great, but it should be entirely about Wrex and just being a general badass mofo.

I want a Mass Effect game where your choices actually matter. No point in having dialog wheels if the result is always going to be the same.

Bioware's corporate guns woke up and asked "how can we scrape more money out of these gamers?" Some lowly game tester replied "why dont we just ask them?" That game tester is now VP of Marketing.

I think the best think they could do is make Mass Effect into something of an anthology. Like the Final fantasy number games.

Maybe a video game about how 100,000,000,000 years later Mass Effect Universe (Future) transform in to STAR WARS Universe!?!!

I'm for no more Mass Effect games period.  It's a dead horse now, just leave it to rot.

I'd love to see a new Mass Effect game set in the future. Far enough in the future that Shepard and the Reapers are not involved, but not so far that they are completely forgotten. 

The game needs more exploration. I did not enjoy the planet scanning system of ME 3. The rewards from scanning planets for the random Citadel NPCs are minimal. Also a greater number of classes and more character customization options would be awesome. Maybe Bioware could even go down the DA: Origins route and let you be able to choose from different races with different origin stories. 

In terms of story, I think it makes sense to involve the exploration, or threat from, another Galaxy. That way new races could be introduced, new technology, new planets, new threats, new everything, and nothing to do with Shepard or the Reapers. 

On a side note I played through ME 3 again recently (with Extended Cut, all the DLC ) and actually enjoyed the ending. It is unsatisfying in the way that it does not take into account all of the choices the player made throughout the game. But to be honest, to write multiple endings that take into account all players choices over three large RPGs is a difficult task and I think Bioware did the best they could with the Extended Cut + the information from Leviathan. What people dont seem to understand is that the ending(s) are such a small part of the actual game. An ending of a story is meant to END THE STORY, and no one can argue that the endings, whether objectively "well writen" or not, did not do that. 

Just stop... stop making games... close up shop and end this crap you've become Bioware... suicide is a justifiable end when you stop moving forward and start becoming stale

I don't want a sequel to any of the IP's that Bioware has done in the last eight years.  I'd prefer something new built on a new engine so they can get a clean start.  No more dialog wheel, no more "all choices lead down one path" game design.

I'll take a prequel or a sequel, I don't care. What I want out of it though, is good writing what killed the third game is the writing. Example: Characters were outta whack, (Jacob cheating on femshep, because she was gone for 6 months?.) the ending wasn't really explained, lacking of details, overall what's needed is a good development time versus trying to rush it which I think what happened to ME3.

It was almost released a year after ME2 but in the end still only had about a year and a half for development time. EA needs to back off, and let BioWare do their thing, that's what I think hurt Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age 2. Too much rushing for the money and not enough polish.

No, I don't want a Mass Effect prequel. I want Jade Empire 2. Get on it!

For me it must be a sequel so far away that the universe has forgotten Shepard, the Reapers, the Geth and the mass relay network... Ships are fast enough to go from point to point... It's SF anyway! No more sentient robots and more focus on the different races populating the Mass Effect universe.

The important thing isn't whether or not it's a prequel or sequel. What is important is making the story believable (ex: Joker's 'I can still fly it!' scene in the beginning of ME2 was just ... ridiculous) and getting away from the Gears of War style gameplay.

I want the new Mass Effect game to revisit what made the original (and KoToR) so enjoyable: A slower-paced, fully-realized RPG with heavy exploration elements and choices that actually matter.

i want you to stop making garbage, and escape from EAs claws

After, do it after, and try to explain wtf really happened at the ending of ME3 while, at the same time, driving us to brand new story, with no relations to the previous one whatsoever, In other words, set in the same universe, with other characters and other focus. Space pirates perhaps?

if mac walters and casey hudson are involved, no no no and a thousand times no.

id rather they didnt make another mass effect game at all and just start a new, original series of games

A whole game dedicated to retelling the end of 3.

no no no and another no......

A prequel would be strange, being that the Protheans don't make for good protagonists being all insecty. Also, knowing that the prior race gets destroyed by the Reapers would be a drama killer.

On the other hand, The Krogan Rebellion/plotline or The Batarian Wars could make for interesting games, however it would have a lot of trouble living up to the originals in the grandeur of the story.

To make a decent prequel it would have to be in the distant past, maybe when the Reapers were created or destroyed their first group of creatures. Imagine having the choice never to create the Reapers in the past; would humanity come to exist as we know it in the original trilogy?

A sequel could be interesting, with several loose ends from the series. The Krogan are left to repopulate again, the Geth are a free-thinking race, humanity has just assumed leadership, ect. Also, many of the home worlds of some species are left unexplored on foot. Could the united aliens in the Milky Way Galaxy develop technology to go to a new galaxy?

Either way, if Bioware does it right, I will be happy. :)