For the past few years, quite a few video games have been destined to be rejected in television series, as this seems to be the goodwill of investors. Fortunately, not all players in the industry seem to have simply left, as the case of Mass Effect shows.
The adjustment pandemic is so great that it is becoming very difficult to enumerate: after The Last of Us, Resident Evil, Driver or even Twisted Metal, the panel of video game series is beginning to dwindle. What does it matter that you will always find a producer who is lazy than the average to find an emollient with the novelty. Today it is the e-commerce giant Amazon that could soon offer its serialized version of Mass Effect via its streaming platform.
The commandant steals
The head of Amazon studios has indeed confirmed a desire to refuse the adventures of Commander (or Commander) Sheperd in some episodes, as is required from now on:
One of Amazon’s newest streaming hopes is called Mass Effect. Amazon Studios is about to sign a deal to develop a series based on Electronic Arts’ best-selling sci-fi video game license.
And if the case may blame small hands for the adaptation of this video game space opera for Amazon Prime, the announcement seems to have really hurt a writer at BioWare who is undoubtedly linked to the series’ universe.
Turbulence Amazon
David Gaider joined BioWare in 1999, scripting a number of the works in the Dragon Age series, and even turned it down in short stories and other comics. That is, if he knows his subject. But the Canadian screenwriter’s blood only turned with the announcement of a possible Mass Effect-inspired television series. In a long series of tweets, Gaider stated his reluctance to choose Amazon:
I’m relieved to see that the Mass Effect and Amazon agreement is a potential TV series, not a movie. But still, the possibility (just like with Dragon Age) makes me wince a bit, unlike many players who seem … excited?
For starters, Mass Effect and Dragon Age both have their own protagonist. This means that this series has to decide whether the protagonist will be a man or a woman. Paf, you only alienated part of the public from the start.
Second, these protagonists are designed as a blank page that the player fills in at will. It doesn’t work with passive media. So the protagonist suddenly has his own personality … and his own “story”. It’s going to be strange.
The intrigues surrounding fellow travelers had to take the player’s decisions into account. In a way, they were the relay of emotional engagement. Interactivity was the star, not the plot.
Whatever happens, good luck to the showrunners.At one point this TV series needs to ask “What is Mass Effect?” respond. “… And do something that looks” like Mass Effect “. The players don’t need that, and their reaction must be bad. We will see.
This is a speech that is sure to reach the ears of potential future Amazon series writers if it ever sees the light of day. For their part, the little boys at Bioware promised that a new episode of Mas Effect – this video game – would see the light of day, through a curious tease …
