Creating Fictional Worlds

Mac Walters is a talented dude.

He's responsible for Garrus, Wrex, and The Illusive Man, three of Mass Effect's distinct characters. Graduated from a writer to a director in the middle of the franchise's rising popularity. He even stepped in on Mass Effect Andromeda after being roasted alive by most of the fan base for Mass Effect 3's conclusion.

He still felt the passion and responsibility to release a full game rather than an unfinished prototype to be shelved forever.

However, I got the sense he's not the best world builder, and these comics I'm reading are confirming that suspicion.

Now, I'm not pinning all of this on Mac, he's ultimately just one dude in the case of these two comics, Foundation and Evolution, setting up the broad story, while they're written, drawn, and published by numerous other people.

However, the reason they confirm my suspicion is that these are stories that don't need to be the type of grand scale adventure of the games. The plot of Foundation, is how Liara saved Commander Shepard's body for Cerberus, and the latter is The Illusive Man's early years in The First Contact War.

They're not about larger than life heroes saving the galaxy, but instead, deeply personal character studies at specific moments in their lives changing who they are forever…

Yet, they're paced like adventure movies about saving the world.

In Evolution, TIM and his partner in-crime Eva Core, arrive on Ilium, as the first Humans ever to do so. Quite the incredible feat that should be a huge occasion… where they land with no contact, no officials, no permits needed, and stroll through the city where they're completely free to rent flying cars to hunt down their needed target.

It doesn’t feel like Illium's corrupt nature is being explored, it feels like it's being used as an excuse to setup cliché events that are frankly, less interesting than the world they take place in.

I've said for years that I prefer Mass Effect's world more than the games, so it's obviously frustrating to read a bunch of side-stories where the world has an even bigger emphasis on paper, but doesn't live up to it at all in execution.

How do landing pads work on Illium? How does first contact on a new planet work? Are all the cars self-driving? If not, are driving licenses a thing? Can you get a speeding ticket? Can you land anywhere? Are the designated zones? Are there patrol routes?

I'm not saying all of these questions need to be answered, but what I'm saying, is most of Mass Effect's stories so far don't seem to want the questions asked.

One of my favorite videos of all time is by MrBTongue, called The Shandification of Fallout If you've got fifteen minutes, skip this article and go watch it, but if not, he spends the end of the video asking a question while playing Fallout 3.

"What do they eat?"

For every settlement visited in the game's world, he asks this question, and the game world doesn't really seem to have answer. Meanwhile, Fallout New Vegas spends the time to detail things like food crops, markets, and water springs.

He says, "if you find this question annoying, I'd argue you're not cut out for creating fictional worlds."

...

Actually, that's a good question.

What do they eat on Illium?

Well, I do know Krogans like their Salarian liver served raw…

As do Protheans.