Posted by zeroinitiate on Feb 26, 2010 in Commentary |

After a few weeks of musing about it I think I’ve been able to pinpoint exactly what I like about Mass Effect that makes it different from WoW: it reminded me of how it felt like being the hero. WoW has a habit of addressing you as a hero. In fact, it calls everyone in the raid heroes, which kinda defeats the purpose of being one. It removes the importance of the word. It echoes Syndrome from The Incredibles movie, “And when everyone’s super, no one will be.”

I know it’s not a fair comparison, but this isn’t really a WoW-bashing post. It’s more about why I like Mass Effect. In the game, you play as Commander Shepard, recently assigned as the executive officer of the frigate SSV Normandy. Without spoiling things, let’s just say that the game gives you the opportunity to not only choose who gets to live or die, but also allows you to reshape the galaxy as you see fit. It’s fun to be in the spotlight again, to know that what you do literally sends ripples across star systems. WoW, as an MMO, is almost always about the group effort. The sense of accomplishment is different and the variety that the single-player experience brings is a breath of fresh air.

Oh, and the gameplay rocks too.