I don’t understand what the article is saying, I can’t imagine anyone goes 100% Paragon or Renegade, instead choosing the one that fits the situation as they see it. Maybe that rolls up to a mostly Paragon or Renegade disposition over the course of the game, but if that’s what they’re referring to then I don’t see how that actually says anything. I went Paragon more than Renegade? Sure, probably, so what?
I tried for 100% paragon. Because I am the hero the universe needs.
malkav11
3603
Not only should you be able to imagine that, because people totally do that (I have in both my series playthroughs), I would wager that is by far the most common approach because the game explicitly rewards that behavior.
rei
3604
There are some Renegade choices that are cartoonishly selfish and evil. Others like doing shots with the marines in Purgatory I wonder why it’s Renegade.
Rock8man
3605
I went 100% paragon in all 3 games.
I am the 92%.
I’m not seeing any indication that going 100% Paragon or Renegade confers any benefits at all.
The best I can see is that in the first game, getting to 75% on the sliding scale of either Paragon or Renegade will open Charm or Renegade options respectively, and neither requires that you choose either option exclusively in order to get to that level. I know this from experience.
rei
3607
To get the best genophage cure outcome you had to have gone Renegade in ME2 by saving Maelin’s research data in order to keep Eve alive in ME3.
Rock8man
3608
I had forgotten about that. You’re right, I didn’t go 100% paragon. I did make some Renegade decisions in the end-game in both Mass Effect 1 and 2 I think.
Given that 92% of all players apparently chose Paragon options exclusively, I can well imagine that stuff like this led to some pretty angry discussions over on Bioware’s boards.
malkav11
3610
The game rewards you for picking one morality and sticking with it. It is true that you don’t have to do this exclusively in order to reach the maximum rewarded level, but you’ll slow down those rewards if you don’t, and it’s not obvious in play whether you can afford that or whether you’ll end up locking out an important resolution option due to lack of persuasive ability. (The later games in the trilogy also tie the ability to persuade to your morality ranking, they just don’t make you level up a skill to do it.)
Besides, half the point of multiple replays is to see the different results, and as far as I know the game doesn’t set up situations where you get different outcomes by leading off with a paragon approach and then choosing a renegade resolution or vice versa. So it’s easier to just go all one way, then all the other.
Edit: just saw the above about a cross-game renegade-to-paragon consequence. So I guess maybe it does happen sometimes.
OK, so this is just another one of those pointless internet arguments that pops up for no reason. OK, sure, some people pick paragon every single opportunity that arises, for reasons that completely escape me, but I have a hard time believing that 92% of all the people that play Mass Effect chose Paragon options exclusively. My argument is not that the opposite option is to ping-pong randomly between Paragon and Renegade options but to, as I said, choose an option based on context. In other words, to roleplay. I don’t see what’s so controversial about this. Yes, I am fully aware that min-maxing happens, I just don’t see that being the majority option.
malkav11
3612
And I think you’ll find that very few people do that, because there are mechanical rewards for sticking to one side or the other, at least in the main, and if there’s anything I’ve learned about gamers it’s that they figure out how to optimize and then do that regardless of things like roleplaying or indeed fun.
rei
3613
Bioware’s boards or BioWare Social Network doesn’t exist anymore. There’s an unofficial BSN site but the fandom resides on the /r/dragonage and /r/masseffect subreddits. They have indeed been discussing this 92% thing.
Jesus Christ. Once more from the top: is this tweet referring to people who chose Paragon exclusively or more often than not, or as you say, in the main?
You know what, it’s not worth continuing this argument. You win. Have fun.
How wonderful. Meanwhile, Kotaku has posted a similar article about this tweet, with this item at the bottom:
UPDATE : Here’s a 2013 look at some Mass Effect 3 statistics which say that, for the third game in the series at least, 35.5% of players were Renegade. Both that statistic and the one Ebenger cites are short on necessary context though, like does this count all playthroughs or just first ones? Does it count completed games or just dabbles?
So again, we have no basic context to explain what any of this even means.
rei
3617
60GB update for the 1080p/4K upscaled videos mod for ME3. 16GB/44GB torrent or download from Nexus.
Being evil in a BioWare RPG just seems counterproductive. Especially in Mass Effect.
Good RPGs for being evil are pretty rare but usually from Obsidian, ex: Tyranny, NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer
Renegade isn’t “evil” it’s ruthless. That’s exactly why it’s fun.
