Why Mass Effect and Dragon Age Shows Shouldn't Recreate the Games

Mass Effect and Dragon Age are two of Canadian game developer BioWare’s most famous and beloved IPs. This can certainly be attributed to an emphasis on player choice and character creation. Whether you’re trying to unite a kingdom against an overwhelming threat as the Hero of Ferelden, causing mayhem in the streets of Kirkwall as Hawke, or fighting to stop a galactic extinction cycle as Commander Shepard, the choices you make while playing these games shape the fates of the characters and communities around you.

With this popularity comes branching out into other types of media. Dragon Age and Mass Effect have been targeted by Amazon Prime Video as potential bases for television shows, news that has some players wary. We currently know very little about what these shows would offer plot-wise, but there’s one thing most fans seem to agree on: they should avoid retelling the stories of the games. Let’s talk about why that is.

The Need for a Default Hero

In BioWare’s roleplaying games, your first choice starts right at the outset: choosing your character’s appearance. It isn’t strange to dedicate a decent chunk of time getting your protagonist’s look just right. After all, you will be staring at their mug for the entire game. There is something special about designing your own hero, a feeling that may not be present in games with one set protagonist. This is your hero, your story, and nobody else’s.

So, when turning such a game into a television show, you hit an immediate issue. Unless we’re turning Shepard or the Inquisitor into a shapeshifter, they’ll need to have one set appearance. And no matter what they look like — masculine or feminine, their skin color, eye color, scars, or unique facial features, among other things — huge chunks of these franchises’ fan bases will feel ostracized. Going from guiding your personalized character through major decisions to watching that same protagonist with an appearance somebody chose for you is a huge jump. At that point, fans may prefer just booting up their own playthroughs again! Really, who could blame them?

Picking One Set of Choices

While fans may disagree on exactly how deep the choice systems in these games go, it’s true that in BioWare’s RPGs, there is more than one route to take at most important story junctures. Each decision has its own set of consequences, major or minor, including who lives and who dies. These are things directly controlled by the player, which leads to our next main issue.

It would be a colossal — arguably impossible — undertaking to explore every single option offered to players. If screenwriters wanted to adapt the in-game plots for television, they would need to make strict choices on how the story progresses. Entire courses of action that you are free to choose in the games would need to be cut for the purposes of streamlining. Does Commander Shepard save on Kaidan or Ashley on Virmire? Will the Hero of Ferelden complete Morrigan’s dark ritual and avoid death in the final battle, or will they make the ultimate sacrifice? Who does Hawke support: templars or mages? Does the Inquisitor drink from the Well of Sorrows and become thrall to an elven goddess?

All these options and more, which carry significant weight for players and their custom protagonist, will need to be scrapped in favor of one path forward. And while it is true that one choice is usually more popular than another, according to BioWare statistics, to take away that freedom would strip Mass Effect and Dragon Age of key parts of their identities. If adapted for the screen, these choices would undoubtedly be made null.

What’s the Alternative?

While Mass Effect and Dragon Age are wildly different from one another in the world-building department, they share an important similarity. Both are rich in lore and unique characters. There is a lot of untapped potential here, enough to afford screenwriters some serious freedom. If these shows truly do happen, they should be about something we haven’t seen before, or they should fall back on old lore and build from there.

Imagine if, instead of retelling the story of Commander Shepard, we followed Aria T’Loak (played by Carrie-Anne Moss in Mass Effect 2 and 3) as she established herself as Omega’s queen? How about a series on the First Contact War, humanity’s violent introduction to alien life, and the rest of galactic civilization? With Dragon Age, why not tell the story of Ferelden’s fight for independence from Orlais? Or go farther back, to the life of the fabled Grey Warden Garahel? If the showrunners wished, they could use these franchises to tell entirely new adventures with their own casts of interesting characters.

There are so many options here, enough for fans to warm up to the idea of their favorite choice-based games becoming linear adventures. Why should the writers limit themselves to stories that have already been told when so much untapped potential is waiting to be found? So, cue the galaxy map music and go explore those unsung corners of BioWare’s worlds. Leave our Commander Shepards and mighty warriors, mages, and rogues to a well-deserved rest.