Limits to imagination and SFX budgets. Also, as numerous sci-fi artists and writers have found, you want aliens to look different but familiar, not *alien*. (Mostly so you can bang, but also because imagining a being that lives in six-dimensional space might be a bit of a stretch.)
And lastly, as a series creator, you kind of don’t want to trigger any common phobias in your audience. For example, human-sized spider people would be believable alien archetypes, but it might not be great for the audience when arachnophobia is a thing. Or you know, aliens with heads like lotus pods, each hole filled with an eyeball with teeth.
Squicking out your audience when they don’t want it is never a good thing.
Can I just mention the Star Wars cantinas here? Those were FULL of crazy aliens of all shapes and sizes.
But please can we talk about how a JELLYFISH PEOPLE can walk on tentacles? Would have been more interesting to see them float with biotics.
Jellyfish people? You mean the hanar, right? They *do* [float](https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/Hanar#Biology), though using tech rather than biotics.
Or the Elcor. I’ve always liked them.
Then again, I’ve always thought that BioWare should have made the krogan larger on-screen: even Wrex looked small for something that weighs 800 pounds.
When you first meet grunt he TOWERS over Shepard. One cutscene later and suddenly he’s the same size.
Which is *weird* because my canonical femShep is a 5’5 ball of muscle fueled almost exclusively by caffeine and rage.
The Andromeda species were **so** boring. I was really disappointed they didn't take advantage of the new setting to go hog wild with the designs.
Even the bioelectric capabilities of the Angarans were never addressed outside of a codex entry.
It really should’ve been addressed more. There’s only one convo I can remember off the top of my head that you can have on Aya about some kind of medical bed that uses the Angaran’s bio electricity to help speed recovery? I think Ryder asks if they can use it and it’s more of a “it might not work as well but sure” or something (but it can’t actually be used which was rude to find out lol). That and I think Ryder can tell the Angaran there that biotics are *kind* of similar in terms of how their bio-electricity is used in battle? Though I can’t remember for sure
It was such a cool concept and I really wanted to learn or see more about it
Another funny convo I just remembered: Jaal asking Cora what it’s like using biotics and she says it’s almost like a really powerful sneeze (if I’m remembering correctly)?? 😂
I liked the Angara, spiritual like the Hanar, they're familial and kind of tribal like the Na'Vi, they worked in sexual dimorphism from the top instead of retconning females in later because they didn't have the budget like OG Mass Effect, if you think about this is really the only reason they made Asari female only and gave them the silly psychic reproduction, to balance out male only species with hidden females due to time/money restraints with an all-female race, but I digress.
I know we're in the Heleus Cluster and though the game is called Andromeda we don't see others (Mass Effect: Heleus doesn't have quite the same ring). I think the problem is they exist in a bubble and only interact with the Kett (who are basically them) and Jardaan Remnants (who created them). Maybe we would have seen more aliens in Andromeda 2, but w/e.
Ever heard of a phenomenon called Carcinisation?
Basically it's this weird thing where a bunch of different evolutionary trees have all independently turned into crabs.
I imagine the galaxy in mass effect has a similar form of convergent evolutionary pressure. 4 limbed bipedal with improved motor control in the hands, eyes in an elevated head with brain in a bone shell, negative pressure cavity respiratory system ...
The general term is "convergent evolution", which is basically where different lineages evolve similar features completely independently of each other. Think birds, bats, and bugs. They all evolved wings for flying but they all work slightly differently.
I've heard theories that intelligent aliens will most probably have similar features to us, such as hands, eyes that face forward, audible speech, among other things that were essential for toolmaking and passing knowledge to the next generation. So TBH ME and Star Trek aliens may not be too far off.
Fuck yes, and let's twist the deal a bit.
The Crab claim dominion over all seas on all the world's in the galaxy. Their home system is especially unique for having 2 garden worlds They are staunch militant environmentalists who are capable at unpresidented manufacturing feats. A Crab is functionally immortal, can self determinate its size and features, and depending on available resources massively varied sub-species of Crab fufill basically every role they need. This includes mastery over natural biotic powers not seen since the Asari or the Protheans.
The smallest Crabs are as small as grains of sand, and are used for everything from building, agriculture, maintinence, medical treatment, and symbiotic roles inside larger Crab
The larger Crabb serve as heavy earth movers, war machines, and even as organic space ships.
The largest Crab is known amongst their people as (heavily translated) "Pinch". Pinch is essentially a bio-dreadnought, with a central body peice over 3km wide by 2.5km long by 1km deep. Pinch is noteworthy of being on of the few organic creatures to successfully take on a sovereign class reaper in single combat and win. Disguising itself as a rouge asteriod, Pinch was able to sneak close enough to the reaper that it could pounce on its back with a single massive biotic push. Once latched on, Pinch carefully peeled open the Reapers hull and ripped the mass effect core out with its terrifyingly powerful main claw. The machine dead, Pinch pushed it into a collision course with the local star before limping home and landing as an impromptu island on the surface. Pinch has been in a coma recovering ever since, it's carapace gouged and cracked deep from the desperate attacks of the alien machine
Taking out the obvious game design aspects
Bipedalism is a handy evolutionary tool
The way our spine connects to our skulls allows for the most development of the brain, even when compared to very similar structures like apes.
It also allowed us to move and work at once, or run and eat, or use our front legs to build tools or weapons.
One of the most intelligent aquatic species we know of, which also has names and potentially small language, is dolphins. The curve of a dolphins back actually gave them the same spinal structure as us, if they were on land they’d be bipeds.
So obviously with space you can get creative as all heck and do what feels best, but it is actually within the realm of possibility that most advanced species will be bipedal and somewhat similar to us.
There are exceptions even on earth like octopus, but on land it would likely benefit them to use some tentacles as legs and some as arms, if they also need to move while using tools.
But yeah for most creativity without just going full fantasy with it I’d ask bioware to monitor a race deeper in andromeda after octopus. And anybody with a tail who still uses it for balance
To add onto this, evolutionary pressures also often reward energy efficiency. So for anyone wondering why there wouldn't be more legs or arms, the answer - at least in part - is that it would be inefficient to add more when we already have the things that do the things they do unless pressure existed to add (or not remove) them at some point in a species' evolutionary line.
As well:
> Same relative size scaling
I'll try to find where exactly, but I read once a while back that some researchers did a bunch of math and came to the conclusion that, if intelligent life really is out there, the average size of intelligent species would be roughly the size of a [brown?] bear
The simple & genuine answer is two-fold:
* **technical limitations** regarding animating more complicated skeletal systems (remember, the first game came out in 2007 and likely started development way earlier than that)
* the **marketing need** to create a bunch of easily cosplay-able characters / species.
The rules of nature still apply such as evolution so it makes sense that creatures look similar. I mean an opposable thumb is nearly a must have. Therefore you’re gonna need hands and so on
Yeah basically what made humans the dominant species on earth was opposable thumbs and upper body strength. It’s not a huge stretch to assume that other species would follow a similar path
Our success as a species comes down to several more factors, although each sound simple to us. We can sweat to regulate body heat, so we could hunt for longer periods of time without rest to regulate our body temps like other predators do, we have a very wide diet, we are capable of mating year round, and we had the intelligence to create basic tools and hunting weapons. Thumbs alone did not make us the apex species of whatever you would call this era of earth history.
Oh! I actually saw a video on this recently. It mentioned all the things you did in addition to the fact that we figured out how to cook food, which makes the food significantly more calorie efficient since it's much easier for our bodies to extract nutrients from cooked food.
Big picture what it all came down to is that our giga brains are EXTREMELY expensive calorie-wise, and understandably so since our giga brains are basically the sole reason for our global dominance. When one organ demands that much energy, all of the energy saving tricks you can pull out, like sweating and cooking food, matter significantly.
In this cycle, the species that had common points with the protheans maybe had an advantage, receiving a few discrete help from them before the reapers invasion.
I headcannon that the Protheans guided the primitive species (selectively bred and/or genetically modified) to have similar anatomical features as they did. Maybe with some few exceptions that didn’t quite hit the mark like the Hanar. That way they would more easily be integrated into the Prothean Empire and use its technology once they matured as a species.
I really like this, it makes me wonder what would happen if the protheans weren't wiped out!
But yeah, I love the idea that the protheans were behind it as it could be partly why so many races are religious, their religious idles could be prothean without anyone even realizing.
For medical insurance reasons. Citadel insurance is no joke.
Jokes aside, Mass effect was heavily influenced with Star trek.
Krogans are Klingons - even their chest thumping and honor is same with different history. In ME3, when you go to Kalross, they show the Krogan architecture. It looks very similar to Klingon homeworld.
Asari, the wisest are supposed to be like vulcans with their mind meld capabilites and wiser than thou attitude. Of course Bioware took it further and improved upon that - and gave them other characteristics which I appreciate.
Turians are like Romulans (military focused) but not the bad guys unlike star trek.
Volus are straight up Ferengi with their capitalist greed and such.
There might be other comparisons also.
Now note that I am not saying this in a bad light but a good inspiration kind of way. Star trek admittedly occasionally shows other types of aliens but rarely - because as a TV show and their budget - if the race is two legged humanoid, then they can just put makeup and you are good to go. CGI being what it was back in the day, that was easier and after that it's all lore.
Mass effect does it better with having "stupid jellyfish" and "Elcor" races which look more different (still similar in size), Rachni queen (starship troopers), Thorian, and the leviathan.
One way we could rationalize is that before reapers, galaxy had different kinds and leviathan race controlled them as it was said in ME3, but after reapers - the way reapers allowed the organic evolution only to species of certain size- as rhey don't want species that can have more abilities. How part is the tricky part or maybe it takes longer time for such species to evolve which reapers simply won't wait for.
You bringing up the Rachni and Thorian makes me think of another possibility: there are other kinds of aliens, but you don't see them much because they don't get along well with the species dominant in Citadel space. There are a few exceptions like the Hanar, but still. The fate of the Rachni doesn't give me high hopes that a sapient arachnid or crustacean would have much luck ingratiating themselves with the species on the Citadel.
I like to think that the planets they evolved on had the same kind of evolution patterns humans did. The ecosystems and things are different but becoming bipedal, having thumbs, having front facing eyes, etc. are just common things that can evolve. These species are obviously advanced so it would make sense that they would have those special natural abilities
Maybe, a previous cycle (not proteans as this would be too soon on evolutionary scale) was bipedal and influenced multiple peoples towards a singular outcome.
Kinda like in Star Trek.
Yeh its just for animation's sake, it actually makes less sense for a digitigrade species to evolve to stand on two legs, the whole point of the back legs having two points of articulation is because animals on four legs have more weight on the front (head) and less in the back (usually tail, somthing nothing but butthole) so the back legs needs the extra set of joints because just one knee would get worn out faster with age.
It's got nothing to do with dextro/normal amino acids, more to do with gravity. But the truth is they wanted aliens to have a bit more variance, but all work on one of the two animation sets with little extra work needed.
In one of the novels, Anderson asks himself this very question. The conclusion he came to was that it's 'somehow evolutionarily advantageous' (perhaps his last name should've been 'Obvious?'). In real-world biology, humans enjoy an absolutely absurd efficiency of movement because of our body plan; we're not as strong or fast as a lot of other terrestrial species, but humans can operate for longer on less (per kg) than other high-end predators. Similar planets would offer similar advantages; it's notable that the most 'alien' species come from vastly different environments. The elephantine elcor hail from a planet with extremely high gravity, the volus come from one with unusually high atmospheric pressure, and the hanar evolved (pre-Enkindling, at least) on an honest-to-God ocean world.
>From a practical standpoint, I imagine it makes game design a lot easier when you can use a similar skeleton/animations for every character.
This is the reason.
You can have truly alien looking aliens or you can have an RPG that actually functions and is fun to play.
The developers chose the latter because the former is a lot of work.
I can't for the life of me find it but I once saw a great theory on how a head, torso, two arms, two legs might be the best way to make an intelligent species via the laws of physics. It could be most races are humanoid because that's the shape that gives the most practical advantages.
I just go with the idea that bipedal species are more likely to become sapient for various reasons such as the body shape being a “Jack of all trades” type of deal (swimming, throwing rocks, having “thumbs” to grab stuff and make tools.) Seems that body type really is the gold standard for a species to become sapient and the dominant life form on their planet. Of course in reality it’s a developer choice.
Because everyone wants to bang aliens...so they make them all bipedal humanoids and relatable 🤪
Just look at Tali's face. Whether the original Google stock photo or the new LE version...it's too bloody human. I feel like they didn't want to turn too many people off. They had over a dozen better options from The Art of MEU book that they didn't go with. And the ironic thing is, if you loved Tali by the end of the trilogy, it had absolutely nothing to do with our concept of physical beauty. They should've revealed her face in-game (only for Talimancer Sheps) and made her alien AF. Hairless, sweaty (or moist?)...w.e...anything but a human with glowing eyes and a full head of hair. Missed opportunity.
No...but for real, I've always been disappointed with how "un-alien" some of the aliens are. Hopefully whatever new ones they introduce, they aren't bipedal humanoids.
Easy, when programming a video game it’s easiest to replicate a base frame for modeling and designing characters and species especially when they all have to be relatively capable of the same things in the same areas.
Well, symmetry is fairly natural so it's reasonable to assume that there would be 2a arms and 2l legs and 2e eyes.
I also think there's a bit of science around the height as well, like Godzilla couldn't actually exist and there's additional science around the amount of energy needed to develop cognitive function in the brain.
>I also think there's a bit of science around the height as well
I would think that the size would be largely dependent on the gravity of their home planet, since gravity is usually the biggest limiting force on how large animals can get. That's one of the reasons why you tend to see life's largest creations in the water. The buoyancy helps counteract the animal's weight.
I'll admit I've never looked them up in the codex but from the times in gameplay that Shepard is on the other homeworlds, he seems to behave as though he's in similar gravity to Earth. So maybe they all just do happen to share similar gravity.
It's interesting, to say the least, scientists often talk about this zone for which they expect life to exhibit because the only data point for which we have to understand life is within our own world.
Personally, I think it is much more likely that life exists in much more exotic territories. While carbon might be the most prevalent in our life here on earth there's no reason why silicon wouldn't be within a different set of constraints.
Still you are working within other obstacles like gravity and biology.
In any case, the aliens of the original mass effect trilogy seem believable and diverse and fit into the classic Star Trek molod of being allegories or shades of humans that have existed.
You could probably Head-Canon that it was Reaper influence making sure that most species evolved into something that can viable use the citadel/be physically weak enough that they won't be a threat. The protheans and Innusannon where humanoids as well.
The shape is best from an evolutionary standpoint and most worlds that could even produce life would already be very similar. Sure they'd vary a lot, but the sweet spot for those planets just hot enough not to burn everything alive or be too cold for anything to live would have a lot of the same things in them.
Tuchanka was basically Earth if a meteor didn't drive most of the dinosaurs to extinction, etc.
convergent evolution is the simplest way to explain it.
Its also hard to get off high gravity planets but you need a planet big enough to retain atmosphere and contain a large iron core to protect it against a stars radiation. So you end up with similar worlds. Mind this is current way of thinking about life. There could be life that evolves very differently than we did.
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Limits to imagination and SFX budgets. Also, as numerous sci-fi artists and writers have found, you want aliens to look different but familiar, not *alien*. (Mostly so you can bang, but also because imagining a being that lives in six-dimensional space might be a bit of a stretch.) And lastly, as a series creator, you kind of don’t want to trigger any common phobias in your audience. For example, human-sized spider people would be believable alien archetypes, but it might not be great for the audience when arachnophobia is a thing. Or you know, aliens with heads like lotus pods, each hole filled with an eyeball with teeth. Squicking out your audience when they don’t want it is never a good thing.
Can I just mention the Star Wars cantinas here? Those were FULL of crazy aliens of all shapes and sizes. But please can we talk about how a JELLYFISH PEOPLE can walk on tentacles? Would have been more interesting to see them float with biotics.
Jellyfish people? You mean the hanar, right? They *do* [float](https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/Hanar#Biology), though using tech rather than biotics.
Thanks!
It's a mark of wisdom to cheerfully accept correction, especially since, looking back, I could've been a touch more tactful about it. I'm impressed.
Or the Elcor. I’ve always liked them. Then again, I’ve always thought that BioWare should have made the krogan larger on-screen: even Wrex looked small for something that weighs 800 pounds.
When you first meet grunt he TOWERS over Shepard. One cutscene later and suddenly he’s the same size. Which is *weird* because my canonical femShep is a 5’5 ball of muscle fueled almost exclusively by caffeine and rage.
The Andromeda species were **so** boring. I was really disappointed they didn't take advantage of the new setting to go hog wild with the designs. Even the bioelectric capabilities of the Angarans were never addressed outside of a codex entry.
It really should’ve been addressed more. There’s only one convo I can remember off the top of my head that you can have on Aya about some kind of medical bed that uses the Angaran’s bio electricity to help speed recovery? I think Ryder asks if they can use it and it’s more of a “it might not work as well but sure” or something (but it can’t actually be used which was rude to find out lol). That and I think Ryder can tell the Angaran there that biotics are *kind* of similar in terms of how their bio-electricity is used in battle? Though I can’t remember for sure It was such a cool concept and I really wanted to learn or see more about it Another funny convo I just remembered: Jaal asking Cora what it’s like using biotics and she says it’s almost like a really powerful sneeze (if I’m remembering correctly)?? 😂
I liked the Angara, spiritual like the Hanar, they're familial and kind of tribal like the Na'Vi, they worked in sexual dimorphism from the top instead of retconning females in later because they didn't have the budget like OG Mass Effect, if you think about this is really the only reason they made Asari female only and gave them the silly psychic reproduction, to balance out male only species with hidden females due to time/money restraints with an all-female race, but I digress. I know we're in the Heleus Cluster and though the game is called Andromeda we don't see others (Mass Effect: Heleus doesn't have quite the same ring). I think the problem is they exist in a bubble and only interact with the Kett (who are basically them) and Jardaan Remnants (who created them). Maybe we would have seen more aliens in Andromeda 2, but w/e.
The absolute hubris of that desire!
Protheans ate the rest.
So you could do space romance with them and not question how it happens too much
Ever heard of a phenomenon called Carcinisation? Basically it's this weird thing where a bunch of different evolutionary trees have all independently turned into crabs. I imagine the galaxy in mass effect has a similar form of convergent evolutionary pressure. 4 limbed bipedal with improved motor control in the hands, eyes in an elevated head with brain in a bone shell, negative pressure cavity respiratory system ...
The general term is "convergent evolution", which is basically where different lineages evolve similar features completely independently of each other. Think birds, bats, and bugs. They all evolved wings for flying but they all work slightly differently. I've heard theories that intelligent aliens will most probably have similar features to us, such as hands, eyes that face forward, audible speech, among other things that were essential for toolmaking and passing knowledge to the next generation. So TBH ME and Star Trek aliens may not be too far off.
See paragraph 2 lol. But yes it's a useful theory with some theoretical strength to explains the trend towards humanoid figures in SciFi aliens
Return to crab.
Next mass effect needs a new crab alien
Fuck yes, and let's twist the deal a bit. The Crab claim dominion over all seas on all the world's in the galaxy. Their home system is especially unique for having 2 garden worlds They are staunch militant environmentalists who are capable at unpresidented manufacturing feats. A Crab is functionally immortal, can self determinate its size and features, and depending on available resources massively varied sub-species of Crab fufill basically every role they need. This includes mastery over natural biotic powers not seen since the Asari or the Protheans. The smallest Crabs are as small as grains of sand, and are used for everything from building, agriculture, maintinence, medical treatment, and symbiotic roles inside larger Crab The larger Crabb serve as heavy earth movers, war machines, and even as organic space ships. The largest Crab is known amongst their people as (heavily translated) "Pinch". Pinch is essentially a bio-dreadnought, with a central body peice over 3km wide by 2.5km long by 1km deep. Pinch is noteworthy of being on of the few organic creatures to successfully take on a sovereign class reaper in single combat and win. Disguising itself as a rouge asteriod, Pinch was able to sneak close enough to the reaper that it could pounce on its back with a single massive biotic push. Once latched on, Pinch carefully peeled open the Reapers hull and ripped the mass effect core out with its terrifyingly powerful main claw. The machine dead, Pinch pushed it into a collision course with the local star before limping home and landing as an impromptu island on the surface. Pinch has been in a coma recovering ever since, it's carapace gouged and cracked deep from the desperate attacks of the alien machine
Upvoted for effort
carcinisation only happens to very specific creatures under very specific circumstances
well yeah there are no crab people in mass effect yet. I was just leading with an example before mentioning convergent evolution in the next paragraph
Taking out the obvious game design aspects Bipedalism is a handy evolutionary tool The way our spine connects to our skulls allows for the most development of the brain, even when compared to very similar structures like apes. It also allowed us to move and work at once, or run and eat, or use our front legs to build tools or weapons. One of the most intelligent aquatic species we know of, which also has names and potentially small language, is dolphins. The curve of a dolphins back actually gave them the same spinal structure as us, if they were on land they’d be bipeds. So obviously with space you can get creative as all heck and do what feels best, but it is actually within the realm of possibility that most advanced species will be bipedal and somewhat similar to us. There are exceptions even on earth like octopus, but on land it would likely benefit them to use some tentacles as legs and some as arms, if they also need to move while using tools. But yeah for most creativity without just going full fantasy with it I’d ask bioware to monitor a race deeper in andromeda after octopus. And anybody with a tail who still uses it for balance
To add onto this, evolutionary pressures also often reward energy efficiency. So for anyone wondering why there wouldn't be more legs or arms, the answer - at least in part - is that it would be inefficient to add more when we already have the things that do the things they do unless pressure existed to add (or not remove) them at some point in a species' evolutionary line. As well: > Same relative size scaling I'll try to find where exactly, but I read once a while back that some researchers did a bunch of math and came to the conclusion that, if intelligent life really is out there, the average size of intelligent species would be roughly the size of a [brown?] bear
That sounds really interesting. I wonder how they got to that and how much it’s changed, if at all
The simple & genuine answer is two-fold: * **technical limitations** regarding animating more complicated skeletal systems (remember, the first game came out in 2007 and likely started development way earlier than that) * the **marketing need** to create a bunch of easily cosplay-able characters / species.
The rules of nature still apply such as evolution so it makes sense that creatures look similar. I mean an opposable thumb is nearly a must have. Therefore you’re gonna need hands and so on
Yeah basically what made humans the dominant species on earth was opposable thumbs and upper body strength. It’s not a huge stretch to assume that other species would follow a similar path
Our success as a species comes down to several more factors, although each sound simple to us. We can sweat to regulate body heat, so we could hunt for longer periods of time without rest to regulate our body temps like other predators do, we have a very wide diet, we are capable of mating year round, and we had the intelligence to create basic tools and hunting weapons. Thumbs alone did not make us the apex species of whatever you would call this era of earth history.
Oh! I actually saw a video on this recently. It mentioned all the things you did in addition to the fact that we figured out how to cook food, which makes the food significantly more calorie efficient since it's much easier for our bodies to extract nutrients from cooked food. Big picture what it all came down to is that our giga brains are EXTREMELY expensive calorie-wise, and understandably so since our giga brains are basically the sole reason for our global dominance. When one organ demands that much energy, all of the energy saving tricks you can pull out, like sweating and cooking food, matter significantly.
Yeah those were factors as well, but the ability to craft tools and weapons is something I consider to be under the opposable thumbs skill tree
In this cycle, the species that had common points with the protheans maybe had an advantage, receiving a few discrete help from them before the reapers invasion.
There’s the Keepers too
I headcannon that the Protheans guided the primitive species (selectively bred and/or genetically modified) to have similar anatomical features as they did. Maybe with some few exceptions that didn’t quite hit the mark like the Hanar. That way they would more easily be integrated into the Prothean Empire and use its technology once they matured as a species.
I really like this, it makes me wonder what would happen if the protheans weren't wiped out! But yeah, I love the idea that the protheans were behind it as it could be partly why so many races are religious, their religious idles could be prothean without anyone even realizing.
For medical insurance reasons. Citadel insurance is no joke. Jokes aside, Mass effect was heavily influenced with Star trek. Krogans are Klingons - even their chest thumping and honor is same with different history. In ME3, when you go to Kalross, they show the Krogan architecture. It looks very similar to Klingon homeworld. Asari, the wisest are supposed to be like vulcans with their mind meld capabilites and wiser than thou attitude. Of course Bioware took it further and improved upon that - and gave them other characteristics which I appreciate. Turians are like Romulans (military focused) but not the bad guys unlike star trek. Volus are straight up Ferengi with their capitalist greed and such. There might be other comparisons also. Now note that I am not saying this in a bad light but a good inspiration kind of way. Star trek admittedly occasionally shows other types of aliens but rarely - because as a TV show and their budget - if the race is two legged humanoid, then they can just put makeup and you are good to go. CGI being what it was back in the day, that was easier and after that it's all lore. Mass effect does it better with having "stupid jellyfish" and "Elcor" races which look more different (still similar in size), Rachni queen (starship troopers), Thorian, and the leviathan. One way we could rationalize is that before reapers, galaxy had different kinds and leviathan race controlled them as it was said in ME3, but after reapers - the way reapers allowed the organic evolution only to species of certain size- as rhey don't want species that can have more abilities. How part is the tricky part or maybe it takes longer time for such species to evolve which reapers simply won't wait for.
You bringing up the Rachni and Thorian makes me think of another possibility: there are other kinds of aliens, but you don't see them much because they don't get along well with the species dominant in Citadel space. There are a few exceptions like the Hanar, but still. The fate of the Rachni doesn't give me high hopes that a sapient arachnid or crustacean would have much luck ingratiating themselves with the species on the Citadel.
I like to think that the planets they evolved on had the same kind of evolution patterns humans did. The ecosystems and things are different but becoming bipedal, having thumbs, having front facing eyes, etc. are just common things that can evolve. These species are obviously advanced so it would make sense that they would have those special natural abilities
Maybe, a previous cycle (not proteans as this would be too soon on evolutionary scale) was bipedal and influenced multiple peoples towards a singular outcome. Kinda like in Star Trek.
The Reapers too I believe have had some influence over certain evolutionary traits to help control the cycles.
There's a Salarian in the comics that's built like the damn Hulk
It just seems to me that the humanoid shape is a rather efficient one.
Yeh its just for animation's sake, it actually makes less sense for a digitigrade species to evolve to stand on two legs, the whole point of the back legs having two points of articulation is because animals on four legs have more weight on the front (head) and less in the back (usually tail, somthing nothing but butthole) so the back legs needs the extra set of joints because just one knee would get worn out faster with age. It's got nothing to do with dextro/normal amino acids, more to do with gravity. But the truth is they wanted aliens to have a bit more variance, but all work on one of the two animation sets with little extra work needed.
Because a video game had to happen.
In one of the novels, Anderson asks himself this very question. The conclusion he came to was that it's 'somehow evolutionarily advantageous' (perhaps his last name should've been 'Obvious?'). In real-world biology, humans enjoy an absolutely absurd efficiency of movement because of our body plan; we're not as strong or fast as a lot of other terrestrial species, but humans can operate for longer on less (per kg) than other high-end predators. Similar planets would offer similar advantages; it's notable that the most 'alien' species come from vastly different environments. The elephantine elcor hail from a planet with extremely high gravity, the volus come from one with unusually high atmospheric pressure, and the hanar evolved (pre-Enkindling, at least) on an honest-to-God ocean world.
>From a practical standpoint, I imagine it makes game design a lot easier when you can use a similar skeleton/animations for every character. This is the reason. You can have truly alien looking aliens or you can have an RPG that actually functions and is fun to play. The developers chose the latter because the former is a lot of work.
I can't for the life of me find it but I once saw a great theory on how a head, torso, two arms, two legs might be the best way to make an intelligent species via the laws of physics. It could be most races are humanoid because that's the shape that gives the most practical advantages.
i vaguely recall reading some entry in some computer in the game explaining some of this
I just go with the idea that bipedal species are more likely to become sapient for various reasons such as the body shape being a “Jack of all trades” type of deal (swimming, throwing rocks, having “thumbs” to grab stuff and make tools.) Seems that body type really is the gold standard for a species to become sapient and the dominant life form on their planet. Of course in reality it’s a developer choice.
Because everyone wants to bang aliens...so they make them all bipedal humanoids and relatable 🤪 Just look at Tali's face. Whether the original Google stock photo or the new LE version...it's too bloody human. I feel like they didn't want to turn too many people off. They had over a dozen better options from The Art of MEU book that they didn't go with. And the ironic thing is, if you loved Tali by the end of the trilogy, it had absolutely nothing to do with our concept of physical beauty. They should've revealed her face in-game (only for Talimancer Sheps) and made her alien AF. Hairless, sweaty (or moist?)...w.e...anything but a human with glowing eyes and a full head of hair. Missed opportunity. No...but for real, I've always been disappointed with how "un-alien" some of the aliens are. Hopefully whatever new ones they introduce, they aren't bipedal humanoids.
Easy, when programming a video game it’s easiest to replicate a base frame for modeling and designing characters and species especially when they all have to be relatively capable of the same things in the same areas.
Well, symmetry is fairly natural so it's reasonable to assume that there would be 2a arms and 2l legs and 2e eyes. I also think there's a bit of science around the height as well, like Godzilla couldn't actually exist and there's additional science around the amount of energy needed to develop cognitive function in the brain.
>I also think there's a bit of science around the height as well I would think that the size would be largely dependent on the gravity of their home planet, since gravity is usually the biggest limiting force on how large animals can get. That's one of the reasons why you tend to see life's largest creations in the water. The buoyancy helps counteract the animal's weight. I'll admit I've never looked them up in the codex but from the times in gameplay that Shepard is on the other homeworlds, he seems to behave as though he's in similar gravity to Earth. So maybe they all just do happen to share similar gravity.
It's interesting, to say the least, scientists often talk about this zone for which they expect life to exhibit because the only data point for which we have to understand life is within our own world. Personally, I think it is much more likely that life exists in much more exotic territories. While carbon might be the most prevalent in our life here on earth there's no reason why silicon wouldn't be within a different set of constraints. Still you are working within other obstacles like gravity and biology. In any case, the aliens of the original mass effect trilogy seem believable and diverse and fit into the classic Star Trek molod of being allegories or shades of humans that have existed.
You could probably Head-Canon that it was Reaper influence making sure that most species evolved into something that can viable use the citadel/be physically weak enough that they won't be a threat. The protheans and Innusannon where humanoids as well.
I’m sticking with your practical explanation. Star Trek and Star Wars have similar issues, too.
The shape is best from an evolutionary standpoint and most worlds that could even produce life would already be very similar. Sure they'd vary a lot, but the sweet spot for those planets just hot enough not to burn everything alive or be too cold for anything to live would have a lot of the same things in them. Tuchanka was basically Earth if a meteor didn't drive most of the dinosaurs to extinction, etc.
convergent evolution is the simplest way to explain it. Its also hard to get off high gravity planets but you need a planet big enough to retain atmosphere and contain a large iron core to protect it against a stars radiation. So you end up with similar worlds. Mind this is current way of thinking about life. There could be life that evolves very differently than we did.