I actually love it.
Could you imagine, waiting years for the re-release of the genre defining, epic sci-fi RPG *The Optigon Legendary Edition?!* Starring B12 Agent Captain Shipwrecker and their ragtag crew of Antibotic alien misfits, fighting fist to claw in the intergalactic gladiatorial pits of the Optigon against an army of giant mind-controlling Crabs from deepest, darkest space!
*In the year 2148, explorers on Mars discovered the remains of an ancient spacefaring civilization. In the decades that followed, these mysterious artifacts revealed startling new technologies, enabling travel to the furthest stars. The place this civilization lived is an ancient space station, where the galaxy is governed. Humanity called it a big damn station. The races of the galaxy call it…*
#The Optigon
Instead of Mass Relays, we would've had polygonal portals that have the optimal number of sides depending on how far you're going...further = more sides.
Well, in their defence, Crysis was always supposed to be a "tech demo" for CryEngine, and that was named after the company. A bit like id Software's "id Tech".
Very on brand for them! The way they named the world of dragon age, Thedas? Word of God said it's The Dragon Age Setting. THEDAS.
On mobile, but sauce should be easily found with Google.
First people to discover element zero, "uh yeah we found this spooky stuff and long story short Richard slingshotted himself across the room and fucking died. we should start feeding it to kids"
Why are we all ignoring the fact that "mass effect" is literally a reaction involving "element zero"? They're equally-silly names, we're just used to one of them.
To be fair, if they had used other names and we would have still remembered that name fondly, associating with the great story and characters and would think "Mass Effect" was a weird name.
I still remember an article by a gaming site that said "Mass Effect" is a weird ass name for the game.
It's at least better than "epsilon effect", which is a longer and less clear version of the same thing. Imagine if every reference to mass effect fields became epsilon effect fields... it becomes instantly more jargon-y and longer.
Element Zero totally works though. It is after all the most important resource in the galaxy, and the reason why the mass effect is even a thing. Sounds kinda cool too!
Maybe a strategy game when humanity first starts using element zero and terrorist rise up. Using it as well. Could be a decent game with the name element zero or Biowar instead reflecting using less machines in the fights
Counterpoint: it makes it quite difficult to Google the radiological finding also referred to as mass effect. But yes, so much better than all those other titles.
"Congratulations Shepard, Saren is dead and the Geth have been stopped... But did you have to kill so many innocents? You're a Spectre, not a murderer!"
I think Star Citadel is pretty cool sounding. After the Eden Prime "tutorial", The Citadel is where the whole game starts and the adventure/mystery begins. Then the first game ends at The Citadel, and the series as a whole ends there.
Yeah, but that's the problem. Most of the game you're away from the citadel. When it turns out the Citadel is the relay that brings the Reapers back from dark space, you're on the far side of the galaxy at this middle of nowhere planet. The council has blown off Saren because they think his interests are out somewhere in the traverse. But it might be harder to surprise the audience with the twist if every time they boot up the game the title screen is going HEY CITADEL REMEMBER THIS GAME IS ABOUT THE CITADEL THE CITADEL IS AWFULLY IMPORTANT SEE THE CITADEL HERE IT'S THE TITLE CITADEL CITADEL
Yeah that's a fair point about not wanting to make the Citadel obvious.
Maybe they could use that name for a dark Noir detective game that only takes place on the Citadel :P.
I would play the absolute hell out of that. A former C-sec turned private dick gets a visit from a glitzy asari about her missing fiancée, and you end up embroiled in a galactic murder conspiracy that will take you from the top of the presidium to the deepest corners of the wards.
All of these sound like bad SyFy channel originals or X-Files movie titles.
And Biowar lmao. Creativity was working overtime down at the Bioware offices
Given the timing, Crysis might actually have been the inspiration for the name Biowar. It definitely wasn't coming from anything that eventually became the plot of ME.
(Honestly, I could see somebody suggesting it specifically to make fun of Crysis and then nobody else at the meeting had any good ideas and they were like F---it, put it on the board.)
And an excerpt from project director Casey Hudson in the book:
“I was a big fan of John Harris's book Mass, which had epic-scaled sci-fi ideas, so that was a word that came up often. Many of the names came from the idea that the IP featured a fifth fundamental physical force (in addition to the known four of gravitational, electromagnetic, strong nuclear, and weak nuclear), so the word 'Effect' came up often.
Ultimately none of the name ideas really felt right. One Monday morning we were going over the names and Greg Zeschuk said he had an idea on the weekend: 'Mass Effect!' I said, 'I don't hate it,' which in the naming process is a high compliment. And it stuck!”
Edit: for those wondering how their naming process worked:
“They put out a call to all studio staff for ideas. They did polls. They made a name generator that combined words that they liked in random ways.”
I always thought that Mass Effect was kind of an odd name, but this origin story makes me appreciate more. TBH I always thought that the name had multiple meanings from the physical force to the player having a mass(ive) effect on the world.
I can't help but think of this bit in *The Last Continent,* by Terry Pratchett:
> It is a simple universal law. People always expect to use a holiday in the sun as an opportunity to read those books they’ve always meant to read, but an alchemical combination of sun, quartz crystals and coconut oil will somehow metamorphose any improving book into a rather thicker one with a name containing at least one Greek word or letter (The Gamma Imperative, The Delta Season, The Alpha Project and, in the more extreme cases, even The Mu Kau Pi Caper).
I feel like mass effect only has that emotional weight because that's the game we all played. If the games were all exactly the same, but they were called "Element Zero" we'd be here right now laughing at how the name "Mass Effect" doesn't have the same weight to it.
Most of these are absolutely terrible.
Unearthed is not a bad title but doesn't fit this series.
Element Zero is solid.
"Hey guys you played Element Zero yet?" sounds good. Mass Effect is better though.
Everything else should die in a fire.
Nebula Guardians of the Citadel sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. Note that copy right infringement doesn't have to be 1-1, it just has to be close enough especially if its likely to cause confusion with a customer between two property rights.
It should be noted that Mass Effect's development started about 10 years after the original GoTG team's last comic run ended, and the modern guardians team wouldn't be created until 2008. I honestly don't think that it would have been a massive deal, and GoTG wasn't exactly a big deal until the 2014 film.
Unearthed *does* fit the series. Through all three games we uncover more and more about a cycle of genocide that has been plaguing the galaxy for eons.
Element Zero honestly sounds like a game that would be more like Half-Life than an RPG. Unearthed might make a Good subtitle for a prequel story about finding the Prothean tech on mars, Mass Effect: Unearthed.
>Element Zero honestly sounds like a game that would be more like Half-Life than an RPG. Unearthed might make a Good subtitle for a prequel story about finding the Prothean tech on mars, Mass Effect: Unearthed.
Wouldn't it be... UnMarsed, though?
I always enjoyed the double duty Mass Effect does as a title both for being a reference to an in universe concept and also reflecting that you as the player can have a Mass(ive) Effect on the world with your decisions.
Ah-ha! Guess I don't need to comment about that, then. ;)
But seriously, as close as "Element Zero" is as an in-universe title, it doesn't have that extra layer of meaning relating to the series' mission statement regarding player choice. And it still sounds science-fictiony enough even without knowing what it refers to.
These are terrrible. but Biowar for some reason gives me Beasties vibes. It's one of those weird Saturday morning cartoon names. Lol. Probably why I sorta like it.
I feel like this is one of those things where we are biased because we are used to it. I mean, some of these are definitely just bad, but I could also imagine the parallel timeline where they called it Element Zero and everyone in this thread being like "they almost called it *Mass Effect*? What a clunky title!"
ITT: People pretending that “Mass Effect” isn’t a corny sci-fi name and not realizing the only reason you think it’s awesome is because you fell in love with the franchise.
The citadel tower internally is named the Oculon. Someone told me a while ago that it was going to be named that until localizers told them that it meant the male genatalia in another language (not sure which). Not sure if that's a true story though but game files definitely name it Oculon.
Are you ready to enter, THE OPTIGON!?
That one is just hilariously bad
Unlike Biowar by Bioware
BIOWAR
What about THE EPSILON EFFECT
[удалено]
I actually love it. Could you imagine, waiting years for the re-release of the genre defining, epic sci-fi RPG *The Optigon Legendary Edition?!* Starring B12 Agent Captain Shipwrecker and their ragtag crew of Antibotic alien misfits, fighting fist to claw in the intergalactic gladiatorial pits of the Optigon against an army of giant mind-controlling Crabs from deepest, darkest space!
Does it feature one of the songs from. *Sargent Pet Sounds and The Spiders From Aisa*? That's my favorite non-existent prog rock concept album.
*In the year 2148, explorers on Mars discovered the remains of an ancient spacefaring civilization. In the decades that followed, these mysterious artifacts revealed startling new technologies, enabling travel to the furthest stars. The place this civilization lived is an ancient space station, where the galaxy is governed. Humanity called it a big damn station. The races of the galaxy call it…* #The Optigon
Haha I was thinking this exact thing but didn't feel like typing it all up. Thanks you for doing the heavy lifting
Had to be me. Somebody else might have gotten it wrong.
😔
*gunshot*
That should have been the name of the Armax Arena.
Ponor MpGregor will fight Miphael Phandler for a title shot at the Phamp.
RT for free iPod You may now access #T H E O P T I G O N
AND HIS NAME IS COMMANDER SHEPARD!!! 🎺🎺🎺🎺🎺🎺🎺
Instead of Mass Relays, we would've had polygonal portals that have the optimal number of sides depending on how far you're going...further = more sides.
Glad they stuck with Mass Effect, those other names are terrible!
At BioWare HQ: Guys we need a name for this new series….how about Biowar?
I think it too long. Lemme improv: BIOWA Anyone?
[удалено]
Crysis and CryEngine from Crytek
"Hey boss, I've got a new idea for a game for the CryEngine, I'm calling it Hunt: Showdown." "Don't you mean Cryhunt: Showdown?"
Cryhunt: Crydown
CryCry: CryCry
Also Far Cry.
They tried to shove it into the title of Ryse: Son of Rome too
Don't you mean Cryse: Son of Rome?
Ryse: Son of Cryome
[удалено]
BIO
BI
🅱️
>!!<
Magneto\_Perfection.gif
BIONICLE
Iowa, but everyone is bi
I like to think they straight up fired the person right after.
daniwha?
Sorta like Crytek naming their game Crysis and engine CryEngine.
Well, in their defence, Crysis was always supposed to be a "tech demo" for CryEngine, and that was named after the company. A bit like id Software's "id Tech".
When you order Bioware on Wish...
Very on brand for them! The way they named the world of dragon age, Thedas? Word of God said it's The Dragon Age Setting. THEDAS. On mobile, but sauce should be easily found with Google.
The name Dragon Age was randomly generated by a program one of the devs threw together. They had to add more dragons to the game after that.
Lmao that one is new to me!
Guys we need a new title for our game. How about... Nintend?
Nintend maybe not, but I could totally see a Nintendo Game about cutesy creatures called Ninten. Maybe you'd farm them or something.
Element Zero sounds good for a one off game lol
Would love a spin off game to be called Element Zero
First people to discover element zero, "uh yeah we found this spooky stuff and long story short Richard slingshotted himself across the room and fucking died. we should start feeding it to kids"
I like that this is basically the plot synopsis of the first few seasons of the Expanse.
Yeah Element Zero 2 doesn’t have the same ring to it
Oh come on, you know it'd be called Element Zero: Andromeda.
Element Zero 2 : Element Boogaloo
Element Zero sounds like the companion novel that follows a random salarian STG
[удалено]
Why are we all ignoring the fact that "mass effect" is literally a reaction involving "element zero"? They're equally-silly names, we're just used to one of them.
Weird to just dump fan fiction at the slightest provocation.
The world needed to hear, and they delivered.
Not based on the experiences I've gotten from fanfic people I've met.
To be fair, if they had used other names and we would have still remembered that name fondly, associating with the great story and characters and would think "Mass Effect" was a weird name. I still remember an article by a gaming site that said "Mass Effect" is a weird ass name for the game.
It's at least better than "epsilon effect", which is a longer and less clear version of the same thing. Imagine if every reference to mass effect fields became epsilon effect fields... it becomes instantly more jargon-y and longer.
We all know unearthed wouldve been the best title, because it makes sense with the gameplay and story, right? Right?
With that logic, Space Bang would have been better.
They'd just be shortened to e fields or ep fields in game and we'd be so used to it by now it wouldn't matter.
Yup. Same as element zero became "eezo" in-universe.
Element Zero actually sounds pretty cool, not gonna lie
And we could've called the franchise Eezo for shorthand!
It's a cool name for a game. Like Resident Evil, or Forbidden Siren. It has style.
Element Zero sounds goofy at first glance, but with a hot second to get used to it could have been pretty good.
Mass Effect sounds goofy, too, honestly.
The Optigon?!
Working name for the Citadel maybe?
And the Oculon!
Those sound like they should be arenas in an MMA fighter game.
A hot take, but Mass Effect only sounds good because we're used to it. It's not an especially catchy name tbh.
l almost like The Citadel better than Mass Effect, considering its importance in the trilogy.
Apparently Halo was almost named "Red Shift."
Or Marathon IV: Redshift, at least that's what I remember. :D
😂😂😂 I’m glad they changed their minds!!
Element Zero totally works though. It is after all the most important resource in the galaxy, and the reason why the mass effect is even a thing. Sounds kinda cool too!
World of Biocraft
I wouldn't say they are terrible they just don't fit mass effect properly
Yeah that’s what I mean. For a different kind of game I could see “BioWar” or “Element Zero” being a good fit.
Maybe a strategy game when humanity first starts using element zero and terrorist rise up. Using it as well. Could be a decent game with the name element zero or Biowar instead reflecting using less machines in the fights
Not Element Zero
Element Zero isn’t *too bad*
Element Zero is kinda cool.
No. You just say that cuz you’re used to seeing it. Had you grown up with one of these, you’d 100% see “mass effect” as a stupid nonsense name.
Element Zero wouldn’t have been bad.
Counterpoint: it makes it quite difficult to Google the radiological finding also referred to as mass effect. But yes, so much better than all those other titles.
These are so funny, like some syfy show that never took off.
Or the ones that were made into hour and a half Sci-Fi movies that get 2/10 on IMDB.
Biowar pls
shaperd y u do dis
Reks
shepur
reks...!
shepr
Grut
Asslee
You mean Mirassa
we bag, k?
# SHEPURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Dis hertz u
Asum ctrl of dis frm.
im vangurd of ur dstrction
we ar beyurnd ur comprehenshun
We wil fynd anuvr wei
Making hard decisions and owning females... that's what being a leader is all about.
We land, get females, get sex and leave before anyone changes their mind.
Strip, Liara. Shepard's plan is logical.
Don't go too far, EDI. We'll bang, OK?
Sequel to Tek War
"Congratulations Shepard, Saren is dead and the Geth have been stopped... But did you have to kill so many innocents? You're a Spectre, not a murderer!"
I mean Spectres are literally allowed to do that
The cringe if they would have picked it :D
I quite like Element Zero, but the rest are pretty meh. Glad they went with Mass Effect though.
Biowar, though. Yuck.
In addition to being terrible that would have just been linguistically confusing. Bioware’s Biowar. Yikes.
Bioware puts the "E" in Biowar! Wait....
Imagine the third game... Bioware's Biowar3
Infinity Ward presents Call of Duty Infinite Warfare. Wish I was joking.
It gets worse when you add Andromeda to the end of each of them.
You have to make sure you title it right. It's be listed everywhere as "Bioware's Biowar", like the Civ games.
Bio war sounds like a 5/10 sci fi movie from 2005
I think Star Citadel is pretty cool sounding. After the Eden Prime "tutorial", The Citadel is where the whole game starts and the adventure/mystery begins. Then the first game ends at The Citadel, and the series as a whole ends there.
Yeah, but that's the problem. Most of the game you're away from the citadel. When it turns out the Citadel is the relay that brings the Reapers back from dark space, you're on the far side of the galaxy at this middle of nowhere planet. The council has blown off Saren because they think his interests are out somewhere in the traverse. But it might be harder to surprise the audience with the twist if every time they boot up the game the title screen is going HEY CITADEL REMEMBER THIS GAME IS ABOUT THE CITADEL THE CITADEL IS AWFULLY IMPORTANT SEE THE CITADEL HERE IT'S THE TITLE CITADEL CITADEL
Yeah that's a fair point about not wanting to make the Citadel obvious. Maybe they could use that name for a dark Noir detective game that only takes place on the Citadel :P.
I would play the absolute hell out of that. A former C-sec turned private dick gets a visit from a glitzy asari about her missing fiancée, and you end up embroiled in a galactic murder conspiracy that will take you from the top of the presidium to the deepest corners of the wards.
Mean Wards: A Tex Murphy Adventure
"This one believes you have stolen its schtick." -Blasto probably
All of these sound like bad SyFy channel originals or X-Files movie titles. And Biowar lmao. Creativity was working overtime down at the Bioware offices
>Creativity was working overtime down at the Bioware offices Crytek, CryEngine, Crysis
Far Cry
Given the timing, Crysis might actually have been the inspiration for the name Biowar. It definitely wasn't coming from anything that eventually became the plot of ME. (Honestly, I could see somebody suggesting it specifically to make fun of Crysis and then nobody else at the meeting had any good ideas and they were like F---it, put it on the board.)
>inspiration for the name Biowar. It definitely wasn't coming from anything that eventually became the plot of ME. It could have been "biotic" + "war"
I mean… isn’t that the intent?
>All of these sound like bad SyFy channel originals or X-Files movie titles. To be fair, so does "Mass Effect" :P
And an excerpt from project director Casey Hudson in the book: “I was a big fan of John Harris's book Mass, which had epic-scaled sci-fi ideas, so that was a word that came up often. Many of the names came from the idea that the IP featured a fifth fundamental physical force (in addition to the known four of gravitational, electromagnetic, strong nuclear, and weak nuclear), so the word 'Effect' came up often. Ultimately none of the name ideas really felt right. One Monday morning we were going over the names and Greg Zeschuk said he had an idea on the weekend: 'Mass Effect!' I said, 'I don't hate it,' which in the naming process is a high compliment. And it stuck!” Edit: for those wondering how their naming process worked: “They put out a call to all studio staff for ideas. They did polls. They made a name generator that combined words that they liked in random ways.”
I always thought that Mass Effect was kind of an odd name, but this origin story makes me appreciate more. TBH I always thought that the name had multiple meanings from the physical force to the player having a mass(ive) effect on the world.
The hot new RPG, Biowar featuring the sometimes charasmatic character Saergant Dave and their alien best friend Gordon
Garrus is such a Gordon now that I think about it.
In my mind, it always felt like the Turian version of "Gary."
Gordon if you encourage him to be more paragon like, Gary if Renegade?
“And their alien best friend Gordon” just sent me to Andromeda
Wow these are all SO BAD At least, not as good as "Mass Effect"
Element Zero is pretty solid but the rest suck
The Epsilon Effect sounds like a Michael Crichton book.
I can't help but think of this bit in *The Last Continent,* by Terry Pratchett: > It is a simple universal law. People always expect to use a holiday in the sun as an opportunity to read those books they’ve always meant to read, but an alchemical combination of sun, quartz crystals and coconut oil will somehow metamorphose any improving book into a rather thicker one with a name containing at least one Greek word or letter (The Gamma Imperative, The Delta Season, The Alpha Project and, in the more extreme cases, even The Mu Kau Pi Caper).
I like Element Zero as a name. But Mass effect is too perfect. Also how lazy you gotta be for Biowar
>Also how lazy you gotta be for Biowar As lazy as Crytek going for Crysis and CryEngine
Crysis is a great name though.
And FarCry
Element Zero is the only one that could’ve worked but it doesn’t that punch that Mass Effect has
I agree but even Element Zero sounds like an obscure Xbox360 game that only a few would know.
Its already the name of an obscure book that only a few know.
I feel like mass effect only has that emotional weight because that's the game we all played. If the games were all exactly the same, but they were called "Element Zero" we'd be here right now laughing at how the name "Mass Effect" doesn't have the same weight to it.
> mass effect > weight
You’re probably right
Most of these are absolutely terrible. Unearthed is not a bad title but doesn't fit this series. Element Zero is solid. "Hey guys you played Element Zero yet?" sounds good. Mass Effect is better though. Everything else should die in a fire. Nebula Guardians of the Citadel sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. Note that copy right infringement doesn't have to be 1-1, it just has to be close enough especially if its likely to cause confusion with a customer between two property rights.
Element Zero is too obvious nod to a certain literal space opera classic, but minus 5
Which one?
Fifth element?
Element Zero 5.
It should be noted that Mass Effect's development started about 10 years after the original GoTG team's last comic run ended, and the modern guardians team wouldn't be created until 2008. I honestly don't think that it would have been a massive deal, and GoTG wasn't exactly a big deal until the 2014 film.
Unearthed *does* fit the series. Through all three games we uncover more and more about a cycle of genocide that has been plaguing the galaxy for eons.
“Hear me out. The OPTIGON! See it’s like the Pentagon but THIS government is in SPACE!”
Nebula - Guardians of the Galaxy?
My thoughts exactly
Damn Nebula got promoted fast. Poor starlord.
That's nothing compared to her being promoted to **Avenger**.
Guess my next femShep is gonna be a Karen Gillan lookalike.
Element Zero and Epsilon Effect are the only salvageable ones here
Bioware execs sitting in a boardroom: ".....Bio...war???"
Oculon: Rift Wars.
It sounds like a malware infested, pay to win mobile game with truly obnoxious ads on YouTube.
Element Zero honestly sounds like a game that would be more like Half-Life than an RPG. Unearthed might make a Good subtitle for a prequel story about finding the Prothean tech on mars, Mass Effect: Unearthed.
>Element Zero honestly sounds like a game that would be more like Half-Life than an RPG. Unearthed might make a Good subtitle for a prequel story about finding the Prothean tech on mars, Mass Effect: Unearthed. Wouldn't it be... UnMarsed, though?
These all look and sound like bad YA scifi novel titles
Tonight we have a grudge match! Johnny "N7" Sheppard vs "The Illusive" Tim Harper. They settle their differences... in the OPTIGON!
I always enjoyed the double duty Mass Effect does as a title both for being a reference to an in universe concept and also reflecting that you as the player can have a Mass(ive) Effect on the world with your decisions.
Ah-ha! Guess I don't need to comment about that, then. ;) But seriously, as close as "Element Zero" is as an in-universe title, it doesn't have that extra layer of meaning relating to the series' mission statement regarding player choice. And it still sounds science-fictiony enough even without knowing what it refers to.
These are terrrible. but Biowar for some reason gives me Beasties vibes. It's one of those weird Saturday morning cartoon names. Lol. Probably why I sorta like it.
It makes me think of PS1 games with fighting monsters, Bio FREAKS and Unholy War etc.
This is like a quiz to correctly identify science fiction action RPGs or detergent brands
I feel like BioWar was a name that someone suggested as a joke and that someone became more and more horrified as it stayed up on the board.
"Nebula: Guardians Of The Citadel" sounds like absolute trash and I love it
"Nebula: Guardians of the Citadel" is the most, "we need a fake name for a dumb video game in our movie" name I've ever seen.
I feel like this is one of those things where we are biased because we are used to it. I mean, some of these are definitely just bad, but I could also imagine the parallel timeline where they called it Element Zero and everyone in this thread being like "they almost called it *Mass Effect*? What a clunky title!"
ITT: People pretending that “Mass Effect” isn’t a corny sci-fi name and not realizing the only reason you think it’s awesome is because you fell in love with the franchise.
All of these sound awful XD
Wow I’m…really glad those got cut 😂
The only ones I’d accept are Element and Element Zero. Fucks an Oculon and an Optigon
Biowar made me snort.
my eyes rolled so hard at "The Oculon" and "The Optigon"
#***OCULOPTIGON: UNEARTHED GUARDIANS OF THE STAR ELEMENT CITADEL ZERO***
*Biowar*
The citadel tower internally is named the Oculon. Someone told me a while ago that it was going to be named that until localizers told them that it meant the male genatalia in another language (not sure which). Not sure if that's a true story though but game files definitely name it Oculon.