ME players, some help please?

[Mylinkay Asdara]

So I posted this over at the Bioware boards... not much luck there. I am hoping my fellow Escapists will prove infinitely more awesome and fill out a short survey - please don't leave yet! - for a project I am doing for a class. It's a Race, Gender, and Class in Literature course and I am trying to show that the same themes occur in some games - I'm focusing on Mass Effect specifically because my paper has to be kept readable in length.

Please take a minute to answer 6 questions. I know some of the descriptions are general, they had to be so I could administer the survey to both my classmates and people who've played ME games.

You may answer here of course, or if you prefer privacy I would welcome answers in PM (please post that you answered at all though, as it will keep the thread somewhat visible for a larger window if time - that was my problem at Bioware, it fell off the first page in about 4 minutes, then got dumped in a section no one reads).


To be honest, the class I put this to answered all over the map and I am hoping I will get more usable data from this community. I may come back and refine the instructions if answers are way off of what I am expecting.

Thank you thank you to all who participate, I know these can be a little annoying, but I swear it's for the furthering of our media in academia and that my paper is a positive affirmation of our hobby by examining how it enhances the players' scope of thinking.


Instructions: Please respond to the description cluster with the group that comes to mind - preferably the group from Mass Effect games, but RL group answers will also be accepted - or you could answer in both manners. Please Note: these are stereotypical descriptions that are not being endorsed in any way, merely recognized

1) Criminal behavior, violent, low intelligence, strong, unstable, low moral standards

2) Without a homeland, compared to vermin, resource hoarders, thieves, loyal to their own first and foremost, secretive

3) Emotional, sensative, crafters of compromise, physically weak, use looks to manipulate

4) Job stealers, recent arrivals, entering in large numbers, manipulate the system

5) Great at Math and Science, timid, infatuated with technology, reserved, logical

6) Militant, strict codes of conduct / severe punishment for breaking them, men dominating public sphere

 

[Keoul]

1) Vorcha
2) Quarians
3) Hanar
4) Humans (heeheehee job stealers)
5) Salarian
6) Turian

There ya go.

 

[Euryalus]

1.)Vorcha
2.)Quarians
3.)Asari
4.)Humans
5.)Quarians
6.)Turians

Did I win?

 

[DoPo]

1) Vorcha
2) Quarians
3) Asari
4) Humans
5) Salarian
6) Turian

I wander, what is this survey for, actually? I mean, seeing it concerns Mass Effect (and not Mirror's Edge, as I subtly hoped befor clicking the title).

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

The survey is to support my assertion that certain groups in Mass Effect (sorry, haven't played Mirrors Edge myself yet) share stereotypical characteristics with certain groups in real life first and foremost. I could just claim such a thing is obvious, but people in academic circles rarely are acquainted with such games and they really like some research behind fact-statements they aren't personally aware of.

My further assertion is that interacting with these video game groups in certain patterns might affect - either inflaming or ameliorating - how a person interacts with similarly stereotyped groups in RL and that some study might be done to investigate that hypothesis at some point. Not by me - at least not by me specifically at this point. I'm not pitching research, I'm presenting a research paper to a small class room as an additional assignment to qualify the class as honors distinction.

Big thanks so far too by the way - you've tripled the output of the Bioware forum's response already (and there's only been three of you so... super thanks!)

 

[DoPo]

The survey is to support my assertion that certain groups in Mass Effect (sorry, haven't played Mirrors Edge myself yet) share stereotypical characteristics with certain groups in real life first and foremost.

I thought this was the case. Or something similar, at least - something about Mass Effect sharing stereotypes was what I figured. Quite interesting, I'll try and check other games against these and see what comes up. To be fair, though, I don't think it's that hard to spot the stereotypes, since fantasy races usually really close to real-life ones. At any rate, it's an interesting thing to observe for games.

 

[IrenIvy]

1) Vorcha, Batarian, Krogan

2) Quarian, Geth

3) Asari, Volus, Hanar

4) Humans

5) Salarians, Elcor

6) Krogan, Turian

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

The survey is to support my assertion that certain groups in Mass Effect (sorry, haven't played Mirrors Edge myself yet) share stereotypical characteristics with certain groups in real life first and foremost.

I thought this was the case. Or something similar, at least - something about Mass Effect sharing stereotypes was what I figured. Quite interesting, I'll try and check other games against these and see what comes up. To be fair, though, I don't think it's that hard to spot the stereotypes, since fantasy races usually really close to real-life ones. At any rate, it's an interesting thing to observe for games.

Not hard to spot at all and not really worth a serious research effort, but the implications of the correlations might be - and to be honest, my teacher for this knows 0 about video games so I have to establish the most basic facts for her (it's undergraduate still too). What I'm thinking on the longer term (beyond this little paper) is that we expand our experience with co-cultures by interacting with metaphorical representations - possibly most effectively by means of playing story driven video games that give high player agency (or a strong illusion of it). It has already been established that certain literature can produce some effect, as well as simple exposure through video clips directly before being questioned about certain issues.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I feel this is almost a "Can you guess what species I'm referring to?" instead of an actual survey. Answer 2, the Quarians, threw me for a second because I don't think of them as thieves or vermin (I like Tali and always felt the Quarians themselves were more tragic than anything else), but the rest of my answers are exactly what you'd expect:

1-Vorcha--They are insects, foot soldiers who are good at following orders because they don't think too much but are great fighters. We see this in Mass Effect 2, when the Collectors promised them the impossible (Make us strong) and they don't even question it. I would say the Batarians fit this as well, but they're smart. They just happened to be on the wrong side of a lot of issues and it ends up costing them greatly. Krogan could fit here too, but I think the Vorcha are the best fight. Wrex showed what the Krogan could be if things went their way.

2-Quarians. That description hits the spot on, though I think the labels of "thieves" and "vermin" are given to them by other people, not by their own actions. I never saw a Quarian commit a crime, and they were surprisingly rare in the games for a race considered to be vermin, thus implying that they're everywhere.

3-Asari. Though I don't know if they're emotional. They actually seemed the most controlled race out of all the them. That's what made the Thessia mission show shocking was because you got to see the Asari finally crack. Liara cried, the troopers lost hope, the councilor was in grief. The are normally the voice of reason and compromise, as shown by the meetings between the council. Using looks though, you got that right. I didn't see any other alien dancers, and it seemed like everyone wanted to sleep with an Asari at some point. Note the bachelor party in Mass Effect 2 and how enraptured people are of Shiara the Consort.

4-Humans. Why are we always the new kids on the block? For once can we be one of the originals and have another alien race be the new ones?

5-This one could be a toss up between Salarians at Quarians. As I understood it, not all Salarians are great at those two subjects. I certainly don't think Captain Kirrahea or however you spell it knows more about math than he does about fighting. And I know not all of them are infatuated with tech. It's just the base we go to and Mordin. Still, I understand what you're saying: because the majority of the Salarians we see do fit this role in some way, their whole species is like that. But the Quarians are like that too: Tali's a genius with the Normandy's engines and jumps, which I'm sure requires math, not to mention creating the Geth and all the tech they have in their suits.

6-Turians. The Krogan can almost fit in this label too, but I don't think they have a strict military code beyond, "Kill them all and win!" I also get the feeling that punishment is only handed out if you challenge your rival or commander and you lose among the Krogan.

 

[IckleMissMayhem]

1) Batarians

2) Rachni

3) Asari

4) Citadel Refugees in ME3.

5) Salarians

6) Asari

 

[ClockworkUniverse]

1)Vorcha
2)Quarians
3)Asari
4)Humans
5)Salarians
6)Turians

Though I think much of the point in the game is that these stereotypes are how the characters in the game perceive the groups, but aren't necessarily entirely true. Though the story never really bothered with a deeper examination of the Vorcha, admittedly.

 

[Packadurm]

1) Vorcha

2) Quarians

3) Asari

4) Humans

5) Salarians

6) Turians

 

[DustyDrB]

1) Batarian or Krogan

2) Quarian

3) Asari (they aren't physically weak, though. I mean, maybe compared to a Krogan. But they should hold their own against the others).

4) Human

5) Vorch-lol, no. Salarian

6) Krogan, Turian, Prothean

 

[Saviordd1]

1) Criminal behavior, violent, low intelligence, strong, unstable, low moral standards
Vorcha
2) Without a homeland, compared to vermin, resource hoarders, thieves, loyal to their own first and foremost, secretive
Quarian
3) Emotional, sensative, crafters of compromise, physically weak, use looks to manipulate
Asari
4) Job stealers, recent arrivals, entering in large numbers, manipulate the system
Humans
5) Great at Math and Science, timid, infatuated with technology, reserved, logical
Salarians, but not quite
6) Militant, strict codes of conduct / severe punishment for breaking them, men dominating public sphere
Turians

 

[Hollyday]

1) Krogan (and I love them for it)

2) Vorcha

3) Human

4) Human

5) Salarian

6) Turian

 

[ZehMadScientist]

1 Krogan

2 Quarians

3 Asari

4 Humans

5 Geth

6 Turians


I was kind of in a pickle whether I would put Vorcha on number one, but I never thought of 'em as particularly strong. And it's more like they have no moral standards rather than low ones. So Krogan it is.

The second description was obviously about the Quarian race (the stereotypical bias version, I might add) but even here the Vorcha crossed my mind, because of the "vermin" label and all. Were it not for the "Loyalty to their own species" tag, I might've went for Vorcha.

The third was Asari, no questions there.

Humans are the newest species to join the galaxy club, so I figured it would be our own douchy race. Don't really know what to make of the whole "manipulating the system" thing though.

I assume many went with the Salarians for number five, but the logical plus infatuation with technology equals geth in my mind.

Turians were an obvious last choice. Frankly, this felt more like a simple quiz rather than a survey

Hope this helped Frankly speaking, this felt more like a simple quiz rather than a survey :/

 

[Shocksplicer]

1) Vorcha

2) Quarian

3) That doesn't match any group or race in Mass Effect.

4) Human

5) Salarian

6) Turian

 

[Terrible Opinions]

1) Criminal behavior, violent, low intelligence, strong, unstable, low moral standards
Mass Effect Stereotype: Krogans are the obvious answer, but also Vorcha and Batarians.
Real World Stereotype: African (especially African American), Latino, Slavic

2) Without a homeland, compared to vermin, resource hoarders, thieves, loyal to their own first and foremost, secretive
Mass Effect Stereotype: Quarian
Real World Stereotype: Gypsy, Latino. Possibly Middle Eastern (Turkish, Pakistani, etc.), especially in Europe. Going back in history, Chinese emigrants to North America.

3) Emotional, sensative, crafters of compromise, physically weak, use looks to manipulate
Mass Effect Stereotype: Asari
Real World Stereotype: No direct analogue; Jewish (especially Ashkenazi) would be the closest, I guess.

4) Job stealers, recent arrivals, entering in large numbers, manipulate the system
Mass Effect Stereotype: Human
Real World Stereotype: Latino. Again, you could make an argument for Middle Eastern in Europe.

5) Great at Math and Science, timid, infatuated with technology, reserved, logical
Mass Effect Stereotype: Salarian
Real World Stereotype: East-Asian (especially China and Japan), Jewish.

6) Militant, strict codes of conduct / severe punishment for breaking them, men dominating public sphere
Mass Effect Stereotype: Turians are the obvious answer, but also Batarians, and arguably Krogan.
Real World Stereotype: Middle Eastern.

 

[sam13lfc]

1) Vorcha
2) Quarian
3) Asari if any
4) Human
5) Salarian
6) Turian

 

[aussiebee]

I have a few come to mind for most of them, so I'll list them in order of what I consider most appropriate.

1) Criminal behavior, violent, low intelligence, strong, unstable, low moral standards
Krogan, Vorcha, Batarian, Rachni

2) Without a homeland, compared to vermin, resource hoarders, thieves, loyal to their own first and foremost, secretive
Vorcha, Quarian, Rachni

3) Emotional, sensitive, crafters of compromise, physically weak, use looks to manipulate
Quarian (aside from that last point)... I feel like the intended answer is supposed to be Asari but I don't feel like they're particularly emotional, sensitive, compromising or physically weak.

4) Job stealers, recent arrivals, entering in large numbers, manipulate the system
Humans

5) Great at Math and Science, timid, infatuated with technology, reserved, logical
Salarian, Quarian, AIs (Geth, EDI, etc), Keepers

6) Militant, strict codes of conduct / severe punishment for breaking them, men dominating public sphere
Turian, Human Alliance/military, Krogan