I found mass effect 2 awesome, and I havnt even played it. I spent a good few hours watching my flatmate pay his way through it peppering him with annoying questions like ‘who that was’, ‘were they in the first one’, and ‘when can I see that cool frog alien in combat – pick him! Pick him!’ Next to Assassins Creed 2 I think it has been the most enjoyable game to watch and I believe this article articulates what I was feeling. The game is ALIVE.

Through the core of the game is a fairly standard adventure story – threat to all mankind, one man can save us all – but around the plot are characters living their lives unaware of, or uninterested, in the impending threat. While it is not usual for NPCs to carry on oblivious those in ME2 seem to carry on with their OWN lives, instead if simply acting as an interactive function for the player. Shopkeepers talk about other shopkeepers and mention in dialogue their own goals, most of which are completely unconnected with those of the player character. These goals can then be absorbed as mini-quests which offer not only cash and XP rewards but also the respect or alliance of NPCs meaning lower shop prices, new items, or other assistance. It’s an altogether much more organic way to collect quests and the narrative nature of the process makes the NPCs all the more realistic – you know not just what they want, but why they want it.

As always Sherry Turkle as had a hand in defining this process, coining the term ‘Artificial Emotion’ (I love how Terranova mention her in a way at could just as easily be contempt as respect). It has certainly made ME2 a much more enjoyable ‘experience’ for me than, for example, borderlands where despite convincing and amusing NPC dialogue there is much less sense of interaction with the quest givers. The elaborate and convincing nature of the interaction Could well be absolution to the logistical difficulties posed by the approach I have chosen to investigate for my MMO project. An intriguing article.