For instance, in the Mass Effect games, we see Commander Shepard's life as a non-stop rampage of action and crazy, crazy times, with more gunfire and explosions and Tense Conversations than even most action heroes will see in their lifetimes. Even shopping for Shepard is all about bigger guns and more destructive omni-tool programs, except on the rare occasions when she's buying a model ship or a space hamster. The only even slightly mundane thing I can ever remember seeing her do in the games is feed her fish, and even then she can get somebody else to do it so she can concentrate on blowing things up more efficiently.

But here's the thing: in the first game she's 29 years old. At some point in her life she must have done a load of laundry or cleaned out a fridge. We'd never see her doing anything like that in the games because it's not good gameplay, but in a world like UF's, we occasionally do get to see people like her doing stuff like that. I think it's fun to develop such moments. Makes the character seem more human somehow if we know that, for example, she doesn't bother separating one type of garment from another and has neither understanding of nor interest in what the "Water Level" knob does.

--G.
fasten, then zip
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Ebony the Black Dragon

There were other reasons that show got pretty bloody boring pretty bloody fast, but for me that was certainly one of them.

"Life is like an anole. Sometimes it's green. Sometimes it's brown. But it's always a small Caribbean lizard."