Dear BioWare,
I have been a gamer for the majority of my life, having spent countless hours plopped in front of some type of screen plugging away at the latest and greatest the industry has to offer for my own amusement and entertainment. While there have been some massive hits, and some massive failures, it has occurred to me that BioWare's offerings give players a unique experience with polish and detail.
That being said, there is one thing I have noticed about your games universally that amuses and confuses, astounds and confounds...and that is the fact that every character you've ever allowed me to take control of cannot jump.
That's right, you can't fucking jump.
In Dragon Age, you play as any of 3 races (humans, elves and dwarfs) that become great warriors and team up with all different sorts of characters using magic, wielding weapons you and I couldn't DREAM of wielding in real life, and set forth to destroy mythical creatures - yet not one person in this world has discovered (or learned) the ability to jump?
Fast forward to the year 2183 AD - Mass Effect is a character-driven, science fiction, action packed space adventure, where you take control of a team of warriors spanning all kinds of races and species...and they still can't jump. what kind of lame universe is this anyway?
Mass effect 2 has come to us, and walking around the environments brings a sense of familiarity as I recall playing the first game. My hand rests comfortably on the edge of my keyboard. I see a small ledge and I press the space bar, expecting my character to jump over the small ledge, but he doesn't, and another familiar feeling becomes apparent - frustration. HOW THE HELL IS THIS THE FUTURE?!
Even in the Star Wars universe characters are vertically challenged...for all the effort put into the lore and mechanics of how this universe should function, in Knights of the old republic (both of them) characters are unable to jump. This, to me, is a bit odd. I've seen the films, the characters jump quite frequently, especially in the heat of battle, yet for some strange reason, jumping is not permitted in the house of BioWare...why is this?
It seems that for all the effort that is put into details making characters realistic, story elements that make characters believable, and creating massive worlds that are meant to let players immerse themselves in universes of wonder and splendor, the fact that you can't jump presents a serious disconnect between the world and the player. Am I really supposed to suspend my disbelief and believe that I care about this world or its inhabitants when none of them are capable of performing a simple task such as jumping? It also makes me feel as if 'exploring' the world being presented is futile because I can't explore vertically, but only along a horizontal plane.
Sincerely,
Chief
