#oc:kirr'raek

[ghostgirlvii]

A love letter to Mass Effect

( ft. my OCs; Daryus, Alexis and Kirr :3 )

Today (27/10) mark the 11 year of me discovering Mass Effect. A little more than a decade later, this game still hold a very special place in my heart. I say this knowing full well that I have been jumping from fandom to fandom, hyper fixation changing over the years, posting less about ME. Yet, it is the only consistent thing throught out the years. The one happiness that keep dormant and some times come back. Like every N7 day ❤️

Mass Effect means more to me than just a game. I discovered it in a time where I was a little lost in life. I recently finished highschool, had dropped college, worked a whole year and was actually trying back to go to school. Bakery class. I was a little lost overwhelmed by all that was going on. One day my best friend came over and she had this game, she got on sale on Steam. It looked interesting. Space, fight, action, futuristic, stuff I like. Peaked my interest and the same day I decided to buy it. And so I started my Mass Effect journey.

I tried the first game, you know the OG one, not the amazing remake of Legenday, and god I hated it. So I gave up only started from the second. Eventually bought the third game later on. Mass Effect 2 was my first introduction (or a re-introduction) to RPG style game. I never really had played a game where your choices mattered and had consequences (at least aware of it. Sorry Legion and Miranda!) but also romance?! Totally discovered that by accident. I thought I was casual, nope apparently I had accepted to sleep with the big lizard man 😂 Rambling a little but, ME really gave me an idea of what game genra I like. Even today, my most favorite game are RPG ones (Dragon Age, Cyberpunk 2077, Fallout (althought I did play it before but never really grasped the concept till ME)) The more I played the more the characters started to feel like family. Back then I probably did 5 playthrought in a row. Probably burned me out in restropect but I enjoyed still.

This game also came at a moment where I was trying to distance myself from Transformers. It had helped me throught a hard time in my life and most of my highschool years, but the fandom was getting to toxic. I had to escape. With Mass Effect, I started new. I met awesome people. Some who just passed by, other who stayed who are still mutual till this day even if we talk less and I'm jumping fandom, but... It's also thank to Mass Effect that I met my partner. Because he saw art I made of my OCs. And while it all started as just randomly talking throught ask on tumblr (back in the days where DM didn't exist lol), nerding about ME and eventually other thing, it turn out that 10 years later we are stuck with each other still ❤️ For this I owe Mass Effect a lot. Around the same time I also got my first dog ever which obviously I had to name after one of my favorite character. Tali 😌 Althought she had more a character like Jack. My big girl who stayed with us for 8 years, I miss her dearly.

Talking of OCs, these three as seen above here are my first, and for a long time, most thought out ones. Today it might be blurry but back then, my Mass Effect lore knowledge was off the chart. You know all the Star Wars or Trekkie geek who know all? That was me with Mass Effect. So I was able to really make them more fleshed out, connected them to the canon without be completely depend, they had their own adventures. Today my CoD OC has the same work put into her, if not more 🫣 Still my little trio still hold a place in my heart even if I draw them much less.

Mass Effect by itself is a game with great aspects for the time it came out, but also as its flaws, nothing is perfect. But I'm not here to give an analyse on that, enough people do it. Yet I do understand that it wasn't perfect. Even if it sounds like I put on pedestal, it's only for the reason above. How it changed and helped my life. This is my love letter to it. Because I don't think I would be where I am now if it wasn't from it. If I had never knew the game, I wouldn't have make OCs. No OCs, my partner never find about my blog, we never talk, I never move to Belgium and I never have the life I have now. Today, most of my playthroughts are left unfinished, a little bit like the drawing above. For various reason, but the main one is I always play till the Citadel DLC and then I can't bring myself to finish. It's like leave it in a constent state of happy time, of cherished parts and nothing sad happen. My happy place.

Ok I'm not to sure where I was going with this, I'm probably rambling and it's hard to put in word what I feel about this game, how much it means to me. I feel like this text doesn't give it justice but it's all I can say.

TLDR: Mass Effect changed life, I meet amazing people because of it and even if the game as its flaws and I'm not as active as I was about it, I love it with all my heart and nothing will ever change this.