There are many, many, many reasons people play video games. Sometimes it’s for the challenge; other times it’s for the story. It can be for comfort, for nostalgia, for new experiences, for entertainment, for distraction, even to learn a thing or two. Me? I play for the friends I make along the way.
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Casual GamerReplaying Mass Effect Is Good for My Mental HealthSwapna KrishnaThat might be a meme, but it's not a joke. Well, not really. Sure, gaming provides all those other benefits, but sometimes, oftentimes, it’s falling for the characters that keeps me booting up for more. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the Mass Effect trilogy. By having a main character (play FemShep, always) that walked around and interacted with the crew between missions, the game encouraged players to form relationships with them. There’s a reason Garrus Vakarian still reigns as the internet’s bird-dinosaur boyfriend (tell me more about those calibrations, Garrus), and it has everything to do with writers at BioWare understanding the connections players made with their characters—and with the Citadel DLC.
The Citadel DLC emerged from a fraught time. Following outcry over the ending of Mass Effect 3 (it was bad), BioWare not only rewrote the conclusion, it also released extra downloadable content to appease fans. Not all of this DLC was ideal (looking at you, From Ashes), but Citadel was a thing of beauty. It’s basically hours and hours of character-driven gameplay that’s just you hanging out with your friends. It’s so chock-full of in-jokes and squishy earnestness it might as well be a whole mission devoted to the characters braiding each other’s hair. (I am now sad that there are no hair-braiding scenes.)
