Mass Effect, as a series, means a lot to me.

It means a lot to plenty of people.

Fundamentally changing the modern video game role-playing systems -- gameplay mechanics still in heavy use today -- Mass Effect introduced an entirely new audience of geeks and gamers alike, into RPG fans. And, it took my incessant need to write and tell stories into its arms, and force-fed it. It evolved me. Stranding my recently-sober, high school in the rearview, teenage self on the beach and said “you’ll be damned if you play another game with a soggy story and characters, and feel any sort of satisfaction.”