Thank you, Mass Effect

I have wanted to make this post for a while, now I find myself at a bit of a loss of words. To put it simply, there would be no Celestial Saga without Mass Effect.

It was late 2009 or early 2010, I was fifteen and in my room. I can't remember exactly what I was doing, but I remember my dad was watching a football game in the living room. During a commercial break, I heard the most incredible music I had ever heard. I ran into the living room where my jaw dropped as I watched the Cinematic Launch Trailer for Mass Effect 2. The very next day, I went to my local GameStop to buy a copy of Mass Effect and pre-order Mass Effect 2.

I didn't know it at the time, but I had just been introduced to what would become some of my favorite things. One was "Heart of Courage" by Two Steps From Hell, both becoming favorites of mine. Then there was Mass Effect which would become my favorite gaming series and Mass Effect 2 which became my all-time favorite game.

Mass Effect was the first game that I had ever played where story choices that I made in one game carried into the next to shape the story. Fifteen-year-old me was amazed by this, and quite frankly, thirty-two-year-old me is still amazed by this. Mass Effect made me wonder how I could do that too.

Fast forward to 2012, I started to develop the first story in the Celestial Saga. At first, I wanted to make it a game. I wrote down gameplay and story elements that would be present on a piece of paper. I showed it to my friend and asked him if it would be something he would play. He took a moment to read it over and with wide eyes he looked at me and said, "Yes." With that, I knew I had the start of something.

In 2013, I started to write the story. My mind started to expand, not only thinking about the first story, but what this universe could hold. The stories I could tell, the overall plot spread across multiple points in time, it was all coming together. Now I've published three books in the Celestial Saga and I'm deep into the production of the next two.

All of this is due to becoming captivated with storytelling thanks to playing Mass Effect. I had always had an interest in writing before then, but Mass Effect really drove that home with me wanting to tell my own story set across a sprawling universe. The characters, the planets, the heart of the games being the crew that you fly with. All of that laid the foundations for what would become Nova Team flying through the Milky Way on the Ever Star.

To say thank you to BioWare and all those that crafted the Mass Effect universe over the years seems like too little a thing. These games, the developers, gave me so much. Through the darkest times in my life, Mass Effect has been there to keep the light. Those games have shaped me into the person and storyteller that I am today.

If you follow me on socials, you'll know that I have been taking a break from social media. I never would have thought that the closure of BioWare would be the thing that got me to exit the hiatus early. What happened is a tragedy and I will never forgive EA for this. For me personally, the desire to finish the Celestial Saga stories has been reinvigorated. I was always going to finish telling them, but I have never wanted to do so more than I do right now.

I don't want to focus on the negative in this post. I want to celebrate the legacy that BioWare has created. For myself and so many others out there, BioWare inspired us to tell stories that matter. The Celestial Saga exists because of Mass Effect, and I will do my best to honor that legacy.

Keelah se’lai.