Cliff Notes from the Bioware announcement:
Uses the Star Wars Old Republic Engine.
Storyline will take place prior to Mass Effect 1.
Main characters from the games will make appearances (Sheppard's appearance may or may not occur)
Gameplay will be primarily ground based, with some ship board action and of course travel to other planets. Ship to ship combat may be implemented later. Ground vehicles will be utilized.
Most missions will be story based and not "Kill X amount of things" (I'm not sure how they can do this and still keep it an MMO)
Players will choose from Humans or one of three council races: Turrian, Asarian, Salarian, and start on their prospective homeworlds (starter zones)
Other races will be non-playable (at first, perhaps later?) but make appearances in the game of course.
Trait choices (character background) and classes will resemble the previous games (Adept/Vangard/soldier, etc.).
Player choices during the game allow their character to either become a Paragon or Renegade (same as normal games) and their options in terms of organizations they may join will be determined by this (I.E. instead of two distinct sides like Sith and Jedi, players start "neutral" and their choices determine what side they are on and what organizations they might join)
As the game progresses, players may join various Organizations/factions.
Paragon Factions: C-Sec (all), Systems Alliance Military (human), Asari Commandos (Asari), Salarian STG forces (salarians), Turian Military
Renegade Factions: Cerberus, Blue Suns, Eclipse, Blood Pack and also non-affiliated factions (Bounty Hunters, Pirates, etc.)
Reapers may or may not make make an appearance...
Link to the official Announcement:
http://www.bioware.com/announcement.html
Comments
the Mars Effect online too
Secondly... Thumbnail for the link is well... Obvious.
However, playing on the hopes of the masses always works.
7/10 but only because people want to believe.
A fire alarm could go off and i would not believe it.
Although this thread is an April fool's prank, there really is a serious discussion of Bioware using TOR as a test for a Mass Effect MMO.
I could see them instead building up the ME3 mutliplayer part more. It seems pretty successful and it's not that complicated.
The above mentioned Mass Effect cartoon.
"We can defeat the reapers... WITH ROCK AND ROLL."