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Autism in Mass Effect 2

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Michael_Stuart
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05 Aug 2010, 9:23 am

Mass Effect 2's "Project Overlord" DLC had an interesting reference to autism... Apparently, they plugged an autistic person into a virtual intelligence.

Some agonizing quotes by Dr. Archer:

Quote:
My brother's condition had always been a burden until now... His autistic mind can communicate with the geth!


Yep, you heard it. Autistic people can talk to robots no one else has ever heard utter a word. Apparently, this is because he is good at mathematics.

Quote:
My brother's mind is as alien to me as an actual alien.


Really? I had you pegged as a jerk as soon as I heard your smug British voice (no offense intended), but this is a surprising low.

Quote:
He's literally a human computer.


Not any more so than any other mathematician...

We also see David, the supposed autistic brother, reciting the square roots of various numbers (such as 918.09) using mental calculations. He also randomly complains "Loud! It's getting loud!".

I must say, I'm somewhat offended, which I do not usually get easily.



zeldapsychology
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05 Aug 2010, 9:54 am

An autistic character in a videogame! The usual OMG great at math and not likeing loud noises. DAMN I hate stereotypes!



Ebonwinter
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05 Aug 2010, 10:06 am

The title had me a little excited but how they portrayed us as a stereotype is horrendous.



Asp-Z
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05 Aug 2010, 10:13 am

I'M A COMPUTER ALIEN TOO!



Ferdinand
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05 Aug 2010, 10:32 am

Hey kid, I'm a computer! Stop all the downloadin'!


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t0
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05 Aug 2010, 10:41 am

I read that the original autistic character they were going to have was totally different. But they couldn't find a use for an NPC that spent all day surfing the net and posting on forums.



Ferdinand
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05 Aug 2010, 11:12 am

t0 wrote:
I read that the original autistic character they were going to have was totally different. But they couldn't find a use for an NPC that spent all day surfing the net and posting on forums.


Win.


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zer0netgain
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05 Aug 2010, 12:36 pm

+1

I've noticed a lot of fictional works seem to use an "autistic savant" as a plot element...which is odd since such a creature is not common..even among autistic people.

However, it is an effective plot device. A person whose brain is wired so uniquely that he can do something nobody else can...then he gets exploited for some purpose.



kra17
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05 Aug 2010, 1:43 pm

Elcor, anyone? :lol:


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DeaconBlues
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05 Aug 2010, 4:42 pm

kra17 wrote:
Elcor, anyone? :lol:

Amused, I see your point. Mischievous, however, elcor are descended from herd creatures, and prefer to be in large groups; other than that, it seems an apt comparison.


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Michael_Stuart
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05 Aug 2010, 7:34 pm

DeaconBlues wrote:
kra17 wrote:
Elcor, anyone? :lol:

Amused, I see your point. Mischievous, however, elcor are descended from herd creatures, and prefer to be in large groups; other than that, it seems an apt comparison.


Eager, elcor actually have a very subtle means of social communication, but this does not involve their voice. Amused, it is species which supposedly seem to be more subtle than the elcor which from an elcor perspective would seem more like someone with autism.



ShenLong
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05 Aug 2010, 10:28 pm

I think this character is the HFA girl from Mass Effect: Ascension. She's a gifted biotic.



Michael_Stuart
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06 Aug 2010, 6:19 am

ShenLong wrote:
I think this character is the HFA girl from Mass Effect: Ascension. She's a gifted biotic.


Except "she" is named David, is referred to as a "brother", and is not a biotic, and is male. Just sayin'.



Bradleigh
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06 Aug 2010, 11:00 am

I checked out the Mass Effect Wikia pages, there seems there was also an autistic biotic, and both seemed in this were exploited by Cerberus. David seems to be the holywood popular math savant, I don't know it all but the idea of talking to geth sounds pretty cool, well largely because geth are one of my favourite inhabitants in the Mass Effect universe. Though I do question the ability of comunicating as the geth language, as it is pretty much absent of really any words and is much faster in a lot being said in what would usually be a maybe even one word.

Also all this talk of the Elco's pattern of speech by saying the emotion first is reminding me of another character in another Bioware game that the character said the emotion or verbal style first and was had a major obsession on one subject, though I fear what might hapen if HK gained contact with the geth.


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07 Aug 2010, 1:34 am

Ferdinand wrote:
Hey kid, I'm a computer! Stop all the downloadin'!
G.I. Joeee :o ...


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Michael_Stuart
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07 Aug 2010, 10:10 am

Bradleigh wrote:
I checked out the Mass Effect Wikia pages, there seems there was also an autistic biotic, and both seemed in this were exploited by Cerberus. David seems to be the holywood popular math savant, I don't know it all but the idea of talking to geth sounds pretty cool, well largely because geth are one of my favourite inhabitants in the Mass Effect universe. Though I do question the ability of comunicating as the geth language, as it is pretty much absent of really any words and is much faster in a lot being said in what would usually be a maybe even one word.

Also all this talk of the Elco's pattern of speech by saying the emotion first is reminding me of another character in another Bioware game that the character said the emotion or verbal style first and was had a major obsession on one subject, though I fear what might hapen if HK gained contact with the geth.


Which makes me wonder... Why would the Geth have any sort of speech synthesizers? Simply connecting and transmitting information is much faster, and less prone to distortion. Even the most efficient language couldn't keep up when you can transmit who knows how much data per second.