Actually, I see a lot of Tolkien's elves in the Asari, and dwarves in the Krogan. At the same time there's a bit of Trek in there, since the Volus are quite Ferengi-like, and the Krogan (they say this on the extra DVD) are quite Klingon-like. You can see the influence of the Shadow ships from Babylon 5 in Sovereign.

At the same time Farscape could be seen to be an influence, with Delvians->Asari, Luxans->Krogans, Hynerians->Volus.

The Shaky cam was very Firelfy-esque, certainly.

I think the situation involving humanity emerging on the galactic stage parallels Star Trek: Enterprise in some respects, with Shepard taking on an angry Captain Archer-like resentment towards Earth's alien allies, if you choose to play him or her like that.

I don't think the name was stolen from Stargate Atlantis. They're both a tribute to Alan Shepard, the first American in space. There are probably plenty of sci-fi authors who have characters with that name. It sounds spacey and heroic.

Do you mean the the Big Trak? I thought it looked way too similar to be an accident.

Remember that South Park episode where Butters is pissed off because the Simpsons took every one of his ideas before he could do them? Yeah.. not to give Mass Effect a pass or anything, but I imagine it's pretty difficult to come up with something really unique in an 80 year old genre.

That's why we have capslock. If you make a point in all caps, that point is INSTANTLY PROVEN.

Whilst they've followed some standard fantasy genre tropes (the beautiful spiritual race, the ugly brutish race) they do have plenty of elements which are not recognizable Campbellian archetypes. It's hard to pigeonhole the Turians or Salarians particularly. And whilst the Citadel and the big twist are just story elements designed to allow the Reapers (a powerful but not impossibly powerful enemy) to plausibly wipe out civilization every 50,000 years, there is a lot of other bits in there which give the mythos flavour without seeming clunky. But I really feel that they've created an interesting universe which I want to see more stories from. If they have constructed an outline story for a trilogy of games I imagine we'll see some really cool stuff in the future, presumably culminating with a great big battle between lots of Reapers and a Galactic fleet

Do we ever see a Batarian in Mass Effect? They played such a big part in the prequel novel that I expected them to be more common in the universe.

The Salarians are poindexters, and I thought the Turians were just exaggerations of humans' strengths and faults. Can't really think of another source that has embodied those traits into an alien race before.

I think the tough thing about sci-fi is that to make an alien race that humans - reader or character - can relate to is both necessary and limiting. Sentient alien races in sci-fi that are capable of interacting with humans on some level limits them in all the same ways that we are limited: tangibility, mortality, comparable perception of time, etc. To write up a species that corresponds to these parameters makes the race in essence very similar to humanity, with only surface details different. It's incredibly difficult to stray from these guidelines, and sometimes, it's fine not to.

The aliens in Mass Effect were all basically human characters with different bodies, but it didn't make it a bad game, or a trite game. It was familiar sci-fi elements and premises, arranged in such a way to make the setting interesting, if not always fresh. I think of it like Game Design Feng Shui.

I have to go with Crash on this. The entire genre is intermingled weaving in and out of multiple tales. Fantasy RPG are all going to go back to the golden oldies in one form or another. It's that familiarity to Tolken or any other influential fantasy writer, not to mention some old pen and paper D&D, which fuel these stories. Like creatureparade said it really is like the 'Simpsons effect'.

Bioware should be recognized more for the work they put into Mass Effect that makes it stand alone than what they borrowed from the masters. What they take from other sources has been ingrained in us as what is Sci FI/Fantasy. So much so I would say that future projects would be hard pressed to exclude many of these elements being that they somewhat make the genre.

And the Asari as Twi'leks, you sort of have to reach for that one.

That would be the Krogans. The Turians weren't anything like Klingons.

I love this game. It is a genre geeks dream. I would however much prefer playing a brooding cop with a huge gun hunting andriods for a living...but call me picky.

I think it is essential to point out where these great ideas may have come for some trivial fun. Besides how many people actually know what a Mattel Big Track looked like? (Thank you Satya)

You can't expect a group of huge geeks like those working at Bioware to conceptualize a game containing all the worlds sci-fi greatness without them borrowing from past graphical, social, and technical masters of the genre. John Shepard was a perfect name for the main character, John Glen would've been too obvious....or is John Shepard just a mix of the two?

Twi'leks... anyone get that twi'lek dancer to pay you all her hard earned dancing money in KOTORII? Now damned if I couldn't do that with Liara and Tia.

I am wondering if anyone has anything to add to this topic.

No she doesn't: TAKE THAT BACK MechaSlinky!!!