Not sure how/if I even can make a Poll of this, but just curious who is going what side, if either? I sadly have only played Mass Effect 2, so I'm not sure how vivid the choices were for the first game, but I went mostly Paragon, then listened to a few Renegade choices, and totally wish I had gone with that instead!

I was hesitant with the choice since in the KoTOR, Dark Side choices basically made you seem like a giant dickhead, and yet people shrug it off and gave you quests and stuff to do anyway. In this genre, however, it seems like you are mostly just sarcastic and a total badass.

So I'm curious if for game #3 if they will make Paragon choices a little ballsy to compete, and what you people think will happen, and how you will choose.

Have you considered Paragade?

Seriously, anyone who plays like--to use Brad Shoemaker's term--a total "boy scout" is missing some of the best moments in the series. If the situation calls for you to throw that guy off a building, then go ahead and throw that guy. You'll thank me for it.

I role play so I usually end up pretty middle of the road. I can't bring myself to just stick to one path. You should think about doing the same. But always throw dudes off buildings. Always.

@Catarrhal said:

Have you considered Paragade?

Seriously, anyone who plays like--to use Brad Shoemaker's term--a total "boy scout" is missing some of the best moments in the series. If the situation calls for you to throw that guy off a building, then go ahead and throw that guy. You'll thank me for it.

Indeed. Being a complete "nice guy" isn't the best idea when it comes to "entertainment". You have to be a dick sometimes.

In most games, I usually end up picking the "Good Guy" choices the first time through. Mass Effect is the only series where I play as Renegade the first time through. I think it's because it's not necessarily the "EVIL" choice, but more so the "I do whatever it takes to get the job done." approach that is really appealing to me.

In mass effect 2 my Shepard stopped taking shit. She's not about to start now.

@DonChipotle said:

I role play so I usually end up pretty middle of the road. I can't bring myself to just stick to one path.

Yeah, I kinda do this. I'm pretty skewed towards Paragon, but I make a fair amount of Renegade decisions.

It's more just from a standpoint where I'm making decisions based on how I'd do it if I was Shep. Most of the time I'm a compassionate and understanding dude, but sometimes I need to lay down the law.

I usually play these games as an opportunist type. I try to make the right moral choices and never kill in cold blood, but I'll steal anything not nailed down and lay the smackdown on a fool if needs be.

@Catarrhal said:

Have you considered Paragade?

Seriously, anyone who plays like--to use Brad Shoemaker's term--a total "boy scout" is missing some of the best moments in the series. If the situation calls for you to throw that guy off a building, then go ahead and throw that guy. You'll thank me for it.

Accurate. I tend to make all the "good" moral decisions, but that doesn't mean that my righteous Shepard can't kick people out of windows. Thanks Mass Effect 2 for letting me say the right thing, but do something badass.

All depends on which of the five Shepards I'll be using. Though I'll do a primarily renegade focussed initial run since that's how my original Shepard rolled.

@Abyssfull:I was once like you. I had 7 shepards. Now I only have two female good and a bad boy. Both adept now

Always Renegade

Paragon Shepard is such a fucking pussy. Shepard isn't a grief counselor; it isn't his/her job to coddle people.

I just play it by ear. I'll make decisions based upon how I think I'd actually react in certain situations.

My Shepard is fully paragon. I think I might go back and play through all the ME games with renegade choices after I finish ME3.

@Creamypies said:

I just play it by ear. I'll make decisions based upon how I think I'd actually react in certain situations.

Same here. Even when my character is still clearly following one distinct path, I'll decide against a decision that my character would usually make just because I personally think it's what I'd do--or if there's always a benefit. With every single Shepard, I renegade'd the Batarian mechanic with the electric tuning fork thing during the Archangel recruitment mission.

@Dany said:

@Abyssfull:I was once like you. I had 7 shepards. Now I only have two female good and a bad boy. Both adept now

Only Adept? Even though I most importantly want to go through multiple times to witness the deviations resulting from different decisions made, playing the demo has also got me excited to play through with all of the classes. Very glad to see the Engineer class actually has a few abilities to help it stand out and be pretty fun to play as.

@ReyGitano said:

@Catarrhal said:

Have you considered Paragade?

Seriously, anyone who plays like--to use Brad Shoemaker's term--a total "boy scout" is missing some of the best moments in the series. If the situation calls for you to throw that guy off a building, then go ahead and throw that guy. You'll thank me for it.

Accurate. I tend to make all the "good" moral decisions, but that doesn't mean that my righteous Shepard can't kick people out of windows. Thanks Mass Effect 2 for letting me say the right thing, but do something badass.

This. I like balancing out the two.

@IkariNoTekken: The downside of playing it relatively straight, is that all the "persuasion" moments in conversations are based upon your Paragon & Renegade ranking. So if you've got an even split, you're gonna be locked out of a fair amount of persuasion moments.

I did find, however, that even though I role play my Shepard... I still leaned pretty heavily towards the good side. I'm a nice guy, y'see. So, I guess... providing you're a good person (or a bad person) at heart... you shouldn't find yourself getting locked out of too much stuff.

I'm mostly paragon, but if they give me the option to wipe out the Geth then I'm taking it.

Whoever kicks more fools out of windows

I play like Han Solo in my main ME shepard. Others are extremes of paragon and renegade.

I played Paragon in both games although I still activated those Renegade moments in ME2 when they popped up as well as picking Renegade dialogue options if it was simply the better choice (in my opinion)

My first playthrough of any WRPG is the same: I make the choices I would make in real life. That usually means I do the right things when someone is willing to pay me for it. I'm initially nice to everyone but I neither forgive nor forget and any betrayal or slight is cause for death.

Then I'll play with a female character and make her an evil bitch who kills people for fun and takes joy in ruining lives.

@Phatmac: Same right here. My Shepard makes the right decision at the end of the day, but that doesn't mean he's going to roll over for everyone.

I tend to favor the paragon route. On my initial play through I'll be mostly good, but tend to go with what I think is best at the moment. Then on my 2nd play through my renegade FemShep will show no mercy whatsoever.

one of each...obviously

Renegade I'm the Illusive Man's enforcer, also the evil scars are balling as hell.

The first time through, I "go with my gut," which nine times out of ten is paragon. Then, on my second time through, I go all renegade. Then on my third time, I go all paragon. After that, who knows.

Yes, I play these games a lot. I DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM.

Although being Renegade is more fun for sure I have a really hard time playing a "bad" character in games. So I went Paragon 100%.

I mostly play Renegade. in ME1 had 2 Sheps and one was all good the other all bad but in ME2 i was all bad just because i wanted my face to get worse. Never got the ship upgrade to fix my dace cuz i thought i looked super cool lol. Renegade just seems cooler and in ME3 i'll be renegade just cuz freaking ppl should have listened to me when i kept saying the Reapers are coming.

Full Paragon all the way. It's too easy to be evil and completely predictable.

paragon

I don't understand why everyone is asking "Paragon or Renegade?" I just play both!

@Catarrhal: Pentagade. Renegon.

I usually always hit one of the triggers when they come up. If there is both, then I'll do Paragon. If its just Renegade, then I'll do it.

I role play so most of the times I'm 40/60 on that , I think is way more fun than just choosing the option at the top and play as a Boy Scout Shepard (Full paragon) or as a heartless Shepard (Full Renegade), I think the consecuences for not having the Paragon/Renegade option available at all time are much more powefull, like in the first Mass Effect

if you can't convince him to calm down or to listen, when that happened to me I felt like I didn't have the control of the situation, and I didn't as I couldn't rely on the "game-y" part of the game.

But that's why I have 3 different Shepards (2 male , 1 female) , Canon Shepard choosing whatever I feel I should choose for the moment, and the other 2 to see the outcome of going full paragon and regengade. I'm incline more towards regenade than paragon, and Mass Effect 2 with those awesome interrupts may have help in that, but also renegade Shepard is not bad sometimes he's a bit of a yerk but he gets the job done he's cautious and does what's necesary when no one does or has the guts to make the hard choices kinda like me but without punching people.

I do what feels right, no one way for me.

@mcderby4 said:

Full Paragon all the way. It's too easy to be evil and completely predictable.

Dude Renegade Shepard is not evil!, he can be renegade and save the concil, be renegade and give medigel to those who need it , think of him as Ruthless.

Wouldn't it be novel for Bioware to have moral choices not be so black and white?

I just try and make the decisions that make the most sense at the time.

Specifically trying to be full paragon or renegade seems boring as hell. When you do something like that, all of your choices have already been made before you even pick up the controller, it's just a matter of pressing the right button.

@bartok said:

Wouldn't it be novel for Bioware to have moral choices not be so black and white?

There's not a lot of games out there that give you an established "gray zone" maybe Fallout 3?, I think that's pretty hard to do but they do have the neutral options in Mass Effect those give you both Renegade and Paragon points.

@AngelN7 said:

@bartok said:

Wouldn't it be novel for Bioware to have moral choices not be so black and white?

There's not a lot of games out there that give you an established "gray zone" maybe Fallout 3?, I think that's pretty hard to do but they do have the neutral options in Mass Effect those give you both Renegade and Paragon points.

Really? Fallout 3 is your reference? There's plenty of old school PC games that have tons of choices that are more varied than what Mass Effect gives you. I can already say the first two Fallouts are like this, and there's old PC RPGs that do something similar. I only know this because a PC elitist on another board I used to talk to never stopped talking about the stuff.

@Catarrhal said:

Have you considered Paragade?

Seriously, anyone who plays like--to use Brad Shoemaker's term--a total "boy scout" is missing some of the best moments in the series. If the situation calls for you to throw that guy off a building, then go ahead and throw that guy. You'll thank me for it.

Agreed. Paragade is a perfectly valid way to play Mass Effect. Treat your crew members nice and help people in need, and then if needed, push a dude out a fucking window.

Clearly the correct answer is both? 
 
But Paragon first.

To be fair Mass Effect doesn't really punish you like Jade Empire or KOTOR did by having special abilities and equipment tied to your moral alignment.  I tend to play Paragon ( I have yet to be able to bring myself to kill Wrex) but if someone is annoying me, it would profit me without being too evil, there is a prompt, or it is just funny then I will chose the Renegade option. 

My female Shepard I play as sort of both. I decide which conversation point is most appropriate, and go with it. She's ultimately a good person who wants to save people and do good, but isn't afraid to cut to the chase or break the rules as well. It makes for a very fun game that is more anti-hero with a conscience than a pure renegade path tends to offer.

I hope they give me the option for my good Shepard to suddenly make the most evil choice at the end of the game. If they do, I'll choose that.

Then paragon.

Then bitch queen of the universe renegade female Shepard.

Paragon for a good 95% of the time. However, sometimes the Renegade choice will take precedent. Like immolating that Krogan.