Mass Effect (its sequels even morseo) is the epitome of what Bioware have been doing: Not merely moving away from any table-top origins, but actively hiding anything which still could make for a connection. This is all being done in favor of an interactive-movie type of experience with you as the hero of it. I'm not going into genre definitions now. But: 20-25 years ago games like these would have been considered as sitting on the fringe of the genre, somewhere in between adventure, action, interactive movie and some RPG features added on top of it (which every major studio has nowadays anyways, as any form of looting and leveling has been proven to be quite addictive a loop, ask the Diablo guys).
Bioware too, have been marketing themselves as the character- and story-driven video gaming company for like the past two decades. It's still ingrained in their "About us" on their very webiste. Which is also their only constant in between releases -- anything else is up for grabs, often following what's currently popular in the wider blockbuster game space, from combat systems to character systems to dialogue systems to world design. And such even between releases of a series (see Dragon Age, which looks to target the God Of War crowd next). Is it really any wonder that the general audience consideres completely non-RPGs such as Assassin's Creed, both Horizon games and Red Dead Redemption to be RPG-like in an era where the former fringe such as Mass Effect has become the mainstay -- at least as far as the general public is concerned? If that "evolution" continues, in twenty years from now, Doom 2043 is also going to be considered as part of the family.
Heck, Arkane's Prey recent was more (table-top) RPG than pretty much anything Bioware has put out since. Superficially, it looks like an FPS and plays like one. But underneath are completely robust and quite complex RPG systems, which also allow you to interact with the game's environments and NPCs in multiple ways. And without spoiling, the game even remembers what you have done to get there throughout without blatant telegraphing aka obvious (dialogue) choices. Given Prey's forebears, this of course is no coincidence. Both CRPGs as well as Immersive Sims originate from the same CORE IDEA: Translating the table top experience to a computer screen -- just via different means. The tabletop experience of improvising, deep character costumization and collaborative storytelling -- not a semi-interactive Hollywood movie experience with you as the star of the show. http://web.archive.org/web/19980224020118/www.lglass.com/p_info/dark/manifesto.html
