Am I supposed to know who James Vega is?

Question

At the start of Mass Effect 3, James Vega comes to collect you for a meeting with the higher ups. The conversation between you implies that there is history, but I don't recall ever encountering him.

The wiki on him states:

[James] had taken up residence in Omega playing cards in bars. During a game, a broadcast regarding Commander Shepard's actions during the events of Arrival and the galaxy's reactions aired on a nearby vidscreen.

Arrival was one of the few DLCs I didn't play for Mass Effect 2, did I miss his introduction there?

Answer 1

No, James was introduced in Mass Effect: Conviction, a mini comic. Even if you played all the DLCs in the original 2 games he will have never been introduced.

Answer 2

No, not only are you not supposed to know who Vega is, but he's supposed to not know too much about who you are either.

His POV is supposed to provide that of a newcomer to the series. He's the guy that will ask the annoying questions that players skipping the first two games would to fill in the backstory that they're missing.

Answer 3

James Vega is an Alliance soldier who meets Anderson and is introduced to Shepard to guard Shepard.

I got this from the Mass Effect wiki.

Answer 4

You're not supposed to know who he is, unless you are a active ME fan who reads the books.

This is something important about some games, THEY ARE MORE THAN JUST GAMES!

For example Halo has a whole series of books surrounding it, while some only think of it as a game, it was a book first and so was ME.

Some things in these games may seem new but are talked about in the books.

In this case after Shepard went 'Berserk' and killed thousands of batarians in the Arrival DLC, he was court marshaled and if it wasn't for his knowledge on the reapers... he would be dead. Instead he was kept prisoner by Alliance Command and James Vega was posted as his guard.

This part I'm not sure about but I think that the two got to know each other, James being a fan and a nice guy became friends with Shepard, however he still did his job right...