Mass Effect 3 Ending, opinions and feelings?

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

After thinking about this for a few weeks I figured out why I didn't like the ending. No freakin' Elcor combat! Seriously they tell us all about how the Elcor run around with cannons strapped to their backs and then don't let us see this miracle of the galaxy. Why Bioware? Why? :lol

Seriously I think the writer (or was he?) that complained about the ending also said something about showing all your allies at the end. I thought the same thing. Where were the Salarian STG teams, the mercs I helped Aria with, other N7 troops, Asari spec ops and sniper teams, etc? That could have been cut for some reason, but I also thought it was odd that you didn't see those guys with you on Earth. I would even have accepted just showing them jumping down from the shuttles when you get to Earth or in the rally point where Anderson is. The only ones that were there, for me, were Wrex and the Krogan. It's a minor annoyance that didn't change anything, but it's odd it was left out.

 

[Drewid]

Sigh.

I know I should be posting a lot more productive posts in this thread, but I feel that with the recent outbreak of many critical reactions to both the fans and the studios, I figured it'd be a good time to clarify my position in regards to Mass Effect 3

1. I do not like the ending. For me, it's more about breaking the thematic tone, taking the franchise into an entirely different direction that doesn't compliment or support the overall consistency of the story. While choice and multiple endings are also a big factor, the sheer drop in quality on how the story was told is what hurts it the most.

2. I do not wish to enforce nor encourage BioWare to change the ending. I will simply do what anyone will do. Move on. Of course, that's not the same as forgiving them either. Ever since the ending, I haven't played the game since, and I have no desire to purchase any DLC, no matter how awesome it might be. Mass Effect 3 has tainted BioWare. I simply cannot cannot believe what they have to say about their future games anymore. You can bet your pennies that every game they make after this will have that one question... "Does it have a better ending than Mass Effect 3?".

4. Even though I'm not demanding the ending be changed, I'm not chastising those who do. I've seen a lot of videos from websites I respect and many of them are taking this "Holier than thou" approach when discussing the fans who want to change Mass Effect's ending. Even though they're right, the way they express it is some of the most ugliest, vile and down right pompous things I've ever had to hear. I understand exactly where these fans are coming from and how they feel towards this ending, but I still think these writers and bloggers are missing some key components as to why the fans are acting this way. BioWare's past activities did give the fans some sense of "entitlement" in a few areas like FemShep being showcased, her look and the things that the developers promised. It's not that difficult to understand where their false sense of entitlement stemmed from and how it's unique only to this particular game. I just think there's more to it than simply being upset over the ending.

5. While I may move on, I'll still discuss the heck out of it.

What happened to 3?

I'm pretty much right there with you. I severely disliked the ending, especially after the lengths they went to in previous outings to have multiple worthwhile endings. I have been playing a lot of the multiplayer, but that stems more from the fun I get by murdering not-so-innocent digital monsters than anything else.

If the ending were to be rewritten/reevaluated I might check it out, but only after reading some reviews by people who had finished it first.

 

[Wes R]

I have a feeling that the sales of the DLC won't be as good as they hope as most people got rid of their copies or won't pay for it until they know if it's any good.

 

[Flecktarn92]

I'm done with Bioware. I'll keep on Mass Effect as far as DLC but I'm not even going to bother buying any other stuff (books, comics etc).

Very few people I have heard of or know I hate but Casey Hudson made that list and is pretty high up. If those allegations of no peer review and doing it with one other person is true...oh man.

He just has a face you want to punch.

I've vented for the week, carry on.

 

[Wes R]

Hudson has always been the main issue throughout all this. He and the PR department have been giving the orders. Why does the general manager/co founder of BW always have doctor in front of his name? Seriously dude it makes you look even more clueless. You're making videogames, not operating on someone.
And the mods on BW forum are locking down thread left and right tonight even if they're pretty mild.

 

[Nwerke]

Some of you will vehemently disagree, but this is a good, well-reasoned take

Disagree that it was good or well-reasoned? Yes, I do. It also featured an array of quotes from The Lord of the Rings in what looked embarrasingly like an attempt to seem well-spoken, rather than fanboy in-joke-ey.

So based on that article, I guess Mass Effect 3 should have included this into the game's features....

• "Experience Fatalism to the fullest extent as you witness Commander Shepard resign to the same inevitable conclusion regardless of your choices and actions."

Bravo, Jeyl.

I mean, I get there are going to be defenders. People were always going to buy into this and fool themselves no matter how bad it was, even in the worst possible situation - which incidentally I think we are pretty close to having here; it would not be easy for BW to come up with an ending that subverts the expectation management they did a lot harder than this.

It's like the Prequels; anything with expectations this high going in is going to die a hard death - there will still be people defending the Prequels even in another twenty years' time, and ditto here. "I liked the ME3 ending! No really!" They'll even position themselves as the elite few, likely.

It's still self-delusion, though.

 

[Nwerke]

The way bioware was acting I think they truly had no idea that people wouldn't like the end

If we accept the leaked insider account, that is exactly what the case was. The original ending leaked and they came up with a rushed, crappy, and above all hubristic replacement.

if the hero dies the movie still generally ends with a feeling of hope that the hero bought them a better future with their lives. That didn't happen here.

No indeed - rather, every system with an ME relay has been blasted out of existence, including Earth. That "Shepard lives" ending isn't consistent with what we already knew of the effects of a relay explosion: they sterilise entire star systems.

Mass Effect 3 has tainted BioWare.

Agree. It's really a shame. Even the "Indoctrination Theory" demonstrates this. Their customers are just flatly rejecting the official BioWare position.

4. Even though I'm not demanding the ending be changed, I'm not chastising those who do.

Ditto. It's just a game. I could accept it and move on, and since my wife did order it unknown to me I guess I'll probably try a playthrough some time. But the outrage directed towards the unhappy fans from some quarters is misconceived. The customers have every right to be angry. BW's core business, after all, is providing a satisfying entertainment experience. Did they do that? HELL NO THEY DID NOT. They crapped all over what they'd built up, instead. We're mightily pissed and with good reason IMO. It's very telling that at least some members of the writing team are pissed, too.

 

[Nwerke]

I've seen a lot of videos from websites I respect and many of them are taking this "Holier than thou" approach when discussing the fans who want to change Mass Effect's ending. Even though they're right, the way they express it is some of the most ugliest, vile and down right pompous things I've ever had to hear.

ABSOLUTELY. Couldn't agree more on the 'ugliest' bit. Superior, snotty bull****.

I understand exactly where these fans are coming from and how they feel towards this ending, but I still think these writers and bloggers are missing some key components as to why the fans are acting this way.

They sure do seem to focus on the unhappiness of the ending and Sheperd's death/possible death. Straw man! It's things like being told synthetics and organics will always kill each other, while overhead you have Geth and Quarian ships zooming about in formation, fighting as allies. That encapsulates the illogic of this final part of the game. Why is the Catalyst so misinformed??! Why does the game **** all over the values and even the facts you've been working on up to now?!

It's not that difficult to understand where their false sense of entitlement stemmed from and how it's unique only to this particular game.

I wouldn't even put it as a false sense of entitlement. It's a perfectly valid sense of entitlement, based on BioWare having put in a ton of work on expectation-management which they have then, ****tily, chosen to completely betray.

5. While I may move on, I'll still discuss the heck out of it.

Yup, ditto. We're both gonna be accused of being sour obsessives with chips on our shoulders, but so be it. This will irk me at the same level as the Prequels, probably for the rest of my life. That is to say, at a minor level - something to draw on whenever I have the urge to pick at a scab. :lol

And the mods on BW forum are locking down thread left and right tonight even if they're pretty mild.

Way to make a bad situation worse, BW. Sheesh.

 

[Wes R]

You have to remember that most of those sites attacking the fans receive free games from the publishers to be reviewed.

 

[DuneMuadDib]

You have to remember that most of those sites attacking the fans receive free games from the publishers to be reviewed.

Say anything like that on Bioware's forums and you'll get a thread locked down pretty fast. Don't some reviewer copies also have extra goodies in them that aren't available to customers even in premium editions? Can't think of how that could look the least bit fishy.

Not even just free games, but how many of those sites have ad-banners for either the game being reviewed or a game from the same developer? Not saying that developers actively buys reviews, because I don't think that's true. However, I'm sure they dropped a ton of money on advertising on a lot of review sites, and if they got a bad review from a site it may lead them to rethink their ad-buys.

I'm sure it's completely unrelated that sites that don't get any ad money from Bioware at all are those more likely to be critical.

 

[synasp]

...those sites have ad-banners for either the game being reviewed or a game from the same developer?

A possibility, but it's very unlikely Bioware has someone managing display/text ads who is sophisticated enough to handle that level of granularity. I think the bribes--I mean free games/swag--are much bigger motivators.

Nwerke, good to have you on our side. :lol

For the Bioware writer who wrote that post, then later didn't actually write the post, I saw a screen cap of it when this first went sour, so it's definitely from his account. The question now is, did someone else gain all of his insider knowledge, post from his account, then removed all the posts and he never knew it happened? :rolleyes

 

[Nwerke]

Hehe, just catching up on all the discussion.

Clearly the guy's at risk of his job. It's nice that people are defending him, and it's nice that his boss is letting it rest with his denial. I hope that Bioware doesn't reconsider this and that fans let it rest; the chances of getting a repeat performance in future are low otherwise.

This is great fun:

Mass Effect 3 Ending: Tasteful, Understated Nerdrage (SPOILERS) - YouTube

 

[Wes R]

Say anything like that on Bioware's forums and you'll get a thread locked down pretty fast. Don't some reviewer copies also have extra goodies in them that aren't available to customers even in premium editions? Can't think of how that could look the least bit fishy.

Not even just free games, but how many of those sites have ad-banners for either the game being reviewed or a game from the same developer? Not saying that developers actively buys reviews, because I don't think that's true. However, I'm sure they dropped a ton of money on advertising on a lot of review sites, and if they got a bad review from a site it may lead them to rethink their ad-buys.

I'm sure it's completely unrelated that sites that don't get any ad money from Bioware at all are those more likely to be critical.

Yeah a few threads got locked down for pointing out how far in bed the industry and reviewers are. Oh the reviewers get all sort of goodies like prototypes of the action figures, shirts, and other swag that is available only at E3 and that kind of thing.

 

[Jeyl]

I just realized something. Was that ending with the old man and the kid (who is actually a resized adult model) meant to say that no Shepard is canon since "Details have been lost with time" and the kid only refers to Shepard as "The Shepard"?

Did the game just tell us not only did our choices not matter, but the whole bloody affair didn't matter either because this old man was making it up as he went along? And I thought the flashback storytelling of Dragon Age II was a poor story telling device.

 

[JediCarl]

I just realized something. Was that ending with the old man and the kid (who is actually a resized adult model) meant to say that no Shepard is canon since "Details have been lost with time" and the kid only refers to Shepard as "The Shepard"?

Did the game just tell us not only did our choices not matter, but the whole bloody affair didn't matter either because this old man was making it up as he went along? And I thought the flashback storytelling of Dragon Age II was a poor story telling device.

I don't think so. I take it as just a coda to express that Shepard and his/her exploits have passed on to legend eons later. In fact, my interpretation is the exact opposite of the one you speculated... I think it shows that due to what Shepard did that he/she has attained near mythical status generations later.

Also, that's kinda verified by the following pop-up on the menu stating that Shepard is now "a legend".

This is the highest status attainable on the hero's journey.

 

[Deelite]

I don't think so. I take it as just a coda to express that Shepard and his/her exploits have passed on to legend eons later. In fact, my interpretation is the exact opposite of the one you speculated... I think it shows that due to what Shepard did that he/she has attained near mythical status generations later.

I agree with this. I mean look at our own "history' with famous figures. Was really George Washington that great of a leader? Was he really a ladies man?

Real details get lost through time, and through constant story telling, and exaggerated details get added along the way. pretty soon, a person, wouldn't know what was the "real' facts and what was added as the stories were told.

 

[Paul Andrew]

It's trite and cliched... but uh, it's the journey that counts more than the destination. Just tossing that out there. For all the guff I hear about the ending, I haven't heard much about the 30ish hours it takes to get there. I'm inclined to agree with Jeff Gerstman's review over on giantbomb for the most part I think. He didn't particularly like the end either, and seems to think that some parts of the game were rushed for deadline or not fleshed out enough, but still a good game overall and worth playing if you're at all involved in the Mass Effect fiction.

 

[Deelite]

You can call me a Mass Effect fanatic, and I think ME2 was the best of the three titles.

I found the three endings (yes i did all three) to be mediocre, but I'm not all up in arms over them. I was "disappointed" that with at least one of them, there really isn't any closure, like where is my Team? Am I going to be able to see them again....and that with that decision, you also destroy an entire "race" after you spend a portion of the game to liberate them - the Geth. This ending as well, I think didn't provide enough since you spend your time to develop/rekindle your romance option(s), but in the end, you don't end up with them (and some characters, you REALLY want to see what happens with your Shepard and them).

The other two, are "fine, I think that'll work; it's a cop-out, but still not as bad as OTHER certain sci-fi endings as of late".


I still love the series for the deep storytelling and compelling characters, that you grow to love or to hate over the course of the games as you played them.

Again, I think ME2 was a better game story wise, but ME3 was a better game play experience wise.

 

[Wes R]

I like ME 2 better. ME3 needed more combat missions like i said before. I liked the planet scanning was much less annoying but if i wanted to play delivery boy i'd go get the PS2 version of Futurama or play paperboy online.

 

[Jeyl]

Also, that's kinda verified by the following pop-up on the menu stating that Shepard is now "a legend".

Legends don't need DLC, which that pop up says otherwise.

This is the highest status attainable on the hero's journey.

Legend this, legend that, I AM LEGEND yada yada yada. Here's my question. HOW IS SHEPARD A LEGEND? Is it because she just stranded a good chunk of the galaxy's forces in the Sol system that is barren and unusable by half the species? Is it because she destroyed all the Mass Relays which cut off several colonies and inhabited planets from supplies they depended on? Is it because she confronted the cause of all this genocide that's been plaguing the whole galaxy and resigned to it's reasoning in less time than it took to convince Wrex to back down?

No. Shepard's legendary status is vague, ineffectual and due to so many other characters making much more personal and meaningful sacrifices, unworthy. If they can't even jot down enough details to the point where even Shepard's gender isn't known....Wait. Jot down details..... Cripes, did the Normandy not have one of those time capsules that Liara was working on and planning to mass produce? That was a pretty big deal!

That Stargazer ending doesn't work. I guess Bioware just wanted to throw Buzz Aldrin in a key role just for the heck of it, cause it sure feels that way.