Mass Effect 3 Ending, opinions and feelings?

[MooMooEgg]

it's not the amazing ending we were promised that involves every choice we made, but again - I thought the ending was "OKAY" and just scraped by, but it could have been so much better..

That's the entire reason why people were so pissed off. Lets say this was Gears of War, a linear point A to point B shooter... If the developers gave us three choices at the end that would alter the ending, then that would be cool.

But it's not Gears of War. It's Mass Effect. We were promised that our choices in the past games would define the outcome of the trilogy. That was a big selling point, and I believe that gamers should have been rewarded properly for sticking with the series.

Personally, I wanted to see major events unfold due to my previous actions. I mentioned the rachnai in the other mass effect thread, so lets change it up: The Collector Base at the end of ME2.

Scenario 1: The base was destroyed: The Illusive Man therefore didn't have as much reaper tech as he wanted. That would affect the strength of Cerberus, making them much less of a threat and less of a player in ME3. The Illusive Man woudn't have the proposed means to control the reapers and wouldn't be at the Citadel at the end of the game. Anderson lives.

Scenario 2: The base was given to Cerberus: ME3 plays out the way it does currently, with Cerberus being a huge thorn in Shepard's ass. He's at the Citadel at the end. Anderson dies.

Yeah, I know that's a bit much, and would make ME3 potentially play like 2 different games. It's unrealistic, but it's stuff like that I was expecting. And just imagine how something like that could have affected the endings. Chrono Trigger kind of endings that are vastly different. :cry

 

[Wes R]

They promised us 16 endings, 1 more than the 15 Chronotrigger has. Also they took down the polls on BSN and now they have report features. There's major backlash coming from the free DLC announcement now too and even Forbes calls it a load of crap.

 

[Jeyl]

BioWare had their Mass Effect PAX panel. Many folks on the BSN forums are now saying that this conference is a deal sealer regarding their faith in the company. Basically, they're out and done. Heck, one moderator just closed someone's "goodbye" post. The reason?

Sorry you feel that way.
However, there are plenty of other threads in which to discuss your disappointment over the ending. We don't need another one.
Locking.

I've looked over their forum rules and policies, and this post didn't violate anything.

 

[Wes R]

It doesn't have too they suddenly have more mods on there shutting down anything that is negative against Bioware/EA.

 

[Rjames112]

It doesn't have too they suddenly have more mods on there shutting down anything that is negative against Bioware/EA.

I was at their Pax East panel today, and I went in and it was a pretty antagonistic atmosphere at the beginning but by the end it was a really good feeling. the panel had a producer from all three games (now the dlc producer) a level designer, a qa manager, community manager, and two writers (one wrote all of Garrus, and Wrex, the other Tali and Mordin)

They didn't say one way or the other about the indoctrination theory since they didn't want to trample on the creativity of the community. What they did acknowledge was they left a gap in explaining the context of certain ending elements; it won't change the endings but it will allow for a more personalised ending to get 'closure,. They will release the extended cut as more cinematics than gameplay to fill those gaps.

All things said, they were quite humble about it and they did mention about closing postson the BW social network: they don't mind, and want constructive criticism but belligerence is not acceptable.

 

[Wes R]

Hate to tell them if they don't want belligerence they better just shut the forum down because it's only going to get worse.

Edit: rumor has it they're cleaning the forum up because some big wigs are going to be looking at it and so that when the media checks it looks like the number of angry fans is smaller than it really is. Remember bioware and EA are a den of liars and thieves so nothing is as it seems.

 

[Jeyl]

What they did acknowledge was they left a gap in explaining the context of certain ending elements; it won't change the endings but it will allow for a more personalised ending to get 'closure,. They will release the extended cut as more cinematics than gameplay to fill those gaps.

That would be nice if "closure" was the only issue about Mass Effect 3's ending. It's not. Not by a long shot. If they're really proud of this ending and really stand by it, they shouldn't even be bothering with the extended cut DLC. If it changes nothing, what's the point? Closure is one thing, but making sense and fitting in with the overall theme of the Mass Effect universe is another.

 

[Wes R]

These mods have to be hating signing up for the job right about now cause they're taking heat from even the fans who liked the games in a few posts. They'd be better off just shutting down the entire BSN until it all blows over.

 

[Nwerke]

The Unofficial Mass Effect 3 Epilogue Slides

excellent fan retcon is excellent.

 

[DuneMuadDib]

The Unofficial Mass Effect 3 Epilogue Slides

excellent fan retcon is excellent.

I had to stop reading mine, it was so depressing how much better it was than what we got.

 

[Drewid]

I don't know if this has been posted here (and it looks like it received an update).

Mass Effect 3 - The Animal House Ending Final Cut - YouTube

Ahhh, retcon is good sometimes

 

[Wes R]

There was talk (joking) that they should do a Mel brooks ending like in Space Balls. I think they need one like in Blazing Saddles.

 

[DuneMuadDib]

There was talk (joking) that they should do a Mel brooks ending like in Space Balls. I think they need one like in Blazing Saddles.

What, like you get up into the Crucible on the Citadel and end up in the EA offices? Angry as some gamers are they better not have any thermal clips laying around.

 

[Jeyl]

What, like you get up into the Crucible on the Citadel and end up in the EA offices? Angry as some gamers are they better not have any thermal clips laying around.

Won't need any. For some unexplained reason, Shepard's pistol has unlimited ammunition.

 

[DuneMuadDib]

Won't need any. For some unexplained reason, Shepard's pistol has unlimited ammunition.

Well they'd probably fix that if players escaped the Matrix.

 

[Wes R]

What, like you get up into the Crucible on the Citadel and end up in the EA offices? Angry as some gamers are they better not have any thermal clips laying around.

Yeah I don't know what BW was thinking even having a panel at PAX only to ignore questions except those from the obvious people they planted in the audience.

 

[Jeyl]

SF Debris, one of my favorite online reviewers did a review of the original Star Trek episode "City on the Edge of Forever". Just wait till you get to the point where Kirk makes his galaxy defining choice.

LINK

SF Debris: It's a horrible thing to think about that accident.

*Edith's death played with a red tint*

SF Debris: But... what if Kirk had done things differently? What if he tried to take a different path? What would be the culmination of all the decisions if he ultimately decided to use the Guardian to do things differently? What would have happened then?

*Edith's death played with a blue tint*

SF Debris: Oh, man. Things would have been so much different!

 

[Jeyl]

Michael Pachter strikes back!

“As far as I can tell, it was a vocal minority of several thousand, but given that the game shipped 3.5 million units and likely sold through 2.8 million, I can’t believe that the backlash comprised more than 10 percent of consumers, and think it’s more likely closer to 1 percent. That incident was a great example of what a whiny group gamers are in general; while I respect their rights to express their dissatisfaction, the FTC complaint was over the top, and it is what got all of the media attention.”

We are the 1%!....

As for the coverage, I thought it was also the $80,000 that fans donated to voice their displeasure towards the ending, the many viral videos that sprung from the net, and the fact that the ending sucked.

“They treated their customers with respect, addressed the situation directly and promptly, and are offering free DLC to satisfy those who hated the ending. I shudder to think what will happen if gamers don’t like the new ending choices."

Except... the free DLC does not offer a new ending. It just makes the ending we already have bigger. It's like taking a bad movie and putting in more padding. BioWare has specifically said it won't change the ending, and they have no plans to add any more content post game.

"The BioWare guys are prolific, but if they slow down development of future games to make sure that everybody is happy, consumers will have even fewer choices, and will have something new to complain about.

Yeah, because we'd much rather have a rushed product like Dragon Age II than a real, fledging sequel that could have surpassed the original Dragon Age in every way.

“Unfortunately, appeasing the whiners here will only encourage fans to be even more vocal next time, so the lingering issue is that gamers will feel even more entitled and empowered than they have in the past, and will be even more demanding about changes to future games.”

Sheesh, nobody is making EA change the ending. They're doing this because they've gotten so much bad publicity from the ending and fans have been productive in their ways of expressing their dissatisfaction. I doubt that 1% of the gamers who actually bought the game contributed the total of $80,000 to charity.

Sigh. What a whiner. But than again, so am I.

 

[DuneMuadDib]

The issue with this whole "vocal minority" thing is people are misunderstanding or misrepresenting what it means. Jessica Merizan actually took the time during the discussion I had with her on Twitter to explain it. Or rather, she pointed me towards this.

It's basically breaking down online culture into three groups. I'll use the RPF as an example:

90% Will just lurk. They don't say a word, they just look at the pretty pictures.

9% Will reply on threads. They'll say "oh, that's a pretty picture."

1% Will start threads. They'll say "look at these pretty pictures."

As such, the 10% of RPF users who are vocal are a minority of the user base, thus a "vocal minority." The same applies to the players of Mass Effect 3. Only about 10% are vocal in any way, which is a minority of the customers. It doesn't mean that the voiced opinion is a minority opinion, only that a minority bother to voice ANY opinion.

I'm not well versed enough in statistics to know whether that vocal 10% is a representative sample or not (though the linked article seems to indicate that the 1% aren't). However, there's no reason to automatically assume that the silent majority disagree.

To Wes R's point, Bioware released the statement before PAX to get it out of the way and build a cushion for their panels. Eat up all but 10 minutes of the panel patting themselves on the back so they can limit the number of questions asked, and if they got any tough questions they could just direct us to the press release. Sadly I'm blanking on more of the PR aspects of it, but it was all calculated to limit the damage at PAX as much as possible.

 

[synasp]

Sorry if you guys already read this, but it's a fantastic article:

All That Matters is the Ending, Part 2: Mass Effect 3 « The Writer's Block