Game Changer #58 – An Open Letter to Mass Effect Fans
My name is Jared Whittaker, one of the hosts and Audio Chewbacca of the Super-Fly Podcast and PCW! Welcome to Game Changer, a weekly burning missive about all aspects of video gaming with a little bit of opinion thrown in for fun. Proceed with caution and tread lightly, gentle gamers. It’s going to be good time. Like the first time you saw Super Mario 3 good time.
**Author note – The original version of the article published was a draft copy of the article that had grammatical errors. An updated version has been published. Thank you for letting me know about the issue. JW**
To whom it may concern,
How are you? Are you well? I hope that things are going well for you. It’s getting warm here in Yellow Springs where I live. We didn’t have a winter hardly at all, so I’m not looking forward to turning on my air conditioner anytime soon. Well, I hope that it’s steady weather where ever you you are.
So, the reason why I’m writing to you all is because of some interesting news I heard recently. A few weeks ago, Mass Effect 3 was released and the entire internet seemed to rejoice at the release of the game. Many people I know were very, very excited about the game. I, personally, am fairly indifferent about the game. I played Mass Effect 2 on my Playstation 3 and didn’t enjoy playing it at all. I found it slow and not as great as reviewers and fans of the series seemed to think it was, but everyone else seemed to be having a good time playing, so I didn’t pay it much mind. I’ve been playing Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer again and Skyrim, two of my favorite games that I haven’t spent enough time with.
So it really hit me funny to hear rumblings about people being upset about the ending of the game. Sure, sometimes the ending of some games really aren’t up to expectations. Borderlands comes to mind. After a pretty epic final boss battle, the ending fell flat. Totally flat. It happens. It didn’t really bother me. I just started playing the game over again. But you all seem to be very upset about it. But again, you can get emotionally involved with media if it’s well written and deeply engaging. Bioware is pretty good at storytelling in games. But when I read that people were actually online petitioning for Bioware to change the ending and that they are actually considering redoing it, I had to say something.
Mass Effect fans. I’m going to ask you to do one thing for me: GROW THE F*CK UP!
Really people? Really? THIS is what it’s come to? A game that’s already been called “Game of the Year” and the “Greatest Game in the History of Gaming”, a game that has literally only gotten the best of reviews from every media outlet I’ve read, INCLUDING the ending and all so called fans can do is bitch and complain about the ending of the game? Weren’t you all the same people screaming “Game of the Year” MONTHS before the game came out? Isn’t this the greatest game ever? What’s the problem? All of a sudden, you have no faith in Bioware because of the way they choose to end the Commander Shepherd story? I have to be completely honest with you, this makes all you Mass Effect fans seem like petty children. Kicking, screaming and crying when your game didn’t end the way you wanted. Grow up. You’re all seemingly adults, right? Start acting like it.
The biggest problem I have with all this is that, let’s say that Bioware caves to the mounting pressure from it’s “fan” base, and changes the ending to placate you. This throws the whole entertainment industry on it’s ear. Using this case as a precedent, any large, fanatical fan base could kick up enough internet dust that no one could be safe from the general public. The artistic freedom that game makers, as well as other creative outlets like musicians, artists and others employ to be creative is one of the most freeing feelings in the world. Looking at a finished product that you made is indescribable. And you want to just be able to say, “Oh I didn’t like this ending!! Change it to suit me?!?!?” What next? Online petitions and internet outrage screaming about wanting Dr. Dre to re-release the classic “The Chronic” album, just without all marijuana references?
And while I understand that when you put something artistic out there for public consumption, your art turns into a product, but this is too far. If you don’t like the ending of the game, simply deal with it. Complain to a friend or on the internet, (I hear that’s what it’s for) punch a pillow, play some other games that had that had “greatest ending in the history of ever”. But don’t browbeat a creative project into moving away from their vision of the story THEY were trying to tell in favor of they story YOU wanted them to tell. If you take that away from creative people, all bets are off and media as a whole will be at the mercy of people like you. And, to be quite frank, I don’t trust you to do ANYTHING creative, let alone make decisions in creative outlets that I’M going to be taking part in. Bioware made Jade Empire and Knights of the Old Republic. You made a big stink on Twitter, Facebook and your blogs and cried about how you hated the finish of a trilogy of video games and made gamers in general look like the stereotypical idiot man-children in the process. Thanks for that, jerks.
For the last time, GROW UP PEOPLE!
And a special message to Bioware: stand by the decisions you made when you wrote the script for Mass Effect 3. Don’t let faceless voices on the internet make you change the story YOU wrote and YOU wanted to tell to the world. If you don’t, it frankly could really break the back the entire creative process and ruin video games as well as the creative medium as a whole.
Thank you for allowing me the time and I hope that everyone does the right thing.
Keep gaming…..
Jared
This is the ending in question. It goes without saying that spoilers are within the video. I encourage people to watch to see what all the fuss is about.
Jared Whittaker plays a lot of games. Not as much as he’d like, but as much as time and money will allow. If you want to play some games with Jared, you can find him on Playstation 3; PSN tag: JFX. He is also on Steam and Battle.net as JFX316 and while he doesn’t have an Xbox 360, he has the coolest Gamertag in the world: Obiwan Jaborni. Feel free to add him as a friend or email him at JWhittaker@PanelsonPages.com. and on Twitter as JFX316
Filed Under: Columns • Game Changer
Dear Jared,
I started reading your open letter with serious consideration that what you may have to say would be insightful and warrant a change in views. However, all of that quickly changed when just short of halfway through your letter you break down into petty insults against the very people who’s opinions you’re trying to change.
At this point I see this letter only as more contribution to the background rabble among fans arguing about the topic at hand.
In the future, if you plan to once more attempt to be the voice of reason, you may consider refraining from breaking down into insulting the people you wish to rally.
Agreed. Post is yet another reason to not read internet posts.
I’m not going to say you’re wrong. You can not agree with me. It’s fine. But don’t act like I don’t have a right to respond to what I think is amazingly harmful to video gaming and the creative process in general. As passionate as people seem to be about this issue, people should be able to call them out on their actions if they take issue with it. I think that this is a non-issue and I’m expressing my feelings about it.
Call out, by all means.
However, telling us to grow the f*ck up is outright demeaning, and I feel, unnecessary. You don’t agree with us and what we do? Your right, I’m not going to go around and tell to you to “grow up”. So the same courtesy could, at least, be expected.
I should point out that fans outrage was what brought back Sherlock Holmes, after Conan Doyle decided to kill him — and if they hadn’t, we’d be poorer for it. And from reading the BW forums, I can tell that most fans aren’t so much upset at the “sad” ending as they are at its overly simplificaction and not fulfilling the items promised by Bioware before the game came out.
I don’t think it’s childish to feel cheated and demand a fix of this (it was done before with Fallout, too) in a polite manner.
Why stop there. Start online petitioning change the end of Empire Strikes Back so Darth Vader tells Luke he’s sorry for not being there for him, being too busy with the whole “Dark Side of the Force” thing? Scream about the end of Gone with the Wind and make it a love fest, complete with explosions and an American flag waving? Why not turn EVERYTHING into a crowd-sourced, art project so no one has to be caught off guard with any feeling or emotions they weren’t expecting?
The overall point is that art (and yes, I consider any act of expression ‘art’.) is about to be completely stomped out in favor not doing anything controversial or an end that isn’t the most obvious conclusion possible to please the audience. People should go along for the ride. If you didn’t like the ending, that’s on you. You don’t impose YOUR will on the person or group making the art, even if you don’t agree with it.
Say, that do change the ending. Does the ME3 get “Game of the Year” because the people literally had a hand in making it, due to forcing THEIR will on the developer? What does that mean for the gaming industry as a whole. For the entertainment industry as a whole?
You Are a Complete Moron. WHile i agree that the creators have the right to do whatever they want. By the same token we have the right to NEVER buy another BioWare game again that is the way we punish BioWare and it is what i shall do. And how do you have a job if all you do is belittle people and call them names and cuss them out? I wish i could get paid to be rude to TENS of Thpousands of people cuz thats how many people you are insulting with ur posts. We have the right to EXPECT the designers to deliver on their promises tho and if they promise many things and Deliver NONE then yes MANY people will be angry becuz we are invested in this game and you are not so you cannot understand. ANd the WHole GodChild thing>? UTTER BULLSHAT and ud know that if ud played the games at all so please dont speak about things which you know nothing about. you have the right to say these things once uve played all 3 games in a row and THEN tell me what u think of the ending till then your opinion matters none.
Sorry you feel that way. Feel free to continue to cry over things that don’t go your way. It’s been proven to work apparently….
Please work on you grammar and capitalization before you throw out claims of people being “complete morons.”
Thanks for reading.
You have just proved yourself stupid. If you want to punish Bioware by not buying anymore of their games, by all means, do that. But no one other than a Bioware employee has the right to say “Change that ending to satisfy me.”
I guess that settles that.
You’re missing the point and I don’t thing you’re going to take any time to try.
I do enjoy your spelling, however….
The tone of the letter is more of a “first reaction” to the whole “controversy”. It’s not really a “try to be the voice reason” piece. While normally, I do try to take that stance, I personally think this is petty and dangerous to the industry as a whole.
I’m not trying to rally anyone with this. Perhaps is the future, when everyone has calmed down, (or when Bioware comments) we can break this down more and really get into it.
If you were upset by the letter, I’m sorry. But it was my first reaction and I stand by it.
That ending was kind of amazing. I think these whining gamers who want that ending changed really need to read a book that was written before 1985.
It was very Shakespearean but also hopeful. I blame current game companies that stretch out franchises well past their natural ending point for the complaints against this. Stories end people, and not always happily for all involved. You all need to learn that and, as Jared so eloquently put it, grow the fuck up.
Jared,
Did you even play the game. Did you spend money on IOS? Did you spend money on the DLC that came out right when the game came out? Do you make an enormous amount of money that these things don’t matter. Seems like you might. I dont care how the game ends. I thought overall it was a terrible game, when compared to the previous games. It doesn’t fit. The gameplay is weak. If you can’t see these things then i doubt you have good judgement as far as gamers are concerned. I think that I should be refunded. I don’t need a new ending. I want the money. I want the money from Origin I want the money from ME3 purchase. This is not terrible for the gaming industry. This is terrible for consumers. If big game companies can get away from stealing from young gammers then thats insane. THE GAME IS AWFUL. get over it. It’s so dumb… just admit it.
Do you also demand money back from a theater if you don’t enjoy a movie?
The fact is, not everything in life is good and sometimes we, the consumer, will pay money for things that fail to meet our expectations. Suck it up. If money is such a big issue for you I would recommend renting games before dropping $60+ for them.
Life’s hard; wear a helmet.
I bought a helmet once. But I didn’t like the chin strap. After a fairly lengthy letter writing campaign, I finally received a replacement chin strap from the manufacturer. But by then, I had already started growing a beard, and I didn’t really want the new chin strap anymore. SUCKED.
and I nominate this as the best response…. ever…
It’s not so much “didn’t meet expectations” as “didn’t fulfill explicit promises”. Players didn’t just build-up an unfounded expectation that they’d get many, wildly divergent endings that wouldn’t be a simple A, B, C ending that didn’t take into account their previous actions. They were explicitly promised that this would not be the case, and for all the wonderfulness of most of ME3, when the artist lies about what will be delivered, the consumer has a right to complain.
I myself do photography, but I would never dream of telling a client “Yes, I will give you many options to choose from for the processing of your final images” and then deliver three identical images with a hue change. That’s unethical business practice, and those who paid for this product have every right to complain. (If they didn’t, EA would likely have stuck to its guns and not offered refunds, because the fine print at sale would deny players the chance for a refund after using the game. But consumer protection law trumps contract law, every time.)
So, I was sitting on my couch the other day, thumbing through the paper (as I am wont to do on a humid, listless Sunday, which by all accounts we’re having an awful lot of for so early in the year) when I found a coupon for my local Auntie Bean’s House of Swine and Topiary Gardens. Lo and behold, “All You Can Eat Pancakes for $6.99, Sunday only.” Well what’d ya know, it was in fact a Sunday and I had a mighty hunger rustling up. So I says out loud, “Mr. Goatt, I sure am awful hungry, and pancakes sure do sound good. I reckon I could probably eat me about 17 or 18 of Auntie Bean’s Blueberry FlapJacks.” So I tore out the coupon, (I had to tear it out, as I had misplaced my scissors earlier in the week), hopped in my Buick and went on down to the restaurant. I swear I must’ve eaten about a million of those golden fried cakes. So after eating all those flapjacks, I got to feeling mighty ill. So I figured I’d spend the rest of the day writing letters to Auntie Bean asking her to do something about my tummy-ache. But then I realized I’m a grown man , and pancakes, tummy aches and video game endings don’t mean a goddamned thing in the grand scheme of things. So I took a nap instead.
I’ll admit, I haven’t been to this neck of the internet woods before, as it were.
I just have to ask…do you actually consider yourself a journalist of some sort? Because no educated, self-respecting journalist I know in my field would write an opinion piece that devolved into swearing and leveling unveiled insults and foaming-at-the-mouth rhetoric at others.
I do not consider myself a journalist. This is an opinion column and I’m stating my opinion about this “issue” that came up in the gaming industry. I am reacting with not even a 1/4 of the frothing-at-the-mouth fury that grown up, adult people have had over the end of a video game. Keep in mind that this is the same week span as a kid getting shot for no reason. This is the kind of outcry I’d expect to hear relating to an actual event like that.
But no, me venting my frustrations with an industry that has a swath of people that are this irate over the end of a video game is a prime example of “reactionary journalism.”
That said, thank you for reading.
for a bit of a different direction, take a look at this:
http://penny-arcade.com/2012/03/23
seems some of the Mass Effect fans have been combining their hatred for the end of the game with…Child’s Play, the charitable organization that gives games to sick kids in hospitals.
…this is not a positive thing. people have apparently donated to the charity with the assumption they were actually paying for a new ending.
http://www.rarityguide.com/articles/articles/1739/1/Mass-Effect-3-Endings-Guide—HEAVY-SPOILERS/Page1.html
So by my count there are 20 possible endings to this game, well more than the 16 promised. Just because they weren’t 16 completely differing endings does not mean Bioware did not fulfill their advertised promise, but rather that anyone complaining let their own expectations get out of hand. This is the same scenario where people were complaining about some of the Guitar Hero games promising “XX+ songs” where the actual number was 1 or 2 more songs above what was advertised. While slightly misleading to the uninformed consumer, this is completely legal and it’s used in every form of advertising. “You can drive off the lot in this new sedan for less than $15,000 dollars! (MSRP $14,999.99 + tax titles and tags)” “New film, from the people that brought you the blockbuster hit of last summer (the only people involved are the production company and distribution studio, no one who actually made the last film good)”
I think this term applies to everyone complaining about this game and Bioware:
Caveat Emptor – Let the buyer beware.
You don’t like the endings of the game? Well, no one told you you had to buy it on launch day instead of waiting a week or two for reviews to come out. You don’t like the way the “authors” chose to end their story? That really is neither here nor there. This was the story they set out to tell, you are merely along for the ride. As a consumer, you have the right to decide from this point whether or not you’ll support a company that put out a game you didn’t care for, but you do not have the right to whine and stomp your feet and hold your breath and demand they rewrite their story because it made you unhappy.
The fact that Bioware is kowtowing to this petulant childishness is quite frankly appalling in the extreme and it makes me ashamed to call myself a gamer.
Agreed times a million.
I honestly don’t get why people have gotten so bent out of shape over this. Lackluster endings have been a video game staple since their inception.
Did you ever play Who Framed Roger Rabbit for NES? That game was vast at the time. I had a notebook to keep track of things in it, and when I finally beat the damned thing did I get an animated credits roll? A cheesily drawn 8-bit splash page? No, I got a “Thanks for playing” message on screen and that was it. I was livid (though, being 12 I would have described more as *WHAT THE HELL YOU SON OF A BITCH STUPID ASS GAME PIECE OF CRAP!*)
A wise man once said; “when bringing a beloved story to a close, it is inevitable that a creater will fail to please all their fans.”
Writing what you believe to be a natural outcome of the world you’ve created, regardless of how pleasant the experience is, will naturally cause people to fluster. I hear what everyone is saying; both sides have valid reasons for against and for the ending of Mass Effect 3 being changed. But I would like to add some points and clear some aspects of the situation up. *some spoilers*
The game is a glorious accomplishment. But it is an accomplishment that is completely undone as the story is wrapped up with a barely interactive cutscene lasting less than 10 minutes. I can understand how some gamers felt; it felt cheap, almost robbing players of closure. And that is critical to understanding why the fanbase is so upset.
Players are forced to choose from one of three nearly identical endings. The player is never given any sense of how the choice they ultimately made affected the galaxy they worked so hard to save.
“The endings brevity wouldn’t matter if it actually made sense.” What happens is that, the players see one of three identical, context free scans of the Normandy crash landing on a planet somewhere. To add insult to injury, they receive a message urging them to purchase DLC.
And then there are plot holes.
The Mass Relays. They are all destroyed. In The Arrival it was firmly established that the destruction of a Mass Relay would result in an explosion resembling a supernova, destroying the relay’s star system. So Shepard has probably killed more life forms than the Reapers could on their best cycle.
I could go on, but time is my enemy. I understand that this is an expression of art from a passionate group of people. But are gamers not entitled to their own passion? Casey Hudson said it himself ; “this series is being written by the fans.” Maybe some fans wanted an ending that felt like their choices matter. Without getting into it too much; this is somewhat similar to what happened to the Matrix trilogy. As far as a rushed plot holed filled ending is concerned.
I just spent 25 minutes watching a youtube video on this page in which I watched someone playing a video game. In the 25 minutes I watched the person playing the video game shoot 3 things, talk, shoot one more guy, talk to a strange alien thing, then die. In 25 minutes there was about 40 seconds of actual gameplay.
I don’t play many video games, because of things like this. I belive the key word to playing a video game is “playing” How much playing is done in this game? For me the ending is not so much the problem here, it’s the fact that I watched a half hour sci fi movie instead of playing a game. I would be more upset with that.
As far as the ending goes, I liked it. Sacrifice is a not a bad thing all the time, did the people complaining ever stop to think that the writer wrote this because this is the vision he had for that characters end?
What you have to realize is that clip is the culmination of a 2 hour long firefight. So yeah, there’s “playing”. In fact, it was probably one of the most intense final battles I’ve ever played in a video game.
Personally, I love the blend of game play and cinematics. It’s like watching a movie, but one that plays out based on my actions. Somehow it feels more rewarding that way.
I was genuinely interested in your article, even if we have different opinions on this matter…..until you told me to “GROW THE F*CK UP.” If you have an opinion to express, try being civil and respectful.
I’ve lost my sh*t and replied in knee-jerk fashion as well. I’m just as guilty. But this is more insulting than interesting/informative. Just letting you know.
I have to agree that the ending was AOK. (Except for the lame clip tacked on after the credits; sheesh)
The indoctrination theory makes perfect sense and leads to a very satisfactory wrap up.
My only complaint is that one needs a Mass Effect 2 save game to import past decisions… that’s wrong from so many angles.
Sigh. Someone needs to grow up alright. Fans to some extent. Bioware and critics, more so though. Fans didn’t like it. They should return the game/sell it back and move on. They should let bioware know they aren’t happy with it though. Bioware needs to come out and apologize and say they will try better next time. Critics need to come out and admit they did indeed give the game a wrong rating. As the ending was about the fifth thing wrong with this game. They can come out and admit they didn’t finish it, or that they are just human and got caught up with the hype to pay attention to the games obvious short comings.
However instead of insulting the people that read your reviews and check out your site. Instead of bioware doubling down and pointing out the critic scores and all but saying fans didn’t like the ending because they didn’t understand it. Or wanted a happy one.
Bioware needs to man up and apologize. This joke of a movement wouldn’t have taken off if they did that from the get go. Much more the critics need to call them out on this too. Bioware, you made a mistake. Own up to it. Then we can all move on. That didn’t happen though and now here we are. We are going to get a new ending, I won’t play because I did move on. I bought a new game. I hope that one turns out better.
Signed, fan you told to fuck off because you or one of your fellow employees on this site got caught with your hand in the cookie jar on this one.
I can find no place in his article in which he told anyone to “Fuck off”
Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s literal man. How you doing literal man?
I qoute, “However instead of insulting the people that read your reviews and check out your site.”
Practice what you preach.
Denim – 1
Educated poster – 0
I love that a legion of crying adults bitching over the ending of a video game are telling me to grow up. I hope you aren’t crushed by the irony.
Again, my point is that these fans have compromised the artistic process and that being the real issue instead of a nation of whiners getting what they wanted by mashing their keyboards in protest of a story they didn’t like.
And by the way, people aren’t going to “move on” from this. This is only going to bolster fanatic, inconsolable fanboys to take this tactic with EVERY project they deem are in need of fixing. It’s over.
Telling me to “fuck off” is par for the course for this “movement.” Enjoy your “win.” You’ve actively ruined entertainment.
Guys! This whole thing has gotten a little out of hand! Look, I understand both sides. The fans are upset, mostly the hardcore ones that have faithfully been behind this Mass Effect train since day one. I can truthfully see where they are coming from. The ending truly did leave something to be desired. I thought it was somewhat of a cop out, but so be it. I’m not 100% behind the changed ending but a lot of fans are and they have spoken out. And as long as bioware is willing to listen and take measures to make amends, they would seem to truly stand by those same fans that have loved and supported the Mass Effect series for years. Keep in mind my fellow gamers, Bioware doesn’t have to change anything, it’s their choice. As far as this changing artistic process and entertainment… I’m surprised it took this long. This is not fresh seed that was planted for a new season of change, the change has been striving for years now. Didn’t anyone notice?! Flashback with me to Metal Gear Solid 2, Hideo wanted to introduce a possible new lead protagonist that was not as masculine as Solid Snake. Raiden was hated! Feedback was passionate and horrible! So much so that Hideo had to give Raiden a complete makeover. If the fans hadn’t let Hideo know how he felt, Snake’s journey might have ended sooner. The main difference with Mass Effect 3 is that the ending/game was completed. Or maybe not… who knows what the developers already had planned. What I do know is, Bioware is not going to let the legion of fans voices go unheard. They have listened. Good or bad, change is happening.
I will agree with you that all the arguing over it is a little ridiculous. But the thing you have to remember about MGS2 is this – Yes, Raiden was hated. Yes, he was changed later in the series. But at no point did Kojima ever think about redoing MGS2 and putting Snake back in the saddle. He left it alone.
I am glad you brought this up, because here’s where I fall on all this. I am an MGS junkie. If you could put it in a syringe, I’d shoot up every day. Now, that being said, I hated the ending of MGS4. It was very open-ended and was, at the time, the last game of the series. I was absolutely livid that there was no resolution to Snake’s condition or any of the other problems in the last hour and a half long cutscene. But I never would’ve asked for or expected them to change it at any point in time. Don’t you think there were people pissed when Pulp Fiction came out and it was never revealed what was in the briefcase? Yes. Did Quentin Tarantino ever think of reshooting it to make it known? Hell no.
Well said Junkie! Very good points indeed. I think artistic integrity is very important but it really depends on how flexible the artist is with their audience. Doyle and Dickens both changed major pieces of their work when they were not well received. This happened years ago. Also look at bladerunner. And don’t get me started on Lucas and his modifications on the Star Wars movies. It all stands to reason that the artist makes changes to their works either for financial reasons or to appeal to more fans. Not every artist does this. There are many that basically say, “take my work as it is or don’t”. But bioware has been clear that there work, specifically Mass Effect is community driven piece, that it written by the fans. Not just the games but also products in other media, like books. Now if bioware makes this statement and claim and they choose to stand by it, it does entitled them to opened up like a proverbial can of worms. This is the relationship they wanted with the fans. I’ve played all Mass Effect games, and I can truly say that Mass Effect 3′s ending was especially lacking. It offered barely any of the modicum of choices that were celebrated by it’s predecessors. I pondered if this was intentional as so more DLC would be easily implemented? Maybe, maybe not. All I know is that although I was not spamming the forums or ready to go crazy over the ending, I am glad that bioware is changing it. They are doing it because they want to and realize how important it is to have feedback with their fans.
Don’t get the wrong idea Jared, I’m not the enemy. I understand both sides of the equation. This isn’t necessarily a case where one option hopelessly outweighs the other. There are not many developers that actually “listen” to the fans. And despite some of them being unruly, there are some good points to be made in making some changes in a infamous ending to a well loved game series. The so called change, that even I mentioned earlier hasn’t transpired yet. You and I don’t know the end result anymore than any other fan of Mass Effect. Think about something for a moment if you would; say that in another time and place, Bioware chooses to not listen to the outcry of their fans concerning the ending of the 3rd game of their beloved franchise. They leave the vilified ending as it is and everybody goes their Mary way, right. Not exactly; the legion of fans that once trusted Bioware and the Mass Effect name will no longer invest their money and time into a series that was all but ruined in the last entry. At least in their eyes right? I mean, however many fans it were that actually reached out and touched Bioware, it was enough to get their attention. And now we have the ending being changed because the village has spoken. But here’s the good part! If anyone out there is content with the ending as it is, simply dont download the DLC! I mean it’s that simple, right? God I hope so. Keep your game as is. Lord knows, I’ve seen DLC on many a titles that I never downloaded on the simple premise that I was done with the game. With that being said, let’s close this because what’s done is done. I’m gonna play Dark Souls now…
So I’m pretty late to this party. Over the years I’ve watched a friend play it, but it’s only within the last two months that I completed this trilogy. I instantly fell in love with the characters and the story.
So fast forward to ME3. The game is an emotional rollercoaster. Seeing old allies.. seeing those allies die. Some really great moments in the game. The final battle is as intense as it should be, and you feel like you’re there fighting right along side Shepard.
So, the ending.. was it the best? No, not really. Was it good for the overall story? Sure, I’ll give it that. What I think the people who say “get over it” are missing is that it’s not necessarily because it didn’t end the way fans wanted, it because it caused more questions than answers. I think Bioware was trying to keep it ambiguous enough for people to make their own interpretations, but strayed too far over that line to where things stopped making sense. And because of that, I can understand the gripes. Not that I’d make a petition over it. But I get it.
Personally, I think the indoctrination theory is a brilliant one. Bad thing is, I had to hear about it from the Internet instead of picking up on it from the actual game. It’s things like that where I understand the ire. Bioware has made some fantastic games, so it is disappointing to see them drop the ball here.
What I think all fans can agree on based on the “secret ending”, is that the cycle has been broken, and that humanity has survived. So regardless of whatever option Shepard chose at the end, it worked.
To close, I loved the games, I enjoyed the ending for what it was, but I will admit there’s a part of me that likes the idea of there being some level of accountability on the part of the developers to deliver not necessarily a “perfect” ending, but one that at least feels complete.