[Megathread] Mass Effect 3

[Caiada]

No people aren't strange, you just aren't very intelligent. In the same way there are litterally shows out there for stupid people, and they watch them thinking they're interesting, while others will not be able to look at the garbage for more than five minutes, some people will think the endings are fine.

Like how the show Community which was created in USA is loved by Europe, but has to close up shop because most Americans are simply too stupid to understand it, and because of that it doesn't get enough vieweres, even though it's internationally recognized as a rare and exceptional series.

Some people just prefer watching Friends.. until their brain is turned into goo.

And this is why I don't take (the majority of) complaints about the ending seriously.

[OrcsRLame]

Laurcus, fair enough. Frankly I didn't care enough about it to be honest. I will ask one thing though, do you think that is enough for people to absolutely pan the game, I mean there is even a huge thread of people getting a full refund on the game through Amazon (which surprises me since I thought there was a refund on software only if it isn't opened) because of the ending. I can understand being upset at a poor ending, but I think the reaction is way over the top to it.

I agree. Mass Effect 3 is my current pick for game of the year. I hate the ending, and I am a member of the Retake Mass Effect movement on BSN. The complaints about the ending are legitimate, but that doesn't make the game bad.

---------- Post added 2012-03-20 at 06:36 AM ----------

And this is why I don't take (the majority of) complaints about the ending seriously.

Please don't generalize all of us based on one person. ^_^ *gives you internet ice cream* Many of us are actually quite reasonable, especially on BSN, which is kind of odd.

[Caiada]

I agree. Mass Effect 3 is my current pick for game of the year. I hate the ending, and I am a member of the Retake Mass Effect movement on BSN. The complaints about the ending are legitimate, but that doesn't make the game bad.

---------- Post added 2012-03-20 at 06:36 AM ----------



Please don't generalize all of us based on one person. ^_^ *gives you internet ice cream* Many of us are actually quite reasonable, especially on BSN, which is kind of odd.

That's why I said majority

I can understand reasoning. I cannot understand some of this horseshit against people who think the ending was fine. I haven't even played the damn game, but if the ending was literally not there and never planned to be continued and Bioware said 'fuck you' to each player individually, most of these reactions would still not be reasonable. Seriously? A complaint to a consumer bureau?

[obdigore]

That's why I said majority

I can understand reasoning. I cannot understand some of this horseshit against people who think the ending was fine. I haven't even played the damn game, but if the ending was literally not there and never planned to be continued and Bioware said 'fuck you' to each player individually, most of these reactions would still not be reasonable. Seriously? A complaint to a consumer bureau?

Its the great internet hype machine. People get worked up about stuff they care about. Sports Teams? Nationality? Religion? For some people, it is video games, apparently. I play a lot of games, and put a lot of hours into games, but I don't think I'd ever get angry enough about an ending that, when you stop and think about it, actually wasn't terrible (if subscribe to the indoctrination theory). I think it is kind of novel that a game can have 3 endings and two of those endings can be 'wrong'.

[OrcsRLame]

That's why I said majority

I can understand reasoning. I cannot understand some of this horseshit against people who think the ending was fine. I haven't even played the damn game, but if the ending was literally not there and never planned to be continued and Bioware said 'fuck you' to each player individually, most of these reactions would still not be reasonable. Seriously? A complaint to a consumer bureau?

Complaint to a consumer bureau? This is the first I've heard of this, would you care to explain? To be fair though, some of the hate on BioWare comes from the fact that they did lie about the endings. Before the game came out Casey Hudson said that the endings would be extremely varied, and wouldn't come down to a simple A, B, or C choice, which is exactly what happened. BioWare also said the "perfect" ending could be achieved without playing multiplayer or the Iphone game, which was also a lie. And I have verified that to be impossible. Even doing new game +, the max EMS you can get to is like 3900, which is not enough for the perfect ending. And that's with all ME1 and 2 DLC, while metagaming the hell out of your decisions, cherry picking between paragon and renegade decisions.

So on that level, I sort of get the hate, though I still think blind hate isn't the right way to go about things.

---------- Post added 2012-03-20 at 06:48 AM ----------

Its the great internet hype machine. People get worked up about stuff they care about. Sports Teams? Nationality? Religion? For some people, it is video games, apparently. I play a lot of games, and put a lot of hours into games, but I don't think I'd ever get angry enough about an ending that, when you stop and think about it, actually wasn't terrible (if subscribe to the indoctrination theory). I think it is kind of novel that a game can have 3 endings and two of those endings can be 'wrong'.

BioWare hasn't denied the indoctrination theory, but they've basically denied it. They have heavily implied in many of their forum posts and tweets that they didn't consider that as a possibility.

[Caiada]

Complaint to a consumer bureau? This is the first I've heard of this, would you care to explain? To be fair though, some of the hate on BioWare comes from the fact that they did lie about the endings. Before the game came out Casey Hudson said that the endings would be extremely varied, and wouldn't come down to a simple A, B, or C choice, which is exactly what happened. BioWare also said the "perfect" ending could be achieved without playing multiplayer or the Iphone game, which was also a lie. And I have verified that to be impossible. Even doing new game +, the max EMS you can get to is like 3900, which is not enough for the perfect ending. And that's with all ME1 and 2 DLC, while metagaming the hell out of your decisions, cherry picking between paragon and renegade decisions.

So on that level, I sort of get the hate, though I still think blind hate isn't the right way to go about things.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/a...o-the-ftc.aspx

Just a claim, but still stupid.

[Valeron]

lol, that is unbelievable

the FTC must have laughed when they saw that claim

[Collegeguy]

Regardless, you can't promise or advertise things and not go through with them. You just can't.

The outrage over the endings would be miniscule to nonexistent if Bioware had never promised the fans that series wouldn't end like Lost, or their would be genuine, multiple endings with a real conclusion to everything and everyone.

Secondly, Bioware expected this kind of reaction. They wanted people to be unsatisfied with the ending so that the story would be a series were speculation keeps it alive. Working as intended except for that fact that it somewhat backfires.

Bioware didn't want people to think the ending was "fine". They wanted people to question the ending... what is happening here? Whether you are happy with it or not is part of that process. Only problem, in their case, is that it's hard to be happy about something you said you wouldn't do.

[Valeron]

So they wanted people to question the ending? In a Stanley Kubrick 2001 type way?

[Collegeguy]

So they wanted people to question the ending? In a Stanley Kubrick 2001 type way?

Whoever stanley kubrick is then ya, sure.

[Valeron]

wow, I feel old now

[BlackMagicMarkel]

Whoever stanley kubrick is then ya, sure.

....Hrm.

Does Clockwork Orange ring a bell? The Shining? Spartacus perhaps?

[Collegeguy]

....Hrm.

Does Clockwork Orange ring a bell? The Shining? Spartacus perhaps?

I don't make too much of a habit of watching films from the 60's that are twenty years older than me. Some of his movies are somewhat noteworthy to me but I don't memorize director's unless it's something fantastic like James Cameron or Steven Spielberg.

[Valeron]

Well, he is considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest, american filmmaker ever.

[JustintimeSS]

So they wanted people to question the ending? In a Stanley Kubrick 2001 type way?

Well Kubrick plus Nolan, yes.

I would like to believe that the indoctrination theory is the true ending. The one where I choose red and my Shepard wakes up realizing the only thing I have done is defeated indoctrination. Making the "ending" of ME3 a cheap buying of time from a company that ran out of such a commodity. I would like to hope that the writers are that creative to make me, the gamer, realize that that they tricked me into choosing an indoctrinated ending the first time around because I was in fact "tricked by Harbinger".

If that isn't what happened then I am disappoint.

I don't make too much of a habit of watching films from the 60's that are twenty years older than me. Some of his movies are somewhat noteworthy to me but I don't memorize director's unless it's something fantastic like James Cameron or Steven Spielberg.

considering the amount of opinion spewed forth in this reply, I'll just say this - CGI Doesn't have shit on telling a story that makes you reflect the entire synopsis from beginning to end.

[obdigore]

I don't make too much of a habit of watching films from the 60's that are twenty years older than me. Some of his movies are somewhat noteworthy to me but I don't memorize director's unless it's something fantastic like James Cameron or Steven Spielberg.

James Cameron has had less amazing movies than Kubrick has, and Spielberg is a better producer than director, in my opinion.

[Collegeguy]

This thread is not about directors.

I am not going to bother getting into a debate with you guys on what I think makes a good director. Don't derail, and get back on topic please. If you like, make a new thread about it and we'll talk about my opinion there.

[BlackMagicMarkel]

The Final Hours of ME3 are a decent read/watch, if people have $3 to spare. I'm not going to agree or disagree with anyone on all the ending/dlc business... but it's nice to have as much information on the development process and the people behind it as you can get before forming an opinion.

[Deleted]

Dear god, so much text written while I was sleeping. I gotta look into that a bit more once I have time. D:

Well, that's my third and so far final playthrough finished. Got 91% Readiness and a bit over 6.000 units at my disposal for the final fight. I managed to get Jack killed since I missed the mission you meet her... It was still a bit of a shock to meet a Phantom named after her and hear the datapad where she's clearly tortured. I feel really bad now! And also a bit of a funny thing I noticed. I didn't have Javik on my first playthroughs and during the final briefing you actually see some random soldier holding his place. I was wondering who the heck that guy was but it seems to be a placeholder for Javik. And I managed to get TIM shoot himself as well! Yaaaay! I did it! And I finally got the god damn Mail working on the Datapad app. It was definitely a great addition for this playthrough and I loved it. It was fairly easy to keep readiness high through it as well. Overall I'm pretty happy with this playthrough. I still have a Renegade Shepard waiting to be played but I definitely need a break right now. I'll just keep stalking this thread, Facebook and Twitter. :3

[Voij]

Have seen several cases now where people said that "the ending probably got rushed because of EA". I sincerely doubt that this is the case.
Think about it. If it were likely that you would get rushed by the publisher, would the ending of the game, one of the most important things there is, really be what you would sacrifice?

While I agree that it's obvious that they didn't spend too much time with the ending, considering the fact that they are more or less identical for colorblind people and that a Deus Ex Machina was used, I also don't think that they were forced to make these decisions because they ran out of time.
Personally I think it's much more likely that they decided to create the ending this way in order to stir up more of a discussion about it all, underestimating how quickly and strongly the disappointment of many fans can become so huge and vocal in modern times. It took less than a week to have multiple thousand people be part of a "Retake ME" movement. They just didn't expect that and were originally hoping that the ending would simply get people to talk about it and thus increase sales.

For me, it just seems much more likely that they intended to go with this ending at least since the leak, but did not quite realise how much it could backfire.

PS: One example for them having to rush the game is the missing gamepad support on PC.
PPS: There is still a relatively good chance that they will use the Indoctrination theory that people suggested, since there are already full scripts available and thus they would not have to come up with something new themselves. Still, that's only if they decide that they would profit more from creating this ending than they would from not doing so.