[Rude Gurl]

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1359280-mass-effect-3-ending-discussion-thread-spoilers/

A topic for discussing the Mass Effect 3 endings specifically. But it's best if you keep on using spoiler tags.

RPS had two nice articles on the subject, basically a negative and a positive one:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/03/14/mass-effect-3-the-end-of-an-epic/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/03/19/whats-right-with-mass-effect-3s-ending/

[Euan]

Best review so far http://calitreview.com/24673 by one that actually played to the game from start to finish.

[Kirsty Collins]

The ending is to Mass Effect what the Holocaust was to Jews.

Hahahah, that's so accurate. One review called it literary suicide. Kills the entire series almost.

[Sarah Unwin]

Hahahah, that's so accurate. One review called it literary suicide. Kills the entire series almost.

I dunno, I still prefer the one Oof posted on the last thread.

"But Gollum, dancing like a mad thing, held aloft the ring, a finger still thrust within its circle and lots of speculation for everyone."

The End.

[(G-yen)]

Hahahah, that's so accurate. One review called it literary suicide. Kills the entire series almost.

uh, I haven't played any of the mass effect games, but surely comparing the ending of the series to the holocaust is going a little overboard? okay, the ending is terrible (from what I've read), why not move on then? I don't understand all the hate.

[Jonathan Windmon]

uh, I haven't played any of the mass effect games, but surely comparing the ending of the series to the holocaust is going a little overboard? okay, the ending is terrible (from what I've read), why not move on then? I don't understand all the hate.

I'm in the hold the line camp. We will change the future of this series for the better. So far our movement has had great success with tons of media coverage, more than I ever could have imagined. Bioware went from adamant no to we're considering it. We'll get them to fix this. Hold the line!

[carly mcdonough]

uh, I haven't played any of the mass effect games, but surely comparing the ending of the series to the holocaust is going a little overboard? okay, the ending is terrible (from what I've read), why not move on then? I don't understand all the hate.

Then you can't understand.

[Michelle Smith]

uh, I haven't played any of the mass effect games, but surely comparing the ending of the series to the holocaust is going a little overboard? okay, the ending is terrible (from what I've read), why not move on then? I don't understand all the hate.

Comparing it to the Holocaust is going a bit far, but the controversy on the other hand...

It's something that's kind of tough to explain to someone who hasn't played the entire trilogy. This is a story you are expected to put literally hundreds of hours into, crafting relationships with your shipmates and friends, making decisions with the potential to change the galaxy. When a story ends on a note like ME3 did, where nothing you did prior to that matters and the three endings are literally just a palette swap from one another, people get pissed.

[CxvIII]

I'm in the hold the line camp. We will change the future of this series for the better. So far our movement has had great success with tons of media coverage, more than I ever could have imagined. Bioware went from adamant no to we're considering it. We'll get them to fix this. Hold the line!

Meh, there's a line crossed here. Bioware lying in their hype-campaign is one thing, but the customers trying to get the ending changed because they don't like it (which is essentially what they are doing, yeah I think it's bad too...) is a whole nother thing. Mass Effect is Bioware's unvierse and they can end it how they please, how they end it might affect their business in the real world the canon of the series is their's alone.

[Amy Melissa]

Okay, so I was actually the only person who loved the endings...

[Taylor Tifany]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M0Cf864P7E&feature=youtu.be

Pretty much what my feelings are on the ending, couldn't agree more with it.

[Ann Church]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M0Cf864P7E&feature=youtu.be

Pretty much what my feelings are on the ending, couldn't agree more with it.

Ever since he said he was going to post a top 10 in his Mass Effect 3 review I've been waiting. He hit the nails on the head I think.

[Elizabeth Falvey]

Meh, there's a line crossed here. Bioware lying in their hype-campaign is one thing, but the customers trying to get the ending changed because they don't like it (which is essentially what they are doing, yeah I think it's bad too...) is a whole nother thing. Mass Effect is Bioware's unvierse and they can end it how they please, how they end it might affect their business in the real world the canon of the series is their's alone.

Actually video games are the one media we regularly change. As a medium it HAS to have player input. If we don't like it, then it isn't art. It would be one thing to get a painter to repaint a picture because we're not expected to interact with it in any other way that to view it. As a video game we are expected to play, interact, learn, and discover. It's an entirely new type of medium. One where we can and should intervene when something unusual like this happens. This is so we can demand better of them. Progress and all that business. It's one thing to have a [censored] game ending. But a trilogy this invested into letting a player tell their story for so many years to end on such a suicidal note for the franchise is too much. We've changed one dumb ending in the past Fallout 3's and we can change this one too.

I could go on for quite some time about this topic alone. There are tons of reasons why this ending is terrible and people should have some more self respect. I know some people genuinely do like the ending, that's fine. But the vast majority do not. Hence our wide media coverage. This is an exception to the norm. All of Mass Effect trilogy is, there's no other games to compare it too. We've invested a chunk of our lives playing Commander Shepard. Naturally we're going to be angry they take this lazy cheap cop out so they could add kinect support and rush it out for the end of fiscal season.

[Penny Flame]

Okay, so I was actually the only person who loved the endings...

Indoctrination detected!

[Carlos Vazquez]

Actually video games are the one media we regularly change. As a medium it HAS to have player input. If we don't like it, then it isn't art. It would be one thing to get a painter to repaint a picture because we're not expected to interact with it in any other way that to view it. As a video game we are expected to play, interact, learn, and discover. It's an entirely new type of medium. One where we can and should intervene when something unusual like this happens. This is so we can demand better of them. Progress and all that business. It's one thing to have a [censored] game ending. But a trilogy this invested into letting a player tell there story for so many years to end on such a suicidal note for the franchise is too much. We've changed one dumb ending in the past Fallout 3's and we can change this one too.

I could go on for quite some time about this topic alone. There are tons of reasons why this ending is terrible and people should have some more self respect. I know some people genuinely do like the ending, that's fine. But the vast majority do not. Hence our wide media coverage. This is an exception to the norm. All of Mass Effect trilogy is, there's no other games to compare it too. We've invested a chunk of our lives playing Commander Shepard. Naturally we're going to be angry they take this lazy cheap cop out so they could add kinect support and rush it out for the end of fiscal season.

Yeah I had Fallout 3 in mind, a crapper ending made even crapper for the sake of mindless exploration in a post-MQ wasteland; Broken Steel was the Mass Effect 3 of Fallout 3, it rail-roaded you into one choice and failed to show you any impact on the wasteland - kind of like Skyrim - Fallout 3 at least had the benefit of already being poorly written in the first place. Punishing the company for it's bad decisions is one thing but getting them to change their content and stories is something else; this wouldn't happen with a book or a film and I see no reason there-fore why the games themselves should be so maelable. If the company [censored]s up let that be it's punishment, let it learn from those mistakes and not pressure into re-writing what they, it's creators, intended; IMO they created it, their rules, voice your protest with your wallet and end-of.

I do agree, it's a horrible ending that doesn't explain [censored] and really has serious ramifications when you stop and think.

[Vivien]

I have always hated Biodrones, but this ending, this reaction. Its filtered them, I am seeing some biodrones who are really devoted fan incarnate, even more annoying than before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M0Cf864P7E&feature=youtu.be

Pretty much what my feelings are on the ending, couldn't agree more with it.

Hmm *clicks* oh hell no. I refuse to give that [censored] views.
Its rare I see a "reviewer" worse than people like IGN. But that man makes them look godlike. God I hate him.

[Bethany Watkin]

I'm in the hold the line camp. We will change the future of this series for the better. So far our movement has had great success with tons of media coverage, more than I ever could have imagined. Bioware went from adamant no to we're considering it. We'll get them to fix this. Hold the line!

this sounds very militant, are you sure this game series is worth the investment of time and effort? I mean, how realistic is it to expect BioWare to change their ending? Still, good luck with your campaign.

Then you can't understand.

yeah, probably not completely (I've never tried Mass Effect because of the feeling of uncanniness I have with the dialogue scenes I've seen on YouTube)

Comparing it to the Holocaust is going a bit far, but the controversy on the other hand...

It's something that's kind of tough to explain to someone who hasn't played the entire trilogy. This is a story you are expected to put literally hundreds of hours into, crafting relationships with your shipmates and friends, making decisions with the potential to change the galaxy. When a story ends on a note like ME3 did, where nothing you did prior to that matters and the three endings are literally just a palette swap from one another, people get pissed.

Thanks for trying to explain. I have to admit, from the outside, this polemic is pretty weird, but your explanation helps me understand all this outrage a little better. Players sure seem to have really invested a lot into these games.

I was thinking of giving mass effect a try, but I'll probably wait until all this unfolds, to see if they fix it the ending. Doesn't sound like a fun experience as it is now.

[Danel]

Thanks for trying to explain. I have to admit, from the outside, all this polemic is pretty weird, but your explanation helps me understand all this outrage a little better. Players sure seem to have really invested a lot into these games.

I was thinking of giving mass effect a try, but I'll probably wait until all this unfolds, to see if they fix it the ending. Doesn't sound like a fun experience as it is now.

Don't get me wrong, even after all of this, I do recommend giving the series a try. The entire series is still great apart from the last 5 minutes.

[Mylizards Dot com]

Yeah I had Fallout 3 in mind, a crapper ending made even crapper for the sake of mindless exploration in a post-MQ wasteland. Punishing the company for it's bad decisions is one thing but getting them to change their content and stories is something else; this wouldn't happen with a book or a film and I see no reason there-fore why the games themselves should be so maelable. If the company [censored]s up let that be it's punishment, let it learn from those mistakes and not pressure into re-writing what they, it's creators, intended; IMO they created it, their rules, voice your protest with your wallet and end-of.

I do agree, it's a horrible ending that doesn't explain [censored] and really has serious ramifications when you stop and think.

They haven't learned form their mistakes. Their stock used to be worth 70-60 dollars. It is was t 20 before ME3. It sunk to 17 and then started rising to 18 again with ME3 release. Then the ending occurred and it dropped down to 16.5. This is over a year or a tad more. EA isn't learning, time to give them their wake up call.

Again your focusing a book with a video game trying to think old instead of new. Video games are interactive, they HAVE to be played. Books, movies, and tv shows are all listened to or watched. You have no input on them other than your thoughts. Games are something a player has to experience as they play. It's completely different and the first step to a holodeck from Star Trek. It completely changes how we have to approach the medium. To this end I think when the player base calls for it, they should be changed. It's as much their story as it is the developers. It's a scary thought, but hey that's the future. I can't help if people couldn't foresee the consequences of increasing levels of interconectivity.

Edit
It is a tad militant. Know why? Companies don't listen unless we affect their bottom line. It's going to take a long term effort to pull this off and coordinating our angry players to get change to happen. So far it's been remarkably civil. Only video game news sites are hating on us for some reason. Biased too since none of them have given our side of the story. IGN the most notable one. They've released tons of videos hating on us. Why? They have an investment in the game their journalist plays Diana Allers. Conflict of interest. But oh no, that's never mentioned. Or how they pay for their sites with advertisemants from games. Games which sell more from reviews. Will it be worth it? Yes, think of the consequences of two times in history of the players changing the story. They're playing an active role in making these games in a way. On a meta level if your invested in the future of the game industry it's a very unique and big debate. This could be a shift in the dynamics of how corporations engage their fan base. Odds of success? It started out remote, but our movement has grown into a giant thing. Big enough to be featured on USA today and CNN. So there's a lot of angry fans out there. I would say if we can keep this up for the long run, whatever that may be we could get the ending changed.

They've already changed their tune form an adamant no to we're considering it as we panic our stock is dropping/not doing as well as we hopes.

[Kit Marsden]

Yeah I had Fallout 3 in mind, a crapper ending made even crapper for the sake of mindless exploration in a post-MQ wasteland. Punishing the company for it's bad decisions is one thing but getting them to change their content and stories is something else; this wouldn't happen with a book or a film and I see no reason there-fore why the games themselves should be so maelable. If the company [censored]s up let that be it's punishment, let it learn from those mistakes and not pressure into re-writing what they, it's creators, intended; IMO they created it, their rules, voice your protest with your wallet and end-of.

I do agree, it's a horrible ending that doesn't explain [censored] and really has serious ramifications when you stop and think.

I would rather have Fallout 3's ending over Mass Effect 3's ending. At least the Former was done in a good way unlike the latter which was horribly done.

[Nitol Ahmed]

this sounds very militant, are you sure this game series is worth the investment of time and effort? I mean, how realistic is it to expect BioWare to change their ending? Still, good luck with your campaign.

yeah, probably not completely (I've never tried Mass Effect because of the feeling of uncanniness I have with the dialogue scenes I've seen on YouTube)


Thanks for trying to explain. I have to admit, from the outside, this polemic is pretty weird, but your explanation helps me understand all this outrage a little better. Players sure seem to have really invested a lot into these games.

I was thinking of giving mass effect a try, but I'll probably wait until all this unfolds, to see if they fix it the ending. Doesn't sound like a fun experience as it is now.

People are taking it too seriously. You would swear the ending had a rusty blade come out of the screen and stab you. Before Shepard says you now have aids.

People need to just move on.

[Josh Sabatini]

I dunno, I still prefer the one Oof posted on the last thread.

"But Gollum, dancing like a mad thing, held aloft the ring, a finger still thrust within its circle and lots of speculation for everyone."

The End.

That quote perfectly encapsulates the whole problem, doesn't it... I'll be sigging it when I get tired of my current ones. But above it I must emphasise their brilliant idea, which they jotted down on one (1!) piece of notepad paper (along with such other gems as "Like The Matrix" and "A Brave New World!"): "LOTS OF SPECULATION FOR EVERYONE!"

[TOYA toys]

I would rather have Fallout 3's ending over Mass Effect 3's ending. At least the Former was done in a good way unlike the latter which was horribly done.

Fallout 3's original ending, yeah it was good enough; explained things. I made an edit:

"Yeah I had Fallout 3 in mind, a crapper ending made even crapper for the sake of mindless exploration in a post-MQ wasteland; Broken Steel was the Mass Effect 3 of Fallout 3, it rail-roaded you into one choice and failed to show you any impact on the wasteland - kind of like Skyrim - Fallout 3 at least had the benefit of already being poorly written in the first place."

Again your focusing a book with a video game trying to think old instead of new. Video games are interactive, they HAVE to be played. Books, movies, and tv shows are all listened to or watched. You have no input on them other than your thoughts. Games are something a player has to experience as they play. It's completely different and the first step to a holodeck from Star Trek. It completely changes how we have to approach the medium. To this end I think when the player base calls for it, they should be changed. It's as much their story as it is the developers. It's a scary thought, but hey that's the future. I can't help if people couldn't foresee the consequences of increasing levels of interconectivity.

Thinking old? Maybe, the game's story is - presumably - what the developers intended, it's their creation and they have every right to tell whatever they want; doesn't make it good or bad. I like to think of video games as an artistic medium, just as capable of telling a story as a non-interactive medium. It's not their story, they're just interacting with it, all the choices Shep makes the developers thought of those and planned their universe accordingly; you just make choices, it's like an inter-active novel, you can still only interact with what you've been given and frankly seeing as how all we're doing is playing it and have no involvement with it's entire development process it's by far more the developers story than the gamers.

[Zualett]

uh, I haven't played any of the mass effect games, but surely comparing the ending of the series to the holocaust is going a little overboard? okay, the ending is terrible (from what I've read), why not move on then? I don't understand all the hate.

Imagine a huge franchise of 30 choose your own adventure books, where all your choices are stored from the last book to the next one, only too discover the last book is exactly the same no matter what.

After you've sunk hundreds of hours into something only to get a crappy cutscene and pseudo-enigmatic ending it's natural to be pissed.

I don't blame Bioware though. I blame the people who leaked the ending and supposedly made Bioware change it.

EDIT: I do think the holocaust comment was a bit disproportionate though.

[Oscar Vazquez]

Indoctrination detected!

If you can't beat them, join them...