[SPOILERS] Mass Effect 3 Single Player Impressions/Discussion

[Akranadas]

Because Prothean is the name of every citizen in the Empire. They refereed to all races under their domination as Prothean and the dominated refereed to themselves as Prothean.

[Iamme]

That's false. The Prothean are mentioned as a single species as recently as the "There will be innumerable different endings" quote.

Edit: And if I'm not mistaken, the Codex entry for Protheans in ME3 still pictures one of the Ilos statues.

[Shuma]

@Mr. Carrot:

EA doesn't care, has never cared, will never care. As long as they make money it's just fine and dandy for them, see: Dragon Age 2, and countless others.

@Akra:

Eh, i'd argue that's a retcon too considering the circumstances and how we were led to believe for the previous 2 games that the Protheans were just one race, in fact, aside from that one particular line, all of Javik's dialog implies that they were just one race which is particularly weird.

[Ewokz]

@carrot My thoughts exactly. Diablo 3 only just announced its release date and its because they feel its ready, why couldn't EA afford Bioware the same choice. Not that I feel it would have helped much, they still picked a terrible, terrible ending. Time constraints only excuse stuff so far, and this ending needs a lot more excuses than time limits can give it.

[Shuma]

Uhm, what? Blizzard themselves admit it's not finished, they just want it out now:

http://www.rpgreporter.com/2012/03/1...A+IncGamers%29

[Mr Carrot]

Shuma, Dragon Age II being less of a commercial hit then expected and neccistating a radical giveaway programme within weeks of release shows that some one on the board should have taken notice that they should not be rushing these properties if they don't want to comprimise sales.

[Akranadas]

@Akra:

Eh, i'd argue that's a retcon too considering the circumstances and how we were led to believe for the previous 2 games that the Protheans were just one race, in fact, aside from that one particular line, all of Javik's dialog implies that they were just one race which is particularly weird.

We all made assumptions, just as Liara did on how the Protheans were. Yeah, they retcon'd a lot about them with Jarvik but that's to be expect when you did up someone who was around those times. That could also be why Liara:

Spoiler

Didn't see the resemblance when Prothean's and the Gods in her race's history, because she assumed they looked different

[Jonny]

That's false. The Prothean are mentioned as a single species as recently as the "There will be innumerable different endings" quote.

It's in the game though, Javik specifically mentions that the Prothean Empire absorbed all the races it conquered and as far as anyone was concerned they then became Prothean.

[Shuma]

@Carrot:

Well, if you want to get technical, Mass Effect 3 was nowhere near as rushed as Dragon Age 2.

[Langy]

The Prothean was in fact, planned from the very beginning and cut from the game to be sold separately.

This has been known for a very long time; they decided they couldn't make their street date, so cut the Prothean to be made as post-release content.

That's the one, was never used against a Reaper, but considering what it did to the Collector base and that it was based on Reaper tech one would've assumed that everyone, at least the Turians would've used it, but it's never seen in the game.

I'm not sure why, but they changed the graphics for it. It's mentioned as being equipped on a wide variety of vessels now, from the Quarian liveships down to Alliance fighters.

[Ewokz]

@Shuma my bad I tend to just assume that games with no release date yet, near the end of their development cycle are only released when they're happy with the product. I'm still betting their not happy with it due to bugs and balance issues and not plot problems, which are a lot more fundamental/integral to a game in general.

[Mr Carrot]

Also DAII was a test of a 12 month development cycle. That failed utterly.

I think given the clear cuts the game was missing in hindsight (the usual middle of the road dialogue options, actual interactive dialogue between behind you and quest givers) etc. But one of the chief criticisms of DAII was the dreadful ending, you think it would be one of the elements of the game that pressure would be on to have squared away earlier in the production cycle (as opposed to the last possible thing).

[Langy]

To be honest, DA2's ending was a hell of a lot better than ME3's. Mind you, DA2 could get away with a few cliffhangers and such; they genuinely tried to finish off the series with ME3's endings, they just wound up doing so by killing off the entire galaxy via a horrible deus ex machina that wound up making no sense, rather than anything that could be called 'reasonable'.

[FriendlyFire]

Just stumbled on another excellent criticism of the ending, this time from the point of view of an alleged screenwriter.

[Fish Of Doom]

an observation on why exactly having the ending as it is resulted in the current shitstorm: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/to...61/96#10026628

Ok, now that I've put my thoughts in order and actually realized something important, here's a tidbit on the ending, or more precisely on why having the endings as they are has provoked the reaction that it provoked.

The general lack of high-quality in the ending has already been noted, and I've said at least once that it plays out like the ending of a B-movie, where the game itself is part of one of the best sci-fi universes ever made (And possibly the single most emotionally powerful one, as well as the third game being the most emotionally impacting installment). I won't focus on this, but it's an important detail for what follows:

If one looks at neuroscience, specifically the analyses of the way the brain handles pleasure*, one will see that long-lasting attachment takes in turn a long time to form, thus requiring a prolonged stimulus, helped along by sporadic "spikes" of high-intensity stimuli. Anyone who has really been immersed in the Mass Effect universe can vouch that all three games contain plenty of this, and it has only gotten stronger over time, with the third game being, logically, the over-the-top, emotionally monolithic conclusion, with by far the strongest impact, emotionally speaking. This logically leads to emotions running at their highest during the third game, to the point where personally I was so immersed that my first two playing sessions lasted 14 and 9 hours, respectively, and I went completely apathetic once the emotional "high" of the game wore off, even though I was not negatively affected by the endings since I was STILL emotionally high; I simply burned out for about 4 days, then became engrossed in the ending controversy for quite a few more days afterwards.

This leads me to another point, which is that the single strongest point of dopamine** release (Dopamine being one of the neurotransmitters most associated with both pleasure and addiction) is when one is anticipating pleasure (This is talked about in part three of the article series mentioned in the first asterisked point). Observant readers should by now understand what I'm getting at, namely that what Mass Effect did, over the course of several years, totaling hundreds of hours of gaming time and emotional immersion, was essentially create an emotional "addiction", and as the trilogy was nearing its closing time, namely, the end of the third installment, when, emotionally, most of the really immersed players were running at, for lack of a better term, peak "emotional output", with a monstrous anticipation of the thus far relatively unknown ending of the trilogy, they are hit with a B-movie ending, that undermines the very things that MADE them attached to the series in the first place, as well as generally being inconsistent and all the other things that have been discussed to death here a thousand and one times.

So, you see, Bioware, this is not so much about the ending itself, but about why, specifically, I believe the choices that you made towards the ending caused this tremendous backlash against you, and why it's refusing to die down. It's entirely possible that I'm horribly wrong, and while I tried to keep this as factual and civil as possible, know that I meant no offense, either to you as a team, nor to the people that are protesting, since I can already picture people jumping at me for mentioning addiction. Neuroscience is a bosh'tet, innit?

Jusy my two cents.



*there's a (SFW) article series on this called "the science of pleasure", written by a woman called andrea kuszewski, that elaborates on this in the context of sex and emotional attachment, that i feel is worth a read, although just to be safe i won't link to it here.

**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine

thoughts?

[Nalkor]

This much anger from so many different sources on the ending of ME3 (even from Forbes for fuck's sake) points in one direction: The ending is so retartedly stupid and bad that it's an unforgivable stain on gaming as a whole as much as that Big Rigs game was.

[Ewokz]

Fish: very interesting post, and I can at least vouch for your opinion, I was one hell of a lot more emotional on my play through of ME3. Its probably one of the few games I ever experienced genuine joy or incredible sadness during a game, at least to the magnitude I had during ME3. I've most definitely never been so depressingly empty at the ending of a game, DA2 was bad but it was never as bad as this. The anger for mass effect (and DA2 to a much lesser extent) came later after I considered the ending, in a way it was very similar to being mugged Shock and depression followed by anger at the person who caused it.

[Aesaar]

Here's another one, which says pretty much everything I've been thinking about this series and this whole debacle.

for those who can't or won't check the link

I really have been trying to let myself get over this nightmare, but since you guys promise you're listening here, I'll try to just say it all, get it all out.

I have invested more of myself into this series than almost any other video game franchise in my life. I loved this game. I believed in it. For five years, it delivered. I must have played ME1 and ME2 a dozen times each.

I remember the end of Mass Effect 2. Never before, in any video game I had ever played, did I feel like my actions really mattered. Knowing that the decisions I made and the hard work I put into ME2 had a very real, clear, obvious impact on who lived and who died was one of the most astounding feelings in the world to me. I remember when that laser hit the Normandy and Joker made a comment about how he was happy we upgraded the shields. That was amazing. Cause and effect. Work and reward.

The first time I went through, I lost Mordin, and it was gut-wrenching: watching him die because I made a bad decision was damning, heartbreaking. But it wasn't hopeless, because I knew I could go back, do better, and save him. I knew that I was in control, that my actions mattered. So that's exactly what I did. I reviewed my decisions, found my mistakes, and did everything right. I put together a plan, I worked hard to follow that plan, and I got the reward I had worked so hard for. And then, it was all for nothing.

When I started playing Mass Effect 3, I was blown away. It was perfect. Everything was perfect. It was incredible to see all of my decisions playing out in front of me, building up to new and outrageous outcomes. I was so sure that this was it, this was going to be the masterpiece that crowned an already near-perfect trilogy. With every war asset I gathered, and with every multiplayer game I won, I knew that my work would pay off, that I would be truly satisfied with the outcome of my hard work and smart decisions. Every time I acquired a new WA bonus, I couldn't wait to see how it would play out in the final battle. And then, it was all for nothing.

I wasn't expecting a perfect, happy ending with rainbows and butterflies. In fact, I think I may have been insulted if everyone made it through just fine. The Reapers are an enormous threat (although obviously not as invincible as they would like us to believe), and we should be right to anticipate heavy losses. But I never lost hope. I built alliances, I made the impossible happen to rally the galaxy together. I cured the genophage. I saved the Turians. I united the geth and the quarians. And then, it was all for nothing.

When Mordin died, it was heartwrenching, but I knew it was the right thing. His sacrifice was... perfect. It made sense. It was congruent with the dramatic themes that had been present since I very first met Wrex in ME1. It was not a cheap trick, a deus ex machina, an easy out. It was beautiful, meaningful, significant, relevant, and satisfying. It was an amazing way for an amazing character to sacrifice themself for an amazing thing. And then it was all for nothing.

When Thane died, it was tearjerking. I knew from the moment he explained his illness that one day, I'd have to deal with his death. I knew he was never going to survive the trilogy, and I knew it wouldn't be fun to watch him go. But when his son started reading the prayer, I lost it. His death was beautiful. It was significant. It was relevant. It was satisfying. It was meaningful. He died to protect Shepard, to protect the entire Citadel. He took a life he thought was unredeemable and used it to make the world a brighter place. And then it was all for nothing.

When Wrex and Eve thanked me for saving their species, I felt that I had truly accomplished something great. When Tali set foot on her homeworld, I felt that I had truly accomplished something great. When Javik gave his inspiring speech, I felt that I had inspired something truly great. When I activated the Citadel's arms, sat down to reminisce with Anderson one final time, I felt that I had truly accomplished something amazing. I felt that my sacrifice was meaningful. Significant. Relevant. And while still a completely unexplained deus ex machina, at least it was a little bit satisfying.

And then, just like everything else in this trilogy, it was all for nothing.

If we pretend like the indoctrination theory is false, and we're really supposed to take the ending at face value, this entire game is a lost cause. The krogans will never repopulate. The quarians will never rebuild their home world. The geth will never know what it means to be alive and independent. The salarians will never see how people can change for the better.

Instead, the quarians and turians will endure a quick, torturous extinction as they slowly starve to death, trapped in a system with no support for them. Everyone else will squabble over the scraps of Earth that haven't been completely obliterated, until the krogans drive them all to extinction and then die off without any women present. And this is all assuming that the relays didn't cause supernova-scaled extinction events simply by being destroyed, like we saw in Arrival.

And perhaps the worst part is that we don't even know. We don't know what happened to our squadmates. We didn't get any sort of catharsis, conclusion. We got five years of literary foreplay followed by a kick to the groin and a note telling us that in a couple months, we can pay Bioware $15 for them to do it to us all over again.

It's not just the abysmally depressing/sacrificial nature of the ending, either. As I've already made perfectly clear, I came into this game expecting sacrifice. When Mordin did it, it was beautiful. When Thane did it, it was beautiful. Even Verner. Stupid, misguided, idiotic Verner. Even his ridiculous sacrifice had meaning, relevance, coherence, and offered satisfaction.

No, it's not the sacrifice I have a problem with. It's the utter lack of coherence and respect for the five years of literary gold that have already been established in this franchise. We spent three games preparing to fight these reapers. I spent hours upon hours doing every side quest, picking up every war asset, maxing out my galactic readiness so that when the time came, the army I had built could make a stand, and show these Reapers that we won't go down without a fight.

In ME1, we did the impossible when we killed Sovereign. In ME2, we began to see that the Reapers aren't as immortal as they claim to be: that even they have basic needs, exploitable weaknesses. In ME3, we saw the Reapers die. We saw one get taken down by an overgrown worm. We saw one die with a few coordinated orbital bombardments. We saw several ripped apart by standard space combat. In ME1, it took three alliance fleets to kill the "invincible" Sovereign. By the end of ME3, I had assembled a galactic armada fifty times more powerful than that, and a thousand times more prepared. I never expected the fight to be easy, but I proved that we wouldn't go down without a fight, that there is always hope in unity. That's the theme we've been given for the past five years: there is hope and strength through unity. That if we work together, we can achieve the impossible.

And then we're supposed to believe that the fate of the galaxy comes down to some completely unexplained starchild asking Shepard what his favorite color is? That the army we built was all for nothing? That the squad whose loyalty we fought so hard for was all for nothing? That in the end, none of it mattered at all?

It's a poetic notion, but this isn't the place for poetry. It's one thing to rattle prose nihilistic over the course of a movie or ballad, where the audience is a passive observer, learning a lesson from the suffering and futility of a character, but that's not what Mass Effect is. Mass Effect has always been about making the player the true hero. If you really want us to all feel like we spent the past five years dumping time, energy, and emotional investment into this game just to tell us that nothing really matters, you have signed your own death certificate. Nobody pays hundreds of dollars and hours to be reminded how bleak, empty, and depressing the world can be, to be told that nothing we do matters, to be told that all of our greatest accomplishments, all of our faith, all of our work, all of our unity is for nothing.

No. It simply cannot be this bleak. I refuse to believe Bioware is really doing this. The ending of ME1 was perfect. We saw the struggle, we saw the cost, but we knew that we had worked hard, worked together, and won. The ending of ME2 was perfect. We saw the struggle, we saw the cost, but we knew that we had worked hard, worked together, and won.

Taken at face value, the end of ME3 throws every single thing we've done in the past five years into the wind, and makes the player watch from a distance as the entire galaxy is thrown into a technological dark age and a stellar extinction. Why would we care about a universe that no longer exists? We should we invest any more time or money into a world that will never be what we came to know and love?

Even if the ending is retconned, it doesn't make things better. Just knowing that the starchild was our real foe the entire time is so utterly mindless, contrived, and irrelevant to what we experienced in ME1 and ME2 that it cannot be forgiven. If that really is the truth, then Mass Effect simply isn't what we thought it was. And frankly, if this is what Mass Effect was supposed to be all along, I want no part of it. It's a useless, trite, overplayed cliche, so far beneath the praise I once gave this franchise that it hurts to think about.

No. There is no way to save this franchise without giving us the only explanation that makes sense. You know what it is. It was the plan all along. Too much evidence to not be true. Too many people reaching the same conclusions independently.

The indoctrination theory doesn't just save this franchise: it elevates it to one of the most powerful and compelling storytelling experiences I've ever had in my life. The fact that you managed to do more than indoctrinate Shepard - you managed to indoctrinate the players themselves - is astonishing. If that really was the end game, here, then you have won my gaming soul. But if that's true, then I'm still waiting for the rest of this story, the final chapter of Shepard's heroic journey. I paid to finish the fight, and if the indoctrination theory is true, it's not over yet.

And if it's not, then I just don't even care. I have been betrayed, and it's time for me to let go of the denial, the anger, the bargaining, and start working through the depression and emptiness until I can just move on. You can't keep teasing us like this. This must have seemed like a great plan at the time, but it has cost too much. These people believed in you. I believed in you.

Just make it right.

[Ewokz]

here's a link confirming the ending was the correct one.

EDIT: had to re-write as I jumped the boat a little due to a posters comments on BSN

[Nalkor]

@Aesaar - That about sums it up.

[Ewokz]

@Aesaar awesome article

I'd argue this (below) was incorrect but other than that small detail its an excellent bit of writing that explains how I feel.

The krogans will never repopulate. The quarians will never rebuild their home world. The geth will never know what it means to be alive and independent

[Shuma]

Why is it wrong? The galaxy is screwed because of the loss of the Mass Relays and on the destruction ending the Geth die.

[Ewokz]

Well the Krogan still have a presence on their homeworld so they should be ok, the quarians have civilians on rannoch so they're fine and the geth also have a presence there so they're fine (unless you went destruct). I'm basing this on the idea that the relays exploding was a failsafe explosion thus not solar system destroying, unlike the forced explosion in "Arrival".

The galaxies not really screwed without relays, races can travel much much FTL with eezzo, galactic travels possible just annoying and time consuming now. If this wasn't the case having relays every 10k lightyears wouldn't really work in the ME universe.


ps. WTF does synethsis do to the Geth in the quarians suits?

[Nalkor]

That link to The Final Hours thread? Within 6 hours or so it's reached almost 90 pages. There are other threads that are probably over 600 pages by now.

[Akranadas]

The krogans will never repopulate. The quarians will never rebuild their home world. The geth will never know what it means to be alive and independent

Korgan females are back on their homeworld, they used Taurian ships to get to Earth. Taurians probably only have a few months of supplies aboard their ships (they eat totally different food to all other races, bar Quarians), the entire Quarian race is now above earth and have no hope of getting supplies for their race, they will be dead soon. Geth are dead.

[Shuma]

I'm basing this on the idea that the relays exploding was a failsafe explosion thus not solar system destroying, unlike the forced explosion in "Arrival".

And from where does this idea come from? We see on the ending that the Relay's explosions are massive.

[Akranadas]

Almost makes you want a real ending explaining if the relays exploded like they did in arrival.... oh wait?

[Ewokz]

Akranadas they state that the quarian civilians are on rannoch being helped by the Geth, they didnt risk all the life ships again after the invasion crisis. War assets further back this up, only the heavy fleet comes with you. I also doubt no males stayed on the homeworld as much as I doubt no females came with the fleet, krogan females are tough bastards and they like to fight as much as the males. Males also would have travelled home to cure their genophage. At worst your scenario still has a ton of pregnant females sitting on the homeworld.

Your right about those races in system, they're buggered. The geth should be fine if you picked two of the three endings.

@Shuma The relay light on the map is them spreading the reaper killing/controling/sythesising code across the galaxy, its not the explosions of the relays clocking off. Explosions don't travel FTL or at least I doubt it. Best evidence I can use for this is shepard breathing at the end, he wouldn't be able to do that if the whole sol system had been decimated.

But then its Mass effect 3, it doesn't necessarily have to make sense to be ingame Hell, Shepard's breathing after re-entry without a helmet so I wouldn't put it past him to survive a relay explosion.

[Stingra]

Turians, Akranadas!

*rages*

[Langy]

Akranadas they state that the quarian civilians are on rannoch being helped by the Geth, they didnt risk all the life ships again after the invasion crisis. War assets further back this up, only the heavy fleet comes with you. I also doubt no males stayed on the homeworld as much as I doubt no females came with the fleet, krogan females are tough bastards and they like to fight as much as the males. Males also would have travelled home to cure their genophage. At worst your scenario still has a ton of pregnant females sitting on the homeworld.

Your right about those races in system, they're buggered. The geth should be fine if you picked two of the three endings.

@Shuma The relay light on the map is them spreading the reaper killing/controling/sythesising code across the galaxy, its not the explosions of the relays clocking off. Explosions don't travel FTL or at least I doubt it. Best evidence I can use for this is shepard breathing at the end, he wouldn't be able to do that if the whole sol system had been decimated.

But then its Mass effect 3, it doesn't necessarily have to make sense to be ingame Hell, Shepard's breathing after re-entry without a helmet so I wouldn't put it past him to survive a relay explosion.

Shepard already "survived" re-entry once; it's possible he was able to survive again this time due to having been a cyborg-zombie since ME2.

Though I'm more of the belief that either the 'indoctrination' ending is correct, or the people who made the ending cutscenes didn't actually have any contact with the other people working on the ending, hence why it all makes no sense.

[FriendlyFire]

Thank you, Stingra

ewokz, the Krogans are pretty much dead. Remember for a moment that the Krogans have just about no space force (they are not allowed to construct any warship since the Krogan rebellions, and who seriously thinks Krogans will build non-combatant anything?) and that Tuchanka is a wasteland which pretty much can't sustain life in any meaningful amount. Without mass relays, the Krogans will be stuck without supplies or ways to get them before it's too late.

Meanwhile, the Quarians are hardly in a better position. Rannoch's not a luxurious garden planet by any stretch of the imagination, and if you picked the Destroy ending (which is what people are saying is the right choice), then the Geth are no more of use to them, which means they're stuck with few numbers and frail bodies; most of their ships are stranded around Earth and they can't get the building supplies they'll need to rebuild their homeworld.

The Turians, Salarians and Asari probably would survive, though Palaven might struggle. The Asari are heavily dependent on commerce, so I don't know how self-sufficient Thessia really is. The Salarian home planet probably is self-sufficient, considering the "plan ahead" mentality of the species. The minor council races have a much higher chance of surviving, but even then, this is the equivalent of sending everyone back in the dark ages. The economy has long become galactic and planets have often specialized themselves in particular facilities and resources, making isolation deadly. I don't think many colonies would survive the time needed to first establish FTL links.

It's ironic though because this is all based off 5 seconds of footage which I'm not even sure they gave much thought to.

[General Kong]

Also remember that it was stated that without Wrex (who is on Earth) the krogan tribes will rip eachother apart

[Shuma]

Well, i suppose the Krogans can just keep breeding like rabbits and turn into cannibals.

[Akranadas]

Until they start producing increasingly sickly children due to lack of genetic diversity.

[Fish Of Doom]

the bioware social network is dumb. there are people railing on the community manager because she doesn't have insider info, when she doesn't claim to, and is just discussing stuff with the fans, even pointing out that she has no hard facts, and then they rail on her because she admits being wrong when stuff is pointed out to her.

i detest humans.

[Shuma]

That'll teach her for working for EA!

[Jonny]

the bioware social network is dumb. there are people railing on the community manager because she doesn't have insider info, when she doesn't claim to, and is just discussing stuff with the fans, even pointing out that she has no hard facts, and then they rail on her because she admits being wrong when stuff is pointed out to her.

i detest humans.

Bioware fans have always been a bit overinvested, but I think they've really worked themselves into a frenzy past all reason now. Reading Aesaar's spoiler above was faintly nauseating, it read like a letter to a cheating partner more than a bitch about a game ending. Also "literary gold"? Mass Effect? I've enjoyed them, but they're no more literary gold than the sort of cheap novel you buy at an airport to read on a flight.

Yes, the ending is shit. It's woefully thought out and is either a great example of a writer of mediocre talent attempting themes way beyond his ability or evidence of EA's shocking incompetence with handling Bioware style RPGs that need to be finished before they're pushed out. It's annoying and disappointing, but it's still just a game not worth all the hysteria and histrionics.

[Hirmetrium]

I'll concur with Jonny here - while the ending was shit, and I enjoyed the mass effect series, the amount of "Gamer Entitlement Rage" is truly ridiculous.

Yes the ending sucks. Yes Bioware are too fucking stupid to admit they made a mistake (AGAIN). They are hiding behind a wall of PR and words and ignoring the masses.

But recently there seems to have been an excessive amount of venom sent their direction. Hell the change in forum policy should make that clear. Their only human, and while their fuck up ruined their franchise and lots of people's enjoyment, it has hardly killed innocent babies or broken families (waiting for somebody to give an example of where it has).

The response is actually interesting me now. The whole world seems to be crying out against it.

[General Nuke Em]

Imagine if you went to a restaurant for a three course meal that you pay for in advance. The first two courses and most of the third are fine, but then the restaurant decides to serve you a pile of feces for dessert despite specifically claiming that it wouldn't do so. You're under no obligation to eat it so you won't die of typhoid fever, although the smell made you throw up everything you already ate and you won't be getting your money back either. Was it reasonable to assume that you would get a decent complete meal, or are you being a whiny entitled bitch if you complain?

[Patman42x]

ME3s ending only destroys 99% of the rest of the games fun if you let it do so.

[Jonny]

@General

People can complain all they like. I've been complaining plenty, as well as insinuating that the lead writer is a talentless hack who's pissed on the work of an otherwise stellar writing team. They're going too far with it though, it's not made people throw up, it's not a pile of shit dropped on your plate in a restaurant, it's done no damage to anyone but Bioware and the building frenzy has got past the point where it's warranted. To use your analogy, the chef tried a fancy souffle far beyond his ability and you got a soggy lump for dessert after an otherwise damn fine meal. Annoying, and you might think twice before going again, but not cause for wailing, gnashing of teeth and vicious letters.

[Fixer]

Personally I'm interested in seeing what the actual Bioware response will be.

I imagine they're all still reeling from the shock and fan backlash. They're probably very carefully formulating a reply.

As it stands, I don't know anyone interested in downloading any ME3 DLC in the future. Unless they do something, they're going to lose that revenue stream real fast.

[TheWickedGerman]

As it stands, I don't know anyone interested in downloading any ME3 DLC in the future. Unless they do something, they're going to lose that revenue stream real fast.

I saw plenty of post in various threads on their forum who said they would even pay for a "proper" ending DLC, although immediatly 5 people jumped onto those people as soon as they posted

It will be like it was with every other outrage in the gaming company, people will bitch and rage, and at the end most of them will buy anyway.

I also think, people are overreacting, and not even by a small margin.

[Aesaar]

I guess most people cared more than you did, that's all. I don't think most are overreacting that much (some are, but most are not, IMO).

[Fixer]

I saw plenty of post in various threads on their forum who said they would even pay for a "proper" ending DLC, although immediatly 5 people jumped onto those people as soon as they posted

I might be tempted at that, if it were any good

but if all that other DLC shenanigan crap told us anything, these things take a long time to make and their current upcoming DLC content is probably half finished. We wont be seeing a real ending for a while. Meanwhile, the vast majority of the ME3 community can't bring themselves to play the game again knowing that crappy ending is waiting for them.

They're not going to buy any other DLC till it's fixed.

[ÜberJumper]

Posted this on Reddit just now...

Something interesting in the Final Hours of ME3 app by Geoff Keighley.

In Chapter 8, there's a neat flowchart (which looks to be either directly from Bioware or created by Geoff). Others have shown snaps of it, but to illustrate my points here's a small album.

In image one I've highlighted the Action/Tension line that highlights the dramatic tension in the game. Also included is the "critical path" section with the bar above the critical path showing the three acts.

In image two, I've highlighted the Action/Tension line hitting the climax, and the end of the critical path and the "act line".

Note how the Action/Tension line hits a peak, but there's no denouement indicated.

The "Critical Path" ends, but note though that the act line ends with an arrow pointing off to the left. Act 3 is not indicated as ended.

Long story short, I don't think ME3 is done yet or at the very least, that flowchart's not the final version (you can see other missing elements from the friendship/romance section as well).

Final observation, DLC need not be paid.

So yeah, I think there's something more coming here.

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Oh and guys, if you have an IOS device, get the ME3 Datapad app. You can increase galactic readiness in it, and there's the entire codex (with voice overs where applicable). There's also a "mail" section tied to your game state which has a few tiny backstory additions.

[FriendlyFire]

@Fixer: They're certainly not reeling about the backlash, they're loving it. The developers don't have to face the community, don't participate or post in the forums much, all they have to do is sit back and watch. The amount of drama over the game's ending is the best free publicity you can get. Even if most people hate the ending, they're still curious (sometimes morbidly, but still) to experience it for themselves.

What they wanted was for the ending to cause a reaction, and for that they've succeeded probably beyond their wildest expectations. I just hope that, unless they do something about it, it comes back to bite them in the ass.

[Nalkor]

Free publicity isn't always a good thing, keep that in mind. While they might be dumb enough to think it's good, when a lot of sites side with the gamers and basically wonder wtf BioWare was thinking, damage control should be used in a proper manner.

[Patman42x]

http://penny-arcade.smugmug.com/phot...dfFJj7N-X2.jpg

[LoneWolf666]

That comic is so missing the point.