Dear Bioware Fans, at least you got a good game.

[AbstractStream]

I haven't seen anyone actually hate Mass Effect 3 as a game. The game was amazing. All the hate has been toward the ending. The fans see it's a good game and probably rage even more knowing that crap ending is a part of it.
Missed it by thiiiiiiiiiis much.

This we won't get with ME3. It's like when they think a TV series will be renewed for a new season and then gets cancelled by the network on a season finale cliffhanger.

And no matter if you count it as multiple or just one ending, many still feel it just didn't fit the rest of the series in tone, quality and theme.

Now THAT is a good analogy.

 

[gigastar]

The list of things wrong with C&C4 goes beyond the game itself...

Also the C&C fanbase did not take it quietly. There simply wasnt enough people who cared about C&C to make the kind of noise the Mass Effect fans are right now.

 

[MiloP]

Also ME1 didn't have multiple endings as far as I can remember.

Save the Council or let Council die, also choosing the new human councillor. Yeah, not all that much, in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Falcon123]

Tell you what, if one of the Retake members can pen a feasible ending that references every decision in the game in a meaningful way, then I will admit that "the ending doesn't reflect your choices" is a valid argument.

Also, ME1: Ending features choice of two options, similar cutscenes.
ME2: Ending features choice of two options, similar cutscenes.
ME3: Ending features choice of three options, similar cutscenes.

The last decision of the game has always been that, I don't know why people are complaining now.

The same reason they didn't complain before: they expected the ending to the SERIES to not suck.

Also ME1 didn't have multiple endings as far as I can remember.

They expected the ending to the whole series , the bigger, more comprehensive story, to end differently and better than the games that came before it?

I'm not even sure all the retake people even understand why they're mad anymore. I've written this before, and I'll write it again. There are many perfectly reasonable ME fans who are sincerely disappointed with the ending that feel victimized when the games journalists and people on the forums start calling people entitled. But they're not the ones being called entitled. The Entitled ones are the ones that filed a complaint with the FTC . The fans that ruined the ending for everyone else through spoilers and is demanding that Mass Effect make a better ending instead of just wishing it were so. The fans (if they can even be called fans at this point) who claim it's Bioware's duty to give them the ending they want instead of accepting that Bioware screwed up the ending, that it was their right to do so, but that they should still fix it if they want to.

I feel badly for the people who are being reasonable and being victimized here on the forums. Then again, I've been attacked consistently for trying to defend Bioware's artistic integrity to make a crappy game (wrote two articles on it for my site: http://www.redshirtcrew.com/2012/03/why-mass-effect-3-has-changed-industry.html ), so I guess the other's sides just as guilt about making assumptions, huh?

I hate us v. them mentalities...

 

[MiloP]

Also ME1 didn't have multiple endings as far as I can remember.

Save the Council or let Council die, also choosing the new human councillor. Yeah, not all that much, in the grand scheme of things.

Those were end-game choices, but didn't affect the ending at all. Only the stuff that came after the ending, i.e. in the sequel.

Thinking about it, not one game in the series had multiple endings, really.

ME1, Sovereign is defeated no matter what you do.
ME2, the Collectors are destroyed no matter what you do.

Spoiler

ME3, the Reapers are "dealt" with in some way, no matter what you do.

It's just the manner in which it's done that changes things. In fact from this, it could maybe be argued that ME3's ending gave the player the most choice out of all three.

I won't argue that, though, because I'm pretty sure I'll be torn apart for defending it

 

[BloatedGuppy]

You know it makes me wonder why would they expect a different ending in the third game. I would have assumed that by the third game they would have understood the pattern that was going on here. If you step back and take a look at it it seems rather idiotic to expect anything other then what they got.

Yup. The pattern was strong, entertaining conclusions that had high production values, did not suffer from logical incongruities or continuity errors, and kept in tone with the established plot, lore, and themes of the series. I am 100% in agreement with you that it would've been idiotic to expect all that to go out the window for the third game, which is why it was so surprising. Good to see you finally coming around.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Exactly, its good to see you finally realised that ME3s ending and writing was of the same quality as the previous games.

Ah. I was wondering how you'd shift the goal posts in order to find a new angle of attack. I must admit I didn't expect "lying" would be the route you'd take, as it's a little lazy, but whatever makes it work for you.

 

[David VanDusen]

I'll

I haven't seen anyone actually hate Mass Effect 3 as a game. The game was amazing. All the hate has been toward the ending. The fans see it's a good game and probably rage even more knowing that crap ending is a part of it.
Missed it by thiiiiiiiiiis much.

This we won't get with ME3. It's like when they think a TV series will be renewed for a new season and then gets cancelled by the network on a season finale cliffhanger.

And no matter if you count it as multiple or just one ending, many still feel it just didn't fit the rest of the series in tone, quality and theme.

Now THAT is a good analogy.

It's ok sir, I'll answer your prayers. I HATE Mass Effect as a whole the same as I hate Call of Duty and Madden and Halo and many other series.

WHY? Because their fans are the most obnoxious and toxic examples of human existence.

In my humble opinion anyway.

 

[RJ 17]

I think the answer is quote obvious, ladies and gentlemen...We must burn, dismantle, and desecrate everything that is EA. I'm talking about gamers uniting to perform a VERY hostile takeover of EA. Talkin' about gettin' medieval on their asses...like Spanish Inquisition style executions of the executive board.

I believe such pitch-fork-and-torches mob is required because it is quite obvious that EA is performing a very hostile takeover of the gaming industry, steadily ruining franchise after franchise, developer after developer.

Gotta be honest, I think they've officially surpassed Blizzard/Activision as the biggest group of fucking assholes in the gaming industry.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

To be honest I didnt see a difference in quality between the three games. They all had fairly bad writing and the endings were all similar in that nothing you did actually mattered.

Define "bad writing". You could make an argument that the original two games were "corny". You could argue that they were hackneyed. You could argue that they lacked thematic sophistication. A lot of that stuff goes to taste, though. The same charges can be leveled at, say, Die Hard, and I'll be damned if I'm going to listen to anyone bad mouth Die Hard. Not every book needs to be War and Peace, and not ever film needs to be Citizen Kane, and not every RPG needs to be Planescape Torment. For what they were, the two ME games had their strengths, and amongst those strengths was a consistency in presentation. Consistency in thematic thrust, consistency with plot elements, consistent character motivations, consistent antagonist. Chucking it all out the window in the last 5 minutes, and writing in a bunch of stunning continuity errors and logical impossibilities and violations of your own lore, that's a completely different kind of bad writing. It's OBJECTIVELY bad. There are actually "rules" for good writing, in the same way there are "rules" for playing music. I don't know how to play the piano. I can sit at one and bang on the keys, and call it music, but you wouldn't want to listen to it, and I'd have a hard time defending the artistic merit of it, and rightfully so.

 

[boag]

Ah. I was wondering how you'd shift the goal posts in order to find a new angle of attack. I must admit I didn't expect "lying" would be the route you'd take, as it's a little lazy, but whatever makes it work for you.

To be honest I didnt see a difference in quality between the three games. They all had fairly bad writing and the endings were all similar in that nothing you did actually mattered.

I actually agree with you, the 3 games have had the cliche Bioware story structure, I was hoping that the third one would eventually lead off into branching paths because it was the freaking ending, but yeah it didnt happen.

I remember pondering about this the first week after game release and I had finished the game.

 

[Falcon123]

They expected the ending to the whole series , the bigger, more comprehensive story, to end differently and better than the games that came before it?

Um... yes? Exactly? You know, learn from past mistakes and all that. They did learn in gameplay terms, why should we expect them to stagnate with the story?

There's also the fact that ME1 had a pretty good ending, not in the "your choices matter" vein but at least you could say that something happened and there was some closure. The ME series could have ended then and there, and it would have been much better.

Read the rest of my post. My point isn't that people had unrealistically high expectations (note: they did) but that failing to meet artificially created expectations is not Bioware's fault