I liked the Mass Effect 3 ending

[Burnouts3s3]

For the longest time, I had this secret within me, but I think it's now time to reveal it. I did not mind the Mass Effect 3 ending.

Yes, I understand the criticisms, the debates, and the overall outcome, but I did not have an adverse reaction to the ending as other people did. Keep in mind, I am no way insisting anyone is wrong about anything. If you happened to dislike the Mass Effect ending and Bioware/Electronic Arts handling of the situation, you are allowed to feel that way.

I'm just not sure what this says about me as a consumer and as an artist. Am I so blindly loyal to the developer of Bioware that I chose not to recognize the ills it has produced? I liked Dragon Age 2. I liked Mass Effect 3. And I still play SWTOR. I've tried other RPGs, but I didn't like them as much as ones by Bioware (except occasionally ones developed by Obsidian).

And I'm not entirely sure where I fall on the gamer entitlement debate. I understand that, as a consumer, if you are unsatisfied with a product, you have the right to a refund. But, as an artist, I'm not sure if any artist, even ones made by big corporate entities like Electronic Arts, should change any ending, even at the behest of many fans.

Am I a mindless sheep? A biodrone? A blind follower? What am I supposed to learn from all this? What is the right thing to do?

What's wrong with me?

 

[lacktheknack]

why did you make this threaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad

You're fine, by the way. In a world were testicular trauma is a fetish shared by thousands with a small horrifying culture built around it, you're allowed to like an ending that most found unsatisfying.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

Dude, trust me you would have been better off doing what the few of us who liked the entirety of Mass Effect 3 have done since day one. Enjoy it in silence. Making a thread about it is just kicking a bee hive that you really really do not want to be kicking; No good is going to come of this.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

For the longest time, I had this secret within me, but I think it's now time to reveal it. I did not mind the Mass Effect 3 ending.

GET OUT!

I liked Dragon Age 2. I liked Mass Effect 3. And I still play SWTOR. I've tried other RPGs, but I didn't like them as much as ones by Bioware (except occasionally ones developed by Obsidian).

Those were all fun games in spite of their flaws, which were...substantial.

But, as an artist, I'm not sure if any artist, even ones made by big corporate entities like Electronic Arts, should change any ending, even at the behest of many fans.

I guess it depends on the process by which you arrived at that ending. Was it a carefully considered artistic choice? Or was it a last minute ass pull strapped on to a game rushed to market to meet a deadline?

 

[dyre]

Nothing wrong with having poor taste from time to time

I'm sure some people enjoyed The Last Airbender too!

 

[Comocat]

Do you like it, or do you not mind it? I like pizza, I don't mind salad. There are plenty of things I tolerate on a daily basis that I certainly don't like, or at least not have strong opinions about. I've never really heard a compelling case on why the ME3 ending was good, just that "it's not as bad as people say." It's not really strong praise to tell someone they arent as ugly as other people you know.

 

[R Man]

Frankly you can think what you like, but I take issue with this statement:

But, as an artist, I'm not sure if any artist, even ones made by big corporate entities like Electronic Arts, should change any ending, even at the behest of many fans.

The old It is Art! argument. The ending to Mass Effect 3 cannot be considered the product of Bioware's artistic vision. For a start they did not write it. It was written by Mac Walters and Casey Hudson without input from the rest of the Bioware team. It is not representative of their artistic values.

Secondly the game suffered from severe time issues. Frankly, Bioware were not given enough time to work on the game, and the whole thing reeks of being rushed. The ending was a major victim. It was written at the last minute (almost literally. I believe it was the last thing they wrote and voice acted) so it cannot be said to be an artistic concept. It only exists the way it does because they ran out of time, not because they were making a creative statement.

Thirdly, their is the element of plagiarism. The ending is basically a rip off of Deus Ex. It was not Bioware's idea, they lifted it from another game. You can not seriously defend this as artistic integrity.

So to summaries the ending is not Bioware's art because they were not consulted as a whole, it was forced by time pressure rather than artistic vision, and it was essentially plagiarised anyway. In short: not art and it cannot be defended as art.

 

[Tom_green_day]

It wasn't a great ending but I still enjoyed it and it moved me. But then I went online and the childish complaining by many made me sad that I was associated with them by playing the same game they did.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I generally liked Mass Effect 3 more than the other games and found the ending acceptable enough. The second game convinced me that the third would have a silly ending simply because there was no evidence that the various races did anything with the time bought with blood and fire and thus any happy ending would have to be forced. I do disagree with how certain important pieces of information were found inside of DLC. Levithan, if included in the game from the start, would have gone a long way to explain the ending.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

No, you're not allowed to have opinions. At all. Turn in your forum account and surrender yourself in to the internet police within the next 24 hours.

 

[alceste007]

For the longest time, I had this secret within me, but I think it's now time to reveal it. I did not mind the Mass Effect 3 ending.

Yes, I understand the criticisms, the debates, and the overall outcome, but I did not have an adverse reaction to the ending as other people did. Keep in mind, I am no way insisting anyone is wrong about anything. If you happened to dislike the Mass Effect ending and Bioware/Electronic Arts handling of the situation, you are allowed to feel that way.

I'm just not sure what this says about me as a consumer and as an artist. Am I so blindly loyal to the developer of Bioware that I chose not to recognize the ills it has produced? I liked Dragon Age 2. I liked Mass Effect 3. And I still play SWTOR. I've tried other RPGs, but I didn't like them as much as ones by Bioware (except occasionally ones developed by Obsidian).

And I'm not entirely sure where I fall on the gamer entitlement debate. I understand that, as a consumer, if you are unsatisfied with a product, you have the right to a refund. But, as an artist, I'm not sure if any artist, even ones made by big corporate entities like Electronic Arts, should change any ending, even at the behest of many fans.

Am I a mindless sheep? A biodrone? A blind follower? What am I supposed to learn from all this? What is the right thing to do?

What's wrong with me?

Well, I disliked the ending but still really enjoyed Mass Effect 3. Everyone has an opinion. I also like SWToR as well. Dragon Age 2 was fun as well as being slightly disappointing because of the reuse of art assets.

I am at a stage in my life where I can buy pretty much whatever I want. You would be amazed at how many fans of Bioware games there are in a similar situation as myself. So I spend my very limited free time doing the things I enjoy. I recommend that you do the same. If everyone had the same opinions, the world would be a boring place.

 

[The_Scrivener]

You are welcome to your opinion. I like the second Matrix movie.

But ME3's ending was the largest bed-shitting in the history of gaming. They could have literally put out the most vanilla streamlined ending imaginable and it'd have been ten-fold better than the ambiguous, plothole-ridden, short-sighted, ten pounds of cheesy epilogue nightmare that they crapped out.

Mass Effect 3's ending didn't drop the ball. It dropped it onto its foot and screamed during a Catholic mass causing several elderly people at the service to urinate on themselves and renounce God.

 

[Mikejames]

Can't say I was a fan of the original version, but I still stand by the sentiment that it's adequate enough after the Extended Cut.

Maybe not the big climax anyone expected, but they made some fixes when they didn't have to, gave some self aware closure with the Citadel DLC, and made me want to remember the series as a whole in a more positive light. i.e. I'm over it.

You are welcome to your opinion.

Agreed.

I like the second Matrix movie.

Let's not get crazy now.

 

[MysticSlayer]

To me the ending was poorly paced and poorly presented. Other than that, I really couldn't complain. The three choices fit with the various choices Shepard was given on how to deal with the Reapers throughout the trilogy, and there were enough implications in the game as to what happened afterwards that I actually found myself enjoying not knowing exactly what happened. It gave me a chance to fill in the blanks and try to envision the universe as it was after Shepard defeated the Reapers. By now, I'm basically avoiding any more "official" material that expands on that part of the story, as all it will do is ruin that fun I had, and my ideas of the galaxy after Shepard will likely always be better to me than anything BioWare or others can come up with.

 

[King Billi]

Listening to the reactions of those who completely lost their minds over this ending, some of whom continue to ***** about it to this very day was a thousand times worse than the ending itself ever was. The game is still awesome regardless.

As for the ending itself..? It was as good as could be expected considering the stakes that had been built up behind it.

 

[RJ 17]

And I'm not entirely sure where I fall on the gamer entitlement debate. I understand that, as a consumer, if you are unsatisfied with a product, you have the right to a refund. But, as an artist, I'm not sure if any artist, even ones made by big corporate entities like Electronic Arts, should change any ending, even at the behest of many fans.

Am I a mindless sheep? A biodrone? A blind follower? What am I supposed to learn from all this? What is the right thing to do?

What's wrong with me?

Personal tastes, my friend, that's what this all boils down to. Just as you can tell an off-color joke to two people and have one person find it to be hilarious and in good fun while the other will find it horribly offensive, two people can play through the same game and its ending and one could find it to be infuriatingly bad while the other could find it to be pretty good.

Just because your personal tastes don't align with a lot of other people's doesn't mean there's something wrong with your thought process. You know what you like and that's all that should matter to you. This is why I don't really pay much attention to reviews when they say "this is good or this is bad". I look for details in reviews so I can make my own judgments on those details, allowing myself to determine whether or not I like said details.

With regards to changing the ending, that's where you enter the murky water. There's been bad movies, books, etc that have been put out and never did they have to change their endings because fans decried it. But those movies and books are tied to people (generally the director/writer/actors of a movie or the author of a book) and not necessarily the studio that made the movie or publisher that put out the book. Games, on the other hand, are heavily tied to the companies that make them. ME is not Casey Hudson's game, it's Bioware's game. It's EA's game. The difference is that entire companies are much more concerned about their public image. If they didn't appease the fans by at least attempting to do something with the ending then Bioware and EA over-all suffer the consequences of bad rep.

Put simply: they were worried that the fan backlash against the ending would ultimately hurt their brand, not just the ME franchise. As such they made the EC as an attempt for damage control.

 

[Hieronymusgoa]

the un-extended ending was okay, the extended one was great. i actually cried. and that hasnt happened in a game for me ever before. and like one here already said: the different story arcs spread over the mass effect trilogy and especially their closure in the 3rd one were well done.