Mass Effect 3 "Change The Ending" Petition (almost certainly spoilers)

[Iron Criterion]

Actually, we did write the story. With out Shepard's actions, his choices and words. And last 5 minutes of the game destroy up to 90 hours of time we spent in the last 3 games.

I thank you kindly, I was in need of a good laugh and this just made my day.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

So, they'll all ***** about day-1 DLC, yet now they say they're willing to pay for DLC that adds a good ending?

I don't even know what to fucking say to that.

You need only say one word: Hypocrites.

Doesn't affect me since I don't have the game, and right now I hate both sides.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Had Bioware not been faffing about with ME2's story, than ME3 would not have been left holding the ball and consequently dropping it.
Nothing that happens in ME2 is of any importance to the events of ME3, except for bailing out your previous team mates.

I think ME3 handled the story and the ending the best it could (considering ME2 having not added anything to it). It really didn't come too much as a surprise. I expected Shepard to die, and some sort of change of galactic proportions, so there you go.

It's kinda sad how big games like this can't simply end with the hero saving the world and getting the girl anymore.

Oh well, it's over now. Time to look on to newer things.

Me2 was the middle point of a series, you know what middle point of the series ends up doing much besides faffing about? not many.

That's still no excuse.

All you did in ME2 was gather team mates to fight the Collectors whose soul purpose it was to create some comical Reaper thing which you ultimately destroyed. And none of these events served any purpose in the grand scheme of things.

And seeing as Mass Effect is supposed to be one long continuing story, having a second act that is basically filler more or less kills the story stucture.

 

[Palfreyfish]

To be fair to most people, I don't think they're angry with the ending being a downer, I think they're angry with the endings available essentially boiling down to "push a button to choose your ending", which means that hardly any of the important actions from the prior two games have an effect.

For example: Rewriting or not rewriting the Geth in ME2 becomes irrelevant because with one button push all synthetic life is destroyed.

There's nothing wrong with a downer ending, or multiple downer endings. The series HAD to end like that. They just could have been implemented better.

Yet most people don't exspress it like that. They want it to be a ride off into the sunset ending. Hell half way though shit gets real with the war with geth and qurean.

Most of the people I've talked to seem to anyway, so that's what I'm basing it off, but anyway, like other people have said, the endings, no matter which ending you choose, no matter what you did during any of the three games, are disappointing. This is the end of Shepard's story, Bioware could have sent Shep out with a bang, but no, they lit the fuse and got us all excited for 90 hours, and then the firework failed to explode.

Granted, an option for a happy lets all ride off into the fucking sunset ending would have been nice, but it should have been a challenge to get, not just walk down one of three corridors after talking to a stupid fucking Deus Ex Machina/God Child AI.

For the multiple endings thing, what they should have done is had 4-5 endings, where there's no God child AI, and just vary the numbers of surviving squadmates/galaxy population/etc Shepard should die in 4 out of these 5 endings, and to get Shepard to survive, it has to be hard.

NB, when I say hard, I don't mean super mega hard, just something you can't achieve without trying, like the current endings. Just play the game however you want and you can have the ending you choose...

 

[akibawall95]

You're right that Bioware has the right to do any ending they want. However, players ABSOLUTELY have the right to ask for a better ending than the one that was given, even if Bioware chooses not to do so. I know you haven't beaten the game so I won't spoil it for you, but the ending to Mass Effect 3 is genuinely one of the worst endings I've seen for any work of fiction...ever. It invalidates everything you've done and goes against everything Shepard's character stands for. And to top it off, it provides no closure to the universe and characters that you've spent hundreds of hours growing to love. They screwed up, badly, and people are well within their rights to complain.

99.5% of Mass Effect 3 is phenomenally good. Unfortunately, the remaining 0.5% is so bizzare, disappointing and shocking that it not only drags the game down, but it takes the entire series with it.

My thoughts exactly.

Personally, I hope BioWare changes the ending. The Mass Effect series is a landmark in video game history but for it to be ruined by the ending is just deplorable. It was lazy and altogether rushed (most likely due to the plot leak), hopefully the current ending is just a place holder for something to come (maybe). Don?t get me wrong, other than the ending the game as absolutely spectacular, it just disappointing the ending could not be the same.

 

[Saviordd1]

What non-fans don't get is that most of us (sane) fans aren't mad that the endings are sad. We're mad because the endings are just plain horrible, they leave more questions then answers, make no sense, and have no impact.

 

[Gamergeek25]

It's bioware's choice of how they want to end it not the players game to choose an ending. The endings do make sense if you think about it, and also never take the bioware social forum seriously. They had a poster upset about the reload animation. When I was at the end of the game and played I felt sad and depressed then I realized thats the emotions bioware intended to use. Now I look back at it i feel the heroism of my character surpassed any flaws in the ending.

 

[krection]

However, I've heard of a secret ending for those who beat the game twice. So maybe that one will be more satisfying...

I already check the Bioware forums. People who beat the ending twice said that there is no secret ending. It's the same. It sucks how we keep getting lied to by Bioware.

 

[Dreadman75]

However, I've heard of a secret ending for those who beat the game twice. So maybe that one will be more satisfying...

I already check the Bioware forums. People who beat the ending twice said that there is no secret ending. It's the same. It sucks how we keep getting lied to by Bioware.

Son of a *****!

I had some of my hopes and a lot of money riding on that!

Dammit Bioware, why did you give up at the finish. Did you write yourselves into a corner or were you just being lazy?

 

[Asita]

I've got to wonder, how many people commenting here have read the proposal in question? Despite what some posts (and the article linked in the OP) suggest, the proposal everyone seems to be pointing to is not so much suggesting that the existing endings be rewritten so much as they're suggesting another be added, very much falling in line with the old philosophy of 'you have to earn your happy ending'. For any interested, it reads thusly:

Spoiler

DeinonSlayer wrote an idea for new ending


Faraborne received this from him beating ME3. This was his solution to the ending problem:

Proposal is as follows:
There should be a fourth option available at the end - and the beauty of it is that it would naturally branch in a way that satisfies both of the outcomes people are asking for.

Right now, the Guardian presents us with three options - destroy, control, and merge. Each are depressingly self-destructive in their own ways, and as we all know, we have no choice but to pick one. DLC could add a fourth option: REFUSE.

Shepard stabs a defiant finger in the Guardian's chest and declares it is not their right to "protect" us from the consequences of our own actions. If peace was forged between the Quarians and the Geth, Shepard cites that as proof that the Guardian's premise of inevitable conflict between synthetics and organics is wrong. If not, Shepard can simply deny the Guardian's conclusion and declare that we're going to go down fighting. Shepard delivers an ultimatum: take your abominations and go. Whether we live as a civilization or die by our own hand is a choice to be left to every one of us. So, f*** you very much, but thanks for thinking of us.

The Guardian blows off Shepard's ultimatum, and the Reapers continue to fight. At this point, the outcome is out of your hands. Shepard watches, unable to intervene, as the fleets continue to engage, the forces of the galaxy attempting to defeat the Reapers once and for all in conventional combat. The Guardian taunts you, trying to goad you into choosing one of the three options it offered, while assuming the forms of different people you've lost along the way: Virmire casualty, Anderson, and your love interest, dead or alive, just to screw with you. You can change your mind, or continue to stand and watch. If you gathered enough war assets (as in, much higher than the required amount for the "perfect" ending we're given now), the Reapers are defeated at horrific cost, but the Relay network remains intact, and Shepard gets to reunite with his/her LI and squad provided the Normandy survived the fight (itself dependent on other criteria). This would be the hardest ending to achieve, requiring the greatest effort and providing the most reward. You would really have to work your ass off to do this, but as evidenced by this poll, most of the people here would be willing to try.

If you didn't have enough resources, the Reapers emerge victorious, and, having defeated the combined military might of the galaxy, they are free to harvest everyone else. The cycle continues. They win. Either way, you get to spit in the devil's face once more instead of bowing to the invariably self-destructive choice he offers you.

Me: I personally think this solution would be profound. Furthermore, it really gives five endings for the game. If you we're not fully prepared for the war, then Shepherd allows the Reapers to win without sacrificing his integrity (which would be a major win in my book). Finally, if you were fully prepared then you receive the most rewarding ending possible with what I think could potentially be one of the most creative boss fights in gaming history...a battle of wills alone.


Please, spread the word! Let's get this noticed!

If any are at all compelled to make this idea get notice please insert this link as a cannon, discuses it in the forums, inform your groups commenting it, go and tell it in the blogs, and inform the other polls concerning the endings.

(Viewable here).

 

[SajuukKhar]

(Viewable here).

The problem with that ending is that The Mass relays are not destroyed.

They have to be for the ending to make any kind of sense.

 

[Vivi22]

Guess what: BioWare have the right to do ANY ending they want. If they thought that a downer ending was the best way to end the series, then that's what they thought, and NO-ONE ELSE has ANY RIGHT to tell them to change it. No-one. Anywhere. Ever.

Your first sentence here is absolutely true. You are also wrong with every other statement I quoted here though. Yes, Bioware have the right to put any ending they choose into the game. And you know what else? Fans who aren't satisfied with it have the right to complain, whine, moan, or petition for it to be changed all they want.

Of course, Bioware also has the right to totally ignore them, but you can only ignore your fans hatred of what you're doing for so long, and in so many separate titles before they aren't fans anymore. Bioware doesn't have to change the ending, and I'd say trying to patch in a shoe horned ending that isn't a complete slap in the face would probably make little narrative sense and is a bad idea, but they can ignore the complaints at their own peril.