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

[JeanLuc761]

I guess I should start a petition to stop Bioware from changing a thing because of this petition because the ending is awesome.
No matter how you look at it, after ME2, I knew how it's going to end. The Mass Effect series never even hinted that there was a purely happy ending possible.

They are waging war against beings who are practically Gods compared to the rest of the galaxy. What do they think would happen? Shepard would gun them down with his Black Widow?

I didn't expect the ending to be happy (though the option for a triumphant ending a la ME1 and ME2 would be nice), I expected the ending to make sense, not pull a deus ex machina, invalidate our choices and defeat the integrity of Shepard's character.

A depressing ending is one thing, a poorly executed one is another.

 

[lumenadducere]

As some others have said, it's not about it being a downer ending - I like bittersweet endings and think it would've been more realistic. Instead of that, we get an utterly nonsensical ending in which nothing gets explained. You can't ask any questions, you can't see what any of the consequences of your decisions are. Shepard throws out a line about the nature of humanity, the Reaper motivation gets like two sentences, you speak to a god-child, and then are told to pick one of three hallways to walk down.

And what's worse is that it all completely invalidates your choices. BioWare leading up to this kept on saying how they'd have wildly divergent endings because we wouldn't have to worry about a sequel. What we get instead is one of three endings, the only real difference being what color of energy the mass relays emit at the end. And again, nothing gets explained at all, with a random scene with the Normandy being thrown in for overwrought drama.

It's not about happy endings, it's not about Shepard living happily ever after with their partner in hilariously bad sex scenes, it's about a poorly-written ending that gives zero closure. When you've spent 3 games going through a series, the least you could do is at least throw me a text blurb like in Dragon Age where we actually see some of the aftermath. But nope. Choose red, blue, or green space magic, and have the game end. It's laughable, and made even worse when dev comments on the BioWare forums show that they kept on changing the endings until fairly recently. The entire last section feels rushed and is a complete and utter letdown.

 

[lumenadducere]

I haven't actually played ME3 (Don't think i'm going to either) but does the ending actually show all life ending and people being stuck with no ability to survive? or does it just show the relays getting destroyed and people being all 'OMFG BUT HOW DEY SURVIVE NOW WIT NO RELAYS?! GOD IF THIS WERE REALISTIC THEN SHEPHARD BE KILLIN DEM ALL!!!' because if so then i think it's just the community being drama queens :/...

I can't remember any drama about Enslaved's ending, i mean in being in the middle of the desert with no food or water, how is everyone supposed to survive?

Part of the problem is you don't see anything except your choice of space magic color, but you're explicitly told that the Mass Relays are destroyed. Yes, you don't see everyone stranded and dying in cutscenes, but you have to be able to make some inferences, here. Just because you aren't shown the scene it doesn't mean that those things wouldn't happen or aren't directly implied.

The draw for many people in a setting like Mass Effect is that there's a lot of background information and details within the setting. If you pay any attention to that stuff then the only real conclusion you can reach is that there are major issues that the various races are going to have to face without the relays around. I wouldn't say that's being a drama queen at all.

 

[Flailing Escapist]

You can have a downer ending without doing what Bioware did.

 

[Acton Hank]

The endings were rather bad.
Kill all synthetic life? Why does it have to kill the Geth and EDI?
Destroy all the relays? Without them there cannot be large-scale civilizations, this really should only be a condition if you were not prepared enough, the crucible gets damaged and thus overloads the relays. But to outright destroy them no matter what is insane.

That said, if I want the ending to be different I can just pretend they are. I don't need Bioware to validate my preference like this. I would like not to have a shitty ending, but I will not stamp my feet and demand they do it again. I wouldn't say no if new endings were offered.
I do want to know exactly what happened and what they were thinking.

You are aware one of the biggest themes of the series was how the Mass Relays/citadel network were tools used by the reapers to control technological and societal evolution down a path they chose?

Not destroying the relays makes no sense given the themes of the game, and would mean that the current races, and any future races, would still be stuck down the reapers dead end cosen path for the galaxy.

BUT what makes it EVEN WORSE is that now the galaxy has become willing slaves to a slave master that is dead.

Also there is NOTHING that prevent the races from rebuilding and making thier own Mass relays and thus allowing for a game set like 1,000 years later.
report

No my friend. The biggest theme in Mass Effect is unlikely allies coming together to confront a seemingly unstoppable foe. The theme you're suggesting was barely hinted at in a part of a single conversation in the middle of the first game and was never brought up again. Don't bother telling me that it's some sort of underlying theme or hidden message or that I just wasn't paying attention because I don't buy it, and I'm really not intrested in any insipid half assed justification for an ending this awful, especially not from someone who thinks he knows better than everyone else.
You wanna call it a bitter sweet or tragic ending; it's badly executed no matter which way you want to look at it.

 

[Acton Hank]

It's not self-entitlement or 'stupid'.

The fans aren't asking for an ending they deserve. They're asking for an ending that Mass Effect deserves.

Let me couch this by saying I don't think it's either entitlement OR stupid, but I do think it's kinda pointless. Possibly silly. We are asking, in essence, the creator of a story to change the end because we don't like it. And I get that this is a more interactive medium than most, perhaps more than ever before. But still.

On the other hand, if we are going down that route, I would like to petition JK Rowling to rewrite the last Harry Potter.

Not what we "deserve" what we fucking spent money and 100+ hours on.

 

[Acton Hank]

So, apparently, there is a lot of pushing on the Bioware forums to change the ending of Mass Effect 3.

http://www.destructoid.com/mass-effect-3-fans-petition-bioware-to-change-the-ending-223615.phtml#ext

I'll start by saying that I haven't played ME3 yet, but half-know about the ending choices. It didn't really spoil me, I kinda predicted that there would be a bit of a downer ending, so it was unsurprising. But apparently people were so shocked by this that they want BioWare to change the ending, or give another choice.

Personally, this is probably the most mind-numbingly stupid thing I've ever seen on the internet ever.

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.

It's fine if you don't like the ending. That's cool. Lots of games have bad endings. Lots of trilogies have bad endings. What you are SUPPOSED to do as a mentally well-adjusted adult is get past it, and get on with your damn lives. Seriously.

People petitioning for an extra ending or a different one is just a silly as me saying "Oh hey BioWare I saw this great X-Men/Sonic/Mass Effect crossover fic and it's way better than your story you should change it". Except there'd never be a petition for that, because that's stupid, just like this is.

Beautifully, people were joking about a "new ending as DLC" rip-off and this pressuring of BioWare MIGHT make that happen. And then you'd just complain about it afterwards.

Seriously. Play your games. If you like them, great. If you don't like them, oh well, get on with your life. If you were to try and force every developer to change a game you didn't like, you'll have a lot of letters to write.

Well I take offense to that my good sir...

Oh wait, you haven't played the endings; You don't know what the fuck you're talking about...
Come back later please.

 

[Abedeus]

I detect serious childhood problems.

So good to know a licensed psychiatrist is on board with this discussion. So tell me, Mr. Psychic with a Ph.D, where, and what kind of, childhood problems did you detect. Cause I gots lots o' dem.

Also, did you even play the game? Are you happy when a book or movie ends with a Deus Ex Machina, that makes the entire book and its events pointless, and leaves more questions open than answered, and adds a shitload of new ones?

Roughly six and a half hours into the game. Work doesn't afford me much free time sadly.

You played the game for 6 hours and you are going into discussions about endings.

Yeah, I thought the game was fucking amazing, literally game of the fucking year, for the first 30 hours of it.

Then last 15 minutes was spent watching Bioware fucking with every single fan that played all of the games over the last 5 years.

I really don't get the logic behind defending something you haven't seen yet. Unless you saw the endings already, don't talk about them.

I haven't actually played ME3 (Don't think i'm going to either) but does the ending actually show all life ending and people being stuck with no ability to survive? or does it just show the relays getting destroyed and people being all 'OMFG BUT HOW DEY SURVIVE NOW WIT NO RELAYS?! GOD IF THIS WERE REALISTIC THEN SHEPHARD BE KILLIN DEM ALL!!!' because if so then i think it's just the community being drama queens :/...

I can't remember any drama about Enslaved's ending, i mean in being in the middle of the desert with no food or water, how is everyone supposed to survive?

Part of the problem is that you don't see ANYTHING after the mass relays are destroyed.

You are left to guess.

Did the Asari finish their own mass relay project, but on smaller scale?
Did the Reaper technology left after the war reveal the secret behind no fuel costs or emissions and incredibly fast FTL travel Reapers used without Mass Relays?
Did the God Child (whoops, spoilers) uplift every species out of kindness and Shepard's sacrifice?
Did the Krogans and Turians and Salarians simply use the power of friendship and Quarians constructed portals all over the galaxy using said power?

WE DON'T KNOW. NOBODY TELLS US SHIT AFTER THE ENDINGS. There's a point of culmination and falling and then conclusion, in every story or tale. Mass Effect 3 ends at the culmination, without the falling or the conclusion.

 

[krection]

Okay, everyone who says that the petition is stupid, just think about it from a different angle. Like the die-hard Mass Effect fans who were there since the beginning. Or the fans who really loved the choice the Mass Effect universe gave them. Belive it or not, the ending ruined the whole "choice and story" thing that Bioware had for years.

If you think that people who sign the petition are retarded, that's fine. Bitching about it just makes you seem like the very thing you're criticizing. People didn't like the ending and they want it changed, big deal. If you don't like it, just ignore it. It's none of your business.

And on that note, if you think the petition is useless, think of Fallout 3. I have NEVER heard of anyone saying they preferred the original ending to the second. And it may be just because I'm blind, but it seems to me that the ME3 ending is getting a lot more hate compared to the Fallout 3 ending.

Personally, I thought the endings were the worst ending in any form of media entertainment ever. I would've liked to seen a Heavy Rain-ish ending. Like there's the horrible ending were the Reapers win by a longshot. And a super good happy ending were Shepard defeats the Reapers easily and suffers no personal causualties. Then there would've been a bunch of endings in-between like only Liara dies or only Shepard lives or something. That would've made the endings really personal to the players.

Sorry, I got off-topic but my point is if you think the petition is stupid, just ignore it. It's none of your concern. Don't complain about it then seem like an equal retard. And just to clarify, I'm not pointing fingers at anyone in particular.

 

[awmperry]

I'll start by saying that I haven't played ME3 yet, but half-know about the ending choices.

Not a great way to start a screed on "The people who've invested time and money of it have no right to be upset", but okay.

It didn't really spoil me, I kinda predicted that there would be a bit of a downer ending, so it was unsurprising. But apparently people were so shocked by this that they want BioWare to change the ending, or give another choice.

...

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.

Who paid for the game? Look at it this way: in a very real sense, the people playing the games - the people buying the games, in fact - are investors. They are the people who've invested their money to allow the development of the game. They are the people who've invested hundreds of hours of game time, replaying Mass Effect 1 and 2 to get the choices they want, having been promised that those choices would affect the outcome of the series. They are the people who've invested emotion and dedication to the Mass Effect universe.

It's fine if you don't like the ending. That's cool. Lots of games have bad endings. Lots of trilogies have bad endings. What you are SUPPOSED to do as a mentally well-adjusted adult is get past it, and get on with your damn lives. Seriously.

...

Seriously. Play your games. If you like them, great. If you don't like them, oh well, get on with your life. If you were to try and force every developer to change a game you didn't like, you'll have a lot of letters to write.

You really think people are upset over it being a downer ending?

It was obvious there'd be at least one downer ending, and arguably it was obvious that most or all of the endings would be at least partial downers.

Downer ending is fine. I - and, I'm sure, many others - would have liked at least a chance for an unequivocal win, a happily ever after, a universe where we had a chance to save some (or even all!) of the characters we'd come to care about. But that's fine - a downer of some kind was inevitable, and if it had been in character and appropriate to the story and choices I'm sure it would have been satisfying.

Bioware, on the other hand, made a big deal of tracking over a thousand choices and outcomes and saying that all those things would affect the ending. We know it can be done - look at the Fallout games, for instance, or Dragon Age.

That actually will be our goal with the whole trilogy. To take all of the things you've done in Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 and then just let it go. Let it diverge into wildly different conclusions. That's the real fun of having played Mass Effect 1 and 2 and then going into the third one will be that you've set all of these things in motion and now we can let them diverge. ... The replay value of Mass Effect 1 was huge, but Mass Effect 2 is much more so and I think it just continues into the conclusion of the trilogy."

(source: http://au.xbox360.ign.com/articles/105/1055366p2.html)

"Let it diverge into wildly different conclusions" - not to mention "replay value ... continues into the conclusion of the trilogy" - suggests that they at least intended to have a broad spectrum of endings influenced by the player's choices throughout the trilogy. Instead they betrayed that promise. And as for replay value - if you know that all your hard work will be utterly irrelevant and come down to pressing one of three buttons, where's the replay value?

Those decisions, that players have put hundreds of hours into, are totally irrelevant to the ending.

THAT is what people are complaining about. Nobody really minds it being three different downer endings, but Bioware broke the promise that our decisions would matter.

 

[Abedeus]

Dammit, I knew I should have saved some ha's from my big bag of HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Seriously, this is retarded. You cant just petition a company every time you want something redacted. I'm literally amazed that they made the one chick rewrite the book

So... did you read Mass Effect: Deception?

Did you watch the endings of ME3 while actually playing the previous games from beginning to end?

Or do you just read "LOL THEY DIDN'T LIKE SAD ENDING LOL" like half of the teenagers on the Internet and ignore the context.

 

[VanTesla]

I'll start by saying that I haven't played ME3 yet

To me the ending ruined what could have been one of my favorite games of all time... None of your choices you made before truely matter in the end and the three endings are all copy and paste the same mostly... So a game that promotes choice boils down to three endings that has no bearing on what you did before hand and makes many contradictions about the Reapers and a huge plot hole... Spoiler about Shepard

Spoiler

He dies in all but one ending if you had high resources, and some people think that he was dreaming the whole thing aka indoctrination by Harbringer after he was hit by the beam. So Bioware can sell the actual endings later on... I am fine if Shepard dies and all, but the whole ending makes little sense and like I said before makes mostly all your choices up till then completely meaningless...

 

[MiracleOfSound]

It's bloody art! ya don't go changin' tha Mona Lisa's eyes 'cuz ya think it would better match 'er dress!

You also don't advertise Mona Lisa as 'your painting' whose eyes match 'your choices'. I'm going to take a wild guess and presume you didn't play ME3.

 

[JeanLuc761]

It's bloody art! ya don't go changin' tha Mona Lisa's eyes 'cuz ya think it would better match 'er dress!

You also don't advertise Mona Lisa as 'your painting' whose eyes match 'your choices'. I'm going to take a wild guess and presume you didn't play ME3.

An awful lot of the detractors appear to be the people who haven't actually experienced what folks are complaining about.