Poll: Did anyone else laugh at the ME3: EC endings?

[dreadedcandiru99]

Never mind the issue of whether or not the Extended Cut actually fixed the ending or not (it didn't [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_6QCV3c7K3bp62OhTtg9iKajaQlnow4ui-d7sOctgs0/edit?pli=1]). [EDIT: That Google doc isn't mine. I found it on Reddit. Just FYI.] I've written about this elsewhere, but I'm kind of curious--did anyone else watch the endings on YouTube and literally laugh their ass off? Because I did.

I've never seen a spectacle like this. I've never seen a major game developer scramble this hard to retroactively spackle over this many plot holes. I kept imagining Casey Hudson writing up a list of all the issues people had, then going "nuh-uh" to each one. "Shepard's squadmates teleported back to the Normandy." "Nuh-uh!" "Great, the exploding relay just destroyed the Earth." "Nuh-uh!" "Um, the crew's going to starve to death on some alien planet now." "Nuh-uh!" Oh, and the new "okay, you don't like my super-smart multicolored space magic resolutions, fuck you then" ending was even better, just because it was so freaking juvenile.

So yeah, I'm done being angry. Now I just think it's funny.

(Captcha: "over the top.")

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I was too disappointed to laugh. By trying to fix all 1337 plot holes they made a plot hole so big you can put The Citadel through it. An organic race created an A.I. in order to resolve a conflict with an A.I. race. That plot hole gave birth to god knows how many other plot holes. Brilliant writing Bioware. This is what happens when you let 2 idiots write the ending without any input from the rest of the writing team.

 

[Vanitas likes Bubbles]

Meh, I'm satisfied with the extended cut. Didn't make the endings great but just tolerable. Also, they retconned a lot of the terrible plot points so I'm okay with that.

Edit: Forgot to add, with the amount of retconning they did, they'll be able to have more Mass Effect games in the same friendly universe they made so I'm also okay with that Mass Effect RTS FTW!!!!

 

[dreadedcandiru99]

By trying to fix all 1337 plot holes they made a plot hole so big you can put The Citadel through it.

I know, right? And all that time and effort, all that ass-covering, all to justify the stupid Starchild scene--when they could've just removed it and instantly solved ninety percent of the problem. They decided to rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic, when they could've hopped in a time machine, gone back an hour, and avoided the iceberg in the first place.

That's funny too.

 

[Tamrin]

Brilliant writing Bioware. This is what happens when you let 2 idiots write the ending without any input from the rest of the writing team.

I'm still surprised Patrick Weekes still works for Bioware after throwing Casey Hudson and Mac Walters under the bus, but it was definitely important to let people know that the ending was high jacked during the end development. Let Mass Effect 3 be a lesson to never let that happen again with any future game.

 

[dreadedcandiru99]

I'm still surprised Patrick Weekes still works for Bioware after throwing Casey Hudson and Mac Walters under the bus, but it was definitely important to let people know that the ending was high jacked during the end development. Let Mass Effect 3 be a lesson to never let that happen again with any future game.

I guess they figured that firing him would be interpreted as admitting he was right. Or something.

Personally, I'm way more surprised that (assuming Weekes was telling the truth) Bioware would let Hudson and Walters solo the ending and shut all the other writers out of the room. That would explain the sudden plunge in quality, but why would it happen at all? Why would they be allowed to get away with that? Did they have pictures of Ray Muzyka boning a camel?

 

[boag]

Brilliant writing Bioware. This is what happens when you let 2 idiots write the ending without any input from the rest of the writing team.

I'm still surprised Patrick Weekes still works for Bioware after throwing Casey Hudson and Mac Walters under the bus, but it was definitely important to let people know that the ending was high jacked during the end development. Let Mass Effect 3 be a lesson to never let that happen again with any future game.

Dont worry, he will be silently let go once the whole ordeal dies down.

 

[Tamrin]

I'm still surprised Patrick Weekes still works for Bioware after throwing Casey Hudson and Mac Walters under the bus, but it was definitely important to let people know that the ending was high jacked during the end development. Let Mass Effect 3 be a lesson to never let that happen again with any future game.

I guess they figured that firing him would be interpreted as admitting he was right. Or something.

Personally, I'm way more surprised that (assuming Weekes was telling the truth) Bioware would let Hudson and Walters solo the ending and shut all the other writers out of the room. That would explain the sudden plunge in quality, but why would it happen at all? Why would they be allowed to get away with that? Did they have pictures of Ray Muzyka boning a camel or something?

Casey Hudson is Executive Producer and Mac Walters is Lead Writer. If the two told Ray Muzyka "we got this" then Ray would most likely accept it because that's how business works. You have to trust the people you put in charge. It doesn't always work out but if you don't trust those you put in charge then nothing will ever get done. I can't blame Ray for what happened; it's all Casey and Mac in my opinion. One could argue that the other writers should have said something, been more vocal, but it?s difficult to want to argue that a plotholed Tranformers ending was slapped onto your detailed Inception story when the people responsible for doing it can fire you. I feel bad for the team of writers who put their all into the 3 games only to have a rough draft finale handed to them as the official ending.

Dont worry, he will be silently let go once the whole ordeal dies down.

I really hope that doesn't happen.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

I'm still surprised Patrick Weekes still works for Bioware after throwing Casey Hudson and Mac Walters under the bus, but it was definitely important to let people know that the ending was high jacked during the end development. Let Mass Effect 3 be a lesson to never let that happen again with any future game.

I guess they figured that firing him would be interpreted as admitting he was right. Or something.

Personally, I'm way more surprised that (assuming Weekes was telling the truth) Bioware would let Hudson and Walters solo the ending and shut all the other writers out of the room. That would explain the sudden plunge in quality, but why would it happen at all? Why would they be allowed to get away with that? Did they have pictures of Ray Muzyka boning a camel?

It would happen if you didn't want your story crafted by talented, artistic professional writers. It would happen if you preferred to have slimy businessmen shit something out not for creative reasons but to aid add-on sales, marketability, sequel potential and franchising. I'm not saying they wanted the ending to suck, but I'm saying they were willing to roll the dice if it meant they could squeeze an extra nickel or two out of a few saps.

 

[dreadedcandiru99]

I'm still surprised Patrick Weekes still works for Bioware after throwing Casey Hudson and Mac Walters under the bus, but it was definitely important to let people know that the ending was high jacked during the end development. Let Mass Effect 3 be a lesson to never let that happen again with any future game.

I guess they figured that firing him would be interpreted as admitting he was right. Or something.

Personally, I'm way more surprised that (assuming Weekes was telling the truth) Bioware would let Hudson and Walters solo the ending and shut all the other writers out of the room. That would explain the sudden plunge in quality, but why would it happen at all? Why would they be allowed to get away with that? Did they have pictures of Ray Muzyka boning a camel?

It would happen if you didn't want your story crafted by talented, artistic professional writers. It would happen if you preferred to have slimy businessmen shit something out not for creative reasons but to aid add-on sales, marketability, sequel potential and franchising. I'm not saying they wanted the ending to suck, but I'm saying they were willing to roll the dice if it meant they could squeeze an extra nickel or two out of a few saps.

Or now that I think of it, EA might have been leaning on them to just finish the game and get it out already. That wouldn't surprise me, and it wouldn't exactly be out of character for EA. Muzyka or whoever might have told them, "Look, it's not done yet, so chillax," but who knows if they'd care.

Still, it seems kind of pointless to hire and pay all those professional writers, get to the Big Climax of your Biggest Game Ever, and then not use them.

 

[Risingblade]

I laughed at the part where the normandy came in to pick up your squaddies and you have a touching scene with your LI while harbinger is still shooting lasers it was like wtf...

 

[RedBerserkerD]

I'm laughing at the fact there is another thread about the ending. We get it the ending was bad. I think it was weak but I moved on you should too

 

[OpticalJunction]

I laughed at the part where the normandy came in to pick up your squaddies and you have a touching scene with your LI while harbinger is still shooting lasers it was like wtf...

THIS. What in the holy hell was that. Seriously stupid.

I laughed too when Shepard goes "How am I supposed to control them if I'm dead?" to the catalyst. It reminded me of MrBtongue's video and how obvious such a question was; how ridiculous it was that they didn't explain it the first time.

 

[King of Asgaard]

No, I'm not laughing at the endings.
As I've said in other threads, I'm flabbergasted that, not only did they wrap up an ostensibly good trilogy with an awful ending, but they only made things worse with the extended cut.
So no, I don't find the ruination of one of the only decent videogame trilogies particularly funny.

 

[Awexsome]

I find it sad that you see a developer go so far out of their way to try and make their fans happy as something just to laugh at.

 

[Eddie the head]

No.They went out of there way to try and make people happy, they might not have done that, but most people wouldn't. And I got to say I wasn't expecting much. So yeah it just hit my expatiation nothing funny about that. And I do like that they at least tried. Also it's the last 15 min of the game I can get past it if the rest is good.

 

[OpticalJunction]

I find it sad that you see a developer go so far out of their way to try and make their fans happy as something just to laugh at.

Don't be so naive, they're depending on this EC to placate people so that they'll buy future future mass effect dlc/full games. Even though people are laughing about it, they're still more satisfied than before and this will equate to more future sales. Don't forget that mass effect is bioware's main franchise, and that their 2nd main franchise dragon age has been sullied quite a bit because of DA2. They needed to do this, to retain their reputation.

 

[Dendio]

I'm happy that for every negative thread about extended cut, there is a poll showing most people liked it

 

[chadachada123]

Never mind the issue of whether or not the Extended Cut actually fixed the ending or not (it didn't [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_6QCV3c7K3bp62OhTtg9iKajaQlnow4ui-d7sOctgs0/edit?pli=1]). I've written about this elsewhere, but I'm kind of curious--did anyone else watch the endings on YouTube and literally laugh their ass off? Because I did.

I've never seen a spectacle like this. I've never seen a major game developer scramble this hard to retroactively spackle over this many plot holes. I kept imagining Casey Hudson writing up a list of all the issues people had, then going "nuh-uh" to each one. "Shepard's squadmates teleported back to the Normandy." "Nuh-uh!" "Great, the exploding relay just destroyed the Earth." "Nuh-uh!" "Um, the crew's going to starve to death on some alien planet now." "Nuh-uh!" Oh, and the new "okay, you don't like my super-smart multicolored space magic resolutions, fuck you then" ending was even better, just because it was so freaking juvenile.

So yeah, I'm done being angry. Now I just think it's funny.

(Captcha: "over the top.")

I've only seen Youtube videos, and I seriously laughed out loud for the Refusal ending, because of how obvious Bioware's prickish nature is during that ending.

I read your Google Doc, and I was seriously impressed by your summation of the Refusal ending, and how it is absolutely the only 'real' ending. It's the only canonical ending in my book, at least.

Your awesome explanation:

Spoiler

The biggest aggravation of it all is that Refusal is the most logical route to take. Hang with me for a second. You are having a conversation with the biggest monster in the history of the galaxy. The Leviathan of Dis was a Reaper and nearly a billion years old. That means that the Reapers have been doing their thing for AT LEAST that long. You?re talking over 15,000 cycles and on the low end about three quadrillion deaths. Lemme say that again. Three quadrillion. That?s three thousand trillion deaths or three million billion dead and that?s on the low end assuming there weren?t some really populous cycles and that the Leviathan of Dis was among the first of its kind. You are standing there talking to someone responsible for so many deaths there?s no way to wrap your mind around it. He has industrialized murder on a galactic scale and for at least 6% of the age of the universe. He is doing his level best to murder everyone you know, everyone you love, and everything you care about... AS YOU?RE TALKING TO HIM. As you?re sitting there chatting with him his minions are trying to get their claws on your love interest and favorite squadmates so they can rip them limb from limb or blow them apart, or violate their bodies to turn them to husks or just melt them alive into Reaper goo. Everyone who?s died in the last three games that you care about?s deaths can be laid at this abomination?s feet. Why in the flying fuck would you believe ANYTHING that comes out of his gob?

Frankly the only safe assumption is to assume that everything he says is a lie and that any of his three courses of action will at a minimum result in your pointless death and the failure of the Crucible up to and including automatically husking everyone in existence (synthesis). Turning around and shooting him in his stupid smug face is the only logical course of action to take, and it?s the one that is an instant game over.