The Mass Effect 3 Breakdown (spoilers)

[I Max95]

27% of people saved the Quarians? That should probably read "27% of people weren't paying attention when it turned out that the Quarians were the bad guys in that conflict.".

oh, yeah, right, and i'm supposed to ignore the fact that the Geth allied themselves with the Reapers? you know, the ones who want to kill BILLIONS. the first time, it was just the heretics, this time, it was ALL Geth, apart from one.

was it stupid of the Quarians to start the war? yes, did the Geth have their reasons? sure, would I choose peace if I could? absolutely, but if I just didn't have the reputation nessesary, I choose Quarians every time

 

[Product Placement]

This just proves that the target audience for ME3 weren't ME fans and RPG fans, but rather CoD fans. Why else would SO MANY players not meet Wrex and play with soldier class? There's nothing wrong with soldier class, don't get me wrong. But look at the statistics. If it didn't include casual shooter crowd you can bet the statistical difference between soldier and other classes wouldn't be that great.

Yeah, this is 100% wrong, and ill elaborate.

First off, please stop roping CoD players into something as a bad thing. We have already seen there are many people who enjoy CoD as well as ME.

Now, the soldier class... I played the soldier class, why? Because I like to focus on heavy damage from weapons. I dont want to worry about my biotics or techs, so it fits perfectly. I usually have a biotic and a tech on my team though to balance it out. Being able to focus fire on an enemy, without worry about techs/biotics is a very good strategy, and it is EXCITING. You dont have to have tech/biotics for it to be exciting. So maybe people like the simplicity of it? Maybe some people played through only once, and playing as a soldier has a relatively low learning curve?

Also, the soldier class has been in sine ME1, so that invalidates your statement, since ME1 was for sure not built for CoD players.

EDIT: Also, with people making multiple playthroughs, im guessing more people will pick up at least 1 playthrough of Soldier, unlike Tech or Vanguard.

Now, Wrex, as people have said before, many of the players probably came in at ME2 or ME3, and if they didnt get the Genesis pack for ME2, then dead wrex. Mix that in with the renegades, and tada.

not to mention your other options for soldier sucked... and soldier's just cool like that.

Eh. Soldier class isn't needed to do well in this game. In fact, you can easily get through it without relying on powerful weaponry.

My primary character was a Femshep Sentinel. In ME1, hat class was half Enginner, half Biotic, no weapon skills. She would go on all of her missions with Tali and Liara and all three would be exclusively equipped with pistols.

...I called them my angels.

 

[I Max95]

The video they released alongside it is actually really touching, or I'm going soft. They've wrapped up the trilogy, then polished it, put a bow on it, set it in cement and dropped it into the ocean. No way they are milking that trilogy any more.

Even though they're making another Mass Effect game?

they're done with the TRILOGY, three game story arc, over and done with

doesn't mean they can't go to new places with a new story in the same universe

i'm not against the idea, I just hope they take their time with the next game, if they don't, well, we'll lump ME in with all those other franchises that USED to be good

 

[Shocksplicer]

27% of people saved the Quarians? That should probably read "27% of people weren't paying attention when it turned out that the Quarians were the bad guys in that conflict.".

Uh, no.

No no no no no no no no no.

How about "27% of people chose to give the persecuted if somewhat dickish people their home planet back instead of siding with the kitchen appliances and killing millions of mostly innocent people." Much more fitting.

Though obviously saving both is the best option.

OT:
Cool stats. A bit surprised at how few finished insanity. ME2 was far harder.

Though I did notice one stat that made me wonder something....

YOU CAN KILL VEGA? HOW TELL ME HOW RIGHT NOW.

Or, "27% of people chose to give the rightfully persecuted arseholes the planet instead of the relatively innocent, intelligent Geth"

 

[Monster_user]

It felt as though ME3 was just one big survey, wonder what other information they are waiting to release.

27% of people saved the Quarians? That should probably read "27% of people weren't paying attention when it turned out that the Quarians were the bad guys in that conflict.".

oh, yeah, right, and i'm supposed to ignore the fact that the Geth allied themselves with the Reapers? you know, the ones who want to kill BILLIONS. the first time, it was just the heretics, this time, it was ALL Geth, apart from one.

was it stupid of the Quarians to start the war? yes, did the Geth have their reasons? sure, would I choose peace if I could? absolutely, but if I just didn't have the reputation nessesary, I choose Quarians every time

ME3 explained that as the Geth were hacked by the Reapers. It further explained this as being the Geth were not living intelligence, and truly just robots with VI. Hence Legion's sacrifice.

Destroying the Geth would not have been any more unethical than fragging an enemy in a game. I would feel sorry for Legion, but there are more Quarians than living Geth.

I would also be left wondering if the Geth were alive, or not, despite evidence to the contrary.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

27% of people saved the Quarians? That should probably read "27% of people weren't paying attention when it turned out that the Quarians were the bad guys in that conflict.".

Uh, no.

No no no no no no no no no.

How about "27% of people chose to give the persecuted if somewhat dickish people their home planet back instead of siding with the kitchen appliances and killing millions of mostly innocent people." Much more fitting.

Though obviously saving both is the best option.

OT:
Cool stats. A bit surprised at how few finished insanity. ME2 was far harder.

Though I did notice one stat that made me wonder something....

YOU CAN KILL VEGA? HOW TELL ME HOW RIGHT NOW.

Or, "27% of people chose to give the rightfully persecuted arseholes the planet instead of the relatively innocent, intelligent Geth"

More accurately, "27% of people gave the planet back to the people who have been wrongfully persecuted by most of the galaxy and only wanted their home back and picked the living, mostly innocent people in their fleet over the peices of hardware, only one of which even comes close to approaching life"

......Ok, these are getting too long. Can we just drop the pretense and argue about this properly?

 

[AD-Stu]

I remember a similar stupid mess in the first game. ME1 had a sett of squad member achievements where if you played through most of the game with a particular team member, you'd end up getting an achievement that I also think gave Shepard the option to pick the unique power of said team member as an extra ability, whenever you started a new game. Getting Kaidan and Ashley was easy but it was more difficult to get anyone else. The reason why is because you play through few missions before you start picking up your alien team mates. Liara comes last, making it almost impossible to get her squad member achievement. I've even heard that it's impossible to get her achievement, unless you pick her up as soon as you leave the Citadel, keep her as your exclusive team-mate and do every single side mission with her, including the DLC mission.

From memory those achievements made an allowance for Liara since you couldn't get her until later but yeah, it still required three full playthroughs (using two different squadmates almost exclusively on each one) to get that achievement.

As for Tali in ME3, I still stand by what I said earlier: it's not just that you get her later in the game that's a factor. You also need to take into account the fact that, even once she's selectable, she's not very popular as a squadmate because her build in ME3 doesn't really lend itself to the direction the combat has gone with tech/biotic combos playing such a huge role.

What I'm saying is that even if she had've been selectable right from the start of the game, I still wouldn't be surprised if her "popularity" were pretty similar to what they are now.

 

[Shocksplicer]

27% of people saved the Quarians? That should probably read "27% of people weren't paying attention when it turned out that the Quarians were the bad guys in that conflict.".

Uh, no.

No no no no no no no no no.

How about "27% of people chose to give the persecuted if somewhat dickish people their home planet back instead of siding with the kitchen appliances and killing millions of mostly innocent people." Much more fitting.

Though obviously saving both is the best option.

OT:
Cool stats. A bit surprised at how few finished insanity. ME2 was far harder.

Though I did notice one stat that made me wonder something....

YOU CAN KILL VEGA? HOW TELL ME HOW RIGHT NOW.

Or, "27% of people chose to give the rightfully persecuted arseholes the planet instead of the relatively innocent, intelligent Geth"

More accurately, "27% of people gave the planet back to the people who have been wrongfully persecuted by most of the galaxy and only wanted their home back and picked the living, mostly innocent people in their fleet over the peices of hardware, only one of which even comes close to approaching life"

......Ok, these are getting too long. Can we just drop the pretense and argue about this properly?

OK fine. Every single bad thing that happened to the Quarians they brought on themselves. They enslaved a race of synthetic beings, then tried to commit genocide on them when they realised they were intelligent. They fled the planet because the Geth defended themselves, then spent centuries without a home, despite the fact that the Geth were perfectly willing to negotiate the entire time, the Quarians just never asked. Then, at the climax of the war, the Quarians (Admittedly just one extremist but the rest of the fleet would have followed) decided to continue trying to commit said genocide, despite the fact that they know peace is possible. If they go through with this, the Geth are forced to defend themselves. And finally, if the Quarians are able to commit genocide, they all celebrate by throwing a fucking party celebrating the unjust destruction of an intelligent race. If the Geth win, they express sorrow that it has come to this.

Whereas your argument is: They're synthetic, so they don't matter.

 

[Splitzi]

I have gone through ME2 and 3 so many times on so many different builds I don't even remember most of my decisions. I know that I killed Mordin at least twice, killed Wrex once on Virmire and once on the Citadel. On my ME1 playthrough I was an idiot and saved Kaiden, didn't romance anyone, and basically only played the main quest. However I cannot wait for the trilogy pack i just ordered to show up so I can complete all the games in one HUGE chunk.
And most importantly, I am a proud member of the Insanity Club.

 

[littlealicewhite]

27% of people saved the Quarians? That should probably read "27% of people weren't paying attention when it turned out that the Quarians were the bad guys in that conflict.".

Uh, no.

No no no no no no no no no.

How about "27% of people chose to give the persecuted if somewhat dickish people their home planet back instead of siding with the kitchen appliances and killing millions of mostly innocent people." Much more fitting.

Though obviously saving both is the best option.

OT:
Cool stats. A bit surprised at how few finished insanity. ME2 was far harder.

Though I did notice one stat that made me wonder something....

YOU CAN KILL VEGA? HOW TELL ME HOW RIGHT NOW.

Or, "27% of people chose to give the rightfully persecuted arseholes the planet instead of the relatively innocent, intelligent Geth"

More accurately, "27% of people gave the planet back to the people who have been wrongfully persecuted by most of the galaxy and only wanted their home back and picked the living, mostly innocent people in their fleet over the peices of hardware, only one of which even comes close to approaching life"

......Ok, these are getting too long. Can we just drop the pretense and argue about this properly?

OK fine. Every single bad thing that happened to the Quarians they brought on themselves. They enslaved a race of synthetic beings, then tried to commit genocide on them when they realised they were intelligent. They fled the planet because the Geth defended themselves, then spent centuries without a home, despite the fact that the Geth were perfectly willing to negotiate the entire time, the Quarians just never asked. Then, at the climax of the war, the Quarians (Admittedly just one extremist but the rest of the fleet would have followed) decided to continue trying to commit said genocide, despite the fact that they know peace is possible. If they go through with this, the Geth are forced to defend themselves. And finally, if the Quarians are able to commit genocide, they all celebrate by throwing a fucking party celebrating the unjust destruction of an intelligent race. If the Geth win, they express sorrow that it has come to this.

Whereas your argument is: They're synthetic, so they don't matter.

I agree with you.

The destruction of the Geth superstructure was, in my opinion, one of the greatest war crimes ever commited in that universe, excluding the Reapers' usual programme of death an destruction. That structure was their future. It was everything they were striving toward, everything they had ever wanted.

The Quarians had given exactly zero fucks what it was, it was a Geth structure. And just as they had in the Morning War, they acted out of fear and with no understanding what they were doing. Don't get me wrong, I don't think the Quarians are evil, or deserve to be wiped out, I just think they're wrong. And if I have to choose between them or the Geth, I will choose the Geth.

 

[Product Placement]

They enslaved a race of synthetic beings

To be perfectly fair, the Quarians built the Geth, using a design that under no normal circumstances, would have been considered a synthetic living being.

Then, after much modification, where the Geth had been optimized to share their processing power in large groups, we ended up with units that started asking themselves philosophical questions. Now from the Quarian perspective, that transition must have been incredibly subtle and surprising, when they suddenly realized what they were dealing with. Imagine one day getting into your car and having your GPS asking you why you never take it where it wants to go.

Also, if you payed attention to the mission, where Shepard linked into the Geth network, you should have noticed that the war didn't officially start as a war between the Quarians and the Geth, it was between Quarians afraid of what the Geth were becoming and Quarians who wanted to see their evolution continue. Now, how likely do you think a similar conflict might end up taking place on our world?

Initially, the still developing Geth consciousness was very confused about what was happening and only ended up taking arms because the Quarians supporting their development explained to them that they had a right to defend themselves. If not for those who first fought for the Geth, there would have been no Geth resistance.

So while you can easily demonize the Quarians for the crimes that you accuse them off, remember that there would be no Geth if not for the Quarians.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

27% of people saved the Quarians? That should probably read "27% of people weren't paying attention when it turned out that the Quarians were the bad guys in that conflict.".

Uh, no.

No no no no no no no no no.

How about "27% of people chose to give the persecuted if somewhat dickish people their home planet back instead of siding with the kitchen appliances and killing millions of mostly innocent people." Much more fitting.

Though obviously saving both is the best option.

OT:
Cool stats. A bit surprised at how few finished insanity. ME2 was far harder.

Though I did notice one stat that made me wonder something....

YOU CAN KILL VEGA? HOW TELL ME HOW RIGHT NOW.

Or, "27% of people chose to give the rightfully persecuted arseholes the planet instead of the relatively innocent, intelligent Geth"

More accurately, "27% of people gave the planet back to the people who have been wrongfully persecuted by most of the galaxy and only wanted their home back and picked the living, mostly innocent people in their fleet over the peices of hardware, only one of which even comes close to approaching life"

......Ok, these are getting too long. Can we just drop the pretense and argue about this properly?

OK fine. Every single bad thing that happened to the Quarians they brought on themselves. They enslaved a race of synthetic beings, then tried to commit genocide on them when they realised they were intelligent. They fled the planet because the Geth defended themselves, then spent centuries without a home, despite the fact that the Geth were perfectly willing to negotiate the entire time, the Quarians just never asked. Then, at the climax of the war, the Quarians (Admittedly just one extremist but the rest of the fleet would have followed) decided to continue trying to commit said genocide, despite the fact that they know peace is possible. If they go through with this, the Geth are forced to defend themselves. And finally, if the Quarians are able to commit genocide, they all celebrate by throwing a fucking party celebrating the unjust destruction of an intelligent race. If the Geth win, they express sorrow that it has come to this.

Whereas your argument is: They're synthetic, so they don't matter.

Well, no, it isn't. The Geth are wonderful and deserve a chance to become more than they are now.

As I said before, the scenario where both live is FAR superior.

However, when push comes to shove, I choose to save Quarian lives over Geth hardware.

Yes, the Quarians did some pretty shitty things. While I would disagree that they "enslaved" anyone, as the Geth were initially no more than clever pieces of machinery, they did still wrongly attempt to destroy them and didn't even attempt peace and understanding.

However, they are still persecuted by the rest of the galaxy simply for being nomads. Everyone dislikes them simply because they have no home.

Finally, when it comes down to it, the only real decision is this: Kill millions of Quarians, all of whom are highly complex, fully intelligent life forms, most which should carry no blame for the shitty things of their ancestors.
OR
Destroy the Geth who, while intelligent and sympathetic, cannot compare to truly living things. They still feel little to no emotion and, other than Legion, have a lack of basic life qualities.

It's a wonderfully difficult situation with no good decision, but I have to go with the Quarians.

Besides, I always get annoyed when Bioware pulls manipulative nonsense like with the recordings you see when you go into the Geth data center. It just makes me want to go the opposite direction of where they're trying to push me.

 

[Oroboros]

The survival rate seems a bit skewed, considering some characters had a chance to be killed prior to ME3 as well as in ME3. Liara, EDI, Vega cannot be killed at all before ME3, while Tali, garrus, Ashley, and kaiden can all die before you even fire up the game. Just look at poor Wrex. I'm sure if it was a percentage for characters surviving over the entire series, there would be a lot of people who had rather low survival rates, with Morinth and Fishman being at the bottom, of course.

 

[soren7550]

- Did not cure the Genophage.
- Hated Wrex but I met him.
...
- I can't remember but I think I might have shot Mordin. He was all right but I just hated the Krogan so much I didn't want them saved. I might have let him go up and get killed himself. All I remember is there was no way I was letting the cure be released by me.
- Infiltrator, Paragon.

How could you *not* like Wrex? Or the krogan? And you kill a guy you like in order to condemn an entire race to extinction? And you call yourself a paragon.

 

[Zeraki]

Only 4% finished it on insanity? Huh, I feel a bit special now. Although Mass Effect 3's insanity was a walk in the park compared to the brutality of Mass Effect 2's(though by the time I got to the Collector base I was an unstoppable juggernaut of headbutting destruction).

The Wrex percentage doesn't really surprise me. Back when Mass Effect 2 was about to come out I remember something being said about how the majority of players didn't even know you could save Wrex on Virmire. Combine that with the fact that when you start a new non import game of Mass Effect 2 it defaults to him being dead(which I'm sure is the same for the third one)and you have your 64%. This is also probably affected by people who didn't download the comic for the PS3 version of Mass Effect 2.

Soldier class has always had a ridiculously high player base, even in the original Mass Effect. It's the easiest class to play that requires the least amount of thought. I was actually a soldier through and through until I finished Mass Effect 3 and started a new trilogy run with a Sentinel(which is now my favorite class).

I just realized Javik isn't even in the squad statistics... poor guy, first he gets cut out of the game to be sold separately and now this. "In my Cycle... " -sigh- "I am so alone."

 

[Imre Csete]

How the ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffuck did nearly half these people play as soldier? It's so dull!

When I'm jumping into a new RPG I always pick the fighter-y class first. So that was my main since ME1. I got all the other classes lined up from ME2 to import, but I doubt I'll replay ME3 any time soon.