BioWare "Considering" Calls for New Mass Effect 3 Ending

[idarkphoenixi]

Well, that's as good as a change confirmation IMO.

I can't imagine them saying "it's possible" and then later simply deciding not to.

Oh, I wish I could have your optimism...This is pretty much by-the-book levels of PR. It's a way of getting the community to shut up without actually doing anything. They want people to calm down so they can rush out all the other DLC they have sitting in the office.

 

[Joccaren]

Well, that's as good as a change confirmation IMO.

I can't imagine them saying "it's possible" and then later simply deciding not to.

On BSN we have a PR person reading into the Bioware Press Releases for us to tell us how they're trying to make us react. This is not a confirmation in the slightest. Nowhere does he actually say they will change anything.
"We would like to clarify that we are actively and seriously taking all player feedback into consideration and have ruled nothing out. At this time we are still collecting and considering your feedback and have not made a decision regarding requests to change the ending"
Aka: They know we are complaining, and if we keep complaining we will get an ending.
The PR guy has said that it is an achievement to actually be recognised by their PR team, but we've got to keep pushing. Until they 100% confirm that DLC for the ending is in the works, they are merely trying to calm everyone down so that people stop complaining and start praising the game, and EA doesn't have to put any money into making a new ending. By the time the fans realise, we will be more disorganised that we are now, and all complaints will come across as either hypocritical, over the top, or just not worth the effort.
If we want a new ending, we have to keep pushing until we actually get that new ending.

BTW, here's the thread with all the PR guy quotes:
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/10084349
Hold the line brother.

 

[viranimus]

Ok thank you.

I tried to read selectively because some elements started getting to be a little TMI for me. THank you for keeping it as spoiler free as possible.

Now I have to know, when or where did EA or Bioware make a direct confirmable promise to
A: End the series
B: Dictate that choices would be relevant all the way from beginning to the end of the game
C: Get every answer to everything.

I mean I may simply be ignorant on this, because I am unaware of the definitive promises being made to the community before the release of the game as I am not one to read biowares forums or other bioware related reading cause my liking for them is only slightly above passing. So a citation circa pre march would be quite beneficial to facilitate my understanding on how this is a slight against gamers.

 

[Gnoekeos]

Seems to me that every time George Lucas tries to do this sort of thing people lose their mind.

 

[irishda]

Nothing will ever get changed for the better if people are silent about the quality of the games they play, especially if it's the negative bit that's being silent.

Or consumers could stop buying crap and actually punish a company rather than saying "I'LL START NOT BUYING THEIR GAMES AFTER I FINISH THIS ONE. AND IT'S DLC". Whichever works.

2 problems: Bioware had a good track record so far so who would have guessed this kind of shit ending was coming? And just not buying a product does jack shiite for the company to understand what they did wrong.

TELLING THEM is a valid and necessary measure in capitalism.

Don't go and rail on people because they pursue both their rights and their role as customer.
You need to get pissed and vocal at things that go wrong when buying stuff, otherwise the company will not learn what went wrong, and do the same shit again.


Kind of like lead poisoned toys. You need to get vocal about it, otherwise you will continue to get lead poisoned toys.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA! *ahem* Sorry. I was just laughing at the idea that a lack of cash inflow from a product line WOULDN'T make a company pursue the reasons why the product didn't succeed, or at least make as few similarities between it and future projects as possible, in a capitalist society anyways. Companies only listen to one thing, what's making money. If they make a truckload of money off releasing a "true ending" DLC, you bet your ass they'll smile and nod about how they're listening to you as they take your money, then they'll just turn around and do it again. Why wouldn't they? You all gave them more than enough incentive to do so. You all cried and whined, but at the end of the day you still bought it. You still rewarded them with money.

Companies don't learn lessons until you stop giving them the reward. Just like dogs don't learn unless you reward them when they DO something right.

I really do hope this is a false ending. I really do hope they release the REAL ending at 5 bucks or 5 euros or whatever. Because every single person complaining about this will buy it. It will make a small fortune for Bioware and EA. And then the next game will come along and it too will have a weird ending, and the whole goddamn cycle will continue anew. Huh, just like the reapers in fa- CREEEEEEEEEEEDD!!

 

[Nikolaz72]

So... now Retake ME3 Child's Play charity is "absolutely fantastic", yet few days ago it was, quoting Jim Sterling, used to "offset the public bitching by raising some money (...) which fans are now cynically using to deflect criticism."

My guess is they're finally noticing something they should've noticed over the past 2 years - endings and the whole setup make absolutely no sense. Inconsistent, lackluster, anticlimactic.

I'm down with the idea of open and productive communication with fans [although runaway incivility rarely seems far behind] but I still think the idea of demanding a new and "better" ending is ludicrous.

Please, explain why? As a customer it's Your duty to demand that the product You buy is of as good quality as it's advertised. If You pay for a 60$, so called "tripple A" title why should You be satisfied with something that doesn't meet Your expectations? When You buy a fancy TV that cost several thousand $ and find out that you can't change channels with a remote are You just accepting it is a "innovative, artistic expression"?
The game lacks an epilogue, an integral part of storytelling and writing. As customers we aren't slaves to companies and frankly if a company does something wrong we should yell about it, so next time they will think twice before making same mistake.

If you go see a movie, and don't like the ending, do they change the ending? Do they give you your money back? What if you buy a Blu-Ray? No. They don't. Feel free not to be satisfied, but that doesn't mean the company should change it for you. It's nothing like a non-functional remote - the game works just fine, and there are a lot of people who played it and aren't up in arms about the end.

Yes, I liked the ending. I thought it was appropriate. I also think people are clueless about how integrated the galaxy was - it would be insanely inefficient to use the mass relays to ship food back and forth. That's leaving aside the fact that FTL still exists - luxury goods will be more expensive, but they're not going to vanish. Do people seriously think that Earth will starve without the mass relays? The reapers harvested people - there have still got to be massive areas of Canada and Russia left untouched, as well as the oceans.

Roleplaying games, where you are bombarded with CHOICES MATTER, THINK WISE AND MAKE GOOD DECISIONS, need promises delivered.

And you are really clueless about the ending.

1. No closure - what happens to geth and quarians, krogans and turians, all the colonies?
2. FTL still means years to travel, assuming no fuel problems.
3. If you think a devastated, bombarded Earth can sustain a whole Galactic Fleet of Krogans, Asari, Turians, Quarians (those two will die because of different biology), Geth, Batarians AND humans will survive more than a year before everyone begins eating everything and everyone else?
4. Space Magic makes 0 sense.

1. That depends on whether you killed off the Geth or synthesized them. If you didn't kill them, they continue to work together with the Quarians to develop Rannoch. They already have agricultural facilities set up before the final battle, so they're good.
2. Yes, and? Travel is not a requirement for life. This does likely mean that some mining facilities will not survive, which sucks, but is hardly world-shattering.
3. Turians and Quarians on Earth will die if there are no facilities for manufacturing dextro food. Their races on the home planets, however, will live. Levo folks will be fine - the reapers weren't razing the entire planet, primarily the cities would have been hit. They went where the highest concentrations of people were. There will be some hard times, but hardly an insurmountable problem - definitely not so bad that they all have to eat each other.
4. Huh?

I mean, come on, clueless? It's not like I haven't thought it through. I'm not clueless because I disagree with your take on the ending. It's ridiculous the number of posts/articles/etc. that have decided that anyone who doesn't hate the ending is some sort of moron. I've got well over 300 hours invested in these games - it's not a question of me liking the ending because I don't know enough about the universe or am some casual game player.

300 hours invested and you are satisfied with "Yo dawg, I herd you don't like being killed by synthetics, so we made some synthetics to kill you every 50k years so you won't get killed by other synthetics"?

I think its more like this. Reapers 'figured' out that if the races lived too long, they would create a Synthetic race that would destroy 'all' organic life 'all of it' somehow. To prevent that the Reapers destroy all advanced organic life before they can develope suffeciently advanced synthetic races to destroy themself. And let the non-advanced organic life live on. They give them enough time (50K years) To both develope and have a taste of intergalactic diplomacy and warfare and shit, before they come and harvest them and their technology and preserve the 'best' race of the cycle by making it into a reaper. The rest become reaperslaves.

 

[irishda]

Well, that's as good as a change confirmation IMO.

I can't imagine them saying "it's possible" and then later simply deciding not to.

On BSN we have a PR person reading into the Bioware Press Releases for us to tell us how they're trying to make us react. This is not a confirmation in the slightest. Nowhere does he actually say they will change anything.
"We would like to clarify that we are actively and seriously taking all player feedback into consideration and have ruled nothing out. At this time we are still collecting and considering your feedback and have not made a decision regarding requests to change the ending"
Aka: They know we are complaining, and if we keep complaining we will get an ending.
The PR guy has said that it is an achievement to actually be recognised by their PR team, but we've got to keep pushing. Until they 100% confirm that DLC for the ending is in the works, they are merely trying to calm everyone down so that people stop complaining and start praising the game, and EA doesn't have to put any money into making a new ending. By the time the fans realise, we will be more disorganised that we are now, and all complaints will come across as either hypocritical, over the top, or just not worth the effort.
If we want a new ending, we have to keep pushing until we actually get that new ending.

BTW, here's the thread with all the PR guy quotes:
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/10084349
Hold the line brother.

Well you better hurry up then because Diablo 3 comes out in May, so there goes all the pro-change crowd. Of course the anti-change crowd will also be playing Diablo 3 but that's besides the point.

 

[A Weakgeek]

Maybe you'll get purple explosions this time.

 

[Joccaren]

Ok thank you.

I tried to read selectively because some elements started getting to be a little TMI for me. THank you for keeping it as spoiler free as possible.

Now I have to know, when or where did EA or Bioware make a direct confirmable promise to
A: End the series
B: Dictate that choices would be relevant all the way from beginning to the end of the game
C: Get every answer to everything.

I mean I may simply be ignorant on this, because I am unaware of the definitive promises being made to the community before the release of the game as I am not one to read biowares forums or other bioware related reading cause my liking for them is only slightly above passing. So a citation circa pre march would be quite beneficial to facilitate my understanding on how this is a slight against gamers.

A lot of these can probably be found in Escapist articles on interviews and such, however there is a neat collection of all quotes on BSN with links to sources. Didn't post that link as the thread contains some spoilers. Anyway...
A: Technically never said they'd end the series. Its not what most people are angry about either. They've said they're thinking about an ME4, but ME3 is the end of Shepard's story arc. I'll see if I can find that quote...
B & C: The above quotes I mentioned should suffice, but source articles can be found in list after this. All pre release, so shouldn't be to many spoilers.
As for the 'Every answer to Everything' - its not what we're asking for. We're asking for ANY answer to ANYTHING. As is, Bioware's plans for the ending were 'lots of speculation for everyone!', by telling you nothing about what happens to anyone. There is a short clip of what happens to the Normandy, but it is so vague that almost anything could have happened. Otherwise, no explanation for anything.
Source articles (Quotes Used may not be at top, so scan through whole article):
http://www.360magazine.co.uk/interview/mass-effect-3-has-many-different-endings/
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-02-bioware-mass-effect-3-ending-will-make-some-people-angry
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/04/28/casey-hudson-interview-mass-effect-3.aspx
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/01/10/mass1525-effect-3-cas5ey-fdsafdhudson-interviewae.aspx?PostPageIndex=2
http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1027650/mass_effect_3_reapers_can_win_bioware.html
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/336331/interviews/mass-effect-3-we-cant-go-on-holiday-our-dlc-is-really-good/?page=2

And maybe a few more.
If you choose to brave minor spoilers, and check out more quotes and sources, here is the list of them on BSN: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/10056886

 

[SosaAddie30]

my co-worker's mother earned $21538 last week. she is working on the computer and moved in a $584500 condo. All she did was get blessed and work up the advice made clear on this website CashHuge.com

 

[Pandabearparade]

...did he -really- just compare the end of Mass Effect 3 to the most esteemed painting of all time?

 

[Ross Fixxed]

The issues with the endings for me are:

1) Destruction: How is EDI on the Normandy if all synthetic life is destroyed? Why is the Normandy in a Mass Relay. How did EDI and Garrus get out of London into the Normady?
2) Synthesis: it doesn't make sense (same issue with Normandy also)
3) Control: Same issue with Normandy.
4) One more story, but it will cost you money.
5) The Prothean team member is actually on the disc! That is just a bit too dirty for my liking. (There is a video how to unlock him on PC but not sure if this is entirely legal to link to?)
6) Synthetics will destroy you so I have synthetics that destroy you before the synthetics destroy you... I get that it is pruning the life in the galaxy (and letting the 'lesser' species carry on) but it just seems like broken logic.

As for the Relays being destroyed: I'm ok with that it was a big holy shit moment for me and was quite powerful. I don't want it to happen for the characters but it did. I assume the surrounding systems weren't damaged as the crucible was purpose built to stop this happening(?)

Shepherd still alive?: Where is he? It doesn't add up after the huge explosion on the citadel.

So now that it's over, what to play next?

 

[Cid Silverwing]

No. Just no. Fuck you, Bioware. Fuck you with rusty chainsaws.

I'm sick and tired of being baited into pre-ordering trash that cheats me out of my money. And before anyone flames me with the "You should have waited" routine, save it. Bioware broke Peter Molyneux and Bethesda's records for most broken promise ever, and I'm not gonna abide it. I can't even demand my digital copy refunded because I just know EA are too evil to give refunds.

I already uninstalled Mass Effect 3 and the filthy piece of spying shit Origin that it piggybacks, AND deleted my Shepard out of protest. I'm NOT gonna hang around until Bioware fixes the ending, the damage has been done.

You goddamn soulless liars. You're just as evil as Electronic Arts.


Captcha: CREATIVE PROCESS

 

[Torrasque]

Good thing I didn't pay for the Mona Lisa

This combined with your avatar is pure gold.

 

[Nimcha]

I hope nothing much happens. People who frequent those Bioware forums are almost exclusively vile and on top of that usually always wrong.

Maybe they'll make a few more cinematics showing things like a krogan baby being born or whatever, I wouldn't mind that much. But to me the endings are fine as it is.

 

[Inkidu]

I would definitely never buy another Bioware game again if they caved and changed the endings. Notice, I did not say, "Expand on the endings" I'm all for that, but if they outright change their endings because it's what the fans demand they might as well make their next game by daily poles in the BioWare forums and see how that turns out. I think the mark of true writer is their ability to stand behind what they produce. If they're not able to do that then they won't have my money or respect.

 

[Varrdy]

BioWare, don't kowtow to a minority of whiners. You can't please them all; it is all rather silly anyway. Be strong in what you created; it is just fine.

Stick to your guns and you will get more respect, I know I will respect you more. You make the games, we don't. The players only play them, if they don't like what you do, they can go somewhere else. It won't be a problem because you won't lose that many players.

I find it very interesting and frustrating in equal measures that many people calling us "whiners" offer little or no argument to back up their name-calling.

Us "whiners", resepcted journalists and everyone in between are offing up countless, rational arguments as to why the ending is unacceptable and backing it all up with evidence. More and more people are realising that we have very valid points and that blind acceptance is not the way forward for Mass Effect or any other franchise out there.

While I would like to stress that I am NOT saying you are "wrong" for liking the ending as it stands - you have a right to your opinion - but so do we and I'd thank you to be a bit more civil at the very least.

You say that BioWare should stick to their guns, which is a fair point, but by that same rationale, I will be sticking to my guns and press for more endings that better reflect the choices I made and, crucially, were assured (if not promised) I'd get.

Are you seriously saying that, if you were promised something and so put your money on the table only to have that promise gone back on, you would just shrug and say: "Fair enough"?