Hey there all, it's been over a year since I've even been on the Escapist, but when I saw this podcast I just had to come back and comment. First of all, I was stunned by the endings because much like the one gentleman said, I felt nothing from them. I was literally in tears watching Morden ride that elevator, Grunt beat up and escape his own death scene, and Legion giving up his self to give all the other Geth a chance, none of which are exactly something I can say normally happens to me as 25 year old male. Though, when I got to the ending, the first thing I did was turn around and try to shoot the hologram child thing, the second thing I did was just walk to the Synthesis because the other options seemed monstrous.
My main problem seems to be in fairly lock step with the rest of the players. I invested literal days worth of time into this series, I deserve and have earned some closure and explanation to the ending. Trying the artsy defense just means you don't actually seem to understand it yourself and pulled it out of your bum.
I don't think you have to have this "Cake" ending, and while Ms. Arendt has my utmost respect in a lot of things, I think she is being far too reductionist when it comes to that argument. I spent 100+ hours on all three games total getting every scrap in each game so I could have the ultimate experience when three rolled around, not so I could get to choose the color green and ruin the galaxy, but to actually win and save the day. When you push that button you damn the galaxy. With the destruction of the Citadel and the Mass Relays you have doomed untold civilizations that rely on those things to feed, protect, etc billions of sentient life forms. That smacks of about as unheroic as you can get.
Also something Ms. Arendt said that I disagree with is that because they love it they know what's best for it. I know plenty of people that love something and are far too close to be objective about things, or that because of said love do less than good choices. I don't think because they made it they happen to care more about it than us, they're still paid employees making a product, though unlike a book or movie, this is an interactive medium and when you make a game, people have far more of a say. We were told endlessly of how our choices matter, and in the sense for the game they didn't. I agonized in One over the Rachni choice and ended up preserving the race even though I was pretty much straight Renegade. Why? Because it felt like it was the right thing to do, back then I didn't even know they were doing a trilogy, and just couldn't commit genocide, but then in Three they give you some Scientists for the Crucible and nothing more. That just smacks of laziness on their part. We were promised the world, but we barely got New Jersey. I think they were blinded by their own PR, and when it went off the rails they didn't/couldn't see it because they said it was good, then it must be so.
As for Indoctrination Theory, it falls flat for me completely due to one thing that I haven't noticed talked about, but then again I haven't trawled all the discussions, so I fully admit to having possibly missed this. The Prothean VI says flat out when Kai Leng shows up that it detects Indoctrinated Persons approaching, which means that it easily and powerfully scans lifeforms and knows they have become indoctrinated. The VI never reacts to you as being indoctrinated or starting down that path and it seems to me that with how the Protheans were paranoid about that kind of thing they would probably have mentioned it. Also with how late in the game that was it would be an extreme stretch to try and claim the indoctrination took place afterwards when I had already dealt with all the Reapers up close that I was going to. Especially when fast indoctrination cripples you mentally, the game would have had to just be a cinematic of a slack jawed Shepard doing stuff as we watch. Please feel free to clue me in if that is explained away somehow with the Indoctrination Theory, I honestly have trouble getting into it for the aforementioned reason, not exactly the best way to go about setting up your argument, but at least I come out and admit it, heh.
Moving on to DLCs, I don't see how Bioware gets my trust back in this. If they claim, Surprise! You've been fooled, now pay us for the "Real Ending" I might actually be far more annoyed than if they just own up to, in my opinion, really crappy endings and say, alright we'll see what we can do to fix it. Because the idea that I have to pay for the true ending to a game sickens me as a consumer, I don't have the money for many games, heck the only reason I got to play ME:3 at all is because my best friend shelled out the cash for me. I don't have the income to pay more to get an actual ending to things.
I don't know anything about the other three Podcast members, and I thoroughly enjoyed all their takes, I just hope if you see this Ms. Arendt, please know that I do really agree with a lot of what you say and have truly respected your opinion on many many things that I saw you do for the Escapist over the years, just you happened to give voice to a few of the things that I disagree with over this Mass Effect Kerfuffle.
Now I think if anyone actually read through this whole thing, thank you for taking the time, I had to get my feelings out about this somewhere, and I like and respect the community here, which is rare on the internet, to know that people may disagree, but they prefer to teach instead of condemn. So thanks for indulging me.
P.S. A friend linked me to a Deviant Art account that has a Mass Effect 3 ending that if they modeled it after I would be pretty happy. Look up a fellow named Arkis and his Mass Effect 3 Alternate Endings, not for everyone I suppose, but that's what I'll think of when I think of how it all ended.
Edit: One other thing I thought of about the "Cake"/"Happy" ending. Why not? I think after 100+ hours, 3 games, all that blood, sweat, and tears, we could've definitely been given a Happy ending. Sad/Dark endings are not, let me make this caps to prove how serious I totally am heh, NOT automatically better or more mature, and inversely happy being more childish. Millions of people had died, even if we survived, that ain't happy. I think their desire to kill off Shepard to be edgy is stupid because that's the new normal anymore, everything and everyone wants to be Dark; Dark Sci-Fi, Dark Fantasy, Dystopian Future, blah blah blah, it gets tedious real quick for me, again though let me state this isn't why I hated the endings, but it does still beg the question why we couldn't get one here when we got a perfectly happy one in 2 with a Suicide Mission.
My main problem seems to be in fairly lock step with the rest of the players. I invested literal days worth of time into this series, I deserve and have earned some closure and explanation to the ending. Trying the artsy defense just means you don't actually seem to understand it yourself and pulled it out of your bum.
I don't think you have to have this "Cake" ending, and while Ms. Arendt has my utmost respect in a lot of things, I think she is being far too reductionist when it comes to that argument. I spent 100+ hours on all three games total getting every scrap in each game so I could have the ultimate experience when three rolled around, not so I could get to choose the color green and ruin the galaxy, but to actually win and save the day. When you push that button you damn the galaxy. With the destruction of the Citadel and the Mass Relays you have doomed untold civilizations that rely on those things to feed, protect, etc billions of sentient life forms. That smacks of about as unheroic as you can get.
Also something Ms. Arendt said that I disagree with is that because they love it they know what's best for it. I know plenty of people that love something and are far too close to be objective about things, or that because of said love do less than good choices. I don't think because they made it they happen to care more about it than us, they're still paid employees making a product, though unlike a book or movie, this is an interactive medium and when you make a game, people have far more of a say. We were told endlessly of how our choices matter, and in the sense for the game they didn't. I agonized in One over the Rachni choice and ended up preserving the race even though I was pretty much straight Renegade. Why? Because it felt like it was the right thing to do, back then I didn't even know they were doing a trilogy, and just couldn't commit genocide, but then in Three they give you some Scientists for the Crucible and nothing more. That just smacks of laziness on their part. We were promised the world, but we barely got New Jersey. I think they were blinded by their own PR, and when it went off the rails they didn't/couldn't see it because they said it was good, then it must be so.
As for Indoctrination Theory, it falls flat for me completely due to one thing that I haven't noticed talked about, but then again I haven't trawled all the discussions, so I fully admit to having possibly missed this. The Prothean VI says flat out when Kai Leng shows up that it detects Indoctrinated Persons approaching, which means that it easily and powerfully scans lifeforms and knows they have become indoctrinated. The VI never reacts to you as being indoctrinated or starting down that path and it seems to me that with how the Protheans were paranoid about that kind of thing they would probably have mentioned it. Also with how late in the game that was it would be an extreme stretch to try and claim the indoctrination took place afterwards when I had already dealt with all the Reapers up close that I was going to. Especially when fast indoctrination cripples you mentally, the game would have had to just be a cinematic of a slack jawed Shepard doing stuff as we watch. Please feel free to clue me in if that is explained away somehow with the Indoctrination Theory, I honestly have trouble getting into it for the aforementioned reason, not exactly the best way to go about setting up your argument, but at least I come out and admit it, heh.
Moving on to DLCs, I don't see how Bioware gets my trust back in this. If they claim, Surprise! You've been fooled, now pay us for the "Real Ending" I might actually be far more annoyed than if they just own up to, in my opinion, really crappy endings and say, alright we'll see what we can do to fix it. Because the idea that I have to pay for the true ending to a game sickens me as a consumer, I don't have the money for many games, heck the only reason I got to play ME:3 at all is because my best friend shelled out the cash for me. I don't have the income to pay more to get an actual ending to things.
I don't know anything about the other three Podcast members, and I thoroughly enjoyed all their takes, I just hope if you see this Ms. Arendt, please know that I do really agree with a lot of what you say and have truly respected your opinion on many many things that I saw you do for the Escapist over the years, just you happened to give voice to a few of the things that I disagree with over this Mass Effect Kerfuffle.
Now I think if anyone actually read through this whole thing, thank you for taking the time, I had to get my feelings out about this somewhere, and I like and respect the community here, which is rare on the internet, to know that people may disagree, but they prefer to teach instead of condemn. So thanks for indulging me.
P.S. A friend linked me to a Deviant Art account that has a Mass Effect 3 ending that if they modeled it after I would be pretty happy. Look up a fellow named Arkis and his Mass Effect 3 Alternate Endings, not for everyone I suppose, but that's what I'll think of when I think of how it all ended.
Edit: One other thing I thought of about the "Cake"/"Happy" ending. Why not? I think after 100+ hours, 3 games, all that blood, sweat, and tears, we could've definitely been given a Happy ending. Sad/Dark endings are not, let me make this caps to prove how serious I totally am heh, NOT automatically better or more mature, and inversely happy being more childish. Millions of people had died, even if we survived, that ain't happy. I think their desire to kill off Shepard to be edgy is stupid because that's the new normal anymore, everything and everyone wants to be Dark; Dark Sci-Fi, Dark Fantasy, Dystopian Future, blah blah blah, it gets tedious real quick for me, again though let me state this isn't why I hated the endings, but it does still beg the question why we couldn't get one here when we got a perfectly happy one in 2 with a Suicide Mission.