Mass Effect 3 Outrage Causes Unrelated Game to Change its Ending

[zinho73]

I suppose it is interesting that they did this, even if it does come across a little smug and pretentious. But this whole "wah! don't tread on my fledgling artist integrity" whine fest is getting really old now.

Why can't we just treat Mass Effect 3 like any other game with a horribly written ending? You know - write snide reviews, make up our own endings whilst laughing at how inept the writers must be and treating all future products from the same developer with a sense of suspicion. Why must we demand redemption and "retake" the game? What makes Mass Effect so special?

If you are in a restaurant and your order is changed by mistake you will probably want your original order instead of leaving the restaurant, writing a bad review of it on the net and never eating there again. Because you know that the food is good, they just made a mistake.

Same thing here. Instead of turning their backs to the company, some people are trying to negotiate a different deal with Bioware, which actually shows that the product is really loved.

You can only hate if you love, my friend.

 

[Inkidu]

These people are now my heroes!

 

[Darkmantle]

If he was planning on leaving that ending in forever, I would take it a bit more seriously.

 

[Jodah]

"Not all of the under our control." See that's where this whole thing falls apart. In this case we DO have some control. We can make noise, protest, and demand answers. That doesn't mean Bioware has to do anything but it is still a measure of control that all consumers have with any product.

 

[OniaPL]

What I don't understand is, why does the ending have to be changed into a "good" one? Why can't people just let it be and swear to never buy a Bioware game again?

I mean, if something is bad then it is bad. Why does it have to be changed? :S

 

[putowtin]

Ahh sarcasm... the lowest form of wit
(if you don't count dick or fart jokes!)

 

[PingoBlack]

What I don't understand is, why does the ending have to be changed into a "good" one? Why can't people just let it be and swear to never buy a Bioware game again?

I mean, if something is bad then it is bad. Why does it have to be changed? :S

You are right of course, demanding change shouldn't be reasonable. I for one think what you pointed out is better way to go about it.

But that's another problem. Since they originally planned to keep releasing DLC for ME3, they made these demands actually reasonable. They can make money by changing the end now.

 

[Sandytimeman]

I find it funny everyone is coming to their defense about this (ME3) game. So yet another company that is perfectly fine with shipping an terrible product and paying full price for it, but it being the customers fault.

I am not going to be the fucking victim here. This company just got added to my personal boycott list.

Seem that all these companies and press outlets that think its okie to ship a shitty rushed product that doesn't meet with promised and published pre-release marketing materials. They said it wouldn't have an ABC ending and that's exactly what you got an ABC ending.

 

[JeanLuc761]

What I don't understand is, why does the ending have to be changed into a "good" one? Why can't people just let it be and swear to never buy a Bioware game again?

I mean, if something is bad then it is bad. Why does it have to be changed? :S

It's pretty simple really: Gaming is unique in that it is a malleable art form as well as a commercial product. Thanks to the advent of DLC/Patches and widespread high-speed internet, game developers have an opportunity to fix aspects of their game that didn't go over well with their fans. This is an opportunity that other forms of media, such as film and books, would not have (at least, not as easily).

Broken Steel "fixed" the ending to Fallout 3 because fans were unhappy and Bethesda outright admitted that they had made a mistake. Mass Effect 2's Lair of the Shadow Broker was clearly a product influenced heavily by fan suggestion/demand.

In my opinion, if Bioware chooses to revise the ending, that will demonstrate that Bioware continues to listen to the fanbase and does their best to improve the product for everyone. I can't see that as anything other than a good thing.

 

[OniaPL]

What I don't understand is, why does the ending have to be changed into a "good" one? Why can't people just let it be and swear to never buy a Bioware game again?

I mean, if something is bad then it is bad. Why does it have to be changed? :S

You are right of course, demanding change shouldn't be reasonable. I for one think what you pointed out is better way to go about it.

But that's another problem. Since they originally planned to keep releasing DLC for ME3, they made these demands actually reasonable. They can make money by changing the end now.

It's just so very problematic. I feel like nobody's going to win if this keeps going on. Fans will get a plastic, forced pandering ending and there will be a dangerous precedent set for the industry.

 

[Eamar]

I can't help but feel that the games industry is missing something crucial with the whole "art" thing. Criticism (good and bad) is just as important as creation. Of course Bioware doesn't have to change its ending if it doesn't want to (this from someone who did hate the ending and would love it if a better one was produced at some point in the future, but I'm certainly not "demanding" anything). But this sort of snide reaction and the confused statements we've been hearing about the sanctity of art, as well as the demonisation by gaming journalists of those who dare to complain, are uncalled for and not helpful at all. If we want games to be taken seriously then the industry needs to grow up and learn to deal with negative criticism because *newsflash* people get pissed off about stuff in ALL artistic media. It just seems to me that some people have this skewed view of "art" and how it should be immune from criticism...

 

[nathan-dts]

Just change the ending. Game development is a collaborative effort, why not take input from the people that matter, your fans. People need to stop defending Bioware, they fucked up and need to fix it. That ending is not art, Mordin's death was art, Grunts last stand was art. These things evoked emotions, the ending evoked nothing and then because of that nothingness people became angry.

fans are just that, fans.

you do not work for Bioware, you have no input on how their game should be.


Honestly, everyone who is arguing that Bioware fucked the ending is a bit of a hypocrite, where was the rage for Black Ops?

Where was the "Baww, we hate Day 1 DLC but will pay money to a third party to demand a new ending" for Battlefield 3.

Where the fuck was everyone for fucking Kotor and Dragon Age?


While people are claiming its the worst game ever made, me and my 15 friends on XBL are still enjoying it.

Black Ops was not the end to a trilogy that previously had amazing storylines, Battlefield 3 largely had a perfectly fine ending and had no story based or useful DLC. Kotor and Dragon Age had great endings. All of your points are stupid and I can tell that you've never played/liked Mass Effect.

 

[Epic Fail 1977]

Toys and prams come to mind... On many levels. Still, entertaining.

Wait... are you talking about the FS devs or the BW fans?

 

[Tanakh]

Experiment, he says? Nice. It worked ...
I was gonna check out this game, he gave me a very nice reason to stay the fuck away.

Well, Frozen Synapse is basically a tactic PvP game, if your main focus on a videogame it's the narrative you might want to avoid it; it's kind of SC II only turn based and God knows how many people were dissapointed by SC II being PvP focused. The dev knows this and it's only having fun changing a minor aspect of his game and hopefully doing a PR stunt.

For me it's an amazing game, and will get around to it someday... probably, i own it, but between DotA 2, BF 3, Battlezones of SW:ToR and the upcoming GW 2 RvRvR finding time for it is hard.

 

[Weaver]

1) I think this is unnecessarily smug and stupid.

2) It seems to assume all Frozen Synapse players want to change the ME3 ending then tells them they're ignorant.

3) Isn't Mode 7 two people? The ending to ME3 was a collaborative effort of at least six writers alone, then designers, animators, programmers. All said, the team that did the ending is likely 10 - 30 times larger than the entirety of mode 7. Yes, when Paul Taylor changes things it feels like he's defacing his own work... because it's literally his own work, he did all of it. And he's not just modifying the ending he is literally vandalizing it.

Bioware is not a person. It does not feel or think as an individual.

 

[Fiend Dragon]

Welp, it looks they entirely missed the point.

The reason that Mass Effect 3's ending is bad isn't because it isn't a 'happy ending' for the characters or anything like that, the reason that ME3's ending is bad is because it is written and executed very poorly.

A well written story, even, and especially tragic works can have outcomes that aren't happy for the characters, but you can still appreciate how the work was put together to create a compelling narrative and inspire emotion.

The ending of Mass Effect 3's narrative didn't generate any emotion, it was all mechanical disappointment and confusion, as suddenly 3 entire games worth of extremely well written and cohesive fiction is concluded with a amateurish fumble that doesn't fit the tone or message that has been established over 3 entire works.

But yeah, okay, let's change the ending of our game to spit at an unrelated group because "[they] don't care if you like it".

"This is not a criticism of Bioware or anything they have said/done," Taylor remarked. "It is an experiment: I wanted to know how this felt. Honestly, it felt like vandalizing my own work, which was interesting."

Yeah, maybe he feels that way because it is. Maybe you should just leave it that way, even end new games that way! It doesn't matter if fans don't like it!

 

[Tanakh]

What I don't understand is, why does the ending have to be changed into a "good" one? Why can't people just let it be and swear to never buy a Bioware game again?

I mean, if something is bad then it is bad. Why does it have to be changed? :S

You are wrong on key points:

- It's not up to "the people" to change the ending, it's up to Bioware. And if they wanted this to stop they can just say "sorry, we won't change it or release new DLC to change it, period".

- Bioware's main reason to exsist is to make money. They do so by releasing games that people like, why shouldn't they please his audience? Is what artist have done since... always.