Mass Effect 3: The movement

[The Wooster]

Whatever your feelings on the ending and some the pressure to change it, accusing people who don't share your opinion of either not understanding it or being corrupt is intellectually dishonest.

Suggesting that people making blatant strawman arguments are "not understanding" is the polite response, since the alternative (and probable reality) is that they're deliberately mischaracterizing the discussion - which, BTW, is intellectually dishonest.

If media figures who haven't even played the game are going to go around leveling ad hominem attacks on behalf of their sponsors, they're inviting criticism. Frankly, accusing games journalism of corruption is kind of like accusing lobbyists of the same - isn't it essentially their job description? Very few sites even pretend to avoid conflicts of interest.

So, just to get this straight, you're calling me corrupt? That's a very poor way to start a conversation.

 

[RaikuFA]

Retake Mass Effect, and the people peripherally attached to it, seem to have a modus operandi of deifying journalists and publications that agree with their point, and demonizing those that don't. Whatever your feelings on the ending and some the pressure to change it, accusing people who don't share your opinion of either not understanding it or being corrupt is intellectually dishonest.

To be fair, calling us entitled, whiny crybabies who should just get over it isn't exactly what I expect from journalists. I'm not saying they're corrupt or that they 'don't get it' (although one or two of them really don't) but they fail to look at both sides, which to me is a fundamental failing of journalistic integrity. They act like we're attacking or outright destroying art, when shouldn't they want to see games being the best they can, which would include reevaluating one's work with an aim to improve it?

You're one of the better ones from what I've seen. As most go "You're with us or against us."

 

[Azuaron]

Her stripes vanished... SHE'S A WITCH!

Didn't you see the Colour-Changing Panties featured a few strips ago? Obviously the hoodie is from the same company.

Or maybe... Indoctrination Theory!

...damn, that suddenly became completely plausible in my mind

Or the non-striped hoodie is on the same guy who's wearing it in panel 3 (notice the pants as well).

 

[Brutal Peanut]

Spoiler: Ooooooh!

I just,.....I just don't know what to feel anymore about the Retake 'movement' for the Mass Effect 3 ending.

 

[Sandytimeman]

Mass Effect 3: The movement

You dirty bird, Bioware, how could you?

Read Full Article

Basically the reason I feel alot of journalist missed the point, was like the point cept being brought up "people didn't like it because it didn't have a 'cake and ice cream' happy ending" which made me mad. I just didn't like the ending because it was a terribly written ending.

But people kept bringing up the happy ending point. I don't even care anymore to be honest. I'm done with bioware and the ME universe at this point.

 

[Xanthious]

a fundamental failing of journalistic integrity.

Well there's your problem! You're expecting journalistic integrity in what in what passes for "journalism" on the internet. Integrity, fact checking, and often times the actual truth may as well be used to wipe a monkey's ass when weighed against the important things like page views.

Real journalism is a scarce thing on the internet. Mostly it's just a race to be to plagiarize whoever made up (or in rare instances actually landed a real story) this week's hot rumor or story. This just isn't a problem on gaming sites but the internet in general. Internet "journalists" (may as well call em astronauts as they resemble both about equally) largely just make the rounds of sites that put in the actual leg work then paraphrase, if not copy word for word, their hard work which is then reposted with an obligatory source link.

Now my problem isn't with the people themselves but rather what a sad state of affairs journalism has degraded into on the internet. I go to multiple sites that have great original content but their "News" section is just a regurgitation of what other sites have posted. Don't get me wrong the internet has done a great deal of good but journalistic integrity was early collateral damage.

 

[Something Amyss]

accusing people who don't share your opinion of either not understanding it or being corrupt is intellectually dishonest.

Of course, a lot of people don't understand it. The general consensus is that issues have little to do with a happy ending, a claim that many of the journalists and pundits are claiming that's what people are looking for.

Kinda like what your comic did. I didn't give a damn about the banner in the comic, because it was funny. But then I read the text below, and that kind of makes it ugly.

What people are saying:
-They were promised player choices through the series impacting the end, which they didn't get.
-The ending doesn't make sense and has a large number of holes.

What the people criticizing retake are saying:
-Spoiled, entitled crybabies are upset because they are not getting a happy ending exactly to their specifications.

How is that not missing the point and failing to understand?

This may not apply in each and every case, but a large portion of the opposition really is failing to understand. Including several of the contributors on this site. I mean, I may have hyperbolized the exact wording of the statement, but Moviebob hit all of the points from my "What the people criticizing retake are saying."

 

[Pyrian]

That's a very poor way to start a conversation.

What kind of respectful and mature discussion were you expecting to start with "Happy Ending for a Happy Ending"?

 

[The Wooster]

That's a very poor way to start a conversation.

What kind of respectful and mature discussion were you expecting to start with "Happy Ending for a Happy Ending"?

Yes, because me making a joke about the fact the Retake ME protests have been bizarrely nice is the same as you saying I have no ethical standards.

To misquote Oscar Wilde:

Satirists gonna' satire.

 

[Blind Sight]

So, just to get this straight, you're calling me corrupt? That's a very poor way to start a conversation.

You infer that fans will perform blowjobs for Bioware employees for a 'happy ending' (which isn't really the argument being presented by most, it more has to do with the ending being terribly written and lacking complex choice) and then expect a positive response back? If you've just openly mocked and deliberately misinterpreted a group of people's opinion don't expect them to be nice in response. It's really the commentary below the comic that's the problem, where you lambast gamers for misinterpreting journalists while doing it yourself to them.

To the comic: Clearly the fanboy is meant to be egoraptor, would've been an ok satire on the whole 'Retake ME3' movement if it wasn't just constructed of internet strawmen.

 

[Akisa]

the angry mob got their wish tho :O

No they didn't, Bioware decided to only extend the current endings, instead of adding new endings. I highly doubt that these new extensions would fix anything, as they still allow player choices and input.

 

[DirtyJunkieScum]

I totally thought this would be about pooping. I was wrong.

 

[Saltyk]

That is officially the best protest ever.

That's a very poor way to start a conversation.

What kind of respectful and mature discussion were you expecting to start with "Happy Ending for a Happy Ending"?

Yes, because me making a joke about the fact the Retake ME protests have been bizarrely nice is the same as you saying I have no ethical standards.

To misquote Oscar Wilde:

Satirists gonna' satire.

My god. It's almost like you think you're writing a webcomic. One that tells jokes. You obviously don't understand the meaning of this comic like the fans do. You should change the ending, now.

 

[Moosejaw]

Whatever your feelings on the ending and some the pressure to change it, accusing people who don't share your opinion of either not understanding it or being corrupt is intellectually dishonest.

Wow. Have you ever witnessed any argument between two groups of people, ever? Because you're going to see a lot of that. Go look at any political forum. Any. Democrat, Republican, Green, whatever, you will find one side calling the other side stupid for not thinking what they think, or call them evil. Pretending that the group dynamics at play here are ANY different (Or a generalization in itself, pretending that most or all of the ReTakers act like this) is significantly MORE intellectually dishonest.

 

[The Wooster]

Whatever your feelings on the ending and some the pressure to change it, accusing people who don't share your opinion of either not understanding it or being corrupt is intellectually dishonest.

Wow. Have you ever witnessed any argument between two groups of people, ever? Because you're going to see a lot of that. Go look at any political forum. Any. Democrat, Republican, Green, whatever, you will find one side calling the other side stupid for not thinking what they think, or call them evil.

And if this were a political webcomic on a political forum I'd be calling those morons out too.

 

[Imp_Emissary]

Whatever your feelings on the ending and some the pressure to change it, accusing people who don't share your opinion of either not understanding it or being corrupt is intellectually dishonest.

Suggesting that people making blatant strawman arguments are "not understanding" is the polite response, since the alternative (and probable reality) is that they're deliberately mischaracterizing the discussion - which, BTW, is intellectually dishonest.

If media figures who haven't even played the game are going to go around leveling ad hominem attacks on behalf of their sponsors, they're inviting criticism. Frankly, accusing games journalism of corruption is kind of like accusing lobbyists of the same - isn't it essentially their job description? Very few sites even pretend to avoid conflicts of interest.

So, just to get this straight, you're calling me corrupt? That's a very poor way to start a conversation.

Well this could have gone better. Good comic by the way.

Mind if I as 2 questions?

Do you think BioWare is putting their artistic vision (or whatever you call it) at risk with what they plan to do, by which I mean keep the ending the same, but adding on additional content after the end to explain it and give some more closure?

I get what people say about just changing the ending just because the people playing the game didn't like it, because that would be very very very very bad. However, I also get what people say about how the ending isn't just disliked because it's bad, but also because it doesn't make sense and gives no sense of closure (good or bad).

So, 3rd question (Its kind of a rewrite of 2). Do you think keeping the ending, but adding to it is an acceptable option?

 

[Abedeus]

Great, another person totally missing the point about why people are complaining.

Not because ending was sad.

It was because they shat on the lore, technology, characters we came to like over the past 3 games, their actions and filled the ending with plot holes and inconsistencies.

 

[Pyrian]

....a joke about the fact the Retake ME protests have been bizarrely nice...

Are you entirely unaware of your comic's insinuation that people who want more to Mass Effect 3's ending are desperate "crack" whores? It wasn't subtle. (Nevermind, of course, the dead-horse strawman of the problem with ME3's ending being that it wasn't sufficiently happy, one of the major geneses of the continuing accusations of people not understanding.)

...is the same as you saying I have no ethical standards.

I'm pretty sure that "addiction prostitute" is worse than "corrupt", the latter merely implying a relative lack of certain standards, while the former implies a near total lack of any standards.

And keep in mind that I had no issue with finding the comic offensive in itself. I'm just a little startled that someone could simultaneously fire that off and then take offense at someone pointing out the frequent conflict of interest in game journalism.

Anyway, my criticism isn't that you, personally, are corrupt, but rather that your accusation of intellectual dishonesty for claims that are rather easy to intellectually defend is incorrect. A strawman argument is either a lack of understanding or intellectually dishonest, pointing that out is neither.

Satirists gonna' satire.

Really, I think you went off the rails with your non-satirical follow up, rather than the comic itself, which was funny.

 

[Krion_Vark]

So, just to get this straight, you're calling me corrupt? That's a very poor way to start a conversation.

You infer that fans will perform blowjobs for Bioware employees for a 'happy ending' (which isn't really the argument being presented by most, it more has to do with the ending being terribly written and lacking complex choice) and then expect a positive response back? If you've just openly mocked and deliberately misinterpreted a group of people's opinion don't expect them to be nice in response.

To the comic: Clearly the fanboy is meant to be egoraptor, would've been an ok satire on the whole 'Retake ME3' movement if it wasn't just constructed of internet strawmen.

Just remember said group you are defending DONATED money to a CHARITY. Then DEMANDED said money back. I know its not everyone in the group but seriously if you want to go and defend a part of the group that was actually good you also have to remember that another part of the group is bad.

It's really the commentary below the comic that's the problem, where you lambast gamers for misinterpreting journalists while doing it yourself to them.

Its a web comic that takes no serious stance on anything. Did you not see the last few weeks of comics? He isn't misinterpreting the movement. A bunch of people IN the movement acted the exact way that he described.