Mass Effect 3's Ending Was Intended To Polarize

[him over there]

So translation "We made a terrible contradictory ending on purpose that would make everyone throw a huge tantrum they'll never forget because if we actually tried to make it worthwhile there is a slim chance that people won't remember it as vividly." I see this guy chose the "Better to burn out than fade away" mentality. But what's this? they may be releasing some dlc that retcons the ending that forces people who were dissatisfied at your intentional fuck up to pay even more money? How wonderful.

 

[Raesvelg]

Which would still take them about five years to get to the closest galaxy cluster.

Assuming you're talking about open clusters (the parlance of galactic cluster typically refers to a cluster of galaxies these days, the nearest of which is millions of light years away), I believe my response is:

So what?

Actually, my first response is: You're wrong.

The nearest open cluster is the Hyades cluster, which is only 46 parsecs from Sol. Which is only about 150 light years, in case you don't feel like doing the math. At 12 light years per day travel time, that means that the nearest cluster is only about 13 days away. The next, about 13 more days.

There are plenty of stars between here and there to stop off at and refuel. Your statement is roughly equivalent to saying that it would take 140 days to walk to Los Angeles from New York, as if the rest of the United States simply weren't there.

That's /with/ the relays. Straight-up FTL around the stars? I imagine that would take significantly longer than thirty years.

Bioware provided the basic figures, I'm just the one doing the math and allowing a generous twelve extra years for routing, repairs, degaussing, refueling and possible construction of supporting infrastructure. If you want to get really pessimistic, 50 years might be more realistic, which is still significantly less than the 300 years the Quarians have already spent wandering.

 

[SushiJaguar]

How are they to refuel, though? Most every planet is in ruins, the gas giants needed to discharge the cores are few and far between, the space stations made for that purpose were destroyed.

Repairs would still be easily plausible, what with the quarians and their jury-rigging rank 10 being part of the mass-exodus fleet, but it's a rather uncertain prospect in of itself. Still, you're right, even fifty years is a lot more doable than three hundred.

 

[Leo Meier]

no the real ending is niftu cal becomes the new god of the galaxy

 

[Beautiful End]

Yeeeep, I see the "true ending" coming out as a DLC in the future.

One of two things could happen from this point on:

-They'll deny the fact that most fans are displeased with the ending and they'll stick to their guns. Then they'll release that promised DLC that will have to do with everything but what the fans are asking for.
Or...
-They'll admit they were wrong and they'll try to make it up...in the shape of DLC. Fans will be angry, but BioWare will simply shrug and say "Hey, you got what you asked for! What's the problem here?"

 

[Wanderhome]

The problem with the ending, is that the game doesn't really end...
It just stops, you make the "final" choice and boom!!

Some unexplained, possibly life exterminating events occur, and you the player are left scratching your head wishing you'd picked the other choices, which you find out is for most concerns identical...

Not to mention that the plot of the entire series equals a giant facepalm.

 

[Czaran]

Not to mention that the plot of the entire series equals a giant facepalm.

Why is the plot a facepalm? Usually plots in video games are pretty substandard, but I considered Mass Effect's plot to be pretty great. The first 2 games were just reapers screwing with the galaxy trapped in dark space and the last game they came.

The only thing that was off/broke the trilogy was the ending.

 

[Wanderhome]

Not to mention that the plot of the entire series equals a giant facepalm.

Why is the plot a facepalm. Usually plots in video games are pretty substandard, but I considered Mass Effect's plot to be pretty great. The first 2 games were just reapers screwing with the galaxy trapped in dark space and the last game they came.

The only thing that was off/broke the trilogy was the ending.

The main point of the plot is giant spaceship robots want to kill all sufficiently advanced life for a "reason" so far beyond our understanding, that they won't even bother to tell us.

That "reason" is invalidated both in ME2 with EDI and in ME3 with the EDI & the millions of Geth, so in the end your fighting giant idiotic spaceship robots... that do what they do because they do it, even though Shepard just proved them wrong, such a ingenius story, facepalm.

Not to mention ME2 whole suicide mission made no sense, what if on the other side of the Omega relay there would have been like 40 collector ships... Shep and crew would have been obliterated, i'm sorry but you don't send one ship to fight an entire species...
They coulda fixed the whole plot by simply saying the Normandy2 was gonna go scout the other end of the relay with a larger cerberus fleet to follow, but they didn't... facepalm.

 

[Czaran]

Not to mention that the plot of the entire series equals a giant facepalm.

Why is the plot a facepalm. Usually plots in video games are pretty substandard, but I considered Mass Effect's plot to be pretty great. The first 2 games were just reapers screwing with the galaxy trapped in dark space and the last game they came.

The only thing that was off/broke the trilogy was the ending.

The main point of the plot is giant spaceship robots want to kill all sufficiently advanced life for a "reason" so far beyond our understanding, that they won't even bother to tell us.

Not to mention ME2 whole suicide mission made no sense, what if on the other side of the Omega relay there would have been like 40 collector ships... Shep and crew would have been obliterated, i'm sorry but you don't send one ship to fight an entire species...
They coulda fixed the whole plot by simply saying the Normandy2 was gonna go scout the other end of the relay with a larger cerberus fleet to follow, but they didn't... facepalm.

The reapers exist to save organic life. Organics would build synthetics that would always revolt and if given time, would wipe out all organic life, making the galaxy dumb.
That is why the reapers do what they do. Admittedly it is kinda weak.

And the collectors were hardly a species, they were the husks of the protheans. Harbinger was just controlling them from dark space or something. The suicide mission made sense because the Normandy had stealth systems. They were sent to blow up the collector base, not fight 40 ships. I haven't played ME2 in a while so I really don't know why they didn't use said stealth systems but I'm sure they had their reasons
Also at the beginning of the game they knew the collectors existed so who knows, they might have had intel.
Still admitting these were weak plot points, it could have been worse, at least they called the suicide mission a suicide mission, and not just flown through the relay as some cerberus mission.

 

[Czaran]

Do these people want a better ending or do they just want a nicer ending?

If the ending was lazy and cliche, then these upset fans have a point.

On the other hand if the ending was just too bleak for them then they need to suck it up and stop thinking they own the creative work just b/c they bought a copy of it for $59.99.

Actually we want a legitimate ending. An ending that actually, you know, ends things.

If you have the free time, read through this:
http://www.gamefront.com/mass-effect-3-ending-hatred-5-reasons-the-fans-are-right/

 

[Murmillos]

Hey, Casey and myself think just alike, because I always like to take a giant shit on a girls chest on our 3rd date, you know.. just to make that night memorable and unforgettable.

And its polarizing too. I think its funny, shes all grossed out.




Metaphorically speaking; that was the worst example I could come up with.

 

[axlryder]

There's a saying in writing. The most important individual to consider in your story is not the protagonist or antagonist, but the reader. Gauging the audience's reaction and determining what will resonate best with them is probably one of, if not the most, integral aspects of writing a good story. It doesn't mean you have to make everything rainbows and sunshine, but it also means you have to understand the audience you're catering to and presenting what you want to say in a way that isn't totally inappropriate (especially given the general nature of the content and tone of what's preceded). I think the ending to ME3 utterly fails on this front. To me, that's Bioware's biggest transgression here (if you would consider it to be a transgression at all). It seems even more plausible when you consider (as I'm sure your have) how inherent the aspect of player choice has been throughout the franchise.

In terms of philosophical value, I get that our lives are essentially deterministic and, no matter what choices you make, ultimately you?re going to end up in a hole in the ground or one the various other meaningful interpretations I?ve heard of the ending. However, a lot of people certainly don?t play video games to be reminded of such grim philosophical messages, least of all in a heavy handed and portentous way (given the inherently escapist nature of video games themselves). Though, I suppose that point is really just an extension of the first. Ultimately, I think they're simply being pretentious and selfish here. I don't really like to throw around that word, but I think it perfectly encapsulates their attitudes on the matter.

There's also the fact that the ending is just abrupt and lazy as fuck and fails to actually conclude the story on so many fronts (not to mention opens up a few plot holes of its own). I'm sure someone has already echoed the points I made here, but I'm sure as hell not going to read through a bazillion posts just to make sure.

 

[Metalrocks]

my heart was broken when i saw the ending. it simple dint made any sense at all.
why this boy?? a boy you never saw in the entire saga, who gets killed at the beginning of the game, and hunts shepard in dreams and appears as a ghost-like figure on the citadel at the end???
are you telling me, that because of a boy who has problems, calls the reapers to kill every organic species and changes them in to reapers? and why is the normandy suddenly so far away and how did my squad mates get on the normandy of a sudden? just simply the whole ending dint ad up at all.

i thought duke nukem had a bad ending but this really tops int. hell, even deus ex: HR has better endings and they were crap by choosing what buttons you want to press.

unforgettable ending?! for sure, because it simply doesnt make any sense what so ever.

 

[Evil Alpaca]

"I didn't want the game to be forgettable, and even right down to the sort of polarizing reaction that the ends have had with people-debating what the endings mean and what's going to happen next, and what situation are the characters left in", he told Digital Trends.

And I thought Sheppard charging a Reapear was gutsy. This sounds like the captain for the Titanic explaining that icebergs make a cruise more interesting.

"That to me is part of what's exciting about this story," he continued. "There has always been a little bit of mystery there and a little bit of interpretation, and it's a story that people can talk about after the fact."

Why is he saying little bit? The story ends at the climax. There is no catharsis, no explanation. Once the color-of-choice explosion goes off, there is nothing left but interpretation.

 

[Jon Ness]

I think Casey Hudson is great and I respect his work on this game. But I think that EA should have thought through allowing Casey to create this "polarizing" ending. If I was an executive trying to create as much revenue from my product line as possible, I would be very wary of an ending that closed off the universe of my game from future installments. You can of course feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but it seems to me that the ending of ME3 does just that. Other franchises have made a vast majority of their money on the expanded universe of toys, games, etc.
On the flip side, if Casey was trying to create a series finally that was divisive and final, I think he was forgetting he was working for a huge cooperation, that will probably take his ending, and scrub it in favor of selling more games, and making more money. It is sad, but EA will probably release a DLC that will nullify what he was trying to achieve.
Slight *SPOILER* ahead
These are my thoughts from an unbiased standpoint. But as a fan, I feel cheated into believing that the adventure would never be through. I feel cheated, that I was led to believe that the Krogan would be a new threat, or the Racni may turn on the Galaxy once more. But with the destruction of the Mass Relays, it feels pointless to wonder or care. The doors to the universe slammed shut. I think every one would agree that the death of a hero is a hard thing to endure, but we understand that that all stories must end to let new ones begin. It's the death of a universe which means the death of all stories and this has polarized us. Mass Effect has never been the best thing I have played, but it had something that make for a good adventure story; A setting that could revival Star Wars or Star Trek in scope and depth. You can kill Shepherd but why did you kill Mass Effect?

 

[Crimsane]

Pithy fans have been quick to point out that Mass Effect 3 does in fact end with a choice between three options that could, if you were trying to be droll, be labeled A, B and C.

You could call them A, green A and red A too.

 

[Jon Ness]

That kid seems like a hollow plot point meant to make us think, but I wonder if the writers even care how it fits in the narrative or is he just throw away prop.

 

[Limos]

The only polarization is between actual sensible people and rabid Biodrones who would rather kill themselves than admit Bioware screwed up. The endings are not diverse. They are all the same except for the color of the explosion and who walks out of your ship at the end, which by the way is buggy and terrible as dead squadmates are as likely to get off the ship as anyone else. Squadmates that were lying in a pool of blood next to the Conduit with no method of getting extracted suddenly show up on the Normandy who is in the midst of a nonsensical jump through a Mass Relay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPelM2hwhJA

See for yourself. All endings side by side. They are palette swaps for god's sake. Bioware has shown themselves to be consistently thoughtless and lazy in wrapping up important plot points. I could have excused the colorful explosion endings if they would have included some kind of ending montage at the least. Just TELL ME WHAT HAPPENS! A voiceover! Anything!

Then rather than face constructive criticism Bioware reps declare that criticism is trolling, or homophobia, or that we haven't played it. Well no Bioware, we aren't stupid and I for one am tired of being treated like a non-customer just because I'm unsatisfied.

This is atrocious. I'm never going to buy a Bioware game again.

+1 Pirate
-1 Customer