As the year winds to a close (and if the Mayans were right the world, too), I think it'll be a good exercise to look back at the one of the biggest stories ever in the history of video games: The Mass Effect 3 Debacle.
I have my own issues with Mass Effect 3, besides the craptacular endings and the internet fights it created. I thought the plot was simple and uninspired (even by Bioware standards), The Crucible was a blatant Deus Ex Machina to the overarching plot, Cerberus went from "Space Illuminati" to The Empire from Star Wars with little to no explanation, TIM is completely bonkers to detriment of the plot, Liara is shilled relentlessly, other characters either prove to be completely useless, annoying, or just plain creepy (here's looking at you EDI). Gameplay feels gutted and half-finished, with a distinct lack of polish. One button does not need to control running, rolling, taking cover, leaving cover, vaulting over cover, and activating a thing. There's little of the gameplay variation from the last games; no hacking minigames, no giant vehicle rampages, and sidequests that are the very definition of tacked on. Fights are very unimpressive and boring, and the Atlas stealing gameplay element is utterly superfluous. And lest I forget the galaxy at war bullshit that required I play multiplayer to see the best ending, effectively damaging the singleplayer with the multiplayer.
The fan reaction to the endings was something have never seen before, and probably will never see again. There are so many different accounts and spins on the story, I could write a book on it. It seems the most common thread was that, since Bioware has been good about listening to it's fans that its claims to hold in high regard, it wouldn't be too unreasonable to ask Bioware not end their story on the possible collapse and extinction of all galactic society. And yet they were mysteriously silent during those opening shots. When it came time to address the people, Bioware released a rather calculated and very PR speak laden response, injecting the "artistic integrity" buzzword into the discussion. Fans got louder and more organized, forming Retake Mass Effect, to provide a unified front to the cause. But of course, with every movement comes inevitable detractors; IGN and Kotaku came down firmly on the side of Bioware in the name of "artistic integrity", and felt the best way to establish themselves as morally in the right, was to call everyone who even slightly agreed with the goal of Retake "whiny" "entitled" "babies" and that by being "whiny" and "entitled" they were "damaging the medium" and making harder for "games to be taken seriously".
Of course, anyone who called out IGN and Kotaku for using ad hominem and slippery slope fallacies as silencing tactics, especially in light of their quite obvious conflicts of interest (see: the boatload of ads for the game that plastered every available inch of their webpages), were unceremoniously lumped in with the whiners. The reviews for the game seemed to imply that the big journalist sites never even finished the game, as they contained no mention of the ending, and if they did, was a noncommittal "Some people may not like it" or "it's not for everyone". Even our illustrious Bob Chipman got in the act, with not one, not two, but THREE whole episodes (Crass Effect, After Mass, and Mutants and Masses for The Big Picture), of him reaffirming every negative trait and stereotype he has. Little to no research or even playing the entire game, it's no wonder the backlash he received is second only to Heavens to Metroid.
Long story short, Bioware hedged their bets; there's no way they could back out and actually change the endings after the shit that went down, so they settled for making the same shit ending longer, with the Extended Cut, which bumped the quality of the endings from abysmal to merely "meh".
This was a fight that would have been interesting to watch, if the game and the backlash hadn't killed my will to involve myself into anything Mass Effect related. But I'm more interested in hearing your take on it, Escapists. What did you think of this whole fiasco? If you could go back and change something, what would it be? Were Bioware right to compromise and just extend the endings, or are they scum who don't really care about their fans? Did EA have anything to do with it? Do you have your own problems with the game? I want to know.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This thread is not about attacking anyone's views on the ending. If you liked the endings, then power to you, man. You're getting something out of it that I didn't. But DO NOT start throwing around "entitled" or "whiny"; I've had enough of that bullshit during the actual event, we don't need more of the same. This is supposed to be a semi-civilized discussion. Also, it's taken as a given that the endings as they were, were full of plot holes and circular logic-- we don't need to be reminded of that.
I have my own issues with Mass Effect 3, besides the craptacular endings and the internet fights it created. I thought the plot was simple and uninspired (even by Bioware standards), The Crucible was a blatant Deus Ex Machina to the overarching plot, Cerberus went from "Space Illuminati" to The Empire from Star Wars with little to no explanation, TIM is completely bonkers to detriment of the plot, Liara is shilled relentlessly, other characters either prove to be completely useless, annoying, or just plain creepy (here's looking at you EDI). Gameplay feels gutted and half-finished, with a distinct lack of polish. One button does not need to control running, rolling, taking cover, leaving cover, vaulting over cover, and activating a thing. There's little of the gameplay variation from the last games; no hacking minigames, no giant vehicle rampages, and sidequests that are the very definition of tacked on. Fights are very unimpressive and boring, and the Atlas stealing gameplay element is utterly superfluous. And lest I forget the galaxy at war bullshit that required I play multiplayer to see the best ending, effectively damaging the singleplayer with the multiplayer.
The fan reaction to the endings was something have never seen before, and probably will never see again. There are so many different accounts and spins on the story, I could write a book on it. It seems the most common thread was that, since Bioware has been good about listening to it's fans that its claims to hold in high regard, it wouldn't be too unreasonable to ask Bioware not end their story on the possible collapse and extinction of all galactic society. And yet they were mysteriously silent during those opening shots. When it came time to address the people, Bioware released a rather calculated and very PR speak laden response, injecting the "artistic integrity" buzzword into the discussion. Fans got louder and more organized, forming Retake Mass Effect, to provide a unified front to the cause. But of course, with every movement comes inevitable detractors; IGN and Kotaku came down firmly on the side of Bioware in the name of "artistic integrity", and felt the best way to establish themselves as morally in the right, was to call everyone who even slightly agreed with the goal of Retake "whiny" "entitled" "babies" and that by being "whiny" and "entitled" they were "damaging the medium" and making harder for "games to be taken seriously".
Of course, anyone who called out IGN and Kotaku for using ad hominem and slippery slope fallacies as silencing tactics, especially in light of their quite obvious conflicts of interest (see: the boatload of ads for the game that plastered every available inch of their webpages), were unceremoniously lumped in with the whiners. The reviews for the game seemed to imply that the big journalist sites never even finished the game, as they contained no mention of the ending, and if they did, was a noncommittal "Some people may not like it" or "it's not for everyone". Even our illustrious Bob Chipman got in the act, with not one, not two, but THREE whole episodes (Crass Effect, After Mass, and Mutants and Masses for The Big Picture), of him reaffirming every negative trait and stereotype he has. Little to no research or even playing the entire game, it's no wonder the backlash he received is second only to Heavens to Metroid.
Long story short, Bioware hedged their bets; there's no way they could back out and actually change the endings after the shit that went down, so they settled for making the same shit ending longer, with the Extended Cut, which bumped the quality of the endings from abysmal to merely "meh".
This was a fight that would have been interesting to watch, if the game and the backlash hadn't killed my will to involve myself into anything Mass Effect related. But I'm more interested in hearing your take on it, Escapists. What did you think of this whole fiasco? If you could go back and change something, what would it be? Were Bioware right to compromise and just extend the endings, or are they scum who don't really care about their fans? Did EA have anything to do with it? Do you have your own problems with the game? I want to know.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This thread is not about attacking anyone's views on the ending. If you liked the endings, then power to you, man. You're getting something out of it that I didn't. But DO NOT start throwing around "entitled" or "whiny"; I've had enough of that bullshit during the actual event, we don't need more of the same. This is supposed to be a semi-civilized discussion. Also, it's taken as a given that the endings as they were, were full of plot holes and circular logic-- we don't need to be reminded of that.
