ME3 ending-haters take their rage to the FTC... seriously?

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: ME3 ending-haters take their rage to the FTC... seriously?

I wasn't referring to your post, just speaking my mind on a matter that I find childish.

And there were other parts of the game that were outright terrible.

For one, oh, this mystical McGuffin of an answer is just sitting on Mars after you're sent off on the mission to save the galaxy? Too convenient. That was hour two.

Quest structure? Total garbage. At least with the old way they deployed quests, you talked with the NPC, got an idea of who they were and could find them in the spot you left them later one. ME3 you just "overhear' quests, don't know who said them 90% of time and need a waypoint to show where they are after you do whatever it was you were supposed to. Whoever did the quest logbook surely didn't bother to clue you in when you got something done. Then you have to go back and find... whoever it was.

One of the quests I could identify was for an Elcor ambassador. I needed to save some people from his homeworld, important political figures. I go from the Citadel to the Galaxy Map and all I have to do is touch the planet and return to the Citadel. No rescue mission, no action, not insight into what the Elcor world is like. Just touch a planet with the Normandy and go back to the Citadel.

That was just terrible.

And they did similar weird shit with conversations on the Normandy. No choice driven conversations, just auto-dialog.

Its like you have the writers and the combat designers and then you have a bunch of ammeters doing the rest. The facial animations weren't even good. Characters frame jump from one place to another in cut-scenes for no reason.

[Taskmage]

Re: ME3 ending-haters take their rage to the FTC... seriously?

Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut | BioWare Blog

An official press release went out today announcing how we are re-prioritizing the Mass Effect 3 post release content schedule to provide a more fleshed out experience for our fans. For many of you the “Extended Cut” will help answer some questions and give closure to this chapter of the Mass Effect story. Oh and it’s at no cost to you – the fan.

Here is a mini FAQ to help you understand what the Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut is and isn’t:

What can fans expect from the Extended Cut DLC?

• For fans who want more closure in Mass Effect 3, the DLC will offer extended scenes that provide additional context and deeper insight to the conclusion of Commander Shepard’s journey.

Are there going to be more/different endings or ending DLCs in the future?

• No. BioWare strongly believes in the team’s artistic vision for the end of this arc of the Mass Effect franchise. The extended cut DLC will expand on the existing endings, but no further ending DLC is planned.

What is BioWare adding to the ending with the Extended Cut DLC?

• BioWare will expanding on the ending to Mass Effect 3 by creating additional cinematics and epilogue scenes to the existing ending sequences. The goal of these new scenes is to provide additional clarity and closure to Mass Effect 3.

When will the Extended Cut DLC be available?

• Currently the Extended Cut DLC is planned for this summer, no specific date has been announced at this point.

Why are you releasing the Extended Cut DLC?

• Though we remain committed and are proud of the artistic choices we made in the main game, we are aware that there are some fans who would like more closure to Mass Effect 3. The goal of the DLC is not to provide a new ending to the game, rather to offer fans additional context and answers to the end of Commander Shepard’s story.

So there you have it. Are we proud of the game we made and the team that made it? Hell yes. Are we going to change the ending of the game? No. Do we appreciate the passion and listen to the feedback delivered to us by our fans? Very much so and we are responding.

Summer is coming…

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: ME3 ending-haters take their rage to the FTC... seriously?

Knew it. Called it. It must hurt EA to give that DLC away for free.


Not that I need to see it, because I know what they're going to say in the "extended" endings. They're going to wave flags that say "Shepard is being indoctrinated!" for all the people still in denial about it since they're built Shepard to be a mondo badass hero that can resist Reaper mind control for upwards of three years and still beat-all odds.

Not because of their choices, but because that's the bullshit they made up for Shepard in their heads. A mondo badass has hyper-deus-ex-machina-immunity to things that break other characters.

[Taskmage]

Re: ME3 ending-haters take their rage to the FTC... seriously?

Hopefully not. It really only needs a nod, if anything. They don't even need to say the word "indoctrination," just show Shepard actually waking up and proceed to an actual conclusion of the story. If you make the wrong choice, let Shepard be a tragic figure, transfer control to your squadmate with highest affection and have them face down Shepard as a final obstacle before repulsing the reapers or even failing to do so. Just let the story actually end rather than keeping Shepard in ambiguous limbo to facilitate DLC.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: ME3 ending-haters take their rage to the FTC... seriously?

Just let the story actually end rather than keeping Shepard in ambiguous limbo to facilitate DLC.

Ambiguity was the only way for this series to have an ending and be able to continue as a new trilogy. Yes, you made choices. Yes, you saw fixed storylines meet a conclusion but how does a writer hope to anticipate the wants and wishes every player could possibly have for an ending that reflected so many different choices?

There is no way. So what they're doing is explaining what they gave the players who are too invested in the series to see straight or keep their expectations grounded in reality.

People want specifics for a character that has been a ambiguous question mark from the very beginning. They're going to want an ending for not just Paragon and Renegade, but Spacer, Earthborn and Colonist. They're going to want their one or more romances reflected, They're going to need a version where Wrex is dead and one where he isn't. One where Ashley or Kaiden are alive. Versions that cover all the suicide squad members, whether or not you let the Council live, whether or not the Rachni queen lived, whether or not the heretic geth were rewritten, whether or not the genophage was cure, whether or not the geth and Quarians settle things.

And that's just the half of it, there are tons of other little details people are going to want see reflected before we even consider how things really end with the reapers. I can think of all these possibilities, but can the writer ever realize them in a way that satisfies everyone? I think the answer is "no," or we wouldn't have the endings we got. Its Casey Hudson's fault for promising the moon when the writers - which made no such promise - could give them the moon.

If at all, it reeks of a sequel set-up to me.

People complain about this ending, but Bioware had something even bigger they were planning to totally pull out of their asses for an ending to use - that Dark Matter was the real threat and the reapers were just harvesting humanity to because their complex DNA would end the threat somehow. Really, that was in one of the script leaks. Totally out of left field. Dark Matter is hardly even discussed enough to be a subplot, Mordin had like one like about the diversity of human DNA making them ideal test subjects in ME2. There was no way that ending could have worked.

Final Fantasy plays it smart by keeping things self-contained.

The Elder Scrolls maintains a high level of ambiguity, you are called Dovahkin because in the next game everyone will just assume it was their Dovahkin and civil war will just get lost in the details because whatever threat happens in the expansion will probably overshadow that.

Shin Megami Tensei is a multiverse - carte blanche for an easy way out. Probably the best answer for Mass Effect since its true between players. MY Shepard is a woman, after all, Ashley's dead and I saved the council, that's not totally your Mass Effect. Digital Devil Saga did try the "choices carry over/people die" thing and its ending also landed in WTFLand, but at least that was somewhat expected for DDS already given the prior ending of the first game.

Deus Ex goes with ambiguity the whole way. Adam Jensen is a man walking the line, dealing with good men with bad intentions being controlled by bad men who think they're more morally good than the rest of society. Every ending is not a pleasant one, no matter which one Adam picks or how he feels about, the world will hate him for it. That's what happened to JC Denton. DX is all damned if you do and if you don't. That's part of its charm.

[Taskmage]

Re: ME3 ending-haters take their rage to the FTC... seriously?

I understand that, but I don't respect it. There are plenty of ways they could continue telling stories in the Mass Effect universe without denying this arc a proper ending. They could have dropped back to the Prothean cycle and had a huge amount of flexibility to explore that culture and history, even show the development of the council races. They could have dropped back a few decades, scaled down the scope, and told a more focused story about conflict between the races. They could jump forward an indeterminate distance into the future, keep the same races if that saves them trouble, and leave the transition between ME3's conclusion and that point mysterious. Any of these jumping-off points could have led to a marketable product. There's no excuse for selling out on ME's design principles to sell sequels.

And I realize there's no way they can deliver 100% on players' expectations, but they can come a heck of a lot closer. Right now they're just hiding behind the artsiness of this indoctrination idea to avoid having to deliver on anything. Rather, until now they were.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: ME3 ending-haters take their rage to the FTC... seriously?

There's no excuse for selling out on ME's design principles to sell sequels.

So you missed the EA logo, then? They're not going to let this franchise go. They're going to want another ready for the next cycle of consoles and we're about two years off.

Right now they're just hiding behind the artsiness of this indoctrination idea to avoid having to deliver on anything. Rather, until now they were.

,

I don't see the "artsiness" of indoctrination. When you add up all the various exposures it makes sense. Its like saying Ra's Al Ghul still being alive in a Batman movie is "artsy." I wouldn't be stunned if he showed up in The Dark Knight Rises and that Ducard was just another one of his proxys.

[Taskmage]

Re: ME3 ending-haters take their rage to the FTC... seriously?

I'm saying they could have easily had it both ways, selling tons on successive projects without compromising this one.

[Icemage]

Re: ME3 ending-haters take their rage to the FTC... seriously?

I think Bioware really painted themselves into a corner with the ending. It's going to take a lot of careful sidestepping on their part to placate the masses. Even waving a big huge sign about indoctrination won't suffice. Where the ending really fails is that it makes you feel like the ~60+++ hours you've invested into the series meant absolutely nothing. And yes, Bioware's statement says they're going to make things clearer for what happens afterwards, but this is also the same Bioware that hides behind "artistic integrity" when all three endings are 95% identical to one another aside from color scheme, so I'm taking a "I'll believe it when I see it" approach.


Icemage

[Raydeus]

Re: ME3 ending-haters take their rage to the FTC... seriously?

I liked this review.

...what? XD

[Firewind]

Re: ME3 ending-haters take their rage to the FTC... seriously?

Eh I personally enjoyed ME3 but disliked the ending due to Bioware taking the easy way out and going for something artsy and depressing. It was like they tried to combine the endings to Persona 3, Deus Ex, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Metal Gear Solid 4 into one giant clusterfuck (Except all of those endings had some kind of closure so are all better).

It might be a good idea to name the RPGs to come out over the last year that didn't take the easy way out with pretentious artsy "bittersweet endings" that just end up soul crushing, horrifying and overall bad and unsatisfying (FFXIII-2, ME3, Skyrim), or just went for an ending that is flat out pants on head retarded as an excuse to sell more DLC (Skyrim, ME3, FFXIII-2).

Not counting DXHR since it's a prequel so we all know what's going to happen in the end no matter what you do; so it would be a little unfair even if I am personally sick and tired of RPGs that insist on having "bittersweet endings" now and would personally lump it with the former group of games.

Aso not counting Devil Survivor 2 purely because Atlus are one of the few RPG developers that can get bittersweet right. Protip: Remember that "Bittersweet Endings" always have some sort of light there to stop the player from walking to hang themselves after watching the ending.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: ME3 ending-haters take their rage to the FTC... seriously?

What was the bittersweet ending to Skyrim. I can't remember it, I was too busy thinking about the next thing to do. Games like that doing really "end" until their expansions are said and done anyway. I saved humanity, dragons don't have to suffer the insane leadership of Alduin anymore, Paarathuumwhatsis goes on to lead the dragons because I didn't kill him. Doesn't really even matter who won the civil war.

Because I think there's a more significant war on the horizon that Dovakin will play a major role in, but that's just my theory. Where the dragons roam free the Akavir won't be far behind and the story left Morrowind and Cyrodil ripe as points for invasion.

Atlus gets bittersweet right because they make other games hat can have blatantly bad, depressing or happy endings. SMT Nocturne had six endings and so did Devil Survivor Overclocked. Most others have two or three endings. Persona 4 had three.

The "we save the world from not-the-end-boss boss... yay.. now our friend has to leave... so yeah, bye."
The "Shadows invade and eat your friends" ending. I liked that one.
The "OMG we saved the world from the real final boss, We'll miss you! We're friends no matter where we are! Come back soon!" ending.

[Firewind]

Re: ME3 ending-haters take their rage to the FTC... seriously?

It was mostly me just having a dig at how anticlimatic and underwhelming the final battle is (especially if you're a bow or blunt weapon user because then you have to let the NPCs do all the damage work due Alduin's ridiculously high physical damage mitigation) really and that they went with a pretty underwhelming "You saved the world! Hurray. Now who are you again?" ending. Would it have really hurt them to have a proper climax to the story instead, rolled credits and then put you back into the game world? All of the guilds had a proper and satisfying climax, the civil war did (even if it automatically assumed you're already known as Dovahkin) and the Dark Brotherhood did. So why not the main quest too?

Assets for the entire continent of Tamriel is in the game and with an ending like it is, it just feels obvious that they just left it like that to push DLC rather than technical limitations (Morrowind) or just plain bad writing (Oblivion). Don't get me wrong I love Skyrim but I can't bring myself to say I'm happy with it's ending.

There is bittersweet there though. It's possible that Skyrim is simply just going to end up as a bloodbath if you sided with the Stormcloaks. It's also heavily impled that the Empire's going to have to earn it's happy ending if you sided with them as while the Falmor are nowhere near as strong as they act militarily, the Imperials are still in for one hell of a fight to kick them out of Western Tamriel. Basically a lot of Skyrim's story is still told in the books and documents left lying around. I know the ES games have always been like this, mostly due to technical limitations but in the modern day, it does seems like a cheap way out of proper storytelling. Skyrim tells us what happens instead of showing us.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: ME3 ending-haters take their rage to the FTC... seriously?

They paint themselves into a corner if they show too much, especially when you factor in future content. Why limit where you expansions and sequels can go?

[Raydeus]

Re: ME3 ending-haters take their rage to the FTC... seriously?