Mass Effect 3 Spoiler Thread [Spoiler tag free, beware]

[Ratman_tf]

Putting sprinkles on shit does not make it delicious.  

Yup. They can clarify and expand the ending all they like. It won't change that it was shit.

Bioware <--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> The Point.

[LK]

I think they get the point -- but they can't go back in time and undo the mistake. They can only put bandaids on it. Or sprinkles, as Ratman_tf states.

What else can they do? Dwell on it some more? They've got to keep moving forward.

[Trippy]

They can admit they fucked up and rewrite the ending but they aren't willing to do that so all we're getting is some extra exposition.

[Fordel]

Look they're sorry you don't understand their artistic vision 

[luckton]

Although for those of us who didn't buy this and have yet to experience their 'artistic vision', I wouldn't mind playing through it myself to see how it all (really) ends.

[Ratman_tf]

I think they get the point -- but they can't go back in time and undo the mistake. They can only put bandaids on it. Or sprinkles, as Ratman_tf states.

To be fair, Pezzle came up with the sprinkle analogy. :)

What else can they do? Dwell on it some more? They've got to keep moving forward.

To make my own analogy, you can't move forward until you dig your truck out of the mud.
 If they had any sense, they'd salvage the franchise with a completely re-written ending, and make it good, and put it out there for free DLC and scrape back some brand loyalty out of this fiasco. But I imagine whatever decisions got them into this mess are going to prevent them from getting out of it.
If you fuck one sheep, you're forever the sheep fucker, and Bioware is now the company that fails on it's promises and makes shitty endings. Ka-flush.

[Kageru]

I applaud them giving lip-service to their fans, that's the EA spirit.

Hopefully it will annoy them enough that "Tasteful nerd-rage" guy will do another video.

[Margalis]

What they should do is make it so that after you beat the game you get a new scene where you wake up and go "man, that was some awful nightmare" while your character looks right at the camera. Then the game goes on to a completely different ending.

It would be funny, it would be an acknowledgement that the original ending was bad, and it would be reversing the "it was all a dream" trope in a way that is satisfying.

[Abelian75]

I think they're kind of missing the point with this expanded ending stuff.  All I really wanted, personally, was an acknowledgement that the ending was disappointing to them as well.  That would make me have faith that it was just an anomalous fuckup.  Since they keep clinging to the "can't please everyone" line, I can only conclude that they just don't care enough about their stories to be interested in telling a good one, because if they DID care, they'd hate the ending more than any fan.

Well, ok, more than all but the craziest fans.

[Pezzle]

I think they get the point -- but they can't go back in time and undo the mistake. They can only put bandaids on it. Or sprinkles, as Ratman_tf states.

What else can they do? Dwell on it some more? They've got to keep moving forward.

They clearly do not get the point.  The press they generated post release smacked of a complete disconnect.  I can accept any individual on a project being defensive of their work, I really can.  What I cannot accept is press coming out suggesting 'clarity' and the like.  It is bullshit lip service.  I do not want an exposition dlc (outside the possible entertainment of waking up after a bender).  They took a shot and missed.  I would have respected an apology.  I would have accepted them altering the story in a future game (the bender) or spin off.  Do not patronize me with some cut scenes months after I finished your game.  Most of the players have formulated their opinions by now and trying to dlc the bad taste out is a waste of money.  Better that they offer some sort of rebate on the next game along with the apology letter.  They are not that sorry.  Even if they (bioware) are, it is far too late.  The overlords have spoken.  

[Ratman_tf]

Hopefully it will annoy them enough that "Tasteful nerd-rage" guy will do another video.

I'm looking forward to that more than the actual DLC.

[Paelos]

It's another reason why EA has continued to flounder. They refuse to acknowledge their customer base and they refuse to admit fault about anything.

[LK]

Even if they (bioware) are, it is far too late.  The overlords have spoken.  

Correct. I feel they (Bioware) get the point. EA, on the other hand, as Paelos sez:

They refuse to acknowledge their customer base and they refuse to admit fault about anything.

[Ratman_tf]

Even if they (bioware) are, it is far too late.  The overlords have spoken.  

Correct. I feel they (Bioware) get the point. EA, on the other hand, as Paelos sez:

They refuse to acknowledge their customer base and they refuse to admit fault about anything.

Mmm. So how can we distinguish EA bullshit excuses from Bioware bullshit excuses? 

[LK]

Therein lies the trick.

[acerogue26]

/deactivating cloak

I'm not convinced that this is all EA bungling, and I don't think Bioware deserves a free pass. The relationship between EA and Bioware is "officially" hands off, although I do agree that EA acts as a kind of corrosive force on the company. Nonetheless, Bioware has pretty consistently managed to alienate their players by sticking to their "artistic vision". It's Bioware execs that don't see the disconnect between what was promised and what was delivered, nor are they acknowledging any problem but a "lack of clarification" with the current ending.

If Bioware is as independent as they claim to be, they need to be on the hook for this. I think it's pretty clear that Bioware had sold out long ago, but that doesn't change the fact that it was them who screwed the pooch on the ending and not EA.

EDIT: Throwing in an audio interview about the DLC for good measurehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y7xk1_x8ko&feature=player_embedded#%21. I'll figure out how to make the link all perdy and integrated later.

[Lantyssa]

Mmm. So how can we distinguish EA bullshit excuses from Bioware bullshit excuses? 

It doesn't matter if the end result still sucks.

[Paelos]

Mmm. So how can we distinguish EA bullshit excuses from Bioware bullshit excuses?  

It doesn't matter if the end result still sucks.

I agree. I'm a believer in watching company actions over words. Your intentions, or vision, or whatever other BS gets bandied about while Rome burns doesn't really concern me.

Rome's still on fire. Grab a bucket or STFU.

[Rokal]

You are crazy if you think the blame for the ending lays anywhere but Bioware. It was solely the result of bad Bioware writers making bad decisions, and continuing to stand by those decisions months later. If anything, the ending DLC may have been EA-mandated because the Bioware writers still seem to think their ending was perfect.

[Margalis]

EA gets too much hate for supposedly forcing stuff on it's developers.

If nothing else these developers choose to sell out to EA, knowing full well the reputation EA has. But beyond that it's not like EA execs are writing the dialog of the ME3 ending. They may force some high-level business stuff but they aren't responsible for bad plotting.

[Amaron]

I'm not convinced that this is all EA bungling, and I don't think Bioware deserves a free pass.

I agree.  In fact whenever I saw them talk about it Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk gave me the feeling that this game was like a personal project.  The whole thing feels very similar to Brad Wardell's inability to back down on Elemental.  The Dr's are too far removed from Bioware gamers to really face how badly this was received.  EA is likely the victim in this piece.  Though they don't deserve any empathy at this point.

[Maledict]

I think I'm in the stage the poster above mentions. I'd rather just see an honest apology admitting that they fucked up the ending than more of the same. The ending was bad not because it didn't show what happened after, but because it was nonsensical in their universe and was a complete change of narrative in the last 5 minutes of a 5 year story.

And yeah, I think EA probably had a hand in forcing the extended ending thing on them. Certainly the actual guys at Bioware still reek of arrogance whenever they talk about it, as if we are just a bit stupid for not understanding it's glory.(and entitled, didn't forget entitled!).

Mind you, gaming journalism as a whole took a complete dump on gamers during this fiasco.

[jakonovski]

Mind you, gaming journalism as a whole took a complete dump on gamers during this fiasco.

This is probably the biggest lesson here, gaming journalism in its current form  is a joke.

[Fabricated]

Mind you, gaming journalism as a whole took a complete dump on gamers during this fiasco.

This is probably the biggest lesson here, gaming journalism in its current form  is a joke.

If you didn't learn this at least as far back as the Kane and Lynch 2 fiasco, you a shameful gamer.

[jakonovski]

Mind you, gaming journalism as a whole took a complete dump on gamers during this fiasco.

This is probably the biggest lesson here, gaming journalism in its current form  is a joke.

If you didn't learn this at least as far back as the Kane and Lynch 2 fiasco, you a shameful gamer.

K&L-gate was the Man stomping on the poor games journalist, ME3 was masses of journalists spontaneously offering to polish Bioware's collective knob for free review copies.

[luckton]

ME3 was masses of journalists spontaneously offering to polish Bioware's collective knob for free review copies.

To be fair, everyone thought that ME3 was supposed to be the second coming of Christ, and was eluded to many times in previews and such.  And from what I've read both here and abroad, the game up to the ending was alright.

But dat ending... 

[rk47]

Dragon age: Fucked.
Mass Effect: Buttfucker.

Time for a new IP guys, or maybe Jade Empire 2 with that fake-chingchangchong language in the eastern setting, Docs?

[Fabricated]

There's been rumblings of "Oh, we'd like to do something cool with that IP, it's not dead yet!" I think for the last few years so I imagine yeah, that's likely.

Let's run all of the established IPs into the ground and THEN start on some new ones.

[tmp]

Javik voices in on the incoming DLC:

[rk47]

Fucking cynical space jamaican bastard.

[Riggswolfe]

Well I'm downloading it now. My readiness is back down to 50% but it is locked in after the Cerebus mission and I have an auto save right before the end so I'll have to invest like 15 minutes to see how badly they ef'ed up. On the positive side I heard that:

[Tebonas]

Re: Spoiler

Worth it!

[Sjofn]

So worth it.

I guess I'll download this when we get home from NJ tonight.

[Fabricated]

lol, it's almost like they're making fun of the refusal ending that one fan wrote.

Edit: Looks like the original endings have been Scooby-Doo'd a bit to be happier.

[Miasma]

Well I'm downloading it now. My readiness is back down to 50% but it is locked in after the Cerebus mission and I have an auto save right before the end so I'll have to invest like 15 minutes to see how badly they ef'ed up. On the positive side I heard that:

Their announcement said you had to load a game from before the ceberus base and fight through to see the new endings, is that no longer true?