Mass Effect 3 endings [SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY]

[kyrieee]

The vast majority of the Bioware community have hated every game they've released since NWN. In fact, they used to do mass purges back then, and I still can't remember ever seeing any positive posts on their boards.

The vast majority you say.
Based on what? Where's YOUR statistical data to back that up?

[Nalano]

The vast majority you say.
Based on what? Where's YOUR statistical data to back that up?

The vocal subset of the Bioware community, then. All part of the greater Internet Hate Machine.

[Kadayi]

The vocal subset of the Bioware community, then. All part of the greater Internet Hate Machine.

Please less of your 'Internet Hate Machine' conspiracy theories and more 'why I liked the ending of Mass effect 3' elaborations (Tikey & Arc have managed it so far) As Tyrell would say 'indulge us'.

[kyrieee]

The vocal subset of the Bioware community, then. All part of the greater Internet Hate Machine.

The point is, I made a more measured claim (I said "significant") and tried to back it up with some reasoning and a few numbers. He then goes on to make a much bolder claim ("vast majority", over a timespan of several years) and doesn't back it up. And that's somehow supposed to undermine my argument. Get out of here.

[Kadayi]

Pertinent: -

http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode...-of-the-player

Also to be even handed here's the Extra credits dude on the ending of Mass Effect 3 itself: -

I don't think it's a bad ending. It is an unsatisfying ending, which isn't quite the same thing.

http://extra-credits.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2008

[archonsod]

Yeah, because it's not like they have a vibrant and active community ...oh no wait

They don't. They largely have a community complaining about why the latest game isn't a remake of Baldur's Gate.

I think their 'clarification' will likely involve some revision. Judging by the Weekes leak, not many of the other staff writers were overly happy with the Hudson/Walters go it alone ending either. Plus if they want to turn around opinion they're going to need to do more than lip service to appease the backlash.

They've already stated they intend to preserve the artistic integrity of the ending, which I figure means they won't change it. As for the backlash, I expect them to do about as much as they did with DA2. Which was precisely nothing.

One could equally argue curing the Genophage and bringing accord to the Quarians & Geth is the opening of a new chapter in the history for those groups (and for ME games moving forward).

Yes. A new chapter which doesn't involve Shepard in the slightest. Which part of "Mass Effect is all about Shepard" did they not make clear? Like I said, it's the kind of stuff I'd expect to be covered in a new game, not tacked on as a power point presentation to ME3. (Although now I think about it, seems to be pretty much a no-brainer for DLC too).

Aside from the fact that you as Shepard basically shit on all their plans and destroy the entire mass relay network condemning billions to death in the process, and effectively send galactic civilization back into the dark ages.

Which is contradicted in-game. If the relay explosion will wipe out billions, how the hell did the Normandy survive one and manage to find a planet to crash land on? And I've yet to see any convincing argument for why removing the relays would result in the collapse of galactic civilisation.

Unless you got some hither too unseen ending that no one else had I'm fairly sure that Ghost Child doesn't clarify what is or isn't synthetic life at all.

That's probably because you can assume some level of intelligence on the part of the player, who may well pick up on things like people not referring to their ship bulkheads (which are made of the same stuff as cybernetics!) as synthetic life. If you wanted to be really daring, you could even assume they'd notice you make the distinction several times within the game when discussing VI, AI and the Geth. For a triple word score, you can even assume your players are literate and read the codex which also examines why sentient machines such as the Geth or an unbound AI qualify as sentient life while non-sentient machines like VI don't.

The fact that you're marked a synthetic by the Ghost Child given your implants does give pause for thought as to whom exactly falls into that category and what the mark off point is.

Note Shepard also questions whether he's actually human or simply a sophisticated VI at one point too, and we're also shown hints during the assault on Sanctuary that Cerberus may have been understating precisely how much of Shepard is technically Shepard, or for that matter organic (one which springs immediately to mind is the doctor pointing out that he'd been braindead for several months and the brain would be beyond recovery, to which TIM simply replies "fix it". Kinda implies that his brain may indeed be artificial).
It doesn't really give pause for thought because I'm pretty sure Shepard is the only person in the entire galaxy this would apply to. Certainly I don't recall bumping into anyone else who'd been floating around in space for a few months with a ruptured spacesuit who was rebuilt at any point.

The vast majority you say.
Based on what? Where's YOUR statistical data to back that up?

social.bioware.com. Knock yourself out.

[DarthBenedict]

Well, the catalyst did say Shepard would die because he was partly synthetic, so presumably the red space magic will kill everyone with a pacemaker.

But really, all of this pales in comparison the simple fact that the catalyst/reapers are exceptionally stupid. They picked one of the worst possible ways to accomplish their goal, and even my primitive human brain can think of plenty of ways to preserve organic life with far less risk of synthetics taking over the world. Like building a petting zoo, then wiping out everything else. Their actions throughout the trilogy show pretty plainly that they only care about organic life as a general concept rather than the lives of any organics, so even keeping a jar of bacteria on harbingers desk would be a better solution.

[Kadayi]

They don't. They largely have a community complaining about why the latest game isn't a remake of Baldur's Gate.

So the entirety of you defence is to repeat the same hollow accusation again? Please I realise all your good for is for tedious quote mining wars (paragraphs seem to elude you as a concept), but really? That's a rhetorical question by the way, no need to answer.

They've already stated they intend to preserve the artistic integrity of the ending, which I figure means they won't change it. As for the backlash, I expect them to do about as much as they did with DA2. Which was precisely nothing.

They also said that they weren't going to deliver an A,B, C ending, and we all know how that turned out. If you remotely think they're going to churn out something that doesn't press all the right buttons and restore an irate player bases faith in their products you're deluded. The blowback on ME3 is far beyond that of DA2. There is no gain in clinging to 'artistic integrity' when your reputation is blown.

Yes. A new chapter which doesn't involve Shepard in the slightest. Which part of "Mass Effect is all about Shepard" did they not make clear? Like I said, it's the kind of stuff I'd expect to be covered in a new game, not tacked on as a power point presentation to ME3. (Although now I think about it, seems to be pretty much a no-brainer for DLC too).

The DLC for the destroy synthetics option will just be a camera panning over the corpses of all the dead Geth and Quarians on Rannoch.

Which is contradicted in-game. If the relay explosion will wipe out billions, how the hell did the Normandy survive one and manage to find a planet to crash land on? And I've yet to see any convincing argument for why removing the relays would result in the collapse of galactic civilisation.

I'm not on about the relays blowing up. I'm on about the intergalactic super highways and all those reliant on them, suddenly being destroyed. How long do you think the UK would last if tomorrow every plane, train and auto-mobile ceased to function? Do we really have the infrastructure to suddenly go back to horse and cart without major fallout and consequence? (Fun fact the UK can only physically sustain about 6 -10 million people based on agricultural output..that's how reliant we are on modern day infrastructure).

That's probably because you can assume some level of intelligence on the part of the player, who may well pick up on things like people not referring to their ship bulkheads (which are made of the same stuff as cybernetics!) as synthetic life. If you wanted to be really daring, you could even assume they'd notice you make the distinction several times within the game when discussing VI, AI and the Geth. For a triple word score, you can even assume your players are literate and read the codex which also examines why sentient machines such as the Geth or an unbound AI qualify as sentient life while non-sentient machines like VI don't.

So you're basically saying the God Child is wrong? Because he's just told me that I'm a synthetic (rather than a cyborg) and I will die. God Child is never wrong.

Note Shepard also questions whether he's actually human or simply a sophisticated VI at one point too, and we're also shown hints during the assault on Sanctuary that Cerberus may have been understating precisely how much of Shepard is technically Shepard, or for that matter organic (one which springs immediately to mind is the doctor pointing out that he'd been braindead for several months and the brain would be beyond recovery, to which TIM simply replies "fix it". Kinda implies that his brain may indeed be artificial).

Sure Shepard questions it, but if you recall back in ME2 TIM makes it clear that they need to bring Shepard back to as is, because they needed your knowledge and experience regarding the reapers and the proteans. If you were truly an AI simulation I'd of expected Miranda or TIM or someone to confirm it along the way by now.

Please no more quote war posts.

[Kadayi]

One for the haters: -



Grind your teeth Arc. Maybe you can harangue them all in the youtube comments.

Also another good breakdown vid, but somewhat shorter:-

[Kadayi]

Quite an interesting article from forbes on the 'Artistic integrity' line: -

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain...ommercial-art/

[The JG Man]

You know I've tried thinking about why I do like the ending so I could say here, but realistically, all I can think of is that I don't fundamentally dislike it. I can accept it. It suffices. It's not good. There are too many damn holes for it to be good.

Even then, I'm not entirely sure now. I think a lot of the good theories produced by The Internet give Bioware far more credit than they deserve. The AI of the star child being based on flawed logic? Well it's a cool theory, definitely, but if that was remotely close to what they were intending, there would have been more signs than a disjointed final few minutes.

You know how there were mods for DA:O that meant you could skip sections? I wonder if someone'll release a mod with an edited ending.

[Kadayi]

You know how there were mods for DA:O that meant you could skip sections? I wonder if someone'll release a mod with an edited ending.

I'd make one where you could swap out Diane Allers for Emily Wong or Jack. Though of course that would be messing with Bioware's artistic integrity.

[The JG Man]

I wouldn't mind Allers if it weren't for her stupid dress...thing. I don't mind her wearing a dress, hell they even do a good job of explaining why she wears one and looks the way she does generally, but it looks so plastic and awful.

[Nalano]

Since everybody's substituting videos for arguments, this is why we can't have nice things.

[DetCord]

Here is my submission then.

[Deckarderin]

I played here the first two, but could not be bothered to play the third, so I looked"good" results on Youtube. It made me realize how good everything was organic vs.synthetic.

A five-year control of the old varieties of plastic, so do not kill the organic varieties ofplastic killed. Really? You call this writing? This is the kind of logic is a creature that is powerful enough to create the Reaper has come up with?
Newegg Promo Code

[Kadayi]

Since everybody's substituting videos for arguments, this is why we can't have nice things.

Old man amusingly confuses interactive media with passive media and uses radical islamic extremist (sorry I mean crazy gamer) as ad hom scapegoat to berate and belittle entire Muslim community (sorry I mean unhappy consumer fan base)? Maybe he should watch the extra credits video on the role of gamers himself.

Also. I'm not substituting videos for arguments (I leave that kind of hollow forum behaviour to you), I'm just posting up some links to videos and articles on the subject certain people might enjoy.

[deano2099]

I can't help but think that if you can't express your opinion on ME3's ending in less than five minutes via video then you're really over-thinking it...

[Kadayi]

I can't help but think that if you can't express your opinion on ME3's ending in less than five minutes via video then you're really over-thinking it...

You've been watching too much X-factor there Deano. It's addled your brain.

[Skeletor68]

http://jmstevenson.wordpress.com/201...mass-effect-3/

Did everyone read this? Apologies if already posted, it's a pretty cool article.