DAMIT I should be learning my spanish for tomorrow but I INDOCTRINATED by this thread !!!!
I should be working on my paper. However, I care more about a new ending.
Same here. No homework getting done, very little real work (damn high-speed free wifi) and almost no sleep. I'm right there with you, for what it's worth.
Well it brings us closer together and that is at least something, isn't it?
Exactly. This thread is the only thing keeping me sane at the moment. Otherwise, I would have taken all my ME/BW stuff and set it on fire in the back yard the second I finished the game and realized that "ending" was all there was.
I just saw this now, but, there is an achievment called "battle-scarred" it's description says: " Promote a multiplayer character to the galaxy at war OR IMPORT AN ME3 CHARACTER." Any thoughts on this?
New Game +
So, just replaying the game over with the same character (hence the name "battle-scarred": technically your character has been through a lot)
Computim wrote... It's legit.. one of the best story arcs in the series imo. There's stuff after that too even, you gotta see it though, it's funny, sad, thoughtful, and amazing.
I regret not being able to see his 'dissertation'; I think the missing ingredient for me was the 'Elkoss Combine License'----I didn't buy any of those.
I did get to see the scene where he 'saves' Shepard; one of the best-made parts of the game, I'd say.
I am not sure how many people here are going along with the idea that this whole thing is a giant troll but I have a question about it. If this turns out to be the biggest troll/pr stunt in gaming history would you be impressed or angry at Bioware?
A little of column A and a little of column B. Imagine if your internet was down for a few days when they release the new ending. I don't think its just a publicity stunt but ideally I'd turn out to be wrong.
Think about the guys who didn't wait before they sold their game... they could be really pissed IF another ending was added.
I know people think there might be a DLC and at least that way there is hope. But I don't know which is worse.. to think that the ending is done and it won't get better or to know that BW trolled us that hard.
Alright guys and girls, I have to sign off for the night, even in a severe depression school work still has to be done eventually, Ill be back again tomorrow until then: HOLD THE LINE!
I am not sure how many people here are going along with the idea that this whole thing is a giant troll but I have a question about it. If this turns out to be the biggest troll/pr stunt in gaming history would you be impressed or angry at Bioware?
I think it would be a case of both. Unless they had a damn good reason, I think I'd be mostly angry.
Concur. I think I'd be really angry at first and then forgive. But I can only forgive them if they make all right in the world again. At this point though, I am praying for it to be a stunt just because it would mean that something is going to change.
Would it be too much to ask to get a DLC that adds some missions, adds some war assets, and then adds a conditional ending if, say, we get the effective military force rating over 6000 or 7000 so?
I am not sure how many people here are going along with the idea that this whole thing is a giant troll but I have a question about it. If this turns out to be the biggest troll/pr stunt in gaming history would you be impressed or angry at Bioware?
deeply disappointed
I don't see how one could be impressed by giving the consumers a deliberately incomplete game
I am making this post in an honest attempt to help people understand and appreciate the endings more. I personally feel after reading posts here and hearing from friends that, most of this anger over the endings is caused because they did not see the over 4000 asset "destroy" option ending.
I hope to make a complete and easy explanation of the ending, comment if you think I need to adjust or add to it. This post does not apply to those who just don't like it because of its lack of detailed epilogue.
First of all there is one ending that is the real ending and all other endings are tricks and illusions. In fact the only REAL ending in the whole game is if you pick the destroy option with over 4000 assets. The real ending is only that 20 seconds they show of Shepard in the rubble and then takes a breath.
That (supposed to be) eye opening moment is supposed to tell you that Shepard was never on the Citadel. He lies just where he was knocked out by the destroyer blast, in the rubble of London. This is where the confusion takes place.
Everything that happens after the destroyer hits Shepard during his charge is a combination of a dying Shepard's hallucinations and reaper indoctrination trying to take over. Right after the blast, Shepard wakes with his armor half blown off. This is not just cut scene fubar, this is the start of his indoctrination fight when everything is slightly off, as in a dream (because it is)
If you listen to the radio chatter before Shepard goes into the beam, you can hear allied forces saying that NOBODY made it to the beam, not you and not Anderson before you. This is the real world radio chatter now in the background subconscious of this hallucination.
After he reaches the Citadel there is more oddness that should be setting off triggers for the player that something is not right, that this is an illusion... Anderson describes shifting walls and only ever agrees with Shep on his surroundings after Shep describes his and saying "like the collector base you described". Everything is just a projection from Shepard's mind and subconscious.
When you are having the conversation with TIM and Anderson, It's all just again Sheps subconscious reminding himself and the player about indoctrination and what happens when you stop fighting it... you lose control (shoot Anderson) This is similar to the nightmares Shep has of the boy. This is the game through Shep's subconscious telling you do not follow the kid, you will burn (kid goes up in flames). And the last one when you see she with the kid and they both burn. Again telling you, no matter what happens you will get burned by trusting the kid.
There are more allusions to not trusting Cerberus/reapers throughout the game as well. You really start to see them after you understand the indoctrination ending. For example: TIM talking to Kai Lang says "Shepard was always going to stay true to his ideals" subtlety suggesting that the player should do the same and not let TIM/reapers compromise you destroying the reapers. The goal you have had since the very beginning. Also before the attack on Cerberus base I believe, there is a quantum comm. call between you and Hackett. You have the option of saying something like "what if TIM is right and the reapers CAN be controlled" and Hackett shoots you down. Gives you a direct order to kill TIM and destroy reapers. No questions asked. Once again, game trying to remind you of the one true goal and keep you focused.
Now about the Catalyst and the crucible conversation and decision itself... By this time indoctrination is very close to taking over. The end is near. The catalyst looks like the little boy because of shep's subconscious and indoctrination is feeding off that. Everything in this scene is A LIE. The choices and how they are presented to you are all part of the deception to get Shepard to give his mind into indoctrination and lose the will to fight it.
You are presented first with the destroy option. He says "I KNOW you have been thinking of destroying us but..." The catalyst is scared, knows that its only chance is to manipulate Shepard here and now. It's painted in renegade red to through you off. This is purposefully done to manipulate Shepard's decision to fight. He tells you all synthetic life will be wiped out, including Geth and including Shepard because he is partially cybernetic himself. In sales you always present the worst option first and the best for last. So the next 2 options can then be presented and made more appealable.
the other 2 options do not let you ever see Shepard "alive" at the end so to me BOTH of these options are fails and result in you being indoctrinated and/or dying right there on the streets of London. Without that last breath scene. There can be no happy ending. I will elaborate on them a bit more separately.
Synthesis was in the middle and last option presented, this is what they ultimately want. He even likened the synthesis to husks in his description. The reapers want to harvest organics and change them into hybrids. By choosing synthesis you would be doing their work for them in an instant. Basically I see this as total fail ending, you have been played.
Now the control option was not presented as prominently as the synthesis but was still painted in paragon blue and offered as an option still better then destroy. In the end the result for choosing this is the same behind the scenes. Shepard gave into indoctrination/death and you do not get the breath tidbit.
So if you choose destroy like I believe we are somewhat intended to, remember that the explosion cut scene and relays exploding and Normandy running/crashing ALL OF THAT IS STILL HALLUCINATION. This is Shepard's subconscious imagining a "happy ending" he imagines reapers destroyed, earth fighters celebrating, and he imagines and ending for companions. The lush new planet-scape is just a metaphor for starting over and them being at peace. That's why immediately after they show Shep waking up, to solidify the dream idea.
At that point you are supposed to start thinking about what really happened. Shepard is alive, on Earth, has conquered indoctrination. Another HUGE thing is that after destroying the reapers you were supposed to be dead. Recalling the little boy "you will die as you are partly synthetic". When you wake up after that in the rubble, it should be a clear indication that you have been lied to. You did not die like the boy said you would, he just said that to dissuade you. The rest is left even more ambiguous but...
I personally believe that Shepard's job ended there. His companions who followed him at the last rush are dead beside him not suddenly on the Normandy and suddenly in a new system living happily ever after. That only happens in dreams He gathered the forces needed to beat the reapers. And it's the allied forces of the galaxy that ultimately stop the reapers. And that force would never have been formed without Shepard. As the stargazer after the credits says "the details have been lost to history" and there is still "one more story" to tell. So even though Shep was never on the citadel, the idea that Shep is a legend and is credited in destroying the reapers is true.
Love it or hate it, I whole heartedly believe that we will see DLC in the future that will start with Shepard taking that breath in the rubble. It will be something like Waking up after beating indoctrination and actually concluding the story in a more definitive way. And possibly a lot more "happy" though I'm more interested in "real" then some contrived happiness.
TL;DR (oh come on read above, its good 2 parts, first everything that happens between Shepard getting hit by the destroyer eye blast during the London charge and the "take a breath" scene (that you only get by choosing correct choices and having high enough EMF) Is a hallucination/indoctrination process that Shepard is fighting in his head.
There is only one real ending, the ending you have been groomed for since the beginning. Destroy the reapers at all costs. All other endings that do not have Shepard alive at the end are lies. They are illusions and means that Shepard gave into indoctrination and never awoke back on earth to realize this. And the player doesn't understand.
All the supposed plot holes can be explained by this. See examples above. Ask me questions if you have them, I will try to clarify for you in comments.
Also if you would rather watch 3 minutes of youtube, this is a rather good but not totally complete ending explaination. I approve
FINAL NOTE I love this ending because of what Bioware did. They actually indoctrinated their own customers. They made and ending where you the player play through a real-time indoctrination of not just your character but of the player. They presented the ending in such a way that you had to fight indoctrination right along with Shepard. The game actively tries to fool you and manipulate your decisions away from the "best" and ONLY true ending, this is no typical ending by any shot and they did this KNOWING that their fan base might not understand it and take what they showed us at face value. Those people will never get why their ending doesn't make sense and will be angry unnecessarily. For those like myself though. I feel like it's a twist worthy of the best games/movies out there and that some ambiguity is better than the spelled out epilogue slideshow at the end.
That all sounds legit and cool, but whilst we may be wrong, (and whilst the evidance supports you) you could also be wrong. But I really-really hope you're right.
Ugh... I continue to get more and more sickened by how the BioWare employees treat us. I got a positive message from Jessica Merizan, who by the way was also "just left with more questions" after finishing this game. But apparently, according to whomever runs the Mass Effect Twitter, we are a "vocal minority". And he also said that all of the opinions of the community are important. And yet he ONLY retweets and responds to positive feedback and utterly ignores the negative feedback. Acting like we're trying to do nothing but curse and b**ch. I feel we've been pretty polite up to this point.
Does anyone else feel like this is a new kind of backlash? I've lurked around the bioware boards off and on but was too intimidated to post. But after the ending I NEEDED to chat with people about it, and I've seen so many other first time poster posts in this thread. What convinced me to post is that everyone in this thread is so damn positive. For all the stereotypical nerd rage/fanboy whining (does the gaming industry not realize how many women play video games?) being thrown our way it's not the case in reality. For the most part people aren't threatening to rage quit bioware, people are looking for a reason to stay. The backlash isn't we hate you and want you to fail, it's we love you and want you to succeed. Over and over people keep saying how good the game was right up until the space wizard reaper god showed up and all they want is hope that it can be fixed sometime in the future. Not immediately, not even necessarily for free, just admit that the ending failed to give a satisfying conclusion and lets go from there. In short Bioware let us love you. We still want to love you.
I'm in agreement. I still believe that Bioware deserve a lot of credit for all of the things that they got right with the Mass Effect series. The games were absolute masterpieces, and usually if 99% of the games are right it's excusable to have a couple of flaws, but when the 1% is the most critical part of the whole game, the ending, it's a huge letdown.
If you people followed twitter you'd know you aren't "being ignored"
They are OBVIOUSLY planning to release SOMETHING monumental. I put my faith in Bioware that it wont be some kind of "take back omega" bull**** DLC either.
They aren't going to address the ending, they're going to continue the game because it hasn't ended yet.
In fact, i'm still sticking with my guns that we're going to see a Dragon Age: Awakening style Expansion pack to this game.
if they do have these SUPAR AMAZBALLS PLANZ they would do well to mention them.
I can understand not wanting to spoil things. But would a simple post or tweet that says, "We will address this at x time" be so hard. If they are waiting for release in Japan to happen or something like that just say "We will not be commenting on anything game related until X time".
Not ignoring people who are understandably angry and betrayed while seemingly retweeting every single positive comment they can get their hands on. It comes across as the digital way of shoving your fingers in your ears and yelling "LALALA CAN'T HEAR YOU. GO AWAY YOU MEANIES!"
Even if they pull the greatest ending of all time out I will still have lost serious respect points for Bioware. There's publicity stunts and trolling. But at some point you cross over into just being a jerk.
(I also realize my post there may have come off as angry at you. Nothing against you and your viewpoint. I just completely loathe how Bioware has handled this.)
It kind of did...it's okay though
I feel like we're all just refugee's on one of the last ships sailing away to saftey.
There's land out there some where and we can all keep up hope for it our own ways.
I like it. If it is a PR stunt, and I am right...I will pretty much be locked in as a fan of Bioware for life. I think a lot of other people will be to.
This is unlike anything any one has ever done before.
I am not sure how many people here are going along with the idea that this whole thing is a giant troll but I have a question about it. If this turns out to be the biggest troll/pr stunt in gaming history would you be impressed or angry at Bioware?
I think it would be a case of both. Unless they had a damn good reason, I think I'd be mostly angry.
Concur. I think I'd be really angry at first and then forgive. But I can only forgive them if they make all right in the world again. At this point though, I am praying for it to be a stunt just because it would mean that something is going to change.
I think I would be relieved and easily forgive them if it meant they delivered a real kick ass ending that explained everything and gave us all some closure. I don't know about you guys but I certaintly didn't invest a part of my life in the ME universe for the ending we got.
Ugh... I continue to get more and more sickened by how the BioWare employees treat us. I got a positive message from Jessica Merizan, who by the way was also "just left with more questions" after finishing this game. But apparently, according to whomever runs the Mass Effect Twitter, we are a "vocal minority". And he also said that all of the opinions of the community are important. And yet he ONLY retweets and responds to positive feedback and utterly ignores the negative feedback. Acting like we're trying to do nothing but curse and b**ch. I feel we've been pretty polite up to this point.
The 'vocal minority' is PR backtrack from last night when they said we were the mainstream lol. Don't let it get to you, they're getting nearly 100 tweets a minute, can't respond to them all
I will be perfectly happy, or hell, even wonderfully amused and elated if this all turns out to be an epic troll. It is always funny after you find out it was all a trick.
It would be disappointing, however, if it ends up being a way to get me to pay extra money for an ending. Which I don't think would happen....right? I mean, that would be a low thing to do.
Ugh... I continue to get more and more sickened by how the BioWare employees treat us. I got a positive message from Jessica Merizan, who by the way was also "just left with more questions" after finishing this game. But apparently, according to whomever runs the Mass Effect Twitter, we are a "vocal minority". And he also said that all of the opinions of the community are important. And yet he ONLY retweets and responds to positive feedback and utterly ignores the negative feedback. Acting like we're trying to do nothing but curse and b**ch. I feel we've been pretty polite up to this point.
I agree, I posted 10 times, and I only got a real reply when I said I wish my nokia was a N7 not an N8...
I am not sure how many people here are going along with the idea that this whole thing is a giant troll but I have a question about it. If this turns out to be the biggest troll/pr stunt in gaming history would you be impressed or angry at Bioware?
I would still be really mad and I don't like the direction the gaming-industry is moving to, but as long as we get a "real" ending, maybe additional missions and they don't want us to pay for it, I will be glad.
Ugh... I continue to get more and more sickened by how the BioWare employees treat us. I got a positive message from Jessica Merizan, who by the way was also "just left with more questions" after finishing this game. But apparently, according to whomever runs the Mass Effect Twitter, we are a "vocal minority". And he also said that all of the opinions of the community are important. And yet he ONLY retweets and responds to positive feedback and utterly ignores the negative feedback. Acting like we're trying to do nothing but curse and b**ch. I feel we've been pretty polite up to this point.
Vocal minority my ass... they can delete tweets but this forum and facebook speak for themselves...
Ce sujet est fermé
This thread is the only thing keeping me sane at the moment. Otherwise, I would have taken all my ME/BW stuff and set it on fire in the back yard the second I finished the game and realized that "ending" was all there was.
Retour en haut
He gathered the forces needed to beat the reapers. And it's the allied forces of the galaxy that ultimately stop the reapers. And that force would never have been formed without Shepard. As the stargazer after the credits says "the details have been lost to history" and there is still "one more story" to tell. So even though Shep was never on the citadel, the idea that Shep is a legend and is credited in destroying the reapers is true.
we're holding the line i see 
