The endings aren't only bad because "ohh, our character died", or because we have to farm multiplayer to have access to some ending (if you don't like FPS games, but you like storytelling in Bioware RPGs, you are slow, etc. it is an issue). They are also bad because we can't even try decisions that would make sense. We can't even try what would we try to do. And those limits lead to the endings we don't like.
What kind of priorities can be on list of priorites for the commander? Lets see a few.
Offer of Peace / Free the Reapers scenario: Show why hope is important, and show how in war with Geth cooperation and peace can be present. And artificial life with freedom can be part of galatic society. WIth love between EDI and Joker you see why the conflict can be avoided. That there is hope of cooperation. The cycle was ineffective only because of cooperation. But with cooperation you don't need the cycle anymore.
As reapers represent old civilizations, some reaper (with free will) would join the peace. Others won't. But if Catalyst and good portion of reapers can cooperate freely, the war can be won from that point by conventional means. Which is a long ending. One where you have to fight from city to city, from planet to planet, etc.
And it is better than Synergy as it doesn't force anyone to change. And I see it is a strong paragon ending. And in this ending we can have a living character...
Extending the cycle: You can agree with the Catalyst on importance of reapers but disagree on 50.000 years long circle. Your solution can be to extend the circle. As long as no "unstoppable singularity develops" reapers should wait and supervise. If any culture would become a threat harvest that culture. And only wipe out multiple cultures as last resort.
They should be a threat and a catalyst to help cooperation, but as long as destruction of civilizations can be avoided they can wait with that measure. As Reapers should stay to fight, and be a threat to maintain this extended cycle: conventional warfare would follow. But as majority of reapers would avoid the direct conflict it would be a war someone can win. But even if you would win, threats can resurface later. Again the commander can live
These options can be good for DLC content. Their weakness is: After the big confrontation, focusing on smaller problems is... unusual. But it can work, if we make some of the conventional warfare hard enough. And after the first victory it is easy to say: the commander and the crew should stay away from the local conflict. So it can be "Just one more confrontation" and some ceremony. And none would come without a price. The long fights would lead to many dead, some cities would be devastated. It wouldn't look good, it would be still depressed, it could still finish with some important fight... But it would be a "good" / heroic ending.
And as you see both endings can lead to a galaxy we can know, a slower story, with many different heroes... The story, the new colonies, rebuilding, exploring further, the new possibilities, etc. would make good foundations for an MMO. An MMO that focuses on story and PVE, yet has exploration content (procedurally generated?), colonization (player built structures, player managed infrestructure), smuggling, shipping, local markets, economy... In the Mass Effect universe. With the story for the rebuilding, the new conflicts be part of storyline missions, etc. that would be different enough from themepark MMOs to target a fresh audience. Would be friendly and big enough to target the masses.
Modifié par Elishiaila, 09 mars 2012 - 12:25 .
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But it really puzzled me that the dev team didn't think about something quite simple like that, they just had to add a dialogue option and a different movie for the ending... In that regard, i do think the dev team deserve criticism for screwing up the ending for a lot of fans while it could have been easily avoided.
