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The following are excerpts of their thoughts from our fellow members who, I think, articulated most of the prominent issues that outlies the ending for ME3.
For me, the main issue with the ending is that it took away/destroyed the universe that Bioware themselves created and we as players shabed in one stroke of a pen. We love the diffirent races, cultures and civilizations in Mass Effect and these civilizations base their culture on the mass relays and the technology. All of the endings, destroyes the relays and tech, offer no closure on our beloved characters and explains nothing about the places and people we've grown to know and love.
From Goblinsapper...
Repyling to another thread got me to thinking, part of my OP here has been cribbed from my response there as I felt it was deserving of it's own topic)
Mass Effect has, since it's beginning, been an experiment into the concept of continuitous player agency - that is, that players will have the decision to make large or small changes to the story and it's details as it progresses along it's narrative arc, and that these decisions will be respected over the course of the trilogy. This has been the expectation from day one and thus far has been the most successful of Bioware's forays into continuitous player agency. Dragon Age followed a similar idea thread but did not center on a central character which the player maintains agency over, rather it is a set of different tales and different characters placed in the same World Setting in which player agency has ripple effects on that setting.
One of the problems of course, with any game that focuses on Player Agency, is that the same thing will mean different things to different people. People have expectations based on 'their' story, and the way you avoid stepping on 'their' story is to maintain player agency and give them the free will to choose their outcomes. This creates certain limitations on you as the author - you must maintain contingency plans for every player agency point you provide. Certain narrative and organizational devices can make this much easier, such as a binary 'morality' system (paragon/renegade points) and condition flags (companion loyalty/approval). This allows you to frame the narrative arc that your players will undergo while providing the illusion of complete choice. While this form of Player Agency is by design limited (your arc of control is more akin to 180 degrees than 360 degrees of movement, if you follow) it is an effective way of allowing your players to exercise their agency over the narrative while still establishing a general story arc which you can follow and plan for.
Over the past three games Bioware has done what, in my opinion, can be considered a masterful job of faithfully representing the continuity of player agency, referencing player choices in meaningful and meaningless ways via datapoints. Mass Effect 3 was the penultimate example of this, borrowing choices from the previous two games to almost completly form the narrative arc of the third - that is, your choices have finally become the definition of the setting (wether or not you saved the council, the rachni, etc) influences the characters that appear and how events play out in these games. Mass Effect 3 is exceptionally well polished (barring some frustrating bugs and annoying UI and quest tracking issues) and represents the continuity nerds wet dream - a universe of their own creation, the punultimate choose your own adventure.
However...
In the last 10-15 minutes of the game there was an abrupt genre convention shift (more in line with the metaphysical pulp sci-fi of the 1900's than the Space Opera / Military Drama we had thus far experianced), a fundamental violation of one of the tenants of the Writer-Reader contract. This abrupt genre shift has left fans feeling disoriented, confused, and dissapointed - which swiftly leads to bitterness and anger. Their suspension of disbelief and expectations have not been adequatly serviced, and thus the ending causes the story of Mass Effect - from beginning to end, from 1-3 - to fail. Many are now observing plot holes and inconsistancies - those plot holes were always there, but were forgiven. However a bad ending damns a story, it causes a blowback in the reader where their tension and emotional involvement does not achieve catharsis and they're left to take it out on the author.
And this is why, I, and many thousands of other individuals have been so upset by the ending to Mass Effect 3. Our genre expectations and player agency have been violated, the finale of the story is uninfluenced by the continuity of our decisions and follows an unfamiliar narrative trend.
From HKR148...
What I absolutely am not tolerating is the traumatic betrayal of the central philosophy that Bioware was trying to build up in ME3. Take Paragon path for an example. The definition of 'hope' was not only that the rest of the galaxy will survive, but 'hope' that he/she will be able to get through the ordeal along with people he/she cherishes (love interest, squad members, friends etc.) even though the odd was very slim.
Shepard went through the odds to try breaking the cycle. The Prothean has acknowledged that what he/she has done was something that was never seen in the history of the galaxy filled with repeated genocidal cycle commited by the reapers. Right up to the fleet approaching Earth; the story had reached a climax where Shepard and the rest of the galaxy is about to undo the Reapers and it's all because of the protagonist's existence.
Then the catalyst happened, every philosophical direction the game was taking suddenly became meaningless. Whatever the truth the catalyst believed in is the absolute truth and we must accept that. And suddenly Shepard, and us the players, have to comply with that unacceptable philosophy.
This in my view was an absolute betrayal against the central theme of the ME story-line, and for me this is absolutely unacceptable. If this was a book I wouldn't even bother keeping it in my bookshelf. The way Bioware portrays human value is simply unacceptable by any philosophical standard in my book.
From P4NDA_TITAN...
There was so much promise in this series. I have long held up Dragon Age and Mass Effect as two solid proofs of how story does not have to be, nor should it be an afterthought in games. To me, Bioware games were the reason why, despite all their bad press, video games are truly an art form. Even after Dragon Age tripped, Mass Effect remained.
I had actually been planning to write something like this after the completion of the Mass Effect series, a dissertation of sorts on the power that games represent as a medium to both tell stories and actively engage the listener as well. In giving us a choice in how we influence the story, they presented unique opportunities to engage with characters and shape events in ways previously impossible in any other medium.Now that it's been almost a week since I finished the game, I don't think I'll be able to write something like this anymore. As the master storytellers of the gaming industry, Bioware has betrayed not only what they stand for, but for what this game stood for as well. A storyteller doesn't end a story with loose threads, nor does he forego closure in favor of trying to make an artistic statement. He does not end at a climax and forego the resolution.
Never before had a story like Mass Effect's been told on such a scale. This series' very existence is proof of the power of story, given that a good portion of it does not include any combat, and the combat itself isn't exactly a game-changer, being of a fairly standard cover-based shooting formula with RPG elements weaved in. Had it ended on a consistent note, that is with closure offered for all the fate of the galaxy and those Shepard was close to, then almost any ending would have sufficed.
Not all stories end with happily ever after. The Fourty-seven Ronin ends in a victory for justice, but a bloodbath for the protagonists. Hamlet ends on a brutally poignant note. These are nonetheless masterpieces of bygone ages, and Mass Effect had a chance to be the same. There are those who believe that those who are displeased about the way in which Shepard's saga ends is because he does not survive. This is, on the whole, patently false. We do not criticize Ronin for ending with the protagonists committing seppuku, many of them childless and ending their lines forever. We do not criticize Hamlet simple because so many people died. We appreciate them because we accept these tales as stories with a greater meaning, rather than a fairy tale. Nonetheless, they do not fail to wrap up all their loose ends, giving us closure on the fates of every character the authors sought to bring to life.
Mass Effect had a chance to be the greatest epic tale that the gaming industry has seen to date. We could have held it up as a classic trilogy to our children, kept an old dusty console or dated PC in the basement so that they too could one day experience the epic tale that we had. I find myself disappointed not just for myself, but for what could have been for gaming in general. It's not unlike watching a marathon runner hold the lead for twenty four amazing miles, only to trip in the final 10 meters because of wild and unnecessary showmanship, break his leg, and be unable to finish the race. It really is a terrible shame.
From MadMackNT_os...
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His post is rather long, if you want to see it it is
http://social.biowar...5/index/9765465
Rather than offer a glimpse into the mind of the monsters, we get a child offering up some played to death story about synthetics wiping out all organics and the only solution is to harvest, which isn’t completely explained either, the advanced cultures so the primitive ones get a chance, because “Hey, that’s the best I can do”. But hey, this cycle is different, this cycle made the giant-egg with legs, so you get to change the game! Except by change the game, it means hit reset button on all Reaper/Catalyst based technology, literally become the conscience of the “beings beyond your comprehension” or merge man and machine.
Somehow I went from the Citadel to Area 51. I’m on longer Mack Shepard, but I’m Mack Denton, deciding whether or not to destroy all advanced technology, take control of the illuminati, or merge with Helios and usher in a new era of man/machine prosperity. Except, unlike the original Deus Ex where you actually have to do things in Area 51 to cause your ending, you’re given the Human Revolution option of click this button for this ending, though a little less literal with the buttons than Human Revolution was. It’s like they plagiarized one of the greatest endings in a game, the original Deus Ex, fused it with a gimmicky mechanic from one of its sequels, and then shoe-horned it into the Mass Effect universe, where it just doesn’t fit the rest of the game, at all.
There is still hope however
The user LilyasAvalon posted something about the orginial leaked script
Not true. An extremely detailed version of the endings was leaked back in Novemeber. Shepard was meant to survive in more than just a few endings, and tech was meant to be kept in Synthesis/Control. There was also a variation of 'epilogue' where Shepard (if alive) would emerge from the Guardian's ruins, to be greated by their LI and Anderson. Shepard and their LI would hug while Anderson would summerise, casualities, technology, outcome, relays, the future, etc
Theres also a post around here that quotes Mike Gamble saying something about holding on to your copy of ME3 forever. Indicating, or at least, suggesting an alternative ending.
Also, I actually think some of the hallucination theories look pretty promising, I mean if we factor space magic in to the equation, anything is possible right?
Modifié par RubiconI7, 11 mars 2012 - 07:28 .
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