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[Epiph1]

 Dear Bioware,

I finished the game a couple of days ago. When I say that I 'finished' it, I actually mean that I finished a product that didn't actually conclude what is was supposed to. That is quite probably the very heart of the matter for many people who are currently up in arms about the now infamous endings.

The positives that you as a company have brought to the gaming market arguably outweigh some of the very harsh criticisms that are likely to be slung your way in light of the current uproar; however I believe that you should realise that the very reason that there is an uproar in the first place is because you have always been amazingly immersive story tellers. One of the better parts of valor is being able to admit that you made a mistake and then explaining to your consumers that you will a) be issuing an apology and will attempt to rectify it.

Now, let me just be clear on what I mean by mistake in this context. Mass Effect 3 is a game that is basically in two parts. It is not the same product - if a game could be said to have multiple personality disorder then I think this one quite easily qualifies. Allow me to be even clearer, ME1 & 2, followed by the first 98% of ME3 are clearly the same product with some minor canonical errors, but nothing that is wholly at odds or incorrect in the factual context that you present the universe.

In producing ME3 you create a wonderful follow through on the first two parts of the trilogy. An almost seamless game that is astonishingly immersive, exciting and thought provoking. Your development and writing staff are to be commended on that. Then we reach the fight to take back Earth.

I almost feel that this campaign should henceforth be known as "the fight to retain continuity" or "the fight to finish the product because we may have run out of resources/money/ideas/energy (insert whatever was appropriately applicable)".

Perhaps you simply had promised too much to your players. It can't have been easy to realise the true potential of the promise that players' choices mattered. The rallying cry of the series. I can only imagine the sheer computational power that would have been required to work out every plot twist and decision made and come to a satisfying conclusion.

However, none of that actually matters because the solution you used was insulting. You forgot that I and many others had played the game from the start. Clearly you knew that there had to have been some conclusion, but your decision making process was poor. Once the game returns to Earth, and the final assault begins we receive all these wonderful and poignant vignettes with our squad members and then suddenly and really very apparently a new writing direction was taken.

Thus begins the other 2%. That green bar we'd been filling all this time suddenly had no real consequence. I could have walked into the Citadel with a kettle and a monkey and no fleet for all the difference that number made in real terms.

Quite frankly, I think many of us are actually very insulted at the sudden turn of events taken in the Citadel. It's arguable that the struggle between organic and synthetic life has been a resounding theme throughout the game - no one is complaining about that very much. What is being complained about is how the premises of the arguments became logical absurdities.

Many have pointed out that we all could have just pointed out of the window and said "Hey look, we're actually fighting together (Quarian/Geth/EDI) to stop you therefore your claim is now incorrect and we should be allowed to evolve in our own way". The people arguing this point are correct; it really should have been an option. For those people who didn't chose the reconciliation of the Geth and Quarians, well they wouldn't have gotten that option. That's been your game structure up until this point, so why did it suddenly become an unviable design?

The Catalyst as a format to have this one-sided discussion was also a poor choice. The paradox of an AI who had clearly evolved so far that it felt that it should guardian and champion organic life in the manner it was doing was illogical. It quite simply didn't compute. A lot of people have explained why this was non-sensical so I won't go over it again.

Then we reach our epic ending. Make a choice. Finally we get a choice again!

Wait one second, I didn't sign up for any of these choices being played out in this bizarrely hackneyed version. Magically, we're going to shoot beams around the galaxy and change the very structure of all organisms, be they organic or synthetic? Other than the fact that evolution is actually a very slow process (you reference this as being the final evolution of life - your words not mine), we're suddenly in a galaxy that has magic on a scale that requires us to suspend all disbelief in what has been up until now a fairly believable universe. There went any and all immersion for me personally. Your greatest strength was stripped away in literally moments destroying one of the best series you've ever made.

The best part is that I get to chose one of the three colored beams for whatever flavor of ending I desire. Space magic beaming into a home near you soon!

The Normandy is mid-jump for some bizarre unexplained reason? And then I have to listen to some trite grandfatherly recitation of my story.

I'm actually really insulted that you would think we weren't intelligent enough to realise the inconsistencies or the lack of cohesive story-telling. I've even seen people claim that others who are upset or annoyed by the ending are clearly not intelligent enough to grasp it. The problem is they grasped it and its consequences a little too well for your own comfort.

Hopefully, you will respond to the community soon and try to clarify what happened. It's okay to say that the project ran out of ideas or steam. Whatever the problem was we can try forgive it. It would be nice to see this fixed or altered however that would definitely generate the good will of your consumers once again. Bethesda swallowed it's pride and did so in the past. Perhaps you should too.

Many people don't have a problem with dark endings. A lot of people do have problems with illogical and badly pieced together endings however. Just some food for thought.

Sincerely
A disappointed fan

[Thomas Abram]

Take this into the mega threads - You don't need your own thread.

Locked.