23455 réponses à ce sujet

[lord_shift]

After over 8000 responses and 136000+ views, I'd expect the PR/dev team to have some sort of an idea of what our expectations of the ending were by now... =/

[MikeC99]

Revan1 wrote...

I think people not buying the game simply to avoid playing the ending is a little crazy. The entirety of the game up to that point, I thought, was an amazing experience with gameplay, story, and character interaction (with of course minor things here and there that weren't perfect but little is). They're missing out on something amazing all to avoid the last couple minutes. It's not as if that will change anything for them--if they're ME fans then they'll look up all the rage about the endings anyway. Might as well play and enjoy the multiple hours of awesome stuff that comes before that.

Yes, valid point. I think this is true of those who haven't played the other two games as there's not so much emotional baggage for them to carry through. But if you really have an emotional investment there's more to loose. I shied away from a replay for three days. Now I am replaying, but honestly it's a struggle. If people can let go of the emotional connection, then yes, totally agree with you. But i also completely understand those who have such an attachment that the flat, hollow and betrayed feeling really sticks in your guts. Does mine. And I'm 59 and really shouldn't give a flying %$#% ... but strangely, I do.

cheers

[Thanatos144]

Well you all can cry about a fantastic ending me i will be playing this game again.....I like the idea of My Shepards dieing heroes that saved the galaxy.

[jeweledleah]

Thanatos144 wrote...

jeweledleah wrote...

Thanatos144 wrote...

maideltq wrote...

Thanatos144 wrote...

I want to know when Bioware promised endings that were not these?

 

How can you say they didnt do that? Just cause Shepards fate???????? They did tell you it was the end of shepards story.

dear god.  did you just compeltely ignored a specific statement that endings will NOT be an a,b, or C choice?  even though its exactly what we got?

I'm not sure if I should keep trying to eplain anything to you, or just give up as a lost cause

So you dont like having the choice or that the choices to you sucked? I just dont see the fuss.

sigh.  pardon the caps

THEY.  BROKE.  A.  DIRECT.  PROMISE.  MORE.  THEN. ONCE.  THEY. MISREPRESENTED. THEIR.  PRODUCT. THEY CREATED. CERTAIN.  EXPECTATIONS.  THEY.  NOT US.  AND THEN THEY WENT COMPLETELY AGAINST THEM.

this is one of the fundamental issues with the endings.  there are plenty more, that you also seem to ignore for whatever reason.

you enjoy the endings?  good.  many of us don't.  we were told we were paying for one thing.  and got something completely different.  like ordering coffee at the restaurant and getting herbal tea instead.  I don't care how pretty that tea smells.  I was told that the coffee here is spectacular so thats why i came here.  for that promised coffee.

[Iconoclaste]

Thanatos144 wrote...

Well you all can cry about a fantastic ending me i will be playing this game again.....I like the idea of My Shepards dieing heroes that saved the galaxy.

I'm glad you can see it that way. I had the silly feeling he saved nothing but a handful of random individuals, imposed a synthesis / destruction to all others, or just wasn't really himself at the crucial moment...

Modifié par Iconoclaste, 21 mars 2012 - 06:00 .

[shephard987]

Everyone, please remain civil in ongoing conversations.
Frustrations can be shown through private messaging.
Fighting in front of everyone in the forum gets the group morale down.
Please keep civility a priority.

Hold the Line

[Omnike]

Iconoclaste wrote...

Thanatos144 wrote...

Well you all can cry about a fantastic ending me i will be playing this game again.....I like the idea of My Shepards dieing heroes that saved the galaxy.

I'm glad you can see it that way. I had the silly feeling he saved nothing but a handful of random individuals, imposed a synthesis / destruction to all others, or just wasn't really himself at the crucial moment...

Lol... they weren't fantastic. Especially not in a storytelling way. Or a character driven way. Or in the promised way. You got choice A,B,C, but they all were the same. Throw in a few plot holes and you've got yourself a depressing, jumbled mess of incoherency. What a fantastic ending...

[Brawne]

You are listening but you are not hearing.

[Yarfnarl]

Just finished ME3. So, Bioware, you wanted to wait for more people to finish and get more feedback? Well, I'm disappointed with the ending. So many ways you could have gone, so many possibilities for some kind of personal choice experience, but this is what you came up with. I would have been happy if this ending was but one choice based on decisions I had made, but the fact that it became THE ONLY CHOICE made me sad. You all did so well up to the last 10 minutes. I feel you did a major discredit to the entire series. The saddest thing is even if you try to fix it now it won't change things. I'll always know that this was the ending you intended and forced upon us. My Shepherd can't say no. My Shepherd can't fight back. You should have let us have some control. Our assets, effort, attitude, relationships, and truces should have made some sort of difference in the end. None of that mattered. It makes it all a waste. It's too bad, this story was fantastic, the work done was amazing, and it all came apart in the last scene. Such a shame.

[shephard987]

Yarfnarl wrote...

Just finished ME3. So, Bioware, you wanted to wait for more people to finish and get more feedback? Well, I'm disappointed with the ending. So many ways you could have gone, so many possibilities for some kind of personal choice experience, but this is what you came up with. I would have been happy if this ending was but one choice based on decisions I had made, but the fact that it became THE ONLY CHOICE made me sad. You all did so well up to the last 10 minutes. I feel you did a major discredit to the entire series. The saddest thing is even if you try to fix it now it won't change things. I'll always know that this was the ending you intended and forced upon us. My Shepherd can't say no. My Shepherd can't fight back. You should have let us have some control. Our assets, effort, attitude, relationships, and truces should have made some sort of difference in the end. None of that mattered. It makes it all a waste. It's too bad, this story was fantastic, the work done was amazing, and it all came apart in the last scene. Such a shame.

There are many people that would agree with your opinion. 
In this group and other outside groups.
Which is why it is important not to just voice our opinions HERE,
but out THERE in the comments of articles that bash us for these and other reasons.
Voice your opinion.
It matters.

Hold the Line

[Iconoclaste]

I also noted that I lost my armor prior to get upstairs in the Citadel. Too bad I also forgot my medi-gel, because it could have helped a lot up there...

[jayprescott]

As a writer, I know how frustrating it can be when a piece of your work isn't fully understood by certain members of your audience. This is the case of Mass Effect 3. Personally, I marveled at how the ending was handled. Wonderful. You did something unconventional and unique when you could have done something cliched, and for that I applaud you. Unfortunately, (and I don't mean to sound pretentious) I think you might have overstepped in that you went over the head of some gamers. I've read the plot hole criticisms and found them laughable. You left some things open, yes. But an ending such as this is powerful when there are some unknown outcomes. It keeps the player wondering if they made the right choice. I think people get distracted by the similarities in the cutscenes and forget that the implications behind each one are totally different. Maybe just fixing that would appease your fanbase, though I encourage you to stick to your current path. The ending as it is, to me, made Mass Effect 3 not just a great game, but one of the greatest games ever made. Again, well done.  

[TSgt_ShaneV]

Iconoclaste wrote...

TSgt_ShaneV wrote...

Iconoclaste wrote...

MikeC99 wrote...

Relays and Super-novas

I don’t see necessarily that these have an impact as in an explosion. We have neutrinos buzzing through us – literally – and have no idea. So the expanding rings are the effect rays, not the explosions, in which case it doesn’t NECESSARILY follow that there is any effect other than whatever the coloured ray is supposed to do, ie synthesise organic and non-organic if it’s green etc etc.

Good post, sir.

But just on that one : in the cutscene where you see the Normandy trying to escape the "blast" (any color), the "effect" is always the same, and it destroys the rear bumper and a little more. I thought that was maybe caused by the fact that the Normandy's reactor was in this section, and since everything Reaper-related was destroyed, only the aft part of Normandy was deleted, and not the front. I pulled hard to fetch that explanation, because it implies that "Element zero", the fuel behind the "mass effect", was to be destroyed wherever it is found, within the reach of the Reaper's "space-magic". But that also implies that this "Element Zero" is destroyed even in the "synthesis" solution, so I don't see the point.

Ok - I never understood that well I have a few questions...

eezo (or Element Zero) is a mineral (so to speak), why would a space magic blast (sorry don't know what to call it) destroy an element? The tech I can understand but the elemnt itself? Then again...space magic... unless I have it wrong?

Also, does anyone question the Normady, traveling at FTL (Faster Than Light), being caught by.... an explosion of.....Light ?(more space magic? we have colorful explosions in space and sound too)

According to stuff I read concerning an author at Bioware that developed on that theme, the Reaper's original goal was to stop the progression of "Dark Matter" in the galaxy. Some have made the association eezo = dark matter, but I will let that aside for now. Let's just say that the "space-magic" blasts remotely "transform" biologics into cyborgs or accomplish the "synthesis solution" by "creating a new DNA", God knows how this is implemented in any individual "remotely", but anyways... An element (ex. eezo) could probably be "destroyed" by accelerated decay or other sophisticated quantic process yet unknown but to the Reapers, this being done by a signal travelling "by" and "with" the mass relay systems, allowing the process to be carried out at ++speed-of-light. The only problem I see in this scheme is that the signal has to "discriminate" its "targets" to avoid the destruction of constructs / prothesis containing this "eezo". And if the Reapers already had the technological knowledge to realize such a feat, how come do they have to resort to a plain zap & bash kind of war?

If it's effectively "eezo-based tech" that's "targeted" to be destroyed, then we should see the weapons explode (partly?) in the hands of the soldiers in London, just after the "colored" flash...

Thanks..I'll just chaulk it up to Reaper Tech LOL 

I was thinking - a signal is comprised of data, or a wave, which can't travel faster than light and eezo can't effect it as eezo affects molecules causing them to lower or rise their mass (or weight) arrrggg my head  'sploded...space magic it is *thumbs up

also eezo is natually created by suns going super nova (i think) so Reaper tec would not wipe all eezo minerals out as more would naturally occur...

uggg I need to stop, I'll be here all night trying to rationalize this

[mattynutz]

lord_shift wrote...

After over 8000 responses and 136000+ views, I'd expect the PR/dev team to have some sort of an idea of what our expectations of the ending were by now... =/

It seems that listening to our expectations was never the intention. I'm thinking that I may have to look into the returns that are being accepted by Amazon and Origin. It isn't like I'm replaying.

[Omnike]

jayprescott wrote...

As a writer, I know how frustrating it can be when a piece of your work isn't fully understood by certain members of your audience. This is the case of Mass Effect 3. Personally, I marveled at how the ending was handled. Wonderful. You did something unconventional and unique when you could have done something cliched, and for that I applaud you. Unfortunately, (and I don't mean to sound pretentious) I think you might have overstepped in that you went over the head of some gamers. I've read the plot hole criticisms and found them laughable. You left some things open, yes. But an ending such as this is powerful when there are some unknown outcomes. It keeps the player wondering if they made the right choice. I think people get distracted by the similarities in the cutscenes and forget that the implications behind each one are totally different. Maybe just fixing that would appease your fanbase, though I encourage you to stick to your current path. The ending as it is, to me, made Mass Effect 3 not just a great game, but one of the greatest games ever made. Again, well done.  

Yay, incomplete final ending. Good writing, too bad only sophisticated people who wear monocles and smoke pipes in their lush, velvet armchairs really understand it. Breaking character, having things that simply don't make any sense or are just completely unexplained. Not to mention the cookie-cutter endings we were told would never be part of Mass Effect. 16 boasted endings that turned out to be more like one ending with a different color. So please, if the ending didn't simply "go over your head", explain it to the masses. I'm confident that you can't. And don't give a response like "you wouldn't understand". That's cheap and it tells me you really don't understand either.

[Archonsg]

Iconoclaste wrote...

Thanatos144 wrote...

Well you all can cry about a fantastic ending me i will be playing this game again.....I like the idea of My Shepards dieing heroes that saved the galaxy.

I'm glad you can see it that way. I had the silly feeling he saved nothing but a handful of random individuals, imposed a synthesis / destruction to all others, or just wasn't really himself at the crucial moment...

Actually the ending as is meant that the ENTIRE Galaxy went Bye Bye.

On Exploding Relays.

OKies guys, people keep going "this is Not Arrival... it wasn't hit by an asteroid, it got hit by a signal beam, so its explosion is not the same! That its a "controled explosion ..."

I agree that this is not an "Arrival scenario since in Arrival you destroyed a Relay by ramming what is essentially a small planetoid into a Relay (Mass + Velocity + momentum vs Stationary object) , so please bear with me and read why physics actually puts this scenario where when a relay explodes, on its own might be a lot more powerful then the one in Arrival.

Lets first all just agree that we ALL do see the Relays explode.
Lets watch the video again:
youtu.be/liQV1N7jXis

Citadel fires signal, signal hits relay, relays charges to critial sends signal along then BLOWS up.

Note that Relays are superstructres that can withstand a Super Nova without taking any damage at all.

Refer to your Codex ; Secondary : Ilos : Mu Relay

All a Super Nova did to it while vaporising the system it was in and creating the nebulae that hides the Mu Relay was to push the Relay out of position while not doing a single dent to it. (You guys USED it for crying out loud) 

So to recap, the Relays in ME3 was NOT hit by a big planetoid (this makes it easier to destroy a Relay presumeably since now we have a huge butt load of mass and momentum of said mass added into the equation ... 

But we are talking about ME3)  which means the RELAYS exploded from kinetic / momentum force or energy alone which means that force had to had more velocity and momentum to damage a structure then if it was mass AND veloctiy.

If you want to do the math, here's a link:
www.stardestroyer.net/Resources/Science/Explosives.html

In short and in lay man's terms, a Relay can take an energy shockwave hit of Super Nova scale and not be structurely damaged.
Relays are tough SOBs.

A structural explosion happens when enough kinetic / momentum force is applied to compromise said structure.Big or Small Kaboooms, kabooms must be powerful enough to rip things to shreds.

Example, A soda can will explode if you apply xxx ammount of pressure. Does not matter if you want a big or small explosion but you need a minum ammount of pressure to make a soda can explode.

Thus an EXPLODING relay you saw = ONE BIG ASS KABOOM!

Logic would dictate that if structure is not damaged by Super Nova Scale energy, energy needed to not just bend but blow apart said structure = many orders of magnitude.

REALLY REALLY big AND powerful KABOOM!

Now to understand just how powerful a Super Nova is
www.nagt.org/files/nagt/jge/abstracts/Dutch_v53n1.pdf


I find this portion interesting :

"Also, the supernova Sun would blast off  a significant fraction of its mass at relativistic velocities. When it reaches Earth, it would be pretty effective at helping to strip off mass. The Earth wouldn't vanish instantly in a supernova explosion, but its survival time would be measured in days at best. If the Sun blasts away half of its mass, or 1030 kg, the earth would intercept 4.5 x 10-10 of the ejected mass, or 4.5 x 1020kg. This amounts to 1/13,000 the mass of the earth, but it would be moving at high speed. If it were moving at 10 per cent of the speed of light, its total kinetic energy would be 4 x 1035 joules, or about 75 times the orbital kinetic energy of the earth and 4500 times the energy required to vaporize the earth. Its momentum would be about 3/4 the orbital momentum of the earth. As the comic strip character Dogbert put it in a different context, it would be "like sandblasting a soup ******."

And just how large a Super Nova scale shockwave can can get :
apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030609.html

NGC 2736 (Pencil Nebula)  is part of the Vela Super Nova
apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap960612.html

That happened roughly 11,000 years ago. Has a shell that is roughly 230 light years across and is still expanding at about 500,000 km/h. 11,000 years after initial event. (time, disspation, debris and space gas has slowed it down somewhat)

Now back to Mass Effect 3

Essentitally a Super Nova as close to as 20-25 light years could take out half of Earth's ozone layer.

Closer then 10 light years a good portion of atmosphere should be blown away, earth's magnectic feilds fracked up, climate goes to hell literally, most living things die.

Closer then 1 light years .... vaporization is very likely that or earth and everything in the path of the discharge become galacitc kitty litter, pulverrised into rock and dust.

The Charon Mass relay is 4 light hours away.

Needless to say ANY system with an Exploding Mass Relay = Toast.Any cluster with a Mass Relay = fracked up

Basically that ending we saw was producers who just wanted big fracking explosions.
Never mind the science behind it.

Ignoring their own  "Issac Newton is the deadliest SOB in space" line (physics DO matter in Mass Effect)
They threw logic and common sense out the window just to have a "cool looking cut scene"

Lastly exploding relays even if we take the final cut scene at face value still has enough energy to rip apart vessels in space like it did the Normandy.

Which is another "looks cool" but badly thought out "action first, logic and science behind construction of a ship (we can use current day Aerospace design rules as a guideline) gets thrown out the window.

Logic and the only conclusion that any shockwave that can flex and rip engines off a lateral mount = severe hull integrity compromise = the fuselage should not, could not stay in one piece.

The same goes to ANY vessel around earth space.
That means that whole armada that even if you want to ignore the Super Nova or greater scale energy discharge needed just to compromise a Relay and blow it up, still gets rip to shreds by the the current ending's own shockwave.

I call BS on this.

You can't have the Relays or the Citadel explode, EVER.

If or anyone thinks exploding Mass Relays is "good" SCIENCE Fiction and yes, I understand it is fiction so, there is a good ammount of leeway given to "space magic" such as ohh .."Mass Effect fields" it still has to be explained and follow rules of physics, even made up ones.

Come up with a logical and physics based solution how one can essentially detonate a Relay and not have said energy transfer in the scale and magnitude of a Nova, and I'll accept it.

Modifié par Archonsg, 21 mars 2012 - 06:28 .

[Iconoclaste]

As a multi-disciplinary artist, I know an audience cannot be pleased with a bad conclusion with a dull punch line, whatever the amount of self-esteem I might have.

Modifié par Iconoclaste, 21 mars 2012 - 06:18 .

[DarkRAM]

Ending was a steaming dump pile.
Didnt make sense at all. How did my 2 squad mates who where suppose to enter the beam end up on the Normandy?!?!?

Incredibly lame...

[ssate]

I hate the endings.
it's not about "it's not happy ending~I want happy ending bawwww"

I mean before I saw the endings I expect them to be something like the endings of fallout2.
where the consiquences of a lot of major choices and decision I made over the game are shown and reflected.

for example if I killed Wrex in ME and didn't save genophage data on ME2,
the ending would told me something like "after the war against reaper, without Eve and the females to restrain Wreav, the krogan goes on a 2nd krogan rebellion" (better if narrated by Neil Ross )

but then all I got is something similar to fallout3, in which I can save, made the different "last choices" and see all three endings.
and what's more frustrating is that these endings doesn't detail any aftermath of my choices over the course of 3 games at all!

aside from the endings I like the game, from it's writing(except the endings and those child nightmare) to the changes/improvements in game mechanics. But since this thread is about the endings my love for those parts should be left on another topics I guess

Modifié par ssate, 21 mars 2012 - 06:21 .

[Prowln Jazz]

Oh gosh, so many things were wonderful in the game. Happy times with Garrus again (especially his awkward but cute romancing), being scared that Grunt may have died, to sadness of Mordin's death in order to save the krogan race...to the adreniline rush of intense emotions running high when the Quarians and Geth finally come to terms... and, I actually like the ending so far. It was such an emotional rollarcoaster and still makes me sad when listening to the soundtrack.

I do have faith though. I doubt you would have ended it the way it was without plans. It just seems like things were set up on purpose for...more.

Besides even if you did say that that truely is the absolute end I'm still fine with it. I've seen other fandoms go with things not ending with the "YAY EVERYONE LIVE" and was fine with it. Not everything is happy in war.

[MeganHunter]

To be fair, if they really did create something deep and thought provoking that no one got, they went too far...or needed to add exposition to the "good red" ending to show this was all indoctrination or whatever. This isn't a few people that didn't get it. It's not half. Even saying "most" probably doesn't fully encompass the number. From what we've been able to see online, it's a pretty gigantic majority. I freely admit that I didn't have a clue what was going on. And while I'm loathe to put limitations on a creator, you can bet that EA is from now on, for better or worse.

When I went to see No Country For Old Men, which admittedly won lots of awards, the credits came up to crickets in the theater. The audience started laughing, then booing. The two friends I'd gone with kept calling me an idiot for not "getting it," but when I asked them what it was about, they couldn't give me an answer. Just tired platitudes that it was too deep, over my head, and I should get some culture and try watching it again. It feels like an awful lot of those defending the ending are doing this...actually, it's remarkably similar to the gay marriage sides. I'd give anything to hear just one person say "I loved the ending, it might have a few plot holes but it was well within my suspension of disbelief, it's all good and I had a great time." I'd be fine with this answer, but I haven't seen it once just yet.

Modifié par MeganHunter, 21 mars 2012 - 06:29 .

[UltimatBlitz]

Rain Gunji wrote...

Its not that Shep died, or didn't as the case very well may be, its that the choices you made throughout each game, and all the work that fans did to that point meant absolutely nothing, and also that the endings were not even worthy of Shep... but following the proposed form... I loved the game, one of my favorite things is the way we can mix up powers now... yay for a inferno concussion shot, and I love well "I'm Garrus Vakarian and this is my favorite spot on the Citidel.", but the endings as I said in this post were not just terrible they destroy the fan's desire to play the game, they not only do that but they say to the fan yeah it doesn't matter you saved the Racni, it doesn't matter you helped the Krogans, helped the Geth, helped the Quarians because heh.... BAM everything you've come to love has been turned on its head, and those relationships you've come to know, the loyalty you thought you had that was nothing cause apparently Joker and your squad high tailed it first chance they got.... So come on Bioware say it aint so.

You know, I hadn't even thought about that. I was just annoyed I had to kill the Geth (and probably EDI, that wasn't stated) to destroy the Reapoers. But thinking about it, I was all excited since before ME2 to have a big war against the Reapers, seeing every single group I rescue help out in battle. But the Racni aren't there, and I didn't see any geth ships even saving both them and the Quarians. All they do is add stats to yoru war effort, which is in itself an interesting concept...but also rather disappointing to not even get to see it.

[CoyoteLovely]

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Yay! Account unlocked, I can post now.



I'm going to Wall-O-Text below, both the good and the bad (and the
ending). Sorry in advance.  



I started the ME1 experience on a recommendation from a very good friend.
Loved the game. Played through it no less than 3 times. Fell in love with
Kaiden, to the degree that my boyfriend started referring to him as "that
damned dirty L2." 



Pre-ordered ME2, played it 2 play throughs straight in a row, managed to pick
up on all the clues - and had full survivors both times. I was super proud of
that - as among my friends, I was one of the few to not lose anyone. I cried at
the scene where Kaiden got all ticked at Horizon, and listened to Mr. Sbarge's
recording of the apology letter three times on the Thanksgiving day it was
released. I played through ME2 a third time on a whim, when ME3 was announced,
so I could refresh my memories, and start guessing at the ending. (Side Note: I remember
cheering audibly when I saw Garrus again for the first time).



That's also when I read the books (first three - waiting on the ret-con for the
4th) and I've purchased all the comics.



Preordered ME3 somewhere in this mess. The Preorder with an unnamed company was
such an absolute debacle that it spent almost a whole year to get fixed. Finally
demanded a refund, paid near twice as much (if you factor in promised discounts
once I demanded the refund) to purchase the game at Best Buy instead.




The Demo for ME3 came out. I downloaded it the first day, and then started a
4th run through of ME2, once more refreshing my memory, and giving myself some
Vanguard practice for the Multiplayer battlefield.



ME3 was released... I was teased at the Best Buy where I purchased the game. I
wasn't able to stand still, I was so excited. After a YEAR of waiting -
I'd finally get to the ending. I went straight home after work, sat down
with chips and salsa, and played straight until 3
AM.



Such, really, was my existence until the final day.



I cried long and hard when Thane died. His death was poignant and beautiful -
and further, I cheered when I got the Renegade option to kill Kai Leng. Finally
that bastard was dead. And I very much appreciated the "That's for
Thane" comment - on account of the fact that it was EXACTLY what I
was thinking at that moment.



Oddly, I didn't cry at Moridin's death... I don't know why. Maybe it felt
too "right" . I almost felt proud of him, he wanted to cure the
Genophage - he was... happy? I don't know if that's the right word...
but it was good, bittersweet...



I kept denying Legion's death, expecting him to turn up somewhere in new
Geth. It still hasn't sunk in with me...



I walked through the troops to get to Anderson.
Talked to Vega (whom I started to like the more I talked to him. I started
out thinking he was a meathead.... but really, he's a good guy), Kaiden and I had
a nice goodbye. I thought the Garrus goodbye was excellent... he's always
been my Shep's best friend. Liara's goodbye was sweet, Edi's was apropos,
considering what we were about to fight - Tali I've always thought of as a
"little sister" and her goodbye continued to feel that way. The
video goodbyes with the others was a nice touch.



I should tangent here a moment - the night I played the ending, I had a
massively awesome night on Multiplayer for ME3. I was playing with a buddy
of mine, and we were on wave 10 of a mission, both of us only 1 or 2 percent
away from full 100% readiness across the board, so this was the one last fight
to get what we needed. Fighting Geth, we had to turn off the little indoctrination
device things. Well, I got separated from the group by some rocket geth, and it
turned out to be the best thing that could have happened. While I was turning
off the first device, my squad got wiped out by a Prime. Long story short, I did
that whole wave by myself. Blew everything I had, ammo packs, medigel, Ops
Packs, anything I could think of. I ran circles around the map, first
completing the objective, then taking down the Geth one by one. By the end of
the fight, my buddy came over the microphone to call me the "Goddess of
War" and asked me what it felt like to be a War Hero. I was riding high on
pride, and having just hit 100% - I was ready to see the ending.



7100 EMS, total.
Every good deed in the galaxy. I figured I couldn't do a single thing else
to prepare. So that was it. Armed with ALL of
this emotion - and tons of set up, the Liara "memory box", the bottle
of wine with Dr. Chakwas, the memorial board - the deaths we'd suffered, the
goodbyes we said. I kicked off the fight.



All of that above is my good. Years of memories, and theorizing with friends -
cause, honestly - it's not just about the game, or the books, or the story...
Mass Effect did something very few other games have ever been able to do, it
gave me and my friends something to TALK ABOUT.
Everyone had different stories in the game. "Oh yeah - what'd Liara say
when you did that thing" or "Oh, you let Ashley live? Why'd
you choose that?" Because the games were so different (even
while being surprisingly similar) there was always something to compare - and
we all loved it. So, say what you will about me being a fan girl... I'm also a
very social fan girl.



Unfortunately, what I mentioned above - the differences in our games, all
really becomes moot if we can't talk about the ending. The conversation died.
The only good question to ask was "What color ending did you choose?" Those
of us who finished the game waited. We had to wait out our other friends
finishing the game, or risk spoiling it for them.



I don't need to rehash all of the old "why the endings were bad" debates...
I would hope we've picked up on that by now. But, here's a list of things that
(were it up to me) I'd like to see: 



1. I'd like to go on record and say it was a poor idea to diverge from Drew
Karpyshyn's vision. I don't know if the "leak" rumor has
credence - but if it does, it would have been better to stick with a leaked
ending, rather then changing it at the 11th hour, and ending up like this. I
also think that diverging from Karpyshyn's vision negates the "damaging
art" discussion. Ultimately, Bioware changed their minds about his
vision... so, it can be argued that what we got wasn't the original
"Art" at all. (Side Note: There's no way to
"damage" art. Art is a reflection of culture, if it were so
easily broken, humans would have died out ages ago.) 



2. There were beautiful emotional footholds left in the game, and they should
have been exploited for maximum benefit. To name a few:

- Liara's Memory Box. - once the galaxy is saved, she may still decide to seed
the boxes around, just in case. She would need to finish her entry about
Shepherd (presuming Shepherd died, I'll get to that in a second). Listening to
her full voiceover, whatever she would have said, would have been a super cheap
and easy way to bring closure to the ending - she could have talked about the
crew, where they went, what they were doing now, etc... and I'm sure the
actress would do a lovely job recording all the various little snippets for you
to piece together like a puzzle, based on the choices made by the player.



- Chakwas's bottle of Serris Ice Brandy. - I elected not to drink with
her, and I think that there could have been a really nice scene of either
Chakwas drinking with Shep (if she lived) or drinking with Kaiden (if
Shep died) presumably on the previously agreed upon death. If Shepherd is dead,
we could have had a nice scene of Chakwas and Kaiden reliving memories, just
like the scene in ME2 where Chakwas and Shepherd are talking about old crew
mates.



- The Memorial Board - of EVERY oversight in the ending, I really believe
this is the worst. If you've committed to killing Shepherd, and even if you
kept the ending as it stands - someone should have put her name on the board
for the ending. How touching a moment would it be if it actually looked like
the Love Interest was GRIEVING, instead of smiling at Joker like they were
happy to be rid of Shepherd so they could finally pursue a relationship of
their own.



- Every personal conversation with the Crew. - Each crew member said one thing
that could have been played upon. Perhaps if you decided to let Garrus win the
shooting match (and you die) , Garrus puts a bronze statue of you up somewhere
in the Citadel (I don't think the Citadel or the Relays should be
destroyed - at the very least to ensure that any future games are fun.) The
house on Rannoch for Tali, with the rock that Shepherd threw to her placed in a
point of prominence. Cortez putting your picture up on a board of loss, maybe
joined by Vega (those two always struck me as being good friends - and no, I
don't mean anything by that) .... Maybe these scenes only happen if you
actually had the conversation with the crew, keep them relevant to the game at
large. If you didn't make any friends, no one really mourns your passing.



3. I think the Mass Relay / Citadel explosion was... sure, bold... but a
little on the foolish side too. Let's pretend for a moment that an MMO had
ever been in the works. Unless this MMO was slated to happen before the events
of Commander Shepherd, the destruction of these iconic places is a serious
misstep. While I can see why the idea of having an MMO be pre-Shep would
be appealing - I also think that people want to see the world as it was left in
their wake. Post-Shep would be more emotionally satisfying - and honestly,
people are okay with the fact that their decisions may not be canon - the books
had to make mention to some "canon" decisions, and no one got
bent out of shape for that.



On an emotional (non monetizing) note about the Mass Relay system and the
Citadel exploding - I think the most awful thing about the current
endings, when it comes to the Mass Relays exploding, is that the Normandy is
potentially stranded on some planet that only part of the crew will be able to
live on. Either Garrus and Tali will be able to be fed by the plants and
animals on the planet... or everyone else will. Either way, thinking out to
even try to imagine what happens to my crew produces a bleak future.



To clarify a few things about where I'm coming from - I don't think the
Crucible itself was a bad idea. Is it a McGuffin? Maybe - I've seen
critical literary responses for and against that - but it's a thing,
and we needed to do a thing, and the game needed a thing
powerful enough to take down a race full of reapers - lest we not forget that Sovereign
was a pretty big issue. So - I really have no problem with needing to
build a huge Crucible, or needing for everyone to basically say "I
dunno" when asked what it does. (I was happily reminded of the
Omega 13 device in Galaxy Quest.) 



I think the Crucible's main problem was the God Child. And - to be clear, I LIKED the
Nightmares - I thought they were a really serious showing on how bad
Shep's mind was getting there. She snapped at Joker, tried to push Kaiden away
in the final love scene... she wasn't in a good state of mind, and the Child
was a perfect representation of her crumbling hope. I think it was
interesting that the final ending basically showed that Shepherd herself wasn't
expecting to make it out alive. She had resigned herself to die at that point -
and, I think, her bigger fear was losing the crew. "Are we gonna make
it?" She asks Kaiden. What she really means is "Did I do enough
to save you?" 



She wants to live - and she wants to believe she will live, but in her heart,
she's pretty sure she's going to die.



So - that said, how would I fix the God Child? 



Have it be a VI - that's all there is to it. The Crucible boots up, and
standing before Shepherd is... a Keeper. The first race, or whatever. But this
thing isn't alive, and it didn't make the reapers, none of that. It's just a
VI. And the VI says something simple "Hey - so kudos on figuring out the
Crucible. We knew this thing would get turned on eventually." Shep is
totally shocked, the VI has some cool Space Magic explanation about how
the actual VI responses are saved in the Citadel, but can only be accessed
through the Crucible, etc, etc. Whatever. The VI speaks English - because
it's listened to Human speech for however long now, Shepherd can ask a few
questions about the Citadel... I figure things like "The Citadel is a
Reaper creation" and the Keeper is like "Yeah, well - we set the
time limit of 50,000 years - so we had a little extra warning. We got a bit
further ahead, that's why we were dominated with tech, and kept on as
caretakers."



So, okay - the VI is unfailingly patient - basically, this thing has all day,
so Shepherd can ask a thousand questions of it, but eventually we get to the
real meat of the questions "So, what does the Crucible do" 



The choice then becomes "Well, it's this super specialized EMP
- we've been building on it since the beginning. Every once in awhile one of
our kind can shake off indoctrination and add code to the Citadel - that's
allowed us to seed the Crucible plans into the previous cycles - and now this
one.



Anyway - so you can either turn this EMP
thing on at full power, and it'll shut down the electricity in the brains of
all Synthetic life - this includes you, Edi, the Geth - and yes, the
Reapers. Now, it won't destroy your bodies, so there's always a chance you
could get rebuilt... but, good luck with that, you know? This is also
going to cause a serious hiccup in the ships around the citadel - you'll need
to call everyone first, let them know that their VIs
might shut down. They might need to manually handle their life support systems
for a few minutes. (Neutral decision - I would argue that potential Geth
genocide is Renegade - but trust in the Crucible itself, after everything you
poured into it is Paragon)



"You can kick this thing on at half power - the closest reapers might be
killed, as will you since you're right here - the others would be heavily
damaged, as internal systems started to shut down - but they might still kill
quite a bit of your troops. The Geth would lose a good amount of their
defensive capabilities - but they'd have a fighting chance. (Paragon - this is
Shep trying to take advantage of the Crucible, without potentially committing
Genocide) 



"Last but not least - you really don't have to take my word as anything at
all. Blow the panel sky high, say to hell with the Crucible and ancient problem
solving methods - and take on the Reapers the good old fashioned way. By even
being active, the Crucible will lower the shields of the nearby Reapers - and
the Geth ships, but you get to walk away, go back to your ship, and rejoin the
war. Best of luck to you." (Renegade - you're going against Hackett's
orders, and the combined hours and efforts of your Crucible War Assets - and
all for pretty much every race to take considerable losses) 



The branches of endings for this are endless - because it's me, I don't think
there should be one ending touted over the rest as "best"- so I think
even if you choose the "I think the Crucible is crap" ending -
you have a chance to sustain heavy casualties, but win the war, save your crew,
and live off the royalties from the vids, as Garrus put it. It becomes a game
of "where do you concentrate losses" do you potentially kill all
the Geth to save everyone else? What does that mean to you, emotionally,
if the Geth wiped out the Quarians in your game? 



4. My last point (these are in no particular order) is the lack of a Final
Boss. I missed that, I really did -  I think a lot of
people did. The Illusive Man is a great final Boss to have as you're trying to
slog your way to the Crucible - but we could get sort of the "assuming
direct control" notification from Harbinger, and if you choose an
ending where Harbinger is not immediately destroyed by your decision - maybe
you get treated to a cool space battle with him.



** Bonus Note: I think it's a fallacy to say that sorrow, bittersweet
endings, and confusing plot points are a mark of "High Art" ...
rather the contrary. In the modern day, it's been said (and I believe it)
that every story has already been told. There's a reason this is true... it's
not because there's such a huge pile of work out there to digest - though
certainly there is... it's because the good ideas stay good. Finding a way to
retell the same Epic Saga that was told in Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, or
(poorly) in the Matrix, and still have it feel fresh and new is the "High
Art"... The Ending itself is not the art. Like the "Keep the Ending" camp
always likes to point out "It's about the Journey, not the
Destination." 



Because of that - I would argue that, for this series, and for the story it has
already established - managing to create a Happy Ending that felt credible
would be more artistic. Keep sad, bitter endings to Horror movies and Avant
garde video games. Not Sci Fi epics. I am firmly in the camp of
"What's so bad about a Happy Ending anyway?" Life sucks bad
enough as it is.



The problem is that all stories, as they have been told before, have a formula
to follow. I do some writing - I've been published under a pen name, and
Mass Effect inspired me to want to write a 3 part Sci Fi epic of my own. So I
bought some books, and I ended up with one called "20 Master
Plots" good read for any of you out there that are interested. I would
argue that this whole time, Shepherd was on what's called the "Quest" plotline. She
was fighting to save the Galaxy. I would also Argue that this is where
Drew was going with the plot - one of the points of the Quest is that the main
character should end up in Act 3 with some sort of revelation or epiphany that
what she was fighting for is different than what she initially expected. (In
Drew's story, for the uninitiated - he intended Dark Energy to play a
major factor in Act 3. The Reapers were harvesting humans because they had the
necessary genetic code to prevent the whole galaxy from going Haestrom.)



Where you actually turned, in Act 3, with the ending you presented to us - is
to Sacrifice. And what the book has to say about Sacrifice is this "The
idea of Sacrifice is to give up something in return for accomplishing a higher
ideal. We attain a higher state of being when we put others before ourselves.
This plot has the ability to show people at their best" And also: "Remember
that all events should be a reflection of your main character. They test and
develop character." 



So - that said, here's what went fundamentally wrong with the "art",
and some thoughts on how to fix it: 



Ultimately, the plots should be viewed as an arc of all three games. At this
point in the game, the player has been pretty well assured that they were on
the "Quest" plotline. For better or worse, the Quest plotline
gives us certain expectations. We expect the twist - which you tried to give us
with the God Child - and the twist that had actually been hinted at, through 2
games and 3 books was that humans were special because of their genetic
diversity and that Dark Energy was becoming an increasing problem - but
that the galactic community at large hadn't really noticed it yet. Consciously,
or unconsciously - people had begun to pickup on those cues. That's why the God
Child wasn't really a twist, but a slap in the face. Had the Dark Energy
remained the twist people would have had maybe a moment of confusion - but when
they went back to play the games, those scenes that referenced the twist would
mean that much more. Bang, instant replay value.



Deciding to switch in Act 3 to the Sacrifice plot arc was, sure - a bold move -
but I don't think it was a well thought out move. And ultimately, the only
saving grace of the Sacrifice plot is that you do, in fact need to Sacrifice
for a greater purpose. The sacrifice needs to mirror the character. It was
mentioned, though never emotionally acted upon, by the Gold Child that Shepherd
had both Synthetic and Organic parts in her - which is why she should be fine
with the Symbiosis Ending. Ultimately, the only Sacrifice in the Sacrifice was
that Shepherd needed to kill herself to bring about some sort of change. 



Sure, it can be argued that killing oneself is the ultimate Sacrifice - but not
when it comes off as tired Suicide. In the final moments, Shepherd still needed
to be fighting. And in a lot of ways - she still needed to be trying to find a
way to live. Her character, built over hours of game play - was one of
survival. Either she survived alone, or she managed to save her troops in the
attempt - but no matter what, she was fighting to get through it. She even told
Kaiden right before the end that she was going to do everything in her power to
make sure she got back to him.



Faced with those sorts of promises, it's hard to watch her stop fighting. Right
there at the end, she just looks defeated. Her sacrifice is not a matter of
"there's no other way" she doesn't rail against death, and have
to make the choice anyway. She doesn't scream in the face of oblivion. She just
does whatever she's been told to do.



That in mind - I can see why the Destruction ending is the only canon ending -
after all, it is the only one where she basically tossed the God Child's logic
out, and opted to continue the "Cycle". The problem is that even in
that moment - she was told she was going to die, and there still should have
been respect for that.



To keep 95% of the current ending the same, the simplest fix would be for
Shepherd, right at the moment the God Child's given her the three options, to
call Hackett, and say it's a No-Go. The Crucible is a terrible idea - there has
to be another way. No matter what she chooses, she's doing too much damage. The
relays, the Citadel, Edi, the Geth - and god knows what other technology - even
if they beat the Reapers, the damage to the Galaxy will be too high.



Then maybe Hackett tells her they're getting slaughtered. He's got hope though,
if Shep's right - and he has always believed her, then they'll make it work
with just the armies they've brought. They'll fight the Reapers one by
one, and do that on every planet that's currently overrun. But she can tell
with his voice that the casualties are going to be insane.



Maybe at this point, we get back to the Harbinger thing. Harbinger resurrects
the Illusive Man (like Sovereign did to Saren) - there's some trash talking,
and Shepherd picks up on the fact that the Reapers are the kid, and the
kid was picked as the projection because Harbinger can read surface thoughts
during Indoctrination, whatever whatever. Shepherd shook off the indoctrination
by not taking an option. Her comm buzzes to life while she's fighting the
Illusive Man. Backup comes to her rescue for the fight (her two squad mates
finally made it up the beam, and to the room. She kills the Illusive Man again,
and the troops start to work on Harbinger. The scientists are scrambling for an
explanation based on what the Reaper said, using the Reaper info to decode what
the Crucible ACTUALLY does. Maybe they can get it to work! Maybe it's not
hopeless.



Liara should ultimately be the one to figure it out - and it comes down to the
fact that the choices made were never going to affect "everything"...
just Shep. She can join herself with the control option, and the machine will
basically break her down, turn her into a Reaper Virus, and upload her to the
Reapers, making them obey her. She can choose the Symbiosis ending - which
would allow her to throw herself into the beam, basically joining her essence
to the Crucible, which would then again put out a Reaper Virus Code, and join
her thought process to theirs - they would be "rewritten" like the
Geth in ME2, so they no longer wanted to hurt Organics. Lastly, she can
override the machine to blow - and explode it will, taking out the Citadel and
the Relays with it. The Reaper Code would get scrambled by the explosion.



These options I think neatly mirror Shep's conundrum in ME2 with if to
Destroy, or if to Change the Geth.



So now the Sacrifice means something - Shep would obviously tell her squad
mates they need to go save themselves. If you brought your Love Interest with
you, they'd fight you - they'd want you to come too - and not let yourself be
killed. If you didn't bring your Love Interest - they can be yelling at
you from your Comm Link. Imagine the emotional power of having to make a
Sacrifice decision with your Love Interest yelling in your ear not to do it. I think
also there's something to say for the idea that if you've brought pretty much
the same squad mates with you ON EVERY MISSION (like I tend
to do) they might not leave... they might choose to stay with you - even
knowing the cost, and that small change can be really powerful too. It's sort
of a nod to the bond of friendship from the whole series.



No matter where it goes from there - what needs to be added at the end is an
epilogue. If the Sacrifice ending is anything, it's about Sacrifice for the
greater good - and in order for it to be complete, we need to see the Greater
Good come of it. I have thousands of ideas for what the Epilogue could
include, from the Rachni to the Exo Geni Scientists... but I think my
Wall of Text is full for the night. If anyone cares, maybe I'll post some
Epilogue thoughts tomorrow.



I hope this helps, both the good and the bad.

 

(Holy crap. 9 pages. Sorry!)

[CoyoteLovely]

And... apparently copy/paste creates junk at the top of the page. Sorry about that.