In light of Dr Muzyka's comment, I have this to say and take pains to ensure that I do not step anywhere into the realms of offense.
I find it difficult to take seriously a comment from someone who can label a large number of people as "some". I quote: "On one hand, some of our loyal fans are passionately expressing their displeasure about how their game concluded; we care about this feedback, and we're planning to directly address it." That is all well and good, however when a group of like minded individuals amass numbers in excess of 40000, and can raise 75k USD for charity in a matter of days, these people can no longer be branded as "some".
Sir, your loyal fans are those who care enough to tell you what they feel about your games. I doubt you have more than 75k loyal fans across the world, however these are the fans who would be willing to stick up for you, the company they believe in, and the games that you produce. They are the ones who forgive the little errors in continuity, the little bugs in combat, the little graphical glitches, and see the depth of the game as a whole and what it is. The people who buy your games are not all loyal fans, they are people who don't care either way. I myself like to drink Twinings Tea, but if they changed their blend of English Breakfast to something that I found distasteful I would not write in to complain, merely switch to a different brand. This is because I am merely a customer, not a loyal fan.
You have told us that "However, most folks appear to agree that the game as a whole is exceptional" and I feel that this is somewhat skewing the perspective. Yes, I would agree that most people think that the game as a whole is exceptional, I believe, in fact, that all three of the series have been truly exceptional games which have broken more than one boundary in their time. The fact is that a majority of the people who have told you that the game is exceptional also includes the people who are telling you that the ending is awful. You cannot take the 50k who say that the game is good and the ending is bad, add it to the 15k who tell you that the game is good and the ending is wonderful, and then say that you have 65k in favour of the game and declare a majority over the 50k who just don't like the ending.
You went on to say "with more than 75 critics giving it a perfect review score and a review average in the mid-90s." Since when have critics been worth more than your average user? Especially since a majority of which are under the yoke of knowledge that if they don't give favourable reviews they will receive less popularity, leading to fewer page views, and eventually a loss of sponsorship and advertising income and so be out of a job. Being a critic is comparatively meaningless, it means that you most likely won't pay to play the game yourself, and you may not even complete the game before the review is due. If 75 critics told you that the sky is green and 50000 people told you that it is red, the best thing to do is find out for yourself, but if you can't then going with the majority if you want public opinion is the best bet. The fact that critics are popular means nothing in an age where internet popularity can be made in a day. Marauder Shields attained notoriety greater than many of these critics in a matter of days, but would you listen to his apparent opinion over the voices of thousands of others?
I urge you to look at the facts and figures from Metacritic before going any further with this statement. At the time of writing, there have been 98 reviews by critics which have given the game an overal score of 92.4%. In fact, this score is not something I necessarily disagree with. To a certain extent I do not believe that a game that have given us amazingly emotional moments and joyful fulfilment should be overshadowed by a poor ending. A game that gave us such great memories as the proud and noble sacrifice of Mordin Solus, lead to by actions in order to reconcile his emotional turmoil that has accompanied him since we me truly exceptional. However, if we look at the fact that out of 5048 user reviews, independent and unpaid reviews, the game only is deemed worth 4.2/10. This is the average from players who felt that the emotional moments such as these were reduced to nothing by the ending, who felt that all their efforts and time spent in this game was for naught.
However I somewhat disagree as assigning somewhat arbitrary numbers and scores to games, especially a game that has pushed boundaries along the course of its development and is scattered through with moments of inspired genius. One cannot look at the beautiful yet tragic offering up of newly attained consciousness by Legion so that its people might finally attain true sapience and give it a digit. Words are required to describe how such a choice affected you, or if you chose other paths allowing for callous execution of these people in order for the galaxy to survive, again a game that provides us with instances like this worth more than just a percentage. However we look at the 98 reviews submitted by official critics and see that all 98 are positive. All of them. Most people who are able to see past their own pride would already be harbouring strongly suspicious thoughts about unilateral results such as these, and I think that the term sycophantic might be at the forefront of their minds. When we look at the 2647 user submitted reviews we see only 1001 positive reviews; less than half. We have 202 mixed reviews which I feel may be those which you should truly seek out as they will tell you where you excelled and where you failed, and then we have 1444 negative reviews. These people who are not able to see past the last few minutes of the game, who feel that their entire experience has been ruined because of it. And you cannot ignore these people; you must not.
If you can provide concrete numbers to back up your claims, then I and I'm sure many others will step down. We won't be happy, we won't feel different, but if we can be truly be shown to be in a minority then at least we will be able to understand why you are hesitant to do anything about it. Should you wish to focus on those who seek to assault you with inflammatory and derogatory remarks and label them as part of your "loyal fans" then, like it or not, you are already dismissing us out of hand. Deny it as you may, by bringing to light the effects of those few, you are effectively casting aside those fans of you who are approaching you with civil and cogent debate, who have raised over 75,000 US Dollars for a charity, which both promotes the gaming industry as a whole and spreads the joy of videogames to children in need, to punctuate their belief in you. You are throwing away the opinons of those who support you the most, whose views are driven by love and support and faith and appreciation, and most of whom are respectfully requesting that you give Shepard and the Normandy at least the choice having an ending that we have worked so hard to grant them.
However, if you are willing to take the silence of 1.53 million players who don't care enough about the game to voice an opinion, and take that as a positive, rather than listen to the 75k who have taken the time to vote and type in forums, to email and write to you, to donate to charity and overall expend the energy to inform you that they disliked or liked, and I am aware there are both, how you have ended this series, then I ask for you to tell us. Give us the respect at least to inform us that our opinons no longer matter to you and show us the door so that we may leave and mourn the passing of a company that was one of the greatest game developers to date, and grieve for a gaming series that touched our hearts, our souls and our minds.
You said "I'm proud of the team, but we can and must always strive to do better." Well, I would be proud to work for BioWare. I too would be proud to have my name associated with a series such as Mass Effect. And you have an excellent opportunity to strive to do better. The ball is firmly in your court.
This is but one voice in a sea of many. I speak for my companions, but not with their words. Each of us has our own voice, our own feelings which we wish to express to you. These words are mine, but may be reflected in the myriad of different entreaties that have been sent in your direction to give reinforcing as well as redirecting feedback. If they fall on deaf ears then where else shall we turn to? When a Game Developer with a history of brilliance such as your own turns its back on its fans as well as its creations, what lies in future for the Gaming industry? What hope is there for Shepard? What hope is there for us?
Guest_BrotherWarth_*
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