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[Kreidian]

 I can talk endlessly about all the reasons the ending was so just utterly wrong for Mass Effect, but really everything I could say has been said before. That alone isn't enough. Instead I want to provide BioWare with ideas on how to best resolve the problems with the current ending in a way that works best for everyone, or as you might put it, provide constructive feedback on how to improve the game.


Just to make sure everyone is on the same page, here a few links to particularly good discussions about everything wrong with the ending. These pretty much share my own view of the current ending.




http://tinyurl.com/bmay6g8


You might notice a few similarities in all of these arguments. But the most important one for this discussion is the fact that the game as a whole is absolutely brilliant and amazing. Mass Effect is by far the best gaming and storytelling experience out there. And it is precisely because of this that the bad ending makes things so much worse. If this was even a mediocre or "better then average" game no one would really care. Hell, most players never reach the end of the majority of the games they play these days, even in games where such an end would be barely 10 hours later, instead of the minimum of 30 hours or so that you spend with Mass Effect 3 alone.


Clearly then, the ending needs to be fixed, but how?


The official statement from Dr. Ray seems to imply that the Mass Effect Teams are looking the simply clarify the current endings, add more detail without actually changing any of the outcomes so as to maintain their artistic integrity.


This is a huge mistake. 


Don't try to clarify it, don't try to work with it, don't try to push your ideas down everyone's throat. Don't try to argue that this current ending is somehow the right ending for the series. It's not.


Trying to work with what we have now will only make things worse. Even if you could explain it, the majority of your customers have already become so soured on the current ending that they will be seeing any extrapolation of that same ending with a negative premise to begin with. 


You can see it in the poll here:
http://social.biowar...3&poll_id=30859


Sure this might not be an accurate representation of the entire BioWare fan community, but it does give you a pretty good idea of how most folks are feeling. I can tell you from personal experience - having gone out and talked to people in person who have actually played the game all the way through - every single one of them loved the game, and utterly hated the ending. Every single one of them would prefer the ending be changed rather then trying any sort of clarification on the current fiasco.


Personally I'd prefer seeing the whole thing removed. Or more specifically seeing the parts that flat out didn't work removed. First among them being the star child itself. That entire sequence, from the moment you meet the catalyst to the end of the game, only serves to make things worse and worse. Just getting rid of this kid alone would be a huge improvement. 


If fact it's been done. People have simply re-edited the ending so as soon as Shepard opens the Citadel arms and the Crucible docks it pretty much cuts straight to the destruction ending. Avoiding the encounter with the star child and the three non-choices altogether.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoVnvJ4OxRg


It's not perfect, but it works. It resolves a lot of the problems with the current endings by simply removing them. I still wouldn't consider it a good enough ending for the Mass Effect series, but it's already better then what we have now.


And before you say anything, artistic integrity as a counter argument is not a valid defense here. If anything the current endings are what violate the artistic integrity of the rest of the game. You made a fundamental mistake here; you introduced new characters and new concepts at the very end of the story. ANY notable writer will tell you how much that violates one of the cardinal rules of writing a good story. 


The irony is that the endings on their own, devoid of the rest of the series, are actually very well done, they would be a landmark ending to any number of other game titles (Dues Ex comes to mind). In some other game, this ending would work beautifully. In Mass Effect it is completely wrong. 


The only way to work with it is to make it an optional ending that can be avoided, then provide players with a completely different ending option if you have the right prerequisites. This allows BioWare to keep all the work they've done on the ending so far but then add to it everything that it was so desperately missing. Personally I'm not sure if this would be easier then just scrapping the whole things are rebuilding it from scratch, but hey I'm willing to meet BioWare halfway on this one.


What matters here is that we've spent 5 years building our own Shepard and we want our personal character to show through. This shows through most directly through our collected Paragon / Renegade scores. We've also been building up war assets which are affected by decisions made as far back as the original Mass Effect. These are the two things that we want to see have an impact on the ending.


The War Assets would be the simplest to integrate. Ultimately the more war assets you have the better off you'll be using the crucible. Whether the War Assets allows the Crucible to function better or allow a larger guard fleet to make sure the Crucible remains secure the whole time, the more assets you bring to the final battle the more effective the Crucible will become. Regardless of how well you did, the Crucible all release a massive amount of energy. But a more effective Crucible as determined by your war assets will be able to release that energy more precisely and more efficiently. 


This brings us to our first major change; if your war assets are high enough, the mass relays aren't destroyed. It's alright to make the threshold for this to be really high, even if it takes 8000 EMS in the final battle, at some point someone will be able to figure out what that energy can do to the relays, and figure out a way to prevent them from being destroyed.


The next major change involves choices, and giving them back to the player. First, the Synthesis ending may as well be the default option. It was never really that much more distinct from the Control ending. Then again I hate both those options so take that as you will. But at the very least it should be available at a lower EMS threshold. If for no other reason then to make it available to people who are not raising their galactic readiness - i.e. people who don't want to play multiplayer.


From this point on you can add in more valuable options through the conversation with the catalyst. Specifically adding in Paragon and Renegade dialog options that allow you to counter the star kid's faulty logic. 


"No you are NOT preserving advance life by turning them into reapers, you are destroying them. "
"You CAN in fact have peace between organic and synthetic life. Even if a war breaks out it's no different then a war between any two sentient races, treat it accordingly."
"NO I don't accept your three options. I don't care how powerful and god like you want to pretend to be."


It is through these Paragon and Renegade options that new possibilities open up. Possibilities that players want to see happening.


Paragon choices can lead to a forceful discussion with the Catalyst, one where you convince him that his theory is fundamentally wrong. That even the Reapers themselves are just slaves now and all he's done is destroy everything that it means to be organic life. Whatever the argument is you eventually come to a peaceful resolution. This is like the control ending in that the Reapers will simply go away but done in a more satisfying way. 


Perhaps this requires you to merge with the energy of the catalyst, again like the control ending, however if your paragon rating is high enough, perhaps in combination with a high enough EMS, you manage to survive the effect and walk out without being disintegrated. Meanwhile you have left a part of yourself in the Reaper collective consciousness which affects them all. Maybe they gain their free will or simply are made to understand their mistake. Maybe like the Geth this leads to a split between the Reapers and for the final battle you have Reapers fighting Reapers in support of Shepard.


Renegade choices would be naturally more abrasive. You would be telling the Catalyst he's wrong, and then telling him to go to hell. You convince him that you don't care what the Catalyst is trying to preserve you and all of the people you brought with you will fight and die rather then be "preserved" in that fashion. You force the Catalyst to realize that he will have to destroy all organic life, which is counter to his goals, simply because you refuse to stop fighting him, even if it means the destruction of all sentient life in the galaxy. Better that then to submit to this false cycle.


"Is Submission not Preferable to Extinction?"
*RENEGAGE INTERUPT!* "**** NO!"


These Renegade conversation options eventually lead you to convince the Catalyst that he must destroy the Reapers and end the cycle for good. But the catalyst can't do it on his own, so Shepard demands the catalyst to show her how to get it done so she can do it herself. Like the paragon version this might require a merger of some sort with the Catalyst only with very different goals. You're there to forcefully gain control of the power of the Crucible and use it to destroy all the Reapers around you. If you have a high enough Renegade score you can control the power of the Crucible through shear force of will, directing it so it will destroy your enemies while leaving your allies, such as EDI and the Geth, alive and well. And again, in combination with a high enough EMS, you will be able to walk out of the ordeal alive yourself.


Higher EMS can also determine who survives afterwards, not just in terms of the armies fighting in the final battle, but your crewmates as well. It goes without saying, but the Normandy leaving the battle and crash lading on some random planet get taken right out. Instead they are all waiting for you back on Earth. 


Ideally you and your crew that survives will be back on the Normandy as it orbits around Earth. In one of the Observation lounges, and Shepard, should she survive will look out the window and see Earth, just like she was doing at the beginning of Mass Effect 1, only this time her crew are with her. You can even add some voiceover that describes some of what's happening afterwards for additional closure. 


And before anyone mentions it, having a "happy ending" like this in no way sacrifices any artistic integrity, and it's annoying to think it would. More to the point it remains bittersweet when you consider the billions who will lose their lives regardless, which you can emphasis by having the visual of a burnt, war-ravaged Earth through the observation window.




These suggestions only address what a new ending DLC might be like, BioWare will still need to be careful in how they release it.


Most people might think they should simply release the new ending for free. I can certainly understand the sentiment. I definitely won't complain with having more free content. And there is no doubt that making this free would go a long way in building better public sentiment in support of BioWare. This would end up paying huge dividends in the future for both EA and BioWare, which would greatly increase the amount of sales they can expect in future DLC as well as future games in general.


But I'm not entirely convinced making it free will be the best solution in the long run. As a free patch there is naturally less incentive to make the best quality DLC possible. It's not that BioWare wants to screw over their customers but rather basic human nature combined with business sense. Even knowing how much fan support they could garner with a free DLC, there will be pressure to just "get it out the door" if the developers and the publishers know that there won't be any direct profit from it.


Even if that wasn't the case, BioWare people work hard, very hard, and are truly passionate about what they do. Developing this DLC will be a lot of work for them. They don't have to do it but they want to give their fans what they want. So it's only fair that we might need to pay for all their hard work.


More importantly, what I want is for BioWare to continue making awesome RPGs for me to play with. I want to be able to continue supporting them so they can get back to doing what they do best. Honestly I feel that everyone wants to stop arguing about the ending. They want them fixed so they can go back to talking about all the great things that are in the Mass Effect series. It's hard to focus on all of the good stuff now when the end has such a negative impact as a whole. It's like that giant wart on an otherwise gorgeous supermodel body. You just want to get rid of the wart so you can enjoy how great everything else looks.


The best way for BioWare to handle this is to just be honest about it. If you feel you need to charge for a new ending DLC, do so, but make sure you explain why. Here's how I imagine that might work.


Issue a statement along with the DLC. In that statement explain that the original ending was intentional, you honestly felt it was the appropriate ending for whatever reason. Clearly based on fan reaction this just wasn't the right ending for everyone. Leave the artistic integrity argument out of this. At the end of the day the fans spoke and it was clear this was the wrong ending. So now you're giving the fans what they want. But doing so doesn't come cheap, in order to bring the fans the ending they deserve you have to invest a lot of development time, and to balance that expense you need to charge for the DLC. A fair request given that you honestly felt the original endings were appropriate at the time.


I'm sure your PR department can take these statements and make them more effective or whatever. No doubt plenty of people ( some of which might pop up in this thread ) can figure out a way to turn such an honest statement into another conspiracy theory. Ignore them. There is no doubt that people will complain like mad if such a DLC wasn't free. But then people would complain even if the DLC was free regardless. Perhaps not as many but the point is someone will still be angry no matter what. 


I'm perfectly fine with BioWare as a business needing to cover their costs. As I said, all I care about is bringing the Mass Effect series back to the greatness that it can be.




Feel free to share your own thoughts, both on how the ending DLC should work, and how BioWare should handle it.

[Oilking72]

Can't respond... crushed by wall of text.

[Kreidian]

If you can't read then this thread is probably not for you.

The last line makes things very easy for the TLDR crowd, but then if you're that lazy I don't particularly care what you think either.