I wanted to quickly share my thoughts on the ending, or rather the backlash to it.

Bioware made a game with an ending, having not played though the game yet I can not put forward a viewpoint on its quality. However, it's anending. It's unrealistic to expect to be satisfied with every aspect of a game, but then demanding that game be altered to satisfy you is childish and conceited. That is not to say people should not voice their opinion and share their thoughts on the quality of the game, doing so can inform others and provide useful feedback for developers and publishers. Politely requesting a new ending instead of demanding it displays maturity and reason while still conveying your dissatisfaction. Even if you consider the game as a whole to be faulty or of an unacceptable low quality, the most you can demand is a refund.

I wanted to quickly share my thoughts on the ending, or rather the backlash to it.

Bioware made a game with an ending, having not played though the game yet I can not put forward a viewpoint on its quality. However, it's anending. It's unrealistic to expect to be satisfied with every aspect of a game, but then demanding that game be altered to satisfy you is childish and conceited. That is not to say people should not voice their opinion and share their thoughts on the quality of the game, doing so can inform others and provide useful feedback for developers and publishers. Politely requesting a new ending instead of demanding it displays maturity and reason while still conveying your dissatisfaction. Even if you consider the game as a whole to be faulty or of an unacceptable low quality, the most you can demand is a refund.

I wanted to quickly share my thoughts on the ending, or rather the backlash to it.

Bioware made a game with an ending, having not played though the game yet I can not put forward a viewpoint on its quality. However, it's anending. It's unrealistic to expect to be satisfied with every aspect of a game, but then demanding that game be altered to satisfy you is childish and conceited. That is not to say people should not voice their opinion and share their thoughts on the quality of the game, doing so can inform others and provide useful feedback for developers and publishers. Politely requesting a new ending instead of demanding it displays maturity and reason while still conveying your dissatisfaction. Even if you consider the game as a whole to be faulty or of an unacceptable low quality, the most you can demand is a refund.

@The_Laughing_Man said:

@Vandal said:

I wanted to quickly share my thoughts on the ending, or rather the backlash to it.

Bioware made a game with an ending, having not played though the game yet I can not put forward a viewpoint on its quality. However, it's anending. It's unrealistic to expect to be satisfied with every aspect of a game, but then demanding that game be altered to satisfy you is childish and conceited. That is not to say people should not voice their opinion and share their thoughts on the quality of the game, doing so can inform others and provide useful feedback for developers and publishers. Politely requesting a new ending instead of demanding it displays maturity and reason while still conveying your dissatisfaction. Even if you consider the game as a whole to be faulty or of an unacceptable low quality, the most you can demand is a refund.

Think of it like this. People have spent 5 years in this universe. And where promised very unique endings. What they got where THREE different endings with 90% of the same CGI. The only real difference was a color of beam and if someone was glowy or not. It is easy to see how people might feel cheated out of a universe they put so much time into. I also have not played the game but have seen the endings and it does kinda look like Bioware just got lazy.

Not to mention the massive plot-holes that are so big plot-hole doesn't even cover what they are.

I'm guessing you didn't see it if you just youtubed the ending, but the crew members that get off on the planet were with you on earth 20 seconds ago. Joker invented Teleportation, I guess.

Speaking of Joker, him fleeing like a traitorous coward in the middle of the most important battle in galactic history, for no reason, is also pretty fucking pathetic.

@The_Laughing_Man said:

@Vandal said:

I wanted to quickly share my thoughts on the ending, or rather the backlash to it.

Bioware made a game with an ending, having not played though the game yet I can not put forward a viewpoint on its quality. However, it's anending. It's unrealistic to expect to be satisfied with every aspect of a game, but then demanding that game be altered to satisfy you is childish and conceited. That is not to say people should not voice their opinion and share their thoughts on the quality of the game, doing so can inform others and provide useful feedback for developers and publishers. Politely requesting a new ending instead of demanding it displays maturity and reason while still conveying your dissatisfaction. Even if you consider the game as a whole to be faulty or of an unacceptable low quality, the most you can demand is a refund.

Think of it like this. People have spent 5 years in this universe. And where promised very unique endings. What they got where THREE different endings with 90% of the same CGI. The only real difference was a color of beam and if someone was glowy or not. It is easy to see how people might feel cheated out of a universe they put so much time into. I also have not played the game but have seen the endings and it does kinda look like Bioware just got lazy.

Not to mention the massive plot-holes that are so big plot-hole doesn't even cover what they are.

I'm guessing you didn't see it if you just youtubed the ending, but the crew members that get off on the planet were with you on earth 20 seconds ago. Joker invented Teleportation, I guess.

Speaking of Joker, him fleeing like a traitorous coward in the middle of the most important battle in galactic history, for no reason, is also pretty fucking pathetic.

Stand alone the endings are fine, perhaps great if this was some random shooter game.
 
But after spending so much time resolving problems and making choices that have cost you anything from squadmates to entire species I kinda expected more.
 
They imply so many consequences for the actions you take (especially in 3, with the Krogan potentially being a threat again for example) yet at the end they just ALT F4 the game and roll the credits while some silly music plays.
 
"Kthnxbai" is what sums the message Bioware is getting across at the end up for me.

@The_Laughing_Man: Those criticisms along with others are part of the reason I have not yet purchased the game. I'm happy to wait for a while and see what DLC comes. If it's as bad as a lot of people make out though then refunds based on unfulfilled promises sound justified.

@Vandal said:

Bioware made a game with an ending, having not played though the game yet I can not put forward a viewpoint on its quality.

With all due respect, shut up until you finish the game.

well the problem is bioware made very specific promises about mass effect 3's ending and when you measure these promises against the actual ending they clearly failed to deliver or just lied to hype the game. such has not having a pick A,B,or C ending.

@The_Laughing_Man: Those criticisms along with others are part of the reason I have not yet purchased the game. I'm happy to wait for a while and see what DLC comes. If it's as bad as a lot of people make out though then refunds based on unfulfilled promises sound justified.

@Vandal said:

Bioware made a game with an ending, having not played though the game yet I can not put forward a viewpoint on its quality.

With all due respect, shut up until you finish the game.

@Death_Unicorn: Because doing that will magically turn me into a someone who thinks it's my right to demand a change in the story? My point still stands, even once I buy and complete the game the most I will be entitled to it a refund.

@Vandal: Thanks for hiding the spoilers, I try to avoid most of it but some of the things I've gathered do sound bad but not game-ruining (maybe I've avoided the worst). I'm assuming the main game has a large number scenes/quests that differ greatly of based on decisions made in ME1 and ME2.

I think the biggest problem with the ending is just the fact that it makes you hesitant to restart the game right back up after you beat it the first time (although I did do so two days later). It literally says "Hey! Guess what? No matter what you do in the intervening hours before the end, you'll get almost exactly the same ending regardless!" I think it's because of the characters, the universe, the story, and just the main mission stages when I'm shooting guys that make me want to play it more. I just hate how nothing I do in any of the Mass Effects, will change the ending much at all. It's like, here, play 110 hours, maybe a little less, maybe a little more, and get this fucking ending! No matter how interesting it is. Alright, I just reiterated my point more than needed.

@Vandal said:

@Death_Unicorn: Because doing that will magically turn me into a someone who thinks it's my right to demand a change in the story? My point still stands, even once I buy and complete the game the most I will be entitled to it a refund.

Well, first of all, most people are not demanding they change the story but that they fulfill their promises. If they had told us from the beginning the kind of ending we were getting ( copy-paste and full of plot-holes), we just wouldn't have bought the game and that would have been the end of it.

@zombie_bigdaddy: I seen people quote Bioware on fairly specific details from before ME3 was released and if those promises were not upheld then people have an argument for a refund. I guess it depends on how important those unfulfilled promises were to your enjoyment of the game.

@Vandal said:

@zombie_bigdaddy: I seen people quote Bioware on fairly specific details from before ME3 was released and if those promises were not upheld then people have an argument for a refund. I guess it depends on how important those unfulfilled promises were to your enjoyment of the game.

Thing is, most of us would rather have closure than our money back.

I agree with you, I would much rather that too. But I also know, sad and frustrating as it is, that I can only request that not demand it.

If I may share a quote from Shamus Young of the escapist

"A "life sucks" conclusion can work, but you probably don't need a long story to tell that tale. You can tell the story of "Life sucks, nothing makes sense, and you'll never know what happened" in fifteen or twenty minutes. If you stretch that out over an hour and a half movie and spring that on them at the end, then you should expect some people to be angry. If you take that message and spread it out over three movies, then you're a sadist. And if you spread that message out over three 30+ hour videogames, then you are going to end up with what we have here, which is people so frustrated and angry that they will file an FTC complaint"

Me personally I don't think the ending needs to be outright changed just maybe append onto it.

Some epilogue where we get to see what all the characters we met along the way got up to after the events of the series would be fine and dandy for me.

@Vandal: Why do you want to talk about something you haven't experienced. Finish the game, then talk about whatever you please, and I will consider whatever your opinion is, even if it's counter to mine, as valid.

I don't understand why people feel they have to put in their two cents when they haven't even finished the ending. Maybe the ending will sour your experience so much, you will actually refund your game, You can't know because you haven't finished the game.

My feelings on the subject: The ending sucked, but the ending's the ending. We just have to accept that it sucked. With marginal effort they could have made it less silly and nonsensical.

But that's just the ending we're left with. Leave it at that. Move on with life.

@Death_Unicorn: Probably because I'm not commenting on the ending itself rather some of the reaction to it. I don't need to play the game to experience people childishly demanding a video game change it's ending. Granted most people, as seen by the other replies in this thread, seem to be reasonable and mature about it.

hasnt gotten to the ending...

Welllp, your points are moot then.

@TheHumanDove: hasn't understood post....

Welllp, your post is moot then.

No I understand, but you really have no idea why people are mad, because you haven't invested the time to see why the ending isn't even an ending. That's why you're simply wrong.

@TheHumanDove: Unless Bioware are holding back the 'true' ending for DLC (which I'm not saying is out of the question), then there is an ending. It's just an ending you don't like.

@Vandal: Surprise! Most people are reasonable human beings, and you probably over exaggerated the fan response in your head. Hell, the fans even turned their distaste for the ending into something positive and raised 80,000 dollars. How can you say their response has been bad?

The ending is bad. There's no way around it, I cannot comprehend anyone who would want to defend it. If the team wants to keep the ending as is, they need to add a lot more context and information to make it work, it isn't unreasonable for fans to ask them to scratch the ending altogether. I also dislike all this nonsense about how fan response will ruin "art," when it has been going on for ages. Look at Sherlock Holmes.

Why do you want to write about a reaction you cannot comprehend if you haven't experienced what these people are reacting to? You cannot call it childish until you experience it yourself, and your reaction isn't childish. You never know, you may play it, and you may react in a childish manner.

@Death_Unicorn: I don't need to exaggerate the respone in my head, the evidence is everywhere (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXaSJK2owKE&feature=player_embedded). I never said this applied to all people unhappy with the ending but still a significant number. I can't see where you thought I was defended the ending, from what I've heard it sounds bad. I was addressing the attitude that people feel entitled to demand to change the ending, doesn't matter what the ending was. You are not automatically entitled to an ending you like. Yes, complain and comment when it they produce something sub-standard but do it properly.

This isn't the secrets of the universe, it's the ending to a video game. It's not hard to comprehend that the worst possible scenario would still not cause me to act like that.

Remember that when you elect to cross-post blogs to the forums, they become subject to the same rules as if they were forum threads. Seeing as there are approximately 478 Mass Effect 3 ending threads already, please continue in one of those.