Three months ago, BioWare solicited suggestions for how to change the ending for the better. I gave suggestions, about forty minutes after they had already made their decisions for how to change it.

Here are my suggestions from page 242 of the suggested changes thread http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/10098213/242 for posterity:

I was working on a suggested change feedback post for a while, mostly because my preorder was screwed up (four times!) and I didn't get to play it until last week. With the announcement minutes ago of the "Extended Cut", I may be late to the party, but if BioWare has asked me for their feedback, I *will* give it to them. I'll also try to make it an entertaining read, but make no mistake: I do mean this seriously.

Here is a list of changes I think you could make, ordered from MOST DISAPPOINTING to LEAST DISAPPOINTING. Time will tell (this summer!) if it will end up being NOT disappointing, but at least there's hope!

#1: Make no changes to the ending, and/or charge money for it.

You beat me to the punch on this one before I could finish my list, and I am NOT DISAPPOINTED at that. Thank you.

#2: Unvoiced slide show listing all of the characters and factions, and what happened to them. Like in Dragon Age: Origins. Or Animal House.

This is disappointingly weak. You can do better.

#3: Extension of ending after the choice.

Provided you pave over the plot holes leading up to and permeating the Star Child, showing in brief, cheap, obviously in-engine pre-rendered and poorly compressed cutscenes, what happens to characters, factions, and locations. Such as showing the turian fleet arriving at Palaven just before the mass relay blows up (but not enough to blow up Palaven). And then Garrus steps out of a turian ship, and looks sad that all the Palaven stuff is blown up, but hopeful for the future. Maybe some turians and krogans are cheering at a dead reaper in the background, like in Independence Day. And then a bunch of these for Tali and/or the geth on Rannoch, and Liara on Thessia, and Wrex and/or Eve on Tuchanka, and so on. Having Joker and EDI stranded on a brave new world in the synthesis ending makes sense.

Also, make absolutely sure to satisfyingly conclude the love story with Shepard's love interest. It doesn't have to be super happy, especially if Shepard didn't survive, but it should be emotional.

#4: Minor reinstatement of previously deleted scenes.

In the Collector's Edition Art Book, and in The Final Hours, there's a small bunch of stuff mentioned as cut from the ending. This includes a longer death scene for Anderson, and a longer explanation of just what the heck the Catalyst is talking about. The problem of the existing ending being wholly inadequate is not fixed by having it be wholly inadequate, but *longer*. A longer goodbye to Anderson is warranted, though.

#5: Major reinstatement of deleted scenes.

The removed "indoctrination" scene while talking down the Illusive Man, and the boss fight with The Illusive Man Brute Thing From The Art Book. Having the foreshadowing towards indoctrinating Shepard, which still exists in the game, point to something that's actually still there, would help. A bit.

Having a confrontation with the antagonist at the end is an improvement to the narrative, even though *arguably* The Illusive Man is not the "real" antagonist. It would be a bit "video gamey", to quote the book, but video games do this for a reason. It could also be dependent on prior choices, like if you didn't blow up the collector base, or if you're too much of a renegade, or something.

#6: Explanation of plot holes during and after the final choice. I am going to write this scene for you, to save you time.

EXT. BLOWED-UP LONDON

NORMANDY lands. JOKER steps out.

JOKER: Guys, I saw you get hit by that beam from Harbinger, I am so pleased you're not dead! Also, the fleet is retreating back to their homeworlds and stuff! Also, it looks like the mass relays are about to be blown up, so I'd better hurry and drive you guys back before my parents come home! I mean the relays stop working!

LIARA: Well, even though I've been the love interest of Shepard through three games, it's plainly obvious that Shepard is dead, so I'd better go back home to and grieve. Woe is me.

NORMANDY takes off, and heads to the mass relay, which EXPLODES in an impressive light show. And then it implodes pathetically, like crushing a beer can, clearly showing that although blowing up a mass relay does under normal circumstances blow up a solar system, when you blow it up like *this* it does not.

#7: A proper Lair of the Shadow Broker-grade DLC pack; new content, new missions, more gameplay, resolving the plot acceptably.

Either in place of or after the current ending, or scattered throught the game, quality content, gameplay and dialogue worthy of BioWare. It could be a return of the Dark Energy plotline abandoned during development. It could be a confrontation and bossfight against Harbinger. It could be something akin to the Suicide Mission.

You have designed some of the most fantastic post-release DLC ever made. You can do it again.

...

...Boy, I really *did* show up late for the party.

Since I started writing this, EA let loose that Mass Effect 3 would have an "improved" ending. Before I had a chance to finish, BioWare answered a FAQ that they would not change the ending.

As disappointed as I may personally be, I can respect that on some level. To have the fate of intelligent life in the galaxy, and the resolution to an aeons-lasting conflict between "us" and the Reapers, to have the conclusion to the career of the humanity's and the galaxy's greatest hero, to have all that depend on a singular choice made by Shepard and by the extension, the player, can be a powerful and fitting end to this fantastic trilogy of games. But the key word was *can*. This is how you ended the game before, and it *wasn't*.

It was poorly and hastily produced, without the attention to craft that BioWare was so highly regarded for.

It was without the artistry, the understanding of how player choice can create genuine emotion in players, that allowed Mass Effect, to be publicly defensible as a serious literary work.

It broke the tradition of the series, of having the choices made by the player decide the outcomes, and of showing the outcomes of those choices.

It was riddled with omissions, mistakes, contradictions, and plot holes.

It was unacceptable from a game that so emotionally had resolved the plot thread of quarians versus geth on Rannoch, of the old galactic society and the genophage versus the krogan on Tuchanka, among others.

It was a two-minute pre-rendered cutscene where previous *choices* made no appreciable difference.

On Rannoch, my friend saved the quarians. My other friend saved the geth. I saved *both*.

We got the exact same two-minute cutscene.

Just making it a ten-minute cutscene is not good enough.

Without changing the basics of the ending; (God Child gives you choice, you make choice) here are the things you must do to give me "further clarity" through "additional cinematic sequences" and "epilogue scenes".

You must clear up the plot holes and inconsistencies. The God Child has to explain *why* synthetics and organics cannot co-exist, against my counterexample of creating peace between the quarians and the geth. There has to be some explanation why destroying the reapers will destroy the geth, or EDI, and *how*. You have to show how, and why, my crew is on the Normandy before it crashes, when they were on Earth fighting, and Normandy was battling in the skies above.

You should be able to argue with the God Child based on the choices I have made throughout the series. I *did* make peace with the quarians and geth, I *did* inspire EDI to decide to sacrifice herself over the survival of organics.

You should make the options available be dependant on player choices, and not 50% player choices and 50% how-much-multiplayer-did-you-play. For someone removing a boss fight from the ending because it was too "video-gamey", *that's* pretty disgusting.

You should show what happened to the raging battle and to the factions fighting. Is the Migrant Fleet being decimated? Are the fleets being evacuated because the Crucible didn't work? Did the salarians retreat early because I helped the krogan?

You should show the immediate fates of my crew members, of the main characters. It doesn't have to be "happily ever after", but did they survive? Did they get back home? Is Tali back on Rannoch? Showing her building a house with Garrus and the geth are helping, might be a bit dumb, but if you're going to rule out the possibility, *show it*. Mordin, Thane and Legion sacrificed themselves

You should provide a satisfying conclusion to the love story. You don't have to show old Liara, centuries later, dressed in black and still sobbing hysterically that Shepard died. Nor do you have to show Liara and old Shepard in a beach house with lots of little blue feet running around just because Shepard survived. But you have to show something. One of the most effective emotional moments for me was in Mass Effect 2, when Shepard looked at Liara's photo just before the Suicide Mission. Do that moment justice.

You must have dozens, if not hundreds, of meaningfully different ending variations, on the basis of player choices made throughout the games. Three endings with a total of six variations is NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Heavy Rain had seven, and they were *wildly* different. Chrono Trigger has fourteen. Dragon Age: Origins had even more than that.

I played a female spacer Shepard who was a sole survivor of Akuze. I saved the rachni queen, I convinced Wrex to stand down, I sacrificed Kaidan over Ashley and Kirrahe, I didn't save the council (by accident, honest) and defeated Saren. I fell in love with Liara.

I recruited Miranda, Jacob, Tali, Garrus, Jack, Zaeed, Thane, Grunt, Mordin, Samara, Legion and Kasumi for a suicide mission. I gained all of their loyalties, and they all survived to the end. I helped Liara defeat the Shadow Broker, and our love was rekindled.

I sacrificed Mordin and cured the genophage, I saved Jack from Cerberus, I sacrificed Legion and brought peace between the quarians and the geth, I sacrificed Thane and saved the salarian ambassador and Ashley, I saved Samara and her remaining daughter, and I saved Miranda and her sister. I brought Liara and Tali on the final push for the Conduit, I saved Anderson and talked The Illusive Man into killing himself, and at the very end, I chose to destroy the Reapers, rather than control them like The Illusive Man or rewrite nature like Saren.

I feel I am entitled to a more unique denouement than Ending #3/6.

In conclusion, a personal story:

Last year, I bought my sister Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 for Christmas. She loves the fiction, she bought the books, she enjoys the well-crafted worlds and the deep, engaging characters. In its current state, I honestly think that she could not enjoy Mass Effect 3, and the only reason is its ending.

If you actually do make the ending worthy of the hundred hours that preceded it, I'll know what I can get my sister for Christmas.

And I'll buy the retaking Omega DLC, if that's next.

If it's good.

Thank you for Mass Effect

Thank you for Mass Effect 2.

Thank you for 99% of Mass Effect 3.

Please make it 110%.