Scofthe7seas

@TeflonBilly said:

What future? The ME universe is dead

DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!

*pisses on the smoldering ruins of Bioware*

Dude. They just announced a new sequel. I'm tellin' ya. Search for Spoc-- er.. Shepard.

http://blog.bioware.com/2012/11/12/an-update-from-bioware-montreal/

Everybody get your hats ready.. It's almost dinner time!

@Potts

I have no idea where you got the notion that any of my reasoning against it was because there was too much evidence. What do you mean by that?

I have read the "evidence" about it. But my points remain. What I meant about you not thinking it, is specifically that there is absolutely no way that Bioware or EA would believe that anybody would ever come to that conclusion. Not any chance of it. That alone wrecks the possibility for that ending. The evidence you site is just not enough for anybody to pick up on in their play-through to imply it as a viable ending.

Plus, there is NO way, not ANY way they would possibly allow two of the endings to actually make you lose the game, and die. Not any way. I think that might have made people even more angry if that were an obvious explanation. As for your Boo-Hoo bullshit. This is exactly the kind of shitty, obnoxious, elitist attitude that people have about PC gamers. We exist and stupid post ending actual ending DLC is absurdly inconvenient. What if saves are deleted? Like you said, go on Youtube, and that's what I'll do, but it's still shitty. You have no idea how many WON'T go online to check into this stuff. Don't forget that this game specifically came with a multiplayer mode to appeal to the more casual gamer. These people? Aren't going to go online to see an extra ending, or figure out these theories. My brother is playing it right now. When he finishes it, he's just going to be annoyed. He won't look it up. He'll just be mad, because that's how he is. That isn't fair to casual customers. And again, to the boo-hoo attitude, fuck that, and fuck people who think that way. People paid full price for this game (which when did 65 dollars become that?!), and this is horrendous customer service.

You know what? Maybe they did intend for something like that, but there would have definitely been more, a lot more, that just isn't there. The theory can work on "could have been, should be there". The "truth" even if you're right, is that the shitty stupid ending, just IS the shitty stupid ending. :(

(this was edited because my computer blew all the way up. Had to reinstall windows, and only had IE8 when I wrote it, which this ridiculous forum setup doesn't support)

@Potts

Now you’ve done it.

Here’s why I don’t buy the indoctrination theory:

a. You didn’t think of it. In fact, 99.999 percent didn’t (I’m saying, like one dude did) come to this conclusion. Said dude came to this conclusion, put it on the internet, and then spread it around like it was too much cream cheese for the bagel he bought. If you say you did come to this conclusion on your own, and smugly sat in your chair going onto the internet to find your equally genius brethren to share and revel in your true understanding, I will call you a fucking liar. There is nothing you will be able to say to waver my conviction that you are a fucking liar, Because..

b. It’s way too elaborate. There are too many little details that blow this theory up. You really think they recorded an entire large series of dialogs with Martin Sheen, Lance Hendrickson, and Keith David, only to throw it all out and pretend it didn’t really happen? That it was all in Shepard’s head? Or that they paid these actors for this scene annndddd mooooreeeee! That’s coming on the DLC. How big is this DLC going to be? Is it really going to just explain, “Ohhh, it was all in Shepards heeaaadddd. Woooo. You may or may not have won.” That’s almost as stupid as the real ending. How does the game even actually end then? If you people are right, and destroying them is only way to not get indoctrinated, does Shepard then crawl out of the rubble, climb up to the really real citadel, and then use the Catalyst to save the day? But we don’t get to see that, because they decided to be even more clever with their deep and mysterious ending that you’re supposed to be able to puzzle out. This isn’t inception. This isn’t even Fight Club. NOBODY ELSE came to this conclusion. It’s not like people weren’t smart enough to figure it out like the above two mentioned movies, it’s that it would be impossible for anybody to come to that conclusion, especially if they picked one of the other two “bad endings” without talking about it online. People were always supposed to look on the internet and see Youtube videos of each ending so they could learn which one was the right one? Or supposed to play it multiple times to try and piece the puzzle together, always rejecting the “true” bad ending because they knew there was some kind of secret that would explain it all? You really think they were surprised that nobody would be satisfied, so they made two obviously veiled and IMPOSSIBLE to understand endings that are actually the “wrong” ending? People who don’t have the internet (somehow) or don’t care to check just don’t get to know if there is a good one, and then the conclusion dawns on them? Is this ending so brilliant that they knew people would have to talk about it to puzzle it out?

c. It’s evil. So many IT(ists?) think it’s the most daring and clever ending ever. It’s not. It’s a horrible thing done by a (potentially) horrible company. They actually made the ending so secretive that they knew the public would be so angry as to vote them the NUMBER ONE WORST COMPANY of the year, so they would finally then be able to reveal the true secret so all of the dimwits who didn’t understand it, could have their tiny idiot hands held through the truth. A shitty ending is going to be water under the bridge. It’s a videogame; nobody in the press is going to care if a videogame has a shitty ending. A video game that was created and sold for full price with NO ACTUAL ENDING; one that has to be downloaded after the game has ended, is going to make it into real news.

d. Indoctrination has never been portrayed as this. Ever. You people have literally invented some kind of deep concentrated indoctrination beam, that instantly hypnotizes Shepard into a dream sequence that he can somehow fight against, and win, if he happens to choose a certain path. Who in the game has ever struggled against indoctrination and won? Who? Everybody who says they were indoctrinated described it as a whispering in their head, gradually winning them over to the reaper way of thinking. Everybody who was indoctrinated eventually falls into it completely. Only in the end being able to break away from it for possibly one last second of redemption. People say “ohh, he was actually being indoctrinated through the whole series!!” So, through the whole series, he’s just been able to resist it completely, COMPLETELY. No sign of it? Oh, there are signs whenever you pick a naughty Shepard option. That explains why no matter how you behave you’ve been FIGHTING THE REAPERS, and KILLING THEM, through the whole series of games, only to ultimately possibly betray the galaxy.

e. What about PC users? What about people who bought the game and sold it? Too bad? PC users have to reinstall the game in order to see this DLC? Or they shouldn’t sell their game, because it’s precious and that’s not fair to EA, and blah blah blah.

If you really believe this theory, then you have to really believe that most people are supposed to have come to this conclusion on their own. You have to believe that Bioware, and EA, both believed that most people would come to this conclusion on their own, and be happy about it because they knew “the truth”, and not angry like most people who played through this game are. There is literally no way that they assumed this. No way.

I’m going to toot the fuck out of my horn; I’m a pretty bright guy, but I didn’t come anywhere NEAR this answer after having played through. As I said above, I just thought it was weird. And then like everybody else I got angry. I’m sorry; it’s just a horrible nonsensical ending. Trust me, I don’t want it to be. I WISH it wasn’t. I wish it could somehow be a good ending. But it isn’t. It’s just stupid stupid lazy shit. Ask me any question about why certain mysterious things happen at the ending sequence. The answer to all of your questions is that it’s just a stupid plot hole.

(And seriously, is there really no way to get email notifications when someone posts on a thread you want to follow? Do I really have to troll my own posts, checking periodically to see if anybody has written something on it?)

@Potts

Poppycock. The indoctrination theory is absurd.

Further, I'm going to be VERY ANGRY if it is "confirmed" because I'm positive it just means they decided to go with the explanation that was invented for them.

@Potts

I see what you're saying. To be honest, I mostly skimmed a lot of this thread because I had a ton to catch up on. As for the canon issue, I think they'll just bullshit their way out of that. Maybe some stupid early game question; "Say, if you had some giant evil robots at your disposal, what would you do witch them? Also, what's your favorite color?" Or maybe a more veiled set of questions to gauge your personality. A save game check could do it, or, and this is what I think, they'll just make a vague sweeping answer about the situation "The reapers... went away." Probably not that simple. Or, they literally could just boil it down to whatever "Actual" ending they decide. Would it really be so shocking if they removed the only shitty single choice you were given for the ending?

As for the FTL travel; I don't buy it. Look how much fuel it takes to get from one solar system to the next. Not to mention the time it takes to do that. It's even explicitly mentioned that space travel to new civilizations would be virtually impossible without ME relays because of the sheer distance. The absolute closest nebula to Earth is 1,344 light years away, and that's where the citadel is supposed to be. Annd, that's not very far on the galactic map from Sol. In one of the books FTL is supposed to be 50 times faster than the speed of light. So, at a constant rate it would take about 27 years to get there. (and no, I'm not fucking sorry for nerding the hell up there.)

Then there's the whole "Entirety of the galaxy's military force stranded in the Sol system" ordeal.

Who knows how it will happen. What will be (no doubt shittily) explained, glossed over, what ever. My point is that the crummy ending is meant to set up some kind of future extrapolation of the current world without them having to work very hard explaining things. I'm pretty sure there will be more mass effect games, with some characters from the original games in some capacity.

@Potts:

I'm confused by you saying the 3 endings couldn't merge into one, and then your next post says that all three endings have the exact same outcome. My theory is that if something like a new game comes out, they're just going to have a kind of blanket statement. "Well, that was some kind of crazy (insert color) fireball! Man, we really (insert verb)'d those reapers gud!"

There were a lot of tangents going on through this topic. I'm going to stick to my guns and claim that my first post is "canon" and everything I said below diverged into nonsensical drivel. Mostly because I don't want to re-read what I wrote.

@mikeerik

I made my own ending here, but nobody looked at it. http://www.giantbomb.com/mass-effect-3/61-29935/create-your-own-mass-effect-3-ending/35-540446/

ALSO, does anybody have any idea how to "follow" a forum thread (get emailed when new posts or put up)? I had no idea people were still posting in this because nothing informed me as such.

@onan: Well, I don't think Shepard is going to be any kind of real presence in the next game, I didn't mean to make it sound like the focus of my theory was on Shepard coming back, or still being alive. He may or may not pop up, but that's actually inconsequential. The real point is that all of the characters (or most? some?) went to that weird planet, the reapers were defeated, and the mass relays were destroyed. That's mostly what I meant. Just that the three endings merge into one, from which a nearly direct sequel can come. It's just an explanation for why the ending was the way it was. Just a simple setup for future games.

@onan: My theory is speculation based on future possibilities, not nonsensical interpretation regarding something that has already happened. The reason you gave for saying no is exactly why I think what I said will happen. They funneled the ending down specifically so they can "reboot" it like you said. Negating all the choices by making all your choices lead to the same conclusion. Also, Shepard didn't die. Perhaps in a traditional sense, his/her body is gone. Maybe. But at least two of the endings have him/her somehow merging into the "system" in some way. You are right that the reaper threat is negated, and I don't believe they will have much/anything to do with future games. I think Shepard is going to pop up all Lawnmower man style.

I'm not saying this is good news, or that I'm excited about this possibility.

I wasn't complaining about the ending, just my theories on why it ended the way it did. I don't believe EA had nothing to do with how the ending played out. If nothing else, it was rushed. It's only logical to think that they would have future games in mind. This is just a theory, but we'll see how it pans out.

@onan said:

Edit: Also, no.

(This couldn't go in an existing ending thread?)

You know that this doesn't mean anything, right?

And Jesus guys. Like fuckin' piranha. You jumped on this shit seconds after I posted it.