Mass Effect 3: Every Dialog Choice Can Be Answered with "Charge"

[PixelPanic]

I can't believe this just happened.

Seriously, gaming is a creative, artistic industry where people are going to create an experience as per their vision. You as a CONSUMER(and not a stockholder) are entitled to not like said work, but to do something this batshit?

I hope Tim Schafer and all these other guys using Kickstarter to fund their game projects know just what they're getting themselves into.

That's just immature. That's the sickest level of immature bullshit I have ever seen. That's 'crying to the teacher at recess that everyone's playing baseball, not dodgeball like he wanted to' level of immature cockamamie bullshit. It's the ending to a game. They bought the game. It sucked. I'm sorry. But what makes them think it was "supposed" to be good? A piece of shit is a piece of shit. You can't stop that. Requesting them to change core gameplay and patch it due to unplayability? Maybe that'd be okay. Maybe. Like, the thinnest form of maybe. But changing the ENDING to their PLOT that the player has already completed. No. It's like if I wrote to J.K. Rowling and said "Yeah, I hate how the seventh book ended. Change it for me. And I want it for free. Soon, or I want my money back."

This story of Mass Effect has finished. If you didn't like it, that sucks. Better luck next time.

[Hyperion5182]

That's just immature. That's the sickest level of immature bullshit I have ever seen. That's 'crying to the teacher at recess that everyone's playing baseball, not dodgeball like he wanted to' level of immature cockamamie bullshit. It's the ending to a game. They bought the game. It sucked. I'm sorry. But what makes them think it was "supposed" to be good? A piece of shit is a piece of shit. You can't stop that. Requesting them to change core gameplay and patch it due to unplayability? Maybe that'd be okay. Maybe. Like, the thinnest form of maybe. But changing the ENDING to their PLOT that the player has already completed. No. It's like if I wrote to J.K. Rowling and said "Yeah, I hate how the seventh book ended. Change it for me. And I want it for free. Soon, or I want my money back."

This story of Mass Effect has finished. If you didn't like it, that sucks. Better luck next time.

Sir Conan Doyale disagrees with you.

The ending of this plot is not the TRUE ORIGINAL ENDING of this game. The original ending got leaked. And Bioware changed it. Hence the DELAY OF SIX MONTHS!

The seventh book of harry potter by many people's opinions ended via fan submission. So yeah i'd be able to lodge a complaint.

And i'm sorry but you know what. This well could be a case of false advertising. Take a look at the ME 3 campaign the ME franchise in general and the concepts behind it. None of what you did matters. Thats what it boils down to.

And if they actually do a DLC of a 'true ending' then not only does this case have merit in the BBB. I'd say it has LEGAL in court standing.

The ending of this game is so in-congruent with the plot and so jarring it has sparked this reaction. It made NO sense. NONE. It is the game's shining moment the apex of a story that's spanned 3 games and countless twists and turns. To have it end this way is an affront to writers, fans and purchasers.

Now i've got rumor. (And at this point nothing BUT rumor) That there's an ending above all of these. That requires 15k war rating. Even with all assets. I believe that means a full 100% run and multiple multiplayer characters promoted. That could be this game's true ending. And if bioware made it that hard to find people can curse them out to their hearts content. But i'm sorry. When a game has been so much to so many people for it to end like THIS? We would be irresponsible as consumers if we did NOT complain when a company pulled THIS kind of BULLSHIT.

[PixelPanic]

By introducing the real ending AFTER the game was released, it would show how flat on their faces Bioware fucked up on the game. If your product is bad, take it as a learning experience in buying new games, not an insult to yourself.

[Gollgagh]

read this and tell me again that being any degree of upset is completely unreasonable

[Malaki-LEGEND.sys]

Who said anything about being upset being "unreasonable"? If you don't like the ending and think it ruins the rest of the experience, then fine, hate it all you want.What several of us are getting at here is that it's beyond moronic, immature, and outright insulting to the creative community to "demand" that they either cough up a "better" ending or give some kind of refund in some capacity.

Imagine the kind of boring, monochrome media we'd be consuming daily if all entertainment were forced to adhere to the strictest of external(fan or otherwise) demand(moreso than usual).You have a right to be pissed, not a right to tell people how to do their job.

[DusK]

We are aware that there are concerns about a recent post from this account regarding the ending of the game. In this post it was stated that at this time we do not have plans to change the ending.

We would like to clarify that we are actively and seriously taking all player feedback into consideration and have ruled nothing out. At this time we are still collecting and considering your feedback and have not made a decision regarding requests to change the ending.

Your feedback and opinions are of the utmost importance to us. We apologize for any confusion this has caused. Our top priority regarding this discussion is to keep communication with you, our loyal fans, open and productive.

Maybe they'll cave.

[The Phalanx]

Now i've got rumor. (And at this point nothing BUT rumor) That there's an ending above all of these. That requires 15k war rating. Even with all assets. I believe that means a full 100% run and multiple multiplayer characters promoted. That could be this game's true ending.

Hey guys I hear if you never get hit in Classic mode Super Smash Bros. Melee with all characters including Master Hand on hard mode you unlock Sonic.

[Moomba]

Gamer Entitlement

[Geoffrey Taucer]

First impressions: I'm less impressed than I was with ME2. I don't like the engine as much, I don't like the lighting (or lack thereof, in most places), and I don't like the fact that 3 hours into the game I still haven't gained the ability to fly around the galaxy -- which means the game has so far been completely linear.

[The Phalanx]

http://www.analoghype.com/video-games/playstation-3-news/amazon-offering-a-full-refund-on-already-opened-copies-of-mass-effect-3/

[Gollgagh]

*raises eyebrow*

[Toadofsky]

Gamer Entitlement

IGN, really? LOL. The same place whose employee had a part in the game (and terribly voiced)? No, of course this isn't surprising for them to be on the defense.

I honestly don't care about the ending, I don't even plan on playing the game through. I kept my expectations for the game VERY low, but after seeing how pretty much any of the choices I really made have no real bearing on the ending, I don't see any reason to play it.

Now, I didn't expect there to be a BUNCH of endings, that's naive, but heck, I still think that Bioware could have done more than just choose you're screwed! color.

I'll just leave my two cents from my webpage on using the latest buzzword "entitlement"...

Entitlement

A gamer journalist who defines those who demand far too much, and should just accept what’s given to them. This is also known as the American way, to just roll over and take it ‘cuz it’s not getting any better. This is the latest word they’re using to gamers who HATED the Mass Effect 3 ending.

Honestly, I can’t really blame those fans because they feel that they’ve wasted they’re time on a series with the promise of your choices affecting the outcome of the whole trilogy. I don’t think anybody’s really thinking that there would ultimately be tons of outcomes, that is a bit naive, because the current hardware and structure of game design won’t allow that.

Why it shouldn’t be used: Those who use this word are copping out of the discussion. They don’t want to hear dissenting opinions, neither do some in the game industry. Journalists are WRONG on thinking that, because their JOB is to report on gaming news, both good and bad. Ultimately their JOB is to LOOK OUT for their READERSHIP, NOT THE PUBLISHER. Unfortunately, they’ve been doing the opposite for little over a decade, maybe longer.

Gamers have a right to be entitled to an extent. They’re the consumers, they’re your fanbase. Consumers have a right in speaking their minds, no matter how much companies hate it. The current mind set that is perpetuated these days is sickening to me. Gamers have every right to be able to question a company or a journalists motives. By telling them to just take what you get and be quiet, "it's art!", your doing a disservice to free-thinking.

I wonder if these people who are defending artistic vision are the same people who get pissed off at George Lucas screwing up what's left of Star Wars that's still good.

[Malaki-LEGEND.sys]

Gabe from Penny-Arcade put it best about a week ago.

Again if ME3 is the “ending” then I was making choices the entire time right up until the last second. I chose the “green” ending and I picked that out of three options. Were the other options similar to mine? I don’t know, I didn’t pick them. I made my final choice and put the cap on MY Mass Effect story. Obviously I can go online and look at all the other options but now we’re talking about sausage making. I imagine that once you look behind that curtain a lot of “choices” in Mass Effect will break down. I think what Bioware does is make incredible games that give the illusion of real choice. I mean let’s be honest. Mass Effect is a very cool choose your own adventure book. “Do you kill the Geth? If so turn to page 22.”

The book has been written and you can change the way you read it but don’t pretend you’re the author.

[Moomba]

IGN, really? LOL. The same place whose employee had a part in the game (and terribly voiced)? No, of course this isn't surprising for them to be on the defense.

Just checking but you realise that was satire right?

IGN and Kotaku don't really have a strong pro-Bioware argument, hence why it's all "You hate it because Hepler is a woman/You think you're entitled to a good ending!" Both are terrible arguments.

Frankly, all major video game journalism sites lost their credability a long time ago... now their reviews are all based on bias (and probably a fair bit of money).

Honestly, I don't think releasing a new DLC ending, free or not, is going to help. Bioware screwed their fans over this time, who knows whether or not there will be a next time.

Personally I expected there to be two distinctly different endings (two guesses why). They have always advertised the game as being about the choices you make. Kinda funny that they turned around and threw it back in our faces for the series ending. Sure, it's false advertising and it's possible those who are reporting it to officials have a case, but that's kind of going a bit far I think...

[Toadofsky]

Just checking but you realise that was satire right?

IGN and Kotaku don't really have a strong pro-Bioware argument, hence why it's all "You hate it because Hepler is a woman/You think you're entitled to a good ending!" Both are terrible arguments.

Sorry 'bout that, no I didn't know it was satire. But as far as I could tell, right out of the gate, a number of places were quick to defend EA and Bioware (Destructoid, IGN, Penny Arcade), but it seems like a few places are actually listening to their readers, well some anyways...

Frankly, all major video game journalism sites lost their credability a long time ago... now their reviews are all based on bias (and probably a fair bit of money).

No disagreement here.

Honestly, I don't think releasing a new DLC ending, free or not, is going to help. Bioware screwed their fans over this time, who knows whether or not there will be a next time.

Honestly, I shudder to think that EA/Publishers is probably loving this. They'll use this as justification for being able to lock even MORE content up on the disk.

Personally I expected there to be two distinctly different endings (two guesses why). They have always advertised the game as being about the choices you make. Kinda funny that they turned around and threw it back in our faces for the series ending. Sure, it's false advertising and it's possible those who are reporting it to officials have a case, but that's kind of going a bit far I think...

I think going to officials IS a bit too far, but I do think that if customers don't like the product they got, they have a right to speak their minds, even if people disagree with them.

[Moomba]

read this and tell me again that being any degree of upset is completely unreasonable

I only just read this. He makes very good points.

It's nice to see major game journalism sites that actually have some idea what they're talking about rather than siding with EA/Bioware against the fans.

Edit: This is awesome and should be quoted everywhere.

A happy ending is not automatically childish. A sad ending is not automatically mature. Being vague doesn’t make you profound, and if the first thing out of a developer or journalist’s mouth is that anyone who gets too involved in video games is a manchild, they probably are one themselves.

[Sixto]

Sir Conan Doyale disagrees with you.

Now i've got rumor. (And at this point nothing BUT rumor) That there's an ending above all of these. That requires 15k war rating. Even with all assets.

Secret ending is real, but it's not much. Same ending but one extra surprise scene and I'm sure everyone can guess what that surprise is. Anyway, jsust finished it last night and while the ending wasn't exactly what I expected, the game was pretty cool. Just had a lot of weird stuff in it.

Spoiler: So does Sheppard pretty much fuck everyone over in the end? Everyone who came to fight and didn't die is now stuck on or above Earth since the mass relays are busted, aren't they?

[Moomba]

Sixto: Yup, the entire combined forces that came to fight the reapers are as good as dead now. Earth isn't going to be able to support them and I doubt they have enough supplies onboard to last the decades it would take to travel back to somewhere sustainable.

[Malaki-LEGEND.sys]

I don't think anyone from PA outside of Ben Kuchera and Gabe's comments are defending the game outright. If anything, Gabe is just pointing out that "it is what it is" and that it's never been anything other than that. If anything, playing through Mass Effect and any Bioware game for that matter should make it obvious that these are not non-linear "off the rail" experiences; there are story chokepoints and events that will occur no matter what. You can't NOT decide to go to the Citadel or take down Seran in ME. You can't not choose to chill out at the Cerberus station at the beginning of ME2.

This is the kind of game Bioware makes. As I've mentioned in other threads, the only true non-linear games you're ever gonna find outside of D&D are Hack and NetHack, and thank God for that or we'd be playing bland Bethesda sandbox games ad infinitum. If it doesn't suit your fancy, then speak with your wallet. Don't buy more of their games, tell them why, and then leave it at that.

[Native Jovian]

This is the kind of game Bioware makes. As I've mentioned in other threads, the only true non-linear games you're ever gonna find outside of D&D are Hack and NetHack, and thank God for that or we'd be playing bland Bethesda sandbox games ad infinitum.

Ignoring the pointless dig at Bethesda, that's still a spurious argument. No one is complaining that they couldn't go completely off the rails and, say, decide to join Cerberus or deliberately allow yourself to be indoctrinated. The complaint is that the ending does not live up to the expectations set by the previous games in the series -- or even the earlier parts of the game. Mass Effect 1 allows you to make several major decisions that let you feel like you have control over the story, even if the actual changes are relatively small. Mass Effect 2 lets you make a ton of minor decisions that add up to actually having a fairly large effect on the way the game plays out (even if, again, the actual differences are relatively small). Mass Effect 3 continues this -- the changes from ME2 (eg, who lived and who died) are still present and still affect things, plus decisions you make in the game effect events later in the game (for example [spoiler: if Jack survived ME2 and you don't do the Grissom Academy mission in ME3, then Cerberus captures and indoctrinates her, and you have to fight her later on]). When you get to the ending, though, all of that gets tossed out the window. Literally the only thing that matters in the ending is if you got your effective military strength above a certain point, and the only difference it makes is that it opens another nigh-identical ending.

So the complaint isn't that the ending is suddenly linear (the Mass Effect games always have been) or that people want the story to branch significantly (it never has). The complaint is that, unlike everything up until that point, none of your previous decisions make a difference. Hell, even the decision that you make in the ending itself doesn't make a whole lot of difference. That's what really bothered people -- that, in the end, all of your decisions, all of the accumulated personalization you did through the trilogy, meant precisely dick. The fact that the ending was shitty even beyond the betraying-the-audience's-expectations thing too didn't help at all, either.

Re: Moomba [spoiler: why the hell would the people retaking Earth be screwed? They can't really leave the local cluster without the mass effect relays, but it's not like they're all just going to roll over and die. Even if you're talking about millions of people, Earth would still be able to support them. The destruction was supposedly limited to major population centers, so they should be able to rebuild and survive indefinitely. Hell, even the dextro races should be okay as long as you didn't kill off the quarians -- you can see liveships in their fleet when they're coming through the Charon relay, so they should be able to survive using that.]

[Koriantor]

So the complaint isn't that the ending is suddenly linear (the Mass Effect games always have been) or that people want the story to branch significantly (it never has). The complaint is that, unlike everything up until that point, none of your previous decisions make a difference. Hell, even the decision that you make in the ending itself doesn't make a whole lot of difference. That's what really bothered people -- that, in the end, all of your decisions, all of the accumulated personalization you did through the trilogy, meant precisely dick. The fact that the ending was shitty even beyond the betraying-the-audience's-expectations thing too didn't help at all, either.

Implementing every decision you make into an ending sequence is difficult. That would take a lot of extra bits. Sci-fi is all about big questions. The ending didn't give any closure to your decisions because the decisions in YOUR Mass Effect trilogy is undoubtedly different from the decisions in MY Mass Effect trilogy. Thus, the results would be different and the questions like "What happens next?" would be different.

Still, I understand completely why people would be ticked off at it. I can see what Bioware might have been trying to do, but I don't think it was wise.

I think if Bioware would have done the ending more like this excellent fellow, there would be a lot more praise and a little less rage. (The guy clarified some of the dialog and added some really interesting ideas that make sense. I love this ending.)

[Sixto]

that is a cool ending

[Gollgagh]

If this was planned, I can only feel like I got played like a trumpet.

[Melbu Frahma]

I seriously doubt it was planned, if for no other reason than how long it's taken them to truly respond to the criticisms leveled their way. I suppose it could have been, though.

[Tensei]

Not a photoshop.