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[Mass Effect]: Victory & Commendation Packs out! Mark ALL spoilers or BANSHEES!!
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Wouldn't it be so awesome if he did have something to do with it? It would totally explain a lot.
Neither should Bioware think they're somehow above petty things like a logical, rational ending which people will enjoy. I mean, I certainly agree with the notion that Bioware owns the work and not the fans. I have no debate on that issue.
However, after two games, something on the order of three hundred dollars, and dozens upon dozens of hours, yeah, I think the average fan has every right to expect an ending in line with all the effort they've put it into the series. But that's an expectation, not an entitlement. At the end of the day, the Mass Effect franchise is a product. If the product doesn't meet the expectations, then it's not a good product.
Though it should be pointed out that the part where the product fails is relatively small compared to where the product succeeds.
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Origin ID: jazzmess
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But I'm sure saying the ending is ass.
I'm trying to let people know when they decide to play the game that hey, watch out, the ending has a fair chance of pissing you off ... but the rest of the game is super awesome.
I've already had a few people angrily messaging me at 2am as they finnish the game.
and that got me wondering.
How many bloody people finish games at 2am? (this post, also made at 2am)
I am fine with them acknowledging the fans, just as long as they don't end up catering to them. That is when they lose their creative integrity. From your quote, it looks like they plan to maintain that.
Because I don't think it is right to leave things the way they are.
But neither do I think they should get into the habit of letting people think they can get their way as long as they complain loud enough.
It is a strange situation they've gotten themselves into.
I've heard this a lot and I just cannot fathom it at all
I hate that the ending is overshadowing the awesomeness of 99.9% of the game
Well, I'm in the gang. Or maybe it was a little later.
I pretty much stayed up playing ME3 until 5am for 3 days straight.
Yeah.
Usually in second+ times through, I'll turn on subtitles and spacebar through conversations.
I...don't really have the desire to do that this time.
I mean, I want to get to the shooty, but I also want to hear the interactions and stuff.
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I think my immediate reaction was just shaking my head and laughing.
I'm having a lot of trouble continuing my second playthrough.
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Except... Bioware's PR is built around catering to the fans. People wanted Garrus and Tali to be love interests; they became love interests. People felt like there wasn't enough customization in ME2; customization was expanded for ME3. Bioware has crafted a lovely image of themselves as a company that listens when the fans complain about something. And to their credit, when they listen to fan "demands", even the times I looked at the demands and thought myself "Oh, that is so stupid, just shut up", the thing that Bioware came up with in answer to the 'demand' was almost always amazing. I mean look at the complaints from ME2 that they address in ME3: More 'friend' conversations with the crew, more of the crew being friendly with each other. More callbacks to past decisions. Better written 'relationships' for people who have had one for more than one game. Insane improvements in gameplay. The list goes on.
Maybe Bioware just pretended to be listening to the fans, and these were things they were going to implement from their own creative desires. I don't actually know. But they've cultivated the image that they listen to the fans. Now they are facing the other side of that coin, which is when they make a serious writing misstep, then the fans who have been invited in as "collaborators" will feel like they have a right to say "No, that's just bad. Write something that makes sense. This is your peer review: revise what was written, please."
And I don't see anything wrong with that, personally. Any writer who feels like they are above peer review is kind of a goose.
Origin ID: jazzmess
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This is what's happening with me too.
Every time I go to start my second playthrough I'm like, "You know I could be unlocking crates right now."
>_>
Ha ha, this is happening to me with some frequency.
The only reason I don't do more MP is probably because I can never seem to get together with enough PA folk, and I hate doing pubs.
Origin ID: jazzmess
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at the very least, I think Bioware needs to throw out some content that smooths things over. doesn't have to be a retcon but it has to be something.
Well. There still has to be some disconnect between the creator and consumer.
It's about creating a happy medium and I would say for the most part Bioware is good at that.
Why I'm interested in seeing what they do.
Even though I said it, I can't fathom it but I just have no desire anymore. I played the game, got to the trial and then thought "This has no point" and turned the game off. I wanted to go through ME->ME2 again so I had a true "canon" shep and see all the differences - then remembered that the ending shit all over that anyway.
I loved ME because I was invested in the universe, characters and story. The ending has taken all of that away and in the end it leaves a very very good TPS (in ME3), but nothing else. Frankly if I just want to shoot things I have Gears of War 3.
I am as well and it's why the whole "ARTISTIC INTEGRITY" argument is dumber than rocks. The ending takes away from an achievement in RPG design and video games - which is what ME3 should have been but denies due to the ending.
I don't think they do either. I doubt that very many think that Bioware is required to change or elaborate on the ending just because they want it done.
But saying that you don't even have the right to politely request a rewrite, because Every Art is Sacred, strikes me as a bit silly.
Origin ID: jazzmess
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its awesome when you finish games at 2am during sleep deprivation. so mind-fuckingly awesome.
the dark and quiet gives it a special feeling
I seem to always finish in the AM as well, but not because I plan it that way, it just happens. How peculiar.
I think it has to do with realizing you're near the end, and even if you should be in bed by that point you can't possibly sleep because, dammit, this is the final push!
Origin ID: jazzmess
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That's... not an unreasonable conclusion. It is Bioware's story and they can do whatever they want with it.
But then George Lucas walks in. Makes yet another unfathomable change to Star Wars while simultaneously refusing to release the original print. And everybody rises up against the bad man, and the argument is that that original story belongs to the fans, and George should not be allowed to make more dumb story edits every 10 years to it.
Am I wrong in thinking these two statements are in direct opposition to each other, despite both using the exact same argument?
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Agreed.
Origin ID: jazzmess
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It's completely wrong for fans to imply that the ending given might not be ideal.
That being said, I get what Aegeri is saying. The fact that they did such a good job with ME3 and the ending fumbles like that is really annoying.
That's sort of happening with me. I am partially looking forward to Hale-voice femshep run to contrast with my well-acted Meer paragon. But I'm not even sure where the logic of the ending souring the game comes from, but for some reason I have it.
I will steal the cake analogy from before: you may be eating a slice of the most delicious cake ever made, but once you find out that there's a giant foot-long chunk of fecal matter in the middle of the cake, you're going to reassess what you've been eating.
(although it's really not that terrible, it just doesn't mesh well with the rest of the game and series...like finding a rusty ingot in your cake)
But the multiplayer storyline is downright terrible (in that there isn't one, really), and that's all kinds of fun. So I will bounce around as vanguards and snipe things in their faces/armpits/groins/spines and create biotic explosions until the ending fervor dies out or there's some concerted response to improve it. And when either of those things happen, I feel I can experience the Haleshep. Plus the interim wait will help keep the rest of the excellent part of the game fresh.
Usually. I've worked with some crazy egos.
Well...I think the problem most people have with the ending is that. For all intents and purposes it sounds rushed.
They didn't finish it until near the game's release.
It didn't go through peer review, etc.
Honestly, while there are some people complaining because they didn't get the game they wanted. I feel(at least here) most peoples hearts are in the right place and they just want the game to be the best game it could be.
It still baffles me that the ending didn't get peer review like the rest of the writing in the game. It really shows as well.
Conversely, it's pretty hard to be excited about any sort of story where you already know that you aren't going to get an ending anything like you'd hoped for and looked forward to. On a smaller scale, I'm certainly not going to be too excited about watching a great movie all over again with an ending that's pretty awful and doesn't fit the rest of the movie. Even with the rest of the game being good, a fitting ending is vitally important. Stories aren't piecemeal things where you just ignore the bad bits; they're inclusive things where every element matters.
And since the Mass Effect games are so enormously story-centered, then it makes complete sense to me that the current ending could sour the entire franchise for folks. If somebody puts just one drop of piss in your drink, are you really just going to ignore it because you like the rest of what's in there? Because I think that sort of example could apply to how people are viewing what the ending does to their experience.
Goodness, no. Last thing I need is one of those things sneaking up on me.
Edit: You guys really have a thing for releasing waste in your food products don't you?