Ankhani Wrote:I can understand your Ending Aversion and reluctance to cede to "their" ending; but I refuse to let anyone spoil my enjoyment of the game, even if it is the developers themselves. I've put too much time and money into it to just flush it all down the drain and cry "RUINED FOREVER!!" because some idiot made a crapsack ending scene.(emphasis mine above)
(Edit: Oh - I should mention that what follows makes the assumption that the ending either won't be changed or that it won't be changed enough to satisfy the fans.
Yes - I know that people are assuming that the statements by Bioware's founder in recent days mean that they will be changing the ending to suit the fans wishes.
I hate to break it to anyone who thinks that - but you need to look at what the man actually said. He didn't promise to change the ending. He said they'd clarify the ending. That's a HUGE difference. He's left it open to interpretation as to what they are actually going to do and hasn't committed to anything.)
I actually did not spend money or time on ME3. So unlike most Mass effect fans at this point I'm in the unique position of being able to withhold my financial support. Which I will, despite much temptation. As mentioned above, the Tuchanka sequences alone sound EPIC.
If I had spent money and time, I think I'd be more tempted to try to justify it all. That's a completely normal and understandable reaction. But I'm not. So I won't.
(BTW - Please don't take this as my being smug about not buying the
game. It's only by sheerest luck and timing that I didn't! I was less
than two days from my planned purchase of the game when I started
hearing about the controversy.)
Quote:It may just be my cognitive dissonance speaking, but I really don't think it is possible to ruin an entire franchise of three fantastic games and hundreds of hours of playtime (unless you really try, which they weren't).You may, as someone who has played the games and found your own peace with how you deal with the ending, be able to not let it ruin the franchise for you. Many people will be like that. And good on you for being able to do that. You'll be able to enjoy it.
I may be able to find my own way to deal with it and be able to still play the first 2 games after some time has passed. Perhaps I'll come up with my own head-canon inspired by other fan-fiction. Perhaps I'll even write my own!
But - I disagree that it's not possible to ruin an entire franchise with 10 minutes of botched ending. It depends on just how bad it is. And this ending is an epic failure of already legendary proportions. I'm far from the only person who's having difficulty looking at the rest of the story and thinking that everything we did was utterly futile and that re-playing those sections would now carry an air of melancholy and despair when it should actually be uplifting and fun.
But I think it's much worse than that. I think that it's entirely possible that the IP - the intellectual property - the brand name - of Mass Effect will be crippled by those last ten minutes.
I mean - consider what's already been pointed out in this thread about how utterly ANNIHILATED Earth and the rest of the Galaxy is in the aftermath of the Reaper invasion. Now consider that Bioware wants to sell DLC content for Mass Effect 3.
Really?
As I see it, there's two options for DLC story-based content. Either it's going to be DLC that takes place during the events of the game, or stuff that takes place afterwards. Let's take care of the latter first.
How the hell are you going to sell story based content that takes place after the events of Mass Effect 3? What's there to tell? The world of Mass Effect 3 is now a crapsack universe of almost unbelievable proportions. The important part is - no Mass Relays. So no long range interstellar travel, which was a staple of the original series. I'd even go so far as to think of it as one of the main technical backbones of the setting.
Just as an example - A poster on the LJ mentioned that he couldn't wait for DLC - hoping for stuff related to Aria and Omega, or stuff concentrating on the ME2 characters, since many of them didn't get as much face time in the game as fans would like.
To which I say - is anything dealing with Aria and Omega going to have any point to it? At least in terms of story? I mean, think about it -
Omega is just a huge space station in an isolated cluster. It's own solar system doesn't have any habitable worlds in it. I'm not sure if there are any habitable worlds accessible by regular FTL in the cluster. But I don't remember any. So where do they get all their foodstuffs from? Probably from trade from other clusters that can ONLY come through the Mass Relay. That's all Omega was, a way-station to other parts of the Galaxy. A trade hub for black-market stuff and home base for some mercenary bands.
Speaking of which. It has not just one, but TWO Mass Relays in it. The regular one and the Omega 4 Relay.
So either A) The Mass Relays blow up per Arrival in massive supernova explosions which means Omega and the rest of the system is DOUBLE fried.
-or-
B) Via whatever SPAAACE MAGIC that makes the explosions not supernova grade they simply blow themselves up and leave the rest of the system alone.
ALONE.
Aria and anybody else on Omega is as stranded as everyone else in the Galaxy. So what happens when the supplies run out? And where are all the inhabitants going to go? I foresee Omega being abandoned - after half or more of the population kill each other anyway. Basically - think of New Orleans after Katrina hit. But absolutely no one is ever going to come and help. And there's no way out.
And it's the same story in every system across the Galaxy.
That's pretty damn bleak.
Remind me again... What's my incentive to play any DLC in a Universe that's effectively destroyed?
Bueller? Bueller?
If it comes to DLC that's placed in time during the events of ME3, well - maybe. It could be just as epic as anything else that ME3 depicted. But AGAIN - you run into the problem that we all know where this is going and it's not going to end well at all. No matter what anybody does.
Again... What's my motivation to get excited here?
You could make the point about people having fun in post-apocalyptic
worlds in other franchises like Fallout 3. But that's not the core
audience of Mass Effect, is it?
The only type of DLC that I can see that wouldn't have these problems is stuff for the multi-player. Fine if you're into that. I understand it's really fun, actually. But how much money can Bioware wring out of it in the long run?
My main point here is - for many fans of the series, the re-playability value of all the games has now gone to almost nothing. That's what it currently is for me. And Bioware has effectively destroyed any possibility of future games set in the universe.
So how is this franchise going to generate money now?
Anybody who was -going- to play the games most likely has already bought them by now. I think you're going to see sales of ME3 utterly tank over the financial quarter. Word of mouth is spreading fast.
So yes. I think it's entirely possible to ruin a franchise with a bad ending. I think it's already happening. And Bioware has a limited amount of time to save it. If they want to save it.