A Rational Request | The Mass Effect 3 Ending

Mass Effect 3 Special Forces Trailer

<p>For my first editorial here I thought you&&num;8217&semi;d all like a little view into how I write&comma; what I&&num;8217&semi;m into&comma; and what I focus on in the gaming sphere&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I thought what better way to introduce myself than to give you all a letter I wrote to <a class&equals;"zem&lowbar;slink" title&equals;"BioWare" href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;en&period;wikipedia&period;org&sol;wiki&sol;BioWare" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"wikipedia noopener noreferrer">Bioware<&sol;a> and Electronic Arts earlier this week&comma; highlighting what I think the problem with the <em><a class&equals;"zem&lowbar;slink" title&equals;"Mass Effect" href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;en&period;wikipedia&period;org&sol;wiki&sol;Mass&lowbar;Effect" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"wikipedia noopener noreferrer">Mass Effect<&sol;a><&sol;em> media&sol;blogging storm may be&comma; and where to go from it&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ve noticed that the internet has painted fans pretty vividly as split into two distinct groups&semi; there are those who think the fans should quit their complaining and that Bioware is ruining the industry by giving in to fan requests&comma; and then there are those who claim Bioware is the spawn of satan and must rewrite the entire third game to cater to each person&&num;8217&semi;s individual desire of what the ending should be&period; I think that in reality there are a lot more people in the middle&comma; wanting something more from Mass Effect 3&&num;8217&semi;s ending and not knowing quite how to ask for it&period; And so it begins&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&lbrack;divider&rsqb;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">Dear Bioware and Electronic Arts&comma;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">Cards on the table&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">I bought <&sol;span><em style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">Mass Effect<&sol;em><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">&comma; <&sol;span><em style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">Mass Effect 2<&sol;em><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">&comma; and <&sol;span><em style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">Mass Effect 3<&sol;em><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">&comma; brand new&comma; usually at midnight releases&period; I threw down Microsoft points like I was making it rain getting all of that DLC…a super nerdy rain of alternate outfits and hand cannons…&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">And let’s just say I’m not the most financially endowed person&comma; so these things were big purchases-nay&comma; <em>investments-<&sol;em><em> <&sol;em>and for the most part those investments paid off&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">For the most part&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">But&comma; as I’m sure you’ve noticed Bioware&comma; some people aren’t too pleased with the way you decided to end things in <&sol;span><em style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">Mass Effect 3&period;<&sol;em><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;"> I am among those people&semi; but I’m willing to admit that the ending does make some artistic sense&comma; in an &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;we-want-to-be-unpredictable”-way…&period;it’s just unfortunate that in your effort to throw out all of the potentially predicable storylines you also threw out all your promises&comma; story cohesion&comma; character continuity and even the essence of the trilogy&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h6 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><&sol;h6>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;rational-request-mass-effect-3&sol;me3london&sol;" rel&equals;"attachment wp-att-9583"><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;"><img class&equals;"size-medium wp-image-9583 aligncenter" alt&equals;"" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;03&sol;06224559&sol;ME3london-300x168&period;jpg" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"168" &sol;><&sol;span><&sol;a><&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">Now&comma; being a big believer in communication I am absolutely for all of the back and forth about this ending and what to make of it&comma; but I’ve noticed no one really seems to be willing to take the direct approach and state exactly what it is that was missing and what fans want- so I thought I’d give it a guess at what would appease most of your fan base&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">First off&comma; just come out and tell us what the end meant&period; At this point people will be less upset to learn that the ending was simply poor or that you&&num;8217&semi;re currently rewriting something &lpar;or even that you’re planning to sell us all some secret DLC that completes the game&rpar; compared to how infuriating it would be for you to lead us along for months with our theories and scene-by-scene dissections only to slowly let this fizzle out&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">Explain your situation to us&comma; what you were going for&semi; we’re more intelligent than you think &lpar;we’re the most highly educated and specialty employed group of consumers out there&rpar; and for the most part I think we’re all just looking for a straight answer as to what the ending meant&period; I won’t ask specific questions in the hopes of not ruining the ending for others&comma; but the question we’re asking is relatively vague anyhow&semi; what does the ending mean&quest; <&sol;span><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">If it means nothing than just confess and maybe we can all move on&comma; or you could even go from there and create some DLC to make it up to those fans who felt cheated &lpar;as a token of good faith- remember those&quest;&rpar;&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">As investors in your company we at least deserve some shred of the truth&comma; and while I realize that these days consumers tend to be viewed more as sheep than investors&comma; accept the fact that the gaming community is the most highly informed&comma; heavily opinionated&comma; and most intelligent customers base out there- and that they’re armed with amazing memories&comma; great internet access&comma; and loyalties that&comma; once broken&comma; can be difficult to repair&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">Second&comma; if what you gave us at the end of <&sol;span><em style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">Mass Effect 3<&sol;em><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;"> was in fact the real ending &lpar;again&comma; artistic choice&comma; I respect that&rpar; and you have no idea where to go from here&comma; why don’t you start with a simple&comma; free download of epilogues&quest; I know you know how to do this- dig up that guy who threw the epilogues together for <&sol;span><em style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;"><a class&equals;"zem&lowbar;slink" title&equals;"Dragon Age&colon; Origins" href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;en&period;wikipedia&period;org&sol;wiki&sol;Dragon&lowbar;Age&percnt;3A&lowbar;Origins" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"wikipedia noopener noreferrer">Dragon Age&colon; Origins<&sol;a><&sol;em><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;"> and get him to do it &lpar;and give him some kind of amazing bonus while you’re at it&period;&rpar;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h6><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;rational-request-mass-effect-3&sol;me3takeearthback&sol;" rel&equals;"attachment wp-att-9260"><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-9260" alt&equals;"Shepard" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;03&sol;06225710&sol;ME3takeearthback-300x160&period;jpg" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"160" &sol;><&sol;span><&sol;a><&sol;span><&sol;h6>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">&lpar;SPOILERS AHEAD&rpar;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">The truth is&comma; most of us were expecting to sacrifice Shepard to save Earth &lpar;or the galaxy or your romantic partner&comma; what have you&rpar;&comma; it’s a good ending&semi; and if I’ve learned anything from the internet the last couple weeks it’s that a lot of people don’t really have a problem with the concept of self sacrifice&comma; just with loose ends and empty&comma; unfulfilled promises&period; Give us a recap of what our actions meant&semi; explain what happened with the Krogans&comma; the Quarians&comma; about the effects or our massive decisions &lpar;see what I did there&quest; I’m pretty sure that was the gist of the series to begin with that was some how forgotten&period;&rpar;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">I realize there have been whispers of Bioware representatives claiming there is DLC to come and that this isn’t the last we’ll see of Shepard&comma; but again no one from Bioware is coming out directly and stating whether or not the ending was real&comma; what it meant&comma; and if we can expect more&period; Hinting and fudging around the issue won’t bring you popularity points&comma; only more angry controversy and cranky fans in the one industry where there is such a thing as bad publicity &lpar;just ask all of the mid-size production companies&comma; like THQ&comma; that thought bad reviews for mediocre games would have no effect on their sales&rpar;&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">So that’s it&period; I’m still a big fan of Bioware&comma; I was after being mildly disappointed by <&sol;span><em style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">Dragon Age 2<&sol;em><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;"> and I was after I had to buy DLC for <&sol;span><em style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">Mass Effect 3<&sol;em><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">’s on the release day- but so many instances of disregard for customers can’t result in anything positive&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">So regard us&comma; tell us what’s going on&comma; what was with the ending&comma; and maybe take a few baby steps towards reparation&period; Treat your customers as you would a disgruntled&comma; devoted fan&semi; don’t blow us off or lead us on&comma; explain yourself&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">I really think that’s all anyone wants&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">I still love you &lpar;hope that&&num;8217&semi;s not awkward&rpar;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">Sincerely&comma;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"color&colon; &num;808080&semi;">Lindsay Belle Chambers<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&lbrack;divider&rsqb;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>So there it is- am I wrong&quest; Or would some of us be able to move past the ending if Bioware just gave us an epilogue and some respect&quest; Let me know in the comment section below&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"zemanta-pixie" style&equals;"margin-top&colon; 10px&semi; height&colon; 15px&semi;"><img class&equals;"zemanta-pixie-img" style&equals;"border&colon; none&semi; float&colon; right&semi;" alt&equals;"" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;img&period;zemanta&period;com&sol;pixy&period;gif&quest;x-id&equals;2eb61008-96d2-4334-978e-5be6c77c7e47" &sol;><&sol;div>&NewLine;

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