The following wall of text doesn’t contain any spoilers.
Bioware Forums have been “boiling” for a week now, they are not satisfied with their ending. Notice how I said “their” and not “the”? That’s because they, the fans wrote the story with the pen Bioware gave them but ultimately the pen “ran out of ink”. You may think that Bioware’s pen came without any guarantees. Prior to the game being released, Bioware representatives made a promise that led most of us (including me) to believe we will get what we came to expect from a Mass Effect game: Decision -> Consequence(s).
Experience the beginning, middle, and end of an emotional story unlike any other, where the decisions you make completely shape your experience and outcome.
Nobody is saying that the game is a waste of time, Mass Effect 3 may be one of the best games I’ve ever played and I experienced, I experienced an incredible beginning and middle but, in my books, the end is not written yet.
I’d recommend Mass Effect 3 to everyone in a heart beat but with just one note: when you’re about to enter a beam simply press ALT-F4 and imagine everything that might happen until further notice. If someone would have told me that one week ago I would have punched him in the face but look at me now…
Before I get any further I want to say that I already finished the game 4 times and each time I did things differently, only to arrive at the same point in the story where everything I did was lost in a terrible fashion. There is no Good ending, there is no Bad ending, there is no ending. The last 10 or 15 minutes of Mass Effect 3 can not be counted in as “part of the game”. That last part simply exists and it’s beyond my comprehension.
Imagine this: “God comes to you and says: Hey, everything you do from now on WILL be accounted for, you will have hard decisions to make, be very very careful as every move you make will count. I will judge your every move and will punish/reward you when the time comes.” You live with those words in your heart and head: “everything you do WILL be accounted for…and will punish/reward you”. The appointed time comes and you can’t wait to see what your reward is or you are afraid of the punishments. God comes to you and says:”Oh, it’s you, I don’t really care what you or anyone did, here’s a popsicle…what’s your favorite flavor?”.
In the Mass Effect Universe, Bioware is the GOD but you still have the power to write your own history and future, the problem is that everyone will (eventually) get the same popsicle no matter their prior actions.
The God analogy might not be suited, ultimately we are talking about a game but that’s the only way I could explain how most of the fans feel about this.
That is exactly what the community feels in regard with Mass Effect 3 ending. They aren’t trolls or spoiled kids, they just need closure. I’ve been reading Bioware’s Forums ever since I first finished my first playthrough and I was amazed of what I found. Yeah, sure, everyone asks for new endings, maybe some explanations, nobody demands anything. In fact, they payed for something that ultimately wasn’t what they expected but this isn’t about money as some of them are willing to pay to get a decent ending. This is about getting closure. They are civil and deserve to be at least answered. They even came up with a theory that pretty much saves Bioware’s ass. You can read it here: Mass Effect 3 Indoctrination Theory
The same theory says that Bioware is “testing” their fans in order to see if they are “worthy” of winning the ultimate confrontation. It’s plausible that creators of the Mass Effect Universe want to know how deep we’ve sunken within this Universe and if we can realize that the ending is no more than a test. To better understand this: read about Indoctrination. As crazy as it may seem, the in-game clues are stacking up by the dozen in favor of the “Indoctrination/Hallucination Theory”.
Even if the last theory is correct, that doesn’t give Bioware the right to, as puerile as it may sound, mess with anyone’s feelings and emotions.
And if you liked/loved/enjoyed your ending: I envy you !
This bond that ties us together is more powerful than any weapon, stronger than any ship, it can’t be taken or destroyed.
Fans all over the world have already started a Twitter and Facebook campaign. “Demand” isn’t a word I would have used but there’s already 30.000 people behind it so…
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