In Mass Effect 3, the rest isn’t silence

Posted by on April 5, 2012 in Games

Electronic Arts, declared the worst company in the world by people who vote in online polls, has announced that the current ending of Mass Effect 3 is not the ending of Mass Effect 3.

Through additional cinematic sequences and epilogue scenes, the Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut will give fans seeking further clarity to the ending of Mass Effect 3 deeper insights into how their personal journey concludes. Coming this summer, the Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut will be available for download on the Xbox 360 videogame and entertainment system, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and PC for no extra charge.

Note that Electronic Arts insists they aren’t technically changing anything by pandering to fans seeking further clarity. Instead, it looks as if they’re just talking more slowly and using shorter words.

  • Pogue Mahone

    “… by people who vote in online polls.”

    That does kind of cut to the heart of that issue, doesn’t it? Anyway, I am intrigued how this new content changes things and whether there will ever be peace in the ongoing war between the creators of video games and their customers.

  • Jared Garst

    Well put.

    That’s all.

  • Joe

    Huh, too bad. I didn’t have a problem with the ending beyond the somewhat clumsy Anderson stuff. I understand why they wanted to do it but I don’t think they would have lost anything if he were removed entirely from the sequence. Everything else just seemed like the fanciful musings of a dying mind, while my Shepard lay facedown in the dirt on Earth.

  • Ben

    Hey, sometimes you gotta pander. Also, are you sure EA isn’t the worst company in the world?

  • Fraser Wilson

    Finally!  I demand, that’s right, DEMAND that the ending be like this 
    http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/03/16

    It’s all a bit surreal.  You cure the genophage, bring peace between the Geth and the Quarians, and get that guy a refund.  The whole game was an ending.

  • Siren

    One of my closest friends is a member of the group that is spearheading this movement.  I couldn’t be prouder.

  • max_hats

    Ah yes, the artistic integrity of Bad Storytelling will be preserved.  Thank god. 

    By getting on the “fuck the fans train,” which to be fair is a pretty easy argument to make, as video games fans are a pretty odious group generally – I think you, and the reviewing establishment are dodging the bigger issue here.  How did you, and other reviewers, have no problem with the games story, while the fans of the game seem to hate it?  This disconnect is important, as the value of reviewers to an audience hinges on the reviewers conveying to that audience useful product and artistic (or in this case, “artistic”) information.  Video games are expensive, and consumers should have people give useful information on what fans should choose to buy, or else they aren’t very useful.  To throw some of your own words back at you:

    http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2012/03/06/the-official-mass-effect-2-haters-guide-to-mass-effect-3/

    “It goes without saying that the story will obviously please fans of the
    previous games. If there’s one thing Bioware knows, it’s fan service.”

    How did that work out?  Why did you, a person who I read for your insight into storytelling, not see that changing the antagonist and major theme in the last 10 minutes would be problematic?  Or that “fan service” might include knowing what actually happens to the universe and characters after the game ends?

     I don’t trust most reviewers, but I did trust you.  This experience has taught me that there really aren’t any prominent reviewers I as a consumer can actually trust as reliably willing to note and speak to game faults.  At the end of the day, video game reviewers are video game fans.  Big ones.  And this, naturally, means that they may like a lot more things than the average consumer or fan would.  But even beyond this interest based skewing of perception, it remains an open question why video game reviewers seem to unrepresentative of fans and consumers on this title.

  • Alan

    This is a fairly obvious statement, but you have to understand that you may not, in fact, be part of the majority with your opinion. You don’t speak for ‘the audience’, or for ‘fans of the game’ as a whole. I’m not claiming the opposite, either; my point is that neither of us knows the opinion of the majority, and so such claims can’t be made.

  • tomchick

    Wait, are you telling me that the story *didn’t* please fans of the game?  You’re telling me the resolution of the quran/geth issue, the krogan genophage, and unveiling of Cerberus’ scheme wasn’t a great and effective bit of fan service on Bioware’s part?  You’re telling me players didn’t appreciate the thresher maw vs. reaper fight, the excellent space battle porn, and all the action on the Citadel?  You’re telling me the various character sacrifices, a few of them downright operatic, didn’t move players who’d invested in those characters for three games?

    Or are you simply extrapolating a very loud backlash against the ending as a judgment on the story as a whole?

    Either way, if you expect me to somehow be a bellwether for what gamers think, that’s your own bag.  I make no claim to that role, and furthermore I have no interest in filling it.

  • tomchick

    Also, you’re taking what I wrote out of its context, which was that I was surprised that the story was effective even if you aren’t a fan of the series.  Here’s the full comment from the article you linked:

    “It goes without saying that the story will obviously please fans of the previous games. If there’s one thing Bioware knows, it’s fan service. But what surprised me about Mass Effect 3 is that the story also works for people who might not care about the previous games. The stakes are immediately obvious when — spoiler? — Earth gets invaded during the tutorial. And as the story unfolds, the stakes stay high. You’re almost never resolving anyone’s daddy issues. Mass Effect 3 is bona fide space opera to Mass Effect 2′s space soap opera.”

  • max_hats

    “Wait, are you telling me that the story *didn’t* please fans of the game?”

    If “fans” are okay with the story, what context is the headline post written in?  If everything is peachy, then this does not make any sense:

    “Note that Electronic Arts insists they aren’t technically changing
    anything by pandering to fans seeking further clarity.”

    Obviously, something is amiss, because in your own words, fans want some “pandering.”

    The ending was dumb.  Neither you nor any other reviewer of note either noticed, or felt like mentioning that you noticed.  That is problematic.  I believe the full throated anger at the admittedly ridiculous fans who want a new ending* is distracting from a real and pertinent issue: why did the reviewers get it so wrong?

    *while asking for a new ending is as silly as it is impractical, there is nothing at all wrong with people being disappointed in a product they paid $60 dollars for.  That is a lot of money.  Money you, and other reviewers, said would be well spent.  Clearly, many find that to be incorrect. 

  • max_hats

    That is all true.  I think the real measure of fan enthusiasm for the game will be measurable in DLC buys. 

    But regardless of who the majority is, it does seem clear that a number of fans do indeed have a big problem with the game. I’d be surprised if that number was just a blip, but who knows. You are completely right that we just don’t have the data.

  • max_hats

    Sure.  But. . .it did not go “without saying” that fans would be pleased.

  • tomchick

    I’ve been critical of Bioware’s writing for a long time now, so you’re calling out the wrong guy.

    But what I find really silly is how many people like you seem surprised that the ending is “dumb”.  If you weren’t prepared for this by the clunky writing you’ve been getting all along, you Enders have only yourselves to blame. 

    And for the record, I liked the ending.

  • tomchick

    Perhaps a community college near you offers an Idioms 101 class?

  • Sarkus

    Isn’t there a difference between “the story” and “the ending” max_hats?  We can like one and not the other. What you quoted from Tom is about the story,  not the ending.  Now granted it is odd that very few (if any) reviewers picked up on the dissatisfaction that the ending has generated, but that is a different issue, IMHO.