Gamer Roulette: The Fan’s Effect On Mass Effect
Comments (9)
Kanto to Hyrule, Mobius to Santa Destroy, Planet Reach to Little Big Planet, Cinema Student, Screenwriter, and all around gamer, Eric Parra is a bad enough dude to bring you your weekly fix on relative gaming. Whether it’s reviews, previews, or FAQs, matters that are professional or just personal, make sure you check Neon Tommy every week for all sorts of interesting tidbits in the world of video games. And remember, it’s dangerous to go alone.
Male Commander Shepard and his partial crew (bioware)
Just how much influence can fans have on an already finished game?
Apparently quite a bit.
When Mass Effect 3 was finally released, many expectations were met. But some were definitely not, especially regarding the ending. Now, I won’t spoil anything (primarily because I’m still playing the first game) but opinions have ranged on the ending from being “okay,” to being “whatever but not really good,” to being “unforgivably horribad.”
I did find it interesting that critics were the ones who appreciated the ending while the only people complaining were fans across the internet. These complaining fans, however, complained very loudly.
So loudly, in fact, that they raised $80,000 for children’s hospitals. Um…yeah.
The plan was recognized as the “Retake Mass Effect” strategy, and what it boiled down to was a bunch of fanboys clamoring for attention so that Bioware (the creators of Mass Effect) would change the ending that they hated so much. The enthusiasts garnered attention by forcefully, and without any consent, leeching off of Penny Arcade’s annual “Child’s Play” fundraiser. It was a very confusing ordeal, many people had no idea what was going on and who was getting what, and whether anything was getting accomplished at all. Many people donated money not understanding that their money was going to children’s hospitals, which may or may not be a good thing? I definitely don’t know. I do know that most donators did it for the sake of changing a game, and not much more, which I don't agree with, but it's still nice that unfortunate children benefit, I guess.
Little to say, many people not for the cause thought it was a rather…ignorant strategy. Donating money for a good cause is great.
Not much image-wise on this subject, so here's a picture of female Commander Shepard.
But allegedly, Bioware has been listening to their fans from the beginning. They responded by announcing that more clarity should be expected soon, whether this be a new ending or an expansion, something is coming later in April, and fans are expected to be excited.
All in all, it’s a rather confusing and rage-filled matter. Personally, I feel that when something is over, it’s over. It’s ridiculous to expect the ending for a story to be completely changed after the fact simply because a group didn’t like it, but it’s even more ridiculous to go to such lengths to have it “fixed.” My opinion on the matter is a bit lenient, however, considering that I’m not sure just how bad the ending is, but from what I’ve gathered, disappointed fans are just exaggerating the matter.
Creators and writers also gave their view on changing the ending, to slightly mixed results as well, but all in all, a writer simply doesn’t want to change their story for anyone after it’s finished. It’s hard enough to get them to change their story before it’s published.
Bioware is in a pinch. With so much negative attention, it’s obvious they have to make a move. By changing the editing, it’ll only allow encourage more unwarranted protests to change every little un-agreeable detail.
If you don’t think something is good, then it’s bad and settle for that. Mass Effect 3 is generally considered to not be a bad game though, so it should just be a great game with a not so great ending. If Bioware doesn’t change the ending, but indeed adds on to it, I feel like that’s a much better approach to save integrity and give the fans what they want. It’ll probably be DLC, however, and that’s a completely separate topic.
Check in next time for a look at USC's Gamer Network: Game On 3, which is definitely worth checking out.
Reach columnist Eric Parra here or follow him on Twitter.
Check back next Saturday for Eric's next column.
Comments
Well, Eric Parra, I'd have to say that you missed a few things. I think most critics acknowledged the shittiness of the ending but didn't let it affect their review of the game as a whole. This explains the really good reviews that the game has gotten and the ridiculous amount criticism the fans have given the ending. Having played through all three games, I personally don't think that the last 5 minutes can ruin the last 60 hours as much as it did for most people. What Doug said is somewhat wrong. The main reasons that fans have a problem with the Mass Effect ending is that it is an oversimplified deus ex "uhh, you just won" type of ending. It doesn't REALLY show you the repercussions of all your other actions (or at least it didn't for me). In contrast, the Mass Effect 2 ending included the possibility of each of your squadmates dying and even yourself. The consequences of your choices from ME1 show up in both sequels, so even though you only have two final choices in ME1 and ME2, you saw the consequences of your previous actions. So when you say that ME3 gave you three choices, it is true, but the consequences of your actions doesn't really change much. (SPOILERS) The relays always get destroyed and the Normandy always lands on Tropical Planet X. The simplified ending catches you completely off guard as a player, mostly because Bioware hasn't had such a horrible story element in any of their previous games. Considering that the script was leaked late in the game's development and that Bioware stated that they were going to use feedback from the leaked script to change the ending, it's possible that Bioware had already planned a different ending DLC. So in that sense, Doug might be right. All in all, the article is interesting but doesn't really say anything new. I agree that the fans' sense of entitlement coupled with group think is definitely not a good thing for Bioware or EA or the future of games/entertainment in general.
Don't forget about the paid reviews.
Thank you for that clarity, Dr. Walker. There's a lot of sides to this story, and you're right, I've pretty much gone off of what other sources have already claimed. My opinion still stands that an ending should stay the same once it's over, but there are plenty of things to consider, since there was a leaked script and whatnot. I appreciate your own thoroughness on the matter, and I'll have to look further into matters next time.
The Bio-Drones sure were quick to try and hush this, which is surprising, considering the article just covered the reactions of the most vocal part of the BioWare fan-base. It is obvious that BioWare does not listen to their fans, well excluding anything praising them, which was extremely apparent with SWTOR when BioWare would close threads and ban users from their forums for pointing out flaws in the game.
All I read was:
"I have no clue whats going on, but I'll comment on it anyway."
Mind letting me know what's going on? It'd be helpful if I understood.
Mental note: Don't bother to ever read this guys column again, doesn't know what he's talking about.
Bioware is listening to their fans, but that's not why they're creating new content. Fans are blind and ignorant enough to make themselves believe that it was their actions that changed everything. Nothing changed. Bioware planned on this DLC all along...or at least EA games has. The ending felt as if it were missing something because it was! Don't blame Bioware though, ladies and gents. Blame EA. As for the complaints geared towards an ending with a limited number of outcomes...gamers are still blind. Mass effect does give you choice, and lots of it, but it has always followed a predetermined plot. Mass effect 3 is no different from 1 and/or 2 in this sense. In fact, it gives you more choice at the end! In ME1, you have a choice to save the council or not. In ME2, you chose to destroy the collector base or not. In ME3, well...I won't spoil it but there are 3 choices! Regardless of what you argue, there are more than 2 or 3 outcomes per game! Bioware was never talking about the actual, visual ending when they said there would be 16 different ones. They were talking about the subplots that led up to that ending. The geth and/or the quarians...The Krogan genophage...this list goes on. When they were talking about the outcome they didn't mean the last cutscene...they meant the series as a whole. Now, it's up to you to argue if that's false advertising or not. However, it's no different than the previous two installments. It pissed me off to see the relays explode. However it pissed me off even more to see the fans, the ones who I thought were different from the rest of the community, to be resentful towards such a great developer.
The problem was there weren't 3 ending there was 1 ending redone with different colors. Another thing is the subplots don't matter when every system with a mass relay is gone, Mass Effect 2 established that when they explode they destroy that system, they all exploded.