Today’s WTF: The Petition to Change Mass Effect 3’s Ending

mass effect 3 endingWell, here it is people. The point where I begin my slow descent into quitting video games. I’ve moaned about the entitled attitudes of gamers before, but this absolutely takes the cake. Mass Effect 3 hasn’t even been out a damned week and there’s already a petition to get BioWare to change the ending of the game.

I haven’t beat the game yet (I’m holding out until my Galactic Readiness is 100% in every sector) but I have heard some grumblings about the less than satisfactory way the Mass Effect trilogy wraps up. Sure, not every trilogy has a perfect ending, but demanding that the developers change their vision is a new one.

So far I’m really enjoying Mass Effect 3, even if I have problems with it. The game doesn’t exactly put its best foot forward but the further you get into the game the better it gets and some of the missions are really fun. True, some of the side missions are pretty boring “horde” scenarios but it’s not that big a deal.

I’m trying really hard to avoid spoilers which is why I’m linking to the Kotaku post instead of the actual poll on BioWare’s social site. I looked at the poll and almost spoiled myself, so I’m mad at these Gandalfs for more than one reason. I mean, how would BioWare change the ending? It wouldn’t be in a free patch, that’s for sure. What do you guys think about this? Do you have a (spoiler-free) opinion on the ending?

Source – Kotaku

Written by

mitch@gamersushi.com Twitter: @mi7ch Gamertag: Lubeius PSN ID: Lubeius SteamID: Mister_L Origin/EA:Lube182 Currently Playing: PUBG, Rainbow 6: Siege, Assassin's Creed: Origins, Total War: Warhammer 2

23 thoughts on “Today’s WTF: The Petition to Change Mass Effect 3’s Ending”

  1. I usually would never take part in stuff like this, but I am behind this 100%. Mass Effect 3 made me experience every emotion: I laughed, I cried, I felt completely helpless, and I felt victorious. Without spoilers, Mass Effect 3 was probably the best game ever made (for me). That is, until the last 10 minutes of the game (no joke). My Mass Effect journey began when I read Mass Effect: Revelations a couple months before the original ME came out in 2007, and I have been a die hard fan of it ever since. The characters and the universe, due to player choice, feel like they partially belong to me. Nearly five years since I began the ME journey and I’m having the time of my life with ME3, only to take a kick to the balls in the game’s final moments. The characters and universe I have grown to love get no closure and I’m left, holding the controller and watching as the credits go by, in awe. So yes, I am joining the petition. I love Mass Effect too much not to.

  2. I have not plyed the game yet, is the ending really that bad? I though the game had 16 endings do all the ending suck? Should I even bother getting the game now? Would Doc Browns Deloriean fix the ending? Are fans so upset about the ending that they will pay for a new ending? If Bioware puts out and alternative ending DLC that the fans want will people still say that it should have been in the game before it shipped or given to the fans for free?

  3. I can’t comment on this specifically but I can tell you this is nothing new at all. There were petitions to have fan fiction writers write the final Harry Potter book. There are still people who flat out deny the existence of sequels and prequels to movies such as Star Wars and The Matrix and start(ed) petitions to prevent further ones from being made.

    There will always be crazy fans and by crazy I don’t mean passionate I mean send the creator a letter written in blood crazy. Just ignore them, if you really like the game/movie/book/whatever then their complaints shouldn’t bother you.

    Also, asking not to be spoiled on the internet is suicide.

    1. I can’t help but wonder if all these people just totally rushed through the game so fast that they couldn’t slow down and enjoy the ending at all. I mean, I haven’t finished it, but to have put in that amount of time that quickly, they might not have the advantage of some perspective.

  4. The theme behind the ending as a whole is fine, it fits with the game’s theme of actions having both good and bad consequences. I personally don’t like it, but I see why it was implemented.

  5. [quote comment=”18832″]I can’t help but wonder if all these people just totally rushed through the game so fast that they couldn’t slow down and enjoy the ending at all. I mean, I haven’t finished it, but to have put in that amount of time that quickly, they might not have the advantage of some perspective.[/quote]
    Eddy I put 34 hours into my playthrough and beat it on Friday. It still hurts. I have a really good explanation as to why I think the ending is bad but it would require spoilers which I won’t do. For those who haven’t bought the game yet, I would still highly recommend doing so, it’s amazing. And for other games this ending might have been fine. But for Mass Effect, no. Just no.

    1. Yeah I don’t doubt the ending has some issues if this many people are upset, Drell. I’m curious to see it. As a whole, I have a few issues with the game at the moment, even though I’m not very far. For one, I feel like none of my choices are directing the game very much… it’s like you’re seeing behind the curtain and the illusion just isn’t holding any more. And yeah, the combat scenarios are fairly repetitive.

  6. Change an ending? Yeah, that seems pretty silly. I guess it’s all an elaborate conspiracy to make fans pay $10 for an alternate ending. (I’m kidding guys, I’m not so bitter about Mass Effect 3 anymore. I just want to apologize for my comments sounding so flamey in that other ME3 article. You guys deserve better than that.)

    The ire from fans about Mass Effect 3 is really strange. I have three friends who are playing Mass Effect 3, two who beat it already. The two who beat it said they were unimpressed. Avoiding plot spoilers (since he didn’t go into much detail himself), one friend said that the ending didn’t represent Mass Effect’s themes as a story and series.

  7. [quote comment=”18835″]Yeah I don’t doubt the ending has some issues if this many people are upset, Drell. I’m curious to see it. As a whole, I have a few issues with the game at the moment, even though I’m not very far. For one, I feel like none of my choices are directing the game very much… it’s like you’re seeing behind the curtain and the illusion just isn’t holding any more. And yeah, the combat scenarios are fairly repetitive.[/quote]
    Just checked your achievements to see where you are Eddy and you’re just about at the part where decisions start to really matter. I personally didn’t have a problem with combat, but to each his own. Like I said the game is phenomenal 99% of the time.

  8. I can’t imagine a worst kind of hell. Imagine spending the last five years of your life carving your way through a great space adventure only to find that there is an underlying hopelessness in the final chapters. Not just a sense of hopelessness, but an actual realization that this is where it all ends (for better or worse).

    All that aside, I hope BioWare sticks to their current ending, whatever it may be. There’s no respect to be gained by giving in to peer pressure. If they’re going to make a crappy ending, then they’d better stand by it.

  9. I recently read a book about “fast” and “slow” thinking. One of the experiments they did was on people who listened to a concert on CD (or mp3), something they enjoyed immensely. The last few minutes of the over-an-hour-long experience, however, were scratched and not very listenable. The overwhelming feeling was that, even though they had enjoyed a huge majority of their experience, their whole experience was ruined because of the last few minutes. Almost like their previous enjoyment could be taken back.

    I think it’s funny to think that a video game’s (much longer than an hour or two) ending could “ruin” the experience for someone. I haven’t played it yet (still waiting for the patch so I can upload Shana Shepard properly – I refuse to play with some other character), but I don’t really think BioWare has any responsibilty to change an ending because some fans didn’t like it. I’m with Mitch on this one. Accept that it’s the original author’s work and let’s not go all Misery on BioWare. 20-30 (or up to 100 if you’re counting the whole trilogy) hours of enjoyment can’t be ruined by 10 minutes.

    BioWare can have a vision and put a product out there and fan’s can either like it or not, but they shouldn’t be expected to change their product unless it’s some kind of glitch.

  10. I have not played any Mass Effect game, but I hold some respect for the franchise.
    Now, I just read the ending on wikipedia.

    They really dropped the ball.

    I hope they don’t change it. At least they could looked back and say “Nope, no that way anymore”.

  11. I do agree that the petition is a little silly, HOWEVER, they could not possibly have killed the series harder for me than they did in those final ten minutes. It is absolutely the worst ending to a video game I have ever seen. The thing came hurtling out of left field so hard that the only reasonable explanation is that Shep was tripping balls… SPACE MAGIC!? WHAT!?

  12. This is a very touchy issue, but one thing comes to my mind more than anything: People don’t like unhappy endings. We talk about gaming becoming a major respectable industry and art form, just like Movies, here on GamerSushi. One thing about that is that I find a majority of people get cranky and upset at movies or books with “harsh” endings that are not really a happy ending. This is what I think is happening again. Personally, as being someone who has never played a single minuet of any ME game, I believe that a bunch of very enthralled and loyal fans didn’t get the happy closure they wanted and now its ruffled their feathers. I personally believe that they can be upset, but it shouldn’t be changed. Sometimes a story may end with a sour note.
    So lets take that back to videogames. L.A. Noire. Loved it, till maybe 75% through it got what Im sure Rockstar was calling “Gritty and real”. The ending fell out for me. Last mission/wrap-up. Done. Horrible ending. It kind of put that grey shadow on the game. I wish it had been different, I wish there had been some silver lining. I wish Rockstar hadn’t tried to be all “Oh look at us with this ending” but…too bad. Still a great game. Im sure others didn’t care about the ending as much. But even with me not liking it, they shouldn’t change it. Even I fell to the feelings of a not so stellar ending to a good game. So I feel where the ME crowd is coming from. I cant imagine 3 games of greatness to have a bad ending. Imagine if Halo 3 ended like poop? But sometimes this kind of thing will happen, and you need to except it.
    I don’t want them to change it. If I was the head of ME, I would issue a public statement telling people that we will not change it and stand by our choice. They really need to here. If this industry wants to be a serious player in creating games/stories they need to be able to stick by their guns.

    Out of all of this, Id love to hear the studio’s side as to why they chose this ending.

  13. Seems like another subject where gamers think they are entitled to more than they are to me. I think Bioware should take note that people are upset,they can compare the petition to the internal stats of completion if they really want to.

    Without seeing the ending i kind of feel sorry for Bioware, it was always going to be very hard to wrap up the story in a satisfactory way.

  14. I hate to keep replying to this because I don’t want to come across as going against my fellow Gamersushians (best word I could think of) but to kinda answer Sean it’s not the fact that we want a happy ending (well, some do) but really most of us just want closure. Some of my favorite games, books, and movies don’t end well (Red Dead Redemption, Watchmen, Game of Thrones just to name a few), but I love their endings just the same. There is a difference between closure and a satisfying ending where you’re like “yep, that feels right” and just a happy ending. Take Red Dead for example. (Spoilers) The whole theme of Red Dead was the fact that the Old West was being eliminated to pave way for the 20th century. It wouldn’t have felt right if John Marston would have been able to go free while every one of his former gang members were hunted down. Was I sad it happened? Yes. Was I satisfied with the ending? Very much so. Mass Effect’s theme has always been the plight of Shepard and the characters and the bonds you form with them and their civilizations, a theme that I feel was kept until the game’s final moments. Sorry guys /end rant

  15. I beat it last night, and while I see why people would be upset, I don’t think the endings should be changed. Clarified, maybe.

  16. The whole issue reminds me a lot of an episode of The Critic. The main character’s boss Duke, who is something of an antagonist in most of the show, designs a computer called Phillipsvision that would rewrite controversial endings of movies the way that people would have hoped it would end. At a demonstration Duke uses the Phillipsvision to change the ending of Casablanca, with Ilsa parachuting out of the plane to reunite with Rick. While he’s at it he also implants advertisement for TV shows. During the demonstration he says:

    “For years us broadcasters have butchered old movies; we’ve colorized them, we dubbed in lines like ‘Frankly, Scarlett, I don’t give a ham!’ and ‘Rommel, you magnificent bus stop.” But we’ve never been able to make movies better. Now we can,through the magic of Phillipsvision! Here’s how it works: some pretentious, weirdo director mucks up a great movie with a downer ending. I use a bunch of computers to put it back the way GOD INTENDED IT.”

    He also shows how he changed the ending of Sparticus so that Sparticus, Varinia, and Antoninus escape from the Romans in a scene reminiscent of The Dukes of Hazard. The main character, Jay, stands up to protest:

    “You simply cannot do this!”

    Duke: “I can do anything I want! If I want Citizen Kane’s last word to be ‘Shwing,’ then that’s what it’s going to be! I’m a God, I tell you! A God!”

    Of course, I don’t necessarily think of the fans of Mass Effect as power-hungry brats who want to piss all over creativity. It’s pretty clear that they’re just hurt that the ending didn’t deliver all that it should have. But really if the developers were to cave in to the requests and change the ending that sums up the ending that they had decided on for their series, then wouldn’t they be a bit like Duke? Games like Mass Effect aren’t just entertainment, they’re art, and I’m saying that as somebody who’s not even a fan of the series.

    Fans can and should be critical of the ending of a game but taking action to see an artist rework their ending is entirely the wrong attitude. If I were Mac Walters I would feel pretty intensely insulted and betrayed right now, definitely more than any fans could possibly feel because of a disappointing ending to what the same people seem to think is a great game otherwise. To see your fans think of your work as something that should simply be changed just because people don’t like it is pretty much saying “Your artistic work is not your’s as you might feel but instead something that will be changed at the whims of the masses. My friends all agree with me, CHANGE YOUR ART.” Pretty soul-crushing.

    1. John +100

      No matter how disappointing an ending might be, trying to demand that they change it is nutty. I feel like these people must not have played Final Fantasy XIII-2, because that game ended TERRIBLY.

  17. [quote comment=”18860″]John +100

    No matter how disappointing an ending might be, trying to demand that they change it is nutty. I feel like these people must not have played Final Fantasy XIII-2, because that game ended TERRIBLY.[/quote]

    All time worst video game ending, according to me anyway, is Lost Odyssey. Over-the-top and melodramatic, yet still oblivious to dealing with any important issue brought up in the game.

  18. Update: My friends and I just had a party for the final mission of ME3. The final scene before the credits rolled actually got some of us to raise a fist in exultation (aka let out a whoop!). Yes, Exultation! I know, it’s not that often you can use that word to describe a modern-day, real-world scenario, but DAMN!!! The ending was that good!

    So I really don’t understand why so many gamers are demanding a rewrite of the ending. Did they just get a less awesome ending for playing it poorly? Did they make a wrong decision somewhere?

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