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Mass Effect 3 Spoiler Thread |OT2| Taste the Rainbow

It gives you an Intel bonus, which you can use for either a 10% bonus to weapons or power.
You just get an extra "data packet" that you can cash in at the terminal in Liara's quarters and get a slight upgrade to something that for the life of me I can't remember it was just that good.


Oh. They made it sound more special in the strategy guide. Thanks!
Why not? Either Bioware didn't give a fuck and wrote one of the most disappointing/contrived/cliched endings ever, or they made a brilliantly subtle, masterpiece of an ending.


...Yeah, who am I kidding, this is Bioware 2012, not Bioware 2000. :(

Oh god, don't let HeliosRazi see this. He'll flip a bitch!
 
It's interesting the Eletania vision was never used. It's one of the few (maybe only?) save flags that is not used for anything, not even an email.

I have never actually done this in my four different ME1 saves. I always forget to do it and the first two saves I didn't even know it existed. It might just be not enough people have that flagged in any of their saves for Bioware to feel like it was worth the time.
 

Omega

Banned
Mass Effect 1. You talk to a guy and he says he represents the Shadow broker and if you find anything interesting then the SB will pay cash money for it.

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but that only happens once, and that is in the mission you get from Admiral Kohaku when you're investigating Cerberus. The representative says "Kohaku got some information in agreement that he would report anything he found to us"
 

Omega

Banned
welcome
ibxk0bAwLXTR7K.jpg


the cupcake donation ended,you can participate in the next campaign.
hold the line marauder shields.
lmao, this is the greatest picture ever. This picture will never get old. Everytime I see it I laugh.
 

Bowdz

Member
Why not? Either Bioware didn't give a fuck and wrote one of the most disappointing/contrived/cliched endings ever, or they made a brilliantly subtle, masterpiece of an ending.


...Yeah, who am I kidding, this is Bioware 2012, not Bioware 2000. :(

Based on the design sheet from Mac Walters concerning the ending, we can be 99.9% sure that Bioware didn't plan indoctrination theory prior to release.

1332190712246.png


With that being said, IMO, the fans, who apparently knew the lore and universe restrictions better than Hudson and Walters, crafted an ending (or quasi-ending) that could allow Bioware to keep the current version and provide either a DLC or expansion pack ending to appease the fans. Indoctrination theory is a great tool for Bioware moving forward, but they definitely didn't plan it out.
 

Derrick01

Banned
From the indoctrination theory video:

"What is the meaning of the dreams?
Why does nobody notice the body?
Why would Shepard be immune to indoctrination?
Why does Harbinger take a special interest in Shepard?
Why are there trees from the dream around the beam?
Why does your sidearm have infinite ammo?
Why is the beam directly leading to the panel that opens Citadel's arms?
Why are corpses everywhere on the Citadel, just like on the Collector's ship?
How did Anderson enter the beam before Shepard?"

This sucks.

You're heading down a dark road there. You're going to have to eventually just accept that it was a completely shit ending with no clever out.

I have to admit it's amusing watching new people trickle in here and joining us with their own brand of "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?"
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Patrick Klepek continues to misrepresent what the disappointment in ME3's ending was about and try his damndest to tie it to fan entitlement.

http://www.giantbomb.com/news/sticking-the-landing/4061/

How does this keep happening? I seriously do not understand it. And then people say "gaming journalism lol" and I think "well, I'm kind of a gaming journalist and I hated the ending. And so did my colleague, who is an even bigger fan than me" (he was going to review the DLC, and couldn't, because of how bad the ending burned him).

I mean if people want to like the ending I might think they're insane but, you know, whatever, like it if you must. But to not only like the ending, but actively belittle, discredit and insult people who don't? While completely failing, so much so that it must be deliberate, to acknowledge or respond to the legitimate criticism people put forward?

What the fuck is wrong with people? How are these people paid for this bullshit?
 
How come people often mention this Patrick Klepeck guy as a shining example of a proper journalist in the industry, when all I see from him is misrepresentation and misconstruing the facts?

Because he honestly is one of the few people to try to reach out to sources and write stories, not glorified press releases. His success is up to debate, but the effort counts for something.
 

Jintor

Member
Because he honestly is one of the few people to try to reach out to sources and write stories, not glorified press releases. His success is up to debate, but the effort counts for something.

Basically.

I don't think he's a particularly good analyst, but he's a pretty good journalist.
 
How come people often mention this Patrick Klepeck guy as a shining example of a proper journalist in the industry, when all I see from him is misrepresentation and misconstruing the facts?

He does investigative journalism fine. Stuff is well-researched, even-handed, and he sometimes gets really good scoops.

But on some subjects, he is incredibly single-minded. He can't tear the ME3 reaction from the LOST reaction in his head. And since he loves LOST, the reaction to ME3's ending must be just as absurd.

If anything, this makes a point about how we make associations in our head and, while they seem logical to us (or we don't actually even realize the association), it doesn't follow with other people.
 
How come people often mention this Patrick Klepeck guy as a shining example of a proper journalist in the industry, when all I see from him is misrepresentation and misconstruing the facts?

Cus' when a story happens (after Gaf and Kotaku have picked its bones) he calls one of the people involved. That's it.
 

Rapstah

Member
How come people often mention this Patrick Klepeck guy as a shining example of a proper journalist in the industry, when all I see from him is misrepresentation and misconstruing the facts?

He made it quite clear on the latest Bombcast that his only frame of reference to compare this to was television series. Television obviously can't compare due to the very nature of the media. TV is the opposite of writing your own story across long marathon-like experiences.

That said, he didn't seem to dismissive of the others' opinions in said Bombcast, but maybe that was because Jeff has made it pretty clear that he can't be assed to discuss it and that he doesn't like it, but not enough to actually discuss it in that format.
 
He does investigative journalism fine. Stuff is well-researched, even-handed, and he sometimes gets really good scoops.

But on some subjects, he is incredibly single-minded. He can't tear the ME3 reaction from the LOST reaction in his head. And since he loves LOST, the reaction to ME3's ending must be just as absurd.

If anything, this makes a point about how we make associations in our head and, while they seem logical to us (or we don't actually even realize the association), it doesn't follow with other people.

It always makes me wonder how far could a company go until our anger is justified? If they LITERALLY ended the game right when you got to earth, with a video of the entire team saying, "FUCK YOU! THANKS FOR YOUR MONEY!" holding up middle fingers. Would journalists still defend it as, "Developers don't owe you anything, they can design it however they like" and will people say, "Who cares? It's just a game!".

And when will people start understanding Mass Effect Trilogy /= TV Series, Movies, linear games.
 
It always makes me wonder how far could a company go until our anger is justified? If they LITERALLY ended the game right when you got to earth, with a video of the entire team saying, "FUCK YOU! THANKS FOR YOUR MONEY!" holding up middle fingers. Would journalists still defend it as, "Developers don't owe you anything, they can design it however they like" and will people say, "Who cares? It's just a game!".

And when will people start understanding Mass Effect Trilogy /= TV Series, Movies, linear games.

The whole concept of entitlement is strange.

It's not entitlement... it's criticism. You got me to buy and play through a game, only to end it awfully. I am free to criticize it.

Am I free to ask for it to be changed? I guess. I'm in the camp of people who say that's unlikely to ease the pain anyway however.
 

LuchaShaq

Banned
That Patrick article is frankly embarrassing as someone who usually enjoys his work.

One post or 45 seconds of reading a thread like this on any of 20 gaming message boards would let him know "they wanted a save the day ending not bittersweet" strawman nonsense was just bullshit and not true in the slightest.

Also the first 2 mass effect games and 95% of the third are nothing like Lost so a lost style ending makes no sense.

This would be as if Lost's ending spelled out every little detail but still full of plotholes.
 
Patrick Klepek continues to misrepresent what the disappointment in ME3's ending was about and try his damndest to tie it to fan entitlement.

http://www.giantbomb.com/news/sticking-the-landing/4061/

I just don't understand how they can have so much interest, but not even bother to watch a quick 20 minute video that pretty much perfectly sums up what peoples complaints of the ending are.

It's not like every gamer out there is obligated to fully research the issue, but if you're going to write an article, or some multi page response to the controversy, I don't think I'm being demanding by expecting you to watch a 20 minute video.
 
That Patrick article is frankly embarrassing as someone who usually enjoys his work.

One post or 45 seconds of reading a thread like this on any of 20 gaming message boards would let him know "they wanted a save the day ending not bittersweet" strawman nonsense was just bullshit and not true in the slightest.

I think in all honesty most people do want a save-the-day ending, in that they want to see clear-cut evidence of success in saving the galaxy in a non-vague way.
 
The whole concept of entitlement is strange.

It's not entitlement... it's criticism. You got me to buy and play through a game, only to end it awfully. I am free to criticize it.

Hopefully all the people who called 'entitlement' rather then look at whats being said will now have the comments pages to their negative reviews of games spammed with posts about entitlement'.
 

f0rk

Member
Television obviously can't compare due to the very nature of the media. TV is the opposite of writing your own story across long marathon-like experiences.
He says that in the article.

Comparing it to The Sopranos is ridiculous though, there wasn't a new character magically invented in the last episode to make sense of everything that happened before, and there is clear closure when you consider it. It finished the story of Tony Soprano in the only way it could end. Mass Effect (and Lost to an extent, I stopped watching half way through season 6 cos they started dropping even more random shit in to the story that came out of nowhere) just forgets everything that happened before and finishes it with a different coloured cut scene.
 

Jintor

Member
They could have had an end of eva ending and I wouldn't have minded if it hadn't disregarded almost everything I did in the game and reduced it to skittles
 
How does this keep happening? I seriously do not understand it. And then people say "gaming journalism lol" and I think "well, I'm kind of a gaming journalist and I hated the ending. And so did my colleague, who is an even bigger fan than me" (he was going to review the DLC, and couldn't, because of how bad the ending burned him).

I mean if people want to like the ending I might think they're insane but, you know, whatever, like it if you must. But to not only like the ending, but actively belittle, discredit and insult people who don't? While completely failing, so much so that it must be deliberate, to acknowledge or respond to the legitimate criticism people put forward?

What the fuck is wrong with people? How are these people paid for this bullshit?

pretty much.
 
Just finished reading this from the OP: https://docs.google.com/document/d/...0H84DlCTUmzQ_uQh1voTUs/preview?pli=1&sle=true

After reading that, there is absolutely NO WAY that Bioware had these three horseshit endings as the TRUE endings to the game. Especially because one of them had Shepard waking up in London.

They must've planned it as a dream and to sell DLC that shows the 'true epilogue.' If so, they're truly garbage. If that's true, the irony of people 'donating money' for a real ending is disgustingly sweet.
 

DTKT

Member
EatChildren should sit down with Patrick and explain to him why the issue is not the "bittersweet" part of the ending.
 
There is a comment from Klepek in the comments section

@2HeadedNinja said: said:
A lot of people play these games to be the good guy that accomplishes everything, and video game endings, as a whole, the trope is that you’re the hero that’s unbeatable and everything turns out alright in the end. They went for something a little more mixed: things are out of your control. Bad things are going to happen no matter what you do, what choice you make. People have some real trouble processing that. Some wanted this “you saved the princess” ending that games have always have. Personally, as a player, it’s really important that they’re having this reaction. You don’t see that very often with a video game.
I'm sorry, but I stopped reading there ... with all due respect Patrick, that is not at all the point ... that the ending is not unicorns and ice cream is NOT why people are upset. If, after all the controversy, you did not understand that you should probably stay away from writing about the subject.
PatrickKlepek said:
Stick with the story, that's not my only observation. I know that.
In theory he implies he knows differently now? The interview was technically done back when Bioware "made it's first public statement to fans". Probably could have been a little more specific on the timeframe there.
 

Dany

Banned
Patrick does not say that fans want a 'happy rainbow ending' nor does he say that fans should not be entitled, if you read the article, he clearly states what he feels fans reactions are.

People talk about it in terms of the ending, but it was really just about these very binary choices presented in front of you that didn’t seem to reflect the agency that players had brought in throughout this entire adventure. As a result, they didn’t get get closure through their own agency, which was the motivational factor for these three games, which is why they brought their saved games from one game to the next.
Players feel like they should have this unique impact on this world and how it plays out, and it’s what makes the world "entitlement" feel...it doesn’t seem to work as well for the reaction. Entitlement’s a really easy word to apply to it, but in some sense, players should feel entitled when they’ve been told they’re the ones who are entitled to make these decisions.

I like this quote by Doc Jenson

They’re not choose your own adventure games, it’s choose your own nuance games. It seems like Mass Effect 3 butts up against that, especially with its ending, and also butts up against something else, too, which is...hearing about the controversy about Mass Effect 3, it makes me wonder if the artist creators of the game over at BioWare, how much control over their storytelling do these artists really want to seed to the player?

I read up to where he makes the 'save the princess' point but kept on reading, it seems like most people reading the article just stopped there.
 

Vicros

Member
So I just watched that indoctrination theory video. It makes some interesting points, like the trees around the space elevator and Hackett knowing you got on the citadel. A lot of it feels really forced as well.

In the end I don't believe Bioware is clever enough to actually plan all that and attempt to pull that off as their cannon ending. I think it just boils down to wishful thinking.
 

f0rk

Member
There is a comment from Klepek in the comments section



In theory he implies he knows differently now? The interview was technically done back when Bioware "made it's first public statement to fans". Probably could have been a little more specific on the timeframe there.

As Dany M said, that isn't the only point he makes and idiots keep getting hung up on it and not reading any more of the article.

He has to. EA's advertisement dollars are on the line. These people are not journalists. They are lobbyists.

*tinfoil hat*
 
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