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Mass Effect 3 Spoiler Thread |OT2| Taste the Rainbow

GuardianE

Santa May Claus
Well, I immediately latched onto the Indoctrination Theory because I was searching for something more... coherent. I think that the ending was like a sucker punch, dazing me, and I was still trying to process it. The Indoctrination Theory is a pretty convenient way to give depth to otherwise inept writing. I think it's natural for people to gravitate towards it.
 

rozay

Banned
Proven fake.

I hope you're not going on Chris Priestly's word on this, he's just doing his job but that is the last person to trust for confirmation on things, word to him denying that Kasumi existed and the files on the disc were made up when it was brought up after ME2's launch.
 

Patryn

Member
Great. That poll once again seems to reinforce the idea that people are unhappy that it's not a happy ending through the options (although, thankfully, it seems like people aren't picking that one).
 
Well, I immediately latched onto the Indoctrination Theory because I was searching for something more... coherent. I think that the ending was like a sucker punch, dazing me, and I was still trying to process it. The Indoctrination Theory is a pretty convenient way to give depth to otherwise inept writing. I think it's natural for people to gravitate towards it.

The fact that they used assets meant for an Indoctrination ending (glowing eyes ect.) was the thing that had me on board at first.
 
Well, I immediately latched onto the Indoctrination Theory because I was searching for something more... coherent. I think that the ending was like a sucker punch, dazing me, and I was still trying to process it. The Indoctrination Theory is a pretty convenient way to give depth to otherwise inept writing. I think it's natural for people to gravitate towards it.

Of course. I can see the allure of it, but if it is true, then the main plot of the games goes unresolved and we all played a game with no ending.

And Mass Effect has always been a conventional game with a conventional story. Doing some avant garde "it was all a dream" ending will seem jarring to people
 

Sojgat

Member
Hey I have a question, why are all the displays on the Citadel all flatscreens now? What happened to all the holographic signage and stuff? Couldn't figure out what was bugging me about the design until I saw that picture of ME2 above.
 

Zeal

Banned
Wait, wasn't that the one posted on reddit and then shot down by Bioware's head of PR? If not, my fault. Thought it was.

There's too much crap coming out to keep up with lately.
 
Where was my Geth Prime Platoon? Where was my Volus Bombing fleet? Where was my SPECTRE Unit? Did they they all just get eaten up by the green bar?
 

sTeLioSco

Banned
Those options kind of suck. I don't necessarily want them to change the ending. I'd rather have them expand and clarify things further and/or perhaps give more information about the current ending in some way.

well cnet is not a pure-gaming site so its a bit understandable that they go with what they hear....
 
Hey I have a question, why are all the displays on the Citadel all flatscreens now? What happened to all the holographic signage and stuff? Couldn't figure out what was bugging me about the design until I saw that picture of ME2 above.

Bioware changed the aesthetic
 
Where was my Geth Prime Platoon? Where was my Volus Bombing fleet? Where was my SPECTRE Unit? Did they they all just get eaten up by the green bar?

Yeah. Not only I'm pissed about Bioware lying and being lazy with the colors ending, and the nonesens, but the entire war asset is basically pointless.

Side quest are useless. Exploration is useless... Good job bioware. Good job
 

Jarmel

Banned
Wait, wasn't that the one posted on reddit and then shot down by Bioware's head of PR? If not, my fault. Thought it was.

There's too much crap coming out to keep up with lately.

It was posted on the PAX forum by his account(supposedly his account anyway).
 

hateradio

The Most Dangerous Yes Man
Great. That poll once again seems to reinforce the idea that people are unhappy that it's not a happy ending through the options (although, thankfully, it seems like people aren't picking that one).
I noticed that, too. Thankfully people simply find the ending unacceptable. :D

Well, I immediately latched onto the Indoctrination Theory because I was searching for something more... coherent. I think that the ending was like a sucker punch, dazing me, and I was still trying to process it. The Indoctrination Theory is a pretty convenient way to give depth to otherwise inept writing. I think it's natural for people to gravitate towards it.
I guess people develop cognitive dissonance naturally.
 

Trey

Member
And its certainly a fuck load easier on insanity.

Not easier, less tedious. The game is arguably harder, you're just better equipped and much more functional, and biotics aren't gimped like in 2.

With all the broken promises in ME3, it's odd that things I went into the game expecting to hate turned out better than expected. Javik and physical-EDI were actually decent additions to the story.
 

RDreamer

Member
well cnet is not a pure-gaming site so its a bit understandable that they go with what they hear....

I know. Personally I'd be kind of curious to see what the results would be on such a poll on a bigger site where the people calling for this have gathered. I wonder how many outright want everything changed and how many just want a sort of explanation as to why things are the way they are in the ending as it is.
 

rozay

Banned
Where was my Geth Prime Platoon? Where was my Volus Bombing fleet? Where was my SPECTRE Unit? Did they they all just get eaten up by the green bar?

I am willing to accept the star child bullshit if they just add scenes with the races you rallied actually doing something to the London mission. At least your decisions and work in the game will mean something and they won't have to compromise their" artistic integrity," though I feel that phrase is wasted on a game that was likely focus tested to hell.
 

GuardianE

Santa May Claus
Where was my Geth Prime Platoon? Where was my Volus Bombing fleet? Where was my SPECTRE Unit? Did they they all just get eaten up by the green bar?

New DLC will change the final space battle cutscene. Emerging from FTL travel will just be a giant Green Bar to fight the Reapers.
 

Riggs

Banned
Dmzek.jpg

oh8pU.jpg
Hahaaha omg
 

Omega

Banned
Missed opportunity pretty much sums up the entirety of the last two games. They could've delivered a truly epic sci-fi RPG experience but they blew it railroading you through themed shooting galleries so outlets like IGN could give it 9s and 10s.

To be fair, almost every franchise misses out on opportunities.

Whether it's lazy developers, not enough time and resources or just them flat out not being capable of doing it.

While I wish there were some elements in Mass Effect, I'm not going to say "good job BioWare! You completely ruined it!"

Everyone seems to prefer ME2 over ME1, I really hope people saying they missed out on opportunities don't feel the same. ME 1 was more accurate to the ME universe. For example, the extremely long cool down on powers, specifically biotics. In the books it's stated that biotics take out so much energy from the person that they can do maybe 4 biotic moves before they're mentally and physically exhausted. Meanwhile in 2 and 3, you can spam powers faster than you can spam hadokens in Street Fighter.

It's not easy for developers. While I'm not going to give them a free pass, they're put in difficult situations a lot.
 

.GqueB.

Banned
Hey I have a question, why are all the displays on the Citadel all flatscreens now? What happened to all the holographic signage and stuff? Couldn't figure out what was bugging me about the design until I saw that picture of ME2 above.

Upgraded to retina displays.
 

flyover

Member
That's how I feel, except for the drinking part. I don't think he needs to get drunk to write that badly.

I think the problem is, as has been expressed before, that there were no checks and balances for the ending.

Why are musicians who were great in bands so often worse as solo artists (or in supergroups)? Because when you're solo or just messing around with your buddies on a super-side-project, there are no "no men."

With no worries about dissenting voices, ideas never have to be defended, or even seriously analyzed. So an idea that sounds good at first blush is much more likely to make it into the final project -- whether it's a bad or a good idea. There's no honing of the idea, no evolution from concept to completion.

I think that's what happened here. Also, I think Walters made the mistake of thinking ME players care about the lore (edit: which sucked anyway, as others are pointing out!) more than we do the story and characters.
 

MC Safety

Member
Hey I have a question, why are all the displays on the Citadel all flatscreens now? What happened to all the holographic signage and stuff? Couldn't figure out what was bugging me about the design until I saw that picture of ME2 above.

The Mass Effect world was never consistent in terms of its appearance and even the functional stuff such as shields, health, weaponry, and melee attacks.

Remember how omnigel went obsolete across the galaxy in the span of three years?
 

Gestahl

Member
I think the problem is, as has been expressed before, that there were no checks and balances for the ending.

Why are musicians who were great in bands so often worse as solo artists (or in supergroups)? Because when you're solo or just messing around with your buddies on a super-side-project, there are no "no men."

With no worries about dissenting voices, ideas never have to be defended, or even seriously analyzed. So an idea that sounds good at first blush is much more likely to make it into the final project -- whether it's a bad or a good idea. There's no honing of the idea, no evolution from concept to completion.

I think that's what happened here. Also, I think Walters made the mistake of thinking ME players care about the lore more than we do the story and characters.

Uhh anyone who cares about the lore probably had a heart attack after that ending
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
I think the problem is, as has been expressed before, that there were no checks and balances for the ending.

Why are musicians who were great in bands so often worse as solo artists (or in supergroups)? Because when you're solo or just messing around with your buddies on a super-side-project, there are no "no men."

With no worries about dissenting voices, ideas never have to be defended, or even seriously analyzed. So an idea that sounds good at first blush is much more likely to make it into the final project -- whether it's a bad or a good idea. There's no honing of the idea, no evolution from concept to completion.

I think that's what happened here. Also, I think Walters made the mistake of thinking ME players care about the lore more than we do the story and characters.

But his destruction of the lore since the first game is one of the things people hated him for
 

flyover

Member
Uhh anyone who cares about the lore probably had a heart attack after that ending

I know. That's the worst part about it. He was hyper-focused on the lore, and yet it was terrible! (And the exposition dump was presented horribly, too! Anytime there's a magic kid in your script, you're in big trouble.) I wasn't defending his lore, just saying that's what he thought was important -- and he didn't have anyone to call him on it.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
Not easier, less tedious. The game is arguably harder, you're just better equipped and much more functional, and biotics aren't gimped like in 2.

With all the broken promises in ME3, it's odd that things I went into the game expecting to hate turned out better than expected. Javik and physical-EDI were actually decent additions to the story.

Biotics werent gimped in 2 at all. They were destructive, especially backed by the smg from the Stolen Memories dlc. They made biotics too powerful in 3 like in 1 by reducing defenses and lowering the cooldowns.
 

Rodhull

Member
Uhh anyone who cares about the lore probably had a heart attack after that ending

Absolutely! I wouldn't go so far as to say I really care about the lore a lot but knowing that some of the core events of the finale ignore the ME lore so much is just so bizarre to me.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
I know. That's the worst part about it. He was hyper-focused on the lore, and yet it was terrible! (And the exposition dump was presented horribly, too! Anytime there's a magic kid in your script, you're in big trouble.)

I dont think he was focused on the lore at all, or it wouldnt be such a mess. ME1 lays out shit in decent detail and all the stuff he has lead from 2 to the comics have ignored it.
 

Trey

Member
Biotics werent gimped in 2 at all. They were destructive, especially backed by the smg from the Stolen Memories dlc. They made biotics too powerful in 3 like in 1 by reducing defenses and lowering the cooldowns.

On Insanity, they were gimped. Almost to non-factor range. Except Charge.

Charge is great, all of the time.
 

Sojgat

Member
The Mass Effect world was never consistent in terms of its appearance and even the functional stuff such as shields, health, weaponry, and melee attacks.

Remember how omnigel went obsolete across the galaxy in the span of three years?

I suppose thinking about it now at some point someone says a human was commisioned to do the presidium decoration, that's why there are birds and trees from earth. So I guess it would be logical to extend that design philosophy to all of the displays in the area as well.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ythY_GkEBck

I'm sure this video has been posted and discussed, but I just wanted to say this explanation is really the ONLY one that explains what the hell Bioware was getting at with the dream sequences.

If this is what they were going for, then they probably should have made it a LITTLE more clear, and handled it a little better in the final hours.
 
To be fair, almost every franchise misses out on opportunities.

Whether it's lazy developers, not enough time and resources or just them flat out not being capable of doing it.

While I wish there were some elements in Mass Effect, I'm not going to say "good job BioWare! You completely ruined it!"

Everyone seems to prefer ME2 over ME1, I really hope people saying they missed out on opportunities don't feel the same. ME 1 was more accurate to the ME universe. For example, the extremely long cool down on powers, specifically biotics. In the books it's stated that biotics take out so much energy from the person that they can do maybe 4 biotic moves before they're mentally and physically exhausted. Meanwhile in 2 and 3, you can spam powers faster than you can spam hadokens in Street Fighter.

It's not easy for developers. While I'm not going to give them a free pass, they're put in difficult situations a lot.

I think they're capable of it, but their priorites are elsewhere. Like Dragon Age all it takes is some shitty designer or producer more interested in bringing the experience down to the level of the mass market to override everything and render all the talent they have worthless.

And plenty of people prefer ME1 to ME2. There was a severe backlash against that game, albeit not as much as we see now with ME3's ending. And they put out the same PR tripe that time they're putting out now - "vocal minority", "reviews overwhelmingly positive", "we're listening to all the feedback because we care", etc...
 

Zeal

Banned
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ythY_GkEBck

I'm sure this video has been posted and discussed, but I just wanted to say this explanation is really the ONLY one that explains what the hell Bioware was getting at with the dream sequences.

If this is what they were going for, then they probably should have made it a LITTLE more clear, and handled it a little better in the final hours.

This video is excellent and I still stand by the theory. I think it will eventually be proven true.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
On Insanity, they were gimped. Almost to non-factor range. Except Charge.

Charge is great, all of the time.

Than why was Adept the easy insanity run of ME2 I had? They werent gimped, they were balanced. In 3 I blow enemies up as soon as I see them. If you could recruit Tali earlier and get Energy Drain, it would be a breeze. I wouldnt need party members, and with Liara non banshee enemies just exploded.
 

flyover

Member
I dont think he was focused on the lore at all, or it wouldnt be such a mess.

You could be right. The point I was trying to make is that he didn't let anyone know about the ending, so he never had to rigorously defend or rework it. All the other writing in the game had to be reviewed by people other than the original writer(s). It sounds like the ending wasn't.

It didn't seem well thought out, because it didn't have to be. It appears it was the only part of the game where the people who created it answered to nobody else on the team.
 
Wait, people actually believe that the quote doesn't actually belong to Weekes? The only thing they can do now is damage control. Of course they are going to deny Weekes. As long as they do that, he probably still has a job.
 

hateradio

The Most Dangerous Yes Man
You could be right. The point I was trying to make is that he didn't let anyone know about the ending, so he never had to rigorously defend or rewrite it. All the other writing in the game had to be reviewed by people other than the original writer(s). It sounds like the ending wasn't.

It didn't seem well thought out, because it didn't have to be. It appears it was the only part of the game where the people who created it answered to nobody else on the team.
It's not that he didn't let anyone know. If the post from PAX is to be believed, it's also Casey's doing, because he's very "analytical." Moreover, it's speculated that they didn't even have a real ending planned until around November when they scribbled "LOTS OF SPECULATION FROM EVERYONE."

If you look at the video files on the PC version, most of the End03_London*.bik (color explosion) videos were done in early January and the gasping breath clip was done in the ides of that month.

So sometime in late 2011 Casey and Walters got together to kill write the ending featuring a starry vent kid by themselves.
 
I'm honestly surprised people are latching on to the indoctrination theory still.

All of these game were a story being told by an old man after all. Just have him be an unreliable narrator.

You could even start the ending changing DLC with that kid complaining the ending was bad. "Hey gramps that ending was shit make up a new one" or "Old man that shit doesn't make sense, this is what really happened."
 
This video is excellent and I still stand by the theory. I think it will eventually be proven true.

Indoctro was the plan when they started, they changed their minds, if the DLC makes it canon then it will be back-peddling on the bosses parts. (but at this point the only way to save themselves.)



I'm honestly surprised people are latching on to the indoctrination theory still.

All of these game were a story being told by an old man after all. Just have him be an unreliable narrator.

You could even start the ending changing DLC with that kid complaining the ending was bad. "Hey gramps that ending was shit make up a new one" or "Old man that shit doesn't make sense, this is what really happened."


"And then the Shepard went into the shower after her."
"Granddad stop... please."
"No... it's important, anyway, then Shepard came from behind and nibbled on her neck a little, squeezing her boobs..."
 

hateradio

The Most Dangerous Yes Man
You could even start the ending changing DLC with that kid complaining the ending was bad. "Hey gramps that ending was shit make up a new one" or "Old man that shit doesn't make sense, this is what really happened."
That's actually a good idea. "Actually, I totally fucked up that last part, this is how it really went . . . my sweet."
 

Lich_King

Member
Nothing will top it.

Unless Half Life 3 comes out as a visual novel.

G-man is Illusive man. Combine are different kind of Protheans indoctrinated by the Reapers. Joker robo-hat as DLC character. Glados gets a sexy robot body with cameltoe and fights alongside the Freeman.

THIS HURTS YOU.
 

GuardianE

Santa May Claus
I'm honestly surprised people are latching on to the indoctrination theory still.

Why?

Like I said, after reading the google spreadsheet and comparing it with my own experiences, it made a lot of sense. It was only when I posted in here, and people said that it wasn't part of the original story plans that I thought otherwise.
 
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