Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut not made 'to make everybody happy'
With Mass Effect 3's Extended Cut DLC arriving tomorrow, executive producer Casey Hudson has said, "You can never completely satisfy everyone," but BioWare is keen to learn from feedback.
What happened after Commander Shepard saved the galaxy from the Reapers? We'll get to find out a little more tomorrow, when BioWare launches Mass Effect 3's free Extended Cut DLC. "You can never completely satisfy everyone," executive producer Casey Hudson has said, but BioWare is keen to learn from feedback.
"There was some feedback that we can't address," Hudson told OXM. "There are people who just outright rejected the whole concept of the endings, and wanted us to start from scratch and redo everything. And we can't do that because that's not our story, we wouldn't know how to write that story.
"What excites us is the challenge of learning how people consume our stories, so it's a learning process for everybody. And then incorporating that feedback, that's how we make our work better."
Those displeased with the sci-fi RPG trilogy's conclusion were certainly the most vocal. Following fan complaints, the Advertising Standards Agency ruled earlier this month that Electronic Arts hadn't mislead players about the scope of the ending.
"So there's no doubt that there will be a whole new wave of discussion and debate, maybe even controversy," Hudson said. "But we didn't do the Extended Cut because we're trying to make everybody happy, make it perfect - we just saw an opportunity to expand on things that we felt could add value to the experience, for those that appreciate it."
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Shacknews
replyAlice O'Connor posted a new article, Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut not made 'to make everybody happy'.
With Mass Effect 3's Extended Cut DLC arriving tomorrow, executive producer Casey Hudson has said, "You can never completely satisfy everyone," but BioWare is keen to learn from feedback.-
If I don't see Wrex leading a cavalry unit of Krogan riding atop of Rachni warriors, this new ending initiative has failed. BIG TIME.
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The big thing for me would be actually seeing the allies you recruited actually doing something for the end battle rather being EMS/Galactic readiness stat. I half expected to see a scene like from the Mass Effect 3 trailer where Commander Shepard was spearheading an attack with his new allies right behind him. What we got didn't really convey that.
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What exactly would piss people off about adding additional endings? Although the current ending made little sense, it's not like they have to ditch it. The game is about making your own story, so alternate endings aren't out of the realm of possibility.
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Also I realize OP said "change" the ending - but in all reality we knew that wasn't happening..
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They're doing something, which is better than doing nothing, from a PR perspective. BioWare lost the PR battle, as detailed from a rather nice BioWare forum post that was linked on the Shack shortly after release. It was written by someone who knows standard PR tactics, and detailed how BioWare at first used a "fortress" tactic to attempt to defend the endings. The forum poster dissected this, and said this was a "by the book" PR tactic. This post was made after BioWare finally caved and Casey Hudson acknowledged that many Mass Effect franchise fans were alienated by the endings.
It was a good post, but I'll have a hard time searching for it; I should've bookmarked it or saved it to disk, since the BioWare forum moderators would have probably locked it and moved it out of public view.-
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What was neat about it is how in some of those posts he predicted how Bioware would respond and they did within hours or days of his predictions.
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I saw the same post, but couldn't finish reading it because PR stuff makes me hate the world
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PR and marketing is all about gaming human psychology for maximum revenue. It does get very disgusting to read about or talk about, unless there's at least some attention paid to the value provided to customers.
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I think that depends on the intention. If you are trying to sell a food product you'd want to make it looks as tasty as possible. You have to appeal to people in ways that work.
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Mr. Shields better still be the last boss.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=467pmIX-oZo spoilers but a fitting tribute
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It's a free kick in the balls.
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Iv'e yet to beat the game. I don't know the original ending that everyone was fuzzed about. Will this erased that ending? I want to be able to see both.
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Do I need to force download this or this an option DLC?
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No the original endings will still be there. This DLC adds additional scenes and content to help those endings actually make sense. Supposedly.
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no you dont lol....
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According to what they've stated, I don't anticipate anything being "erased." One of the chief complaints about the ending (and I will put spoiler tags, but I don't believe I am going to spoil anything - perhaps another shacker can confirm or disagree) was that it was far too abrupt and illogical, therefore failing to coherently explain the consequences of your actions w/r/t/ the galaxy and your squadmates.
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I'm not going to get my galaxy to 100% and play through the thatnightmare for the 5th time just to see a cutscene that follows on from that awful ending. It is worth youtubing though and I think a lot of peopke will do the same.
"What happened after Commander Shepard saved the galaxy from the Reapers?" I'm not sure he did...
"But we didn't do the Extended Cut because we're trying to make everybody happy, make it perfect - we just saw an opportunity to expand on things that we felt could add value to the experience, for those that appreciate it." So should I translate that as Hudson saying we just made the extended cut because we felt like it and then slapping the fans who petitioned bioware with the "for those that appreciate it."?
Anyway Bioware had the right to send the Mass Effect series onto a crash course, it was their story after all. I got the best ending and re-played the end sequence a few times to see if the other endings were any better but none of the endings made sense. As for the idea and gesture behind the DLC I think it was more about Bioware being able to give the "we tried" defense rather than attempting to re-write the ending and give many fans an ending that they wanted and that maee sense.-
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have an iphone? you could get the Me3 datapad app and slowly get your readiness up in times you cant play, like at work etc.
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You played through it 4 times and are trying to call it a nightmare? Doesn't sound like it could be that bad.
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I'm guessing you've played the ending sequence? It starts just before Maruder shields and from there's about 20 minutes of slow walking and dialogue before you make your decisio, that's my idea of a nightmare in video games.
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Note on EMS
You don't need 100%, maybe a little over 50%, but maybe not even that. See this twitter post from earlier today:
https://twitter.com/GambleMike/status/217335034787545088
~3100 should be enough to get to see everything available.-
If my memory is correct if you did everything you can finish around 7800ish for the TMS, which would place you easily above 3100 EMS even at the default 50%
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The ending had a lot of problems, but the most important one is the least likely to be changed. The machine God child who controls the fate of the universe is terrible. The story up to that point is how our decisions matter. How we can get warring factions to cooperate, how our sacrifices can change the outcome, and then suddenly the machine God child of the universe tells us that he feels like giving us 3 choices. At any point he could have implemented any of those 3 choices without us, but good on us for making him finally feel like it. Ugh.
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And with this, it only confirms that Hudson and Walters have learned nothing.
Well, I guess I have other things to spend my money and time on other than Bioware games.
Congratulations, Bioware. You keep your artistic vision, I keep my money. We both win!-
I think they learnd a lot. For one, not to change their vision because some people didn't appreciate it. They stuck to their guns. That's cool. I also think it's cool that you are sticking to yours. I appreciate it when people vote with their dollars. It looks like that's what you decided to do and that's cool too. In the end, if their vision doesn't allign with what you want, you should not continue to support them. At the same time, they should continue to create games based on their vision and those of us who appreciate that vision will continue to support them. As you said, we all win! I think it's important that we as gamers come to understand that every game will not always satisfy every gamer. We should find those games that speak to us...and game on! Either that, or develop the game we want ourselves.
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The problem, friend, is that I'm not the only one who has said this. And to a company that's dependent on sales of their product, this can have a lasting effect. And when you're a company that's developed a reputation for making good products suddenly takes a nose dive like this, well, they're going to pay for their artistic vision when they're trying to make an item that they want to sell to as many people as they can.
Word of mouth can do just as much damage as help.
"Ugh. Bioware? Trust me, dude. Don't get it. That's going to dump on you the same way Mass Effect 3 did."
I've seen people leave The Old Republic over the Mass Effect 3 ending. And people are going to be far more wary about purchasing Bioware products in the future because people *will* remember this. They will dissuade people from buying Bioware products.
Bioware has lost a LOT of goodwill towards people and they will pay for it in the long run. -
I generally agree with you but I want to point out that as far as many of the fans who were disappointed in the ending and complained knew they were aligned with BioWares vision for Mass Effect. Based on the ME series and interviews I thought I knew what to expect, a bitter-sweet ending that was well done and varied in its outcome based on your choices thus far. At the end however we realised that BioWare's actual ending was obscure and had major plot holes such as dead squad members appearing in the final cutscenes (Garrus was last with me...). So I guess you could say there was a misunderstanding of Bioware's vision and by that point it was too late to vote with our money.
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While most people are upset at ME3's ending, the whole game was a huge disappointment for someone who fell in love with the first Mass Effect. After this and Dragon Age 2, I'm done with buying any rpg from Bioware new. If its a new ip, I might just wait till the series is over and buy the complete set if its good.
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I agree that ME3 was a bit of disappointment even without the ending. The sudden introduction of the catalyst seemed really uninspired. I did think the gameplay was on par or possibly better than ME2, which I consider to be the most playable game in the series.
I feel like they kinda wrote themselves in a corner. How do you defeat the nearly invulnerable machine horde? I guess their best bet would have been to have Shepherd actually convince the universe that the Reaper threat was real in the second game, and then have a time skip of sorts where the organic technology closes the gap with the Reapers significantly. Perhaps 10 Organic ships could take down 1 Reaper. And then have ME3 be about strategies, additional alliances, and infiltrations. But then again, it is hard to what should seemingly play out as a huge galactic space battle, play out as a 3 man squad sniping things from behind cover.
As it is, they basically decided that the Organics could never defeat the Reapers. That is why it was necessary for the machine God child to do it, but to be nice enough to let us choose how he does it.-
I guess I basically ignored your point, since for me the changes in gameplay were actually inconsequential. I only got upset with Dragon Age, since I expected everything with Dragon Age to be a spiritual success to Baldur's Gate. Now I'm afraid that their story telling prowess has been lost.
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Yep. Nailed it.
I loved Mass Effect. Played it through about 5 times over the years. Bought it twice so it would be an easy install from steam.
I LOVED Mass Effect 2. Bought almost all of the DLC and was happy to do so. Still my fave RPG.
Mass Effect 3 was a big let down. It's like a different game. It had some really good moments but the ending was seriously week. I don't know what they were thinking.
I've bought every single Bioware game except for DA2. But I'm probably not going to buy anymore. I put literally hundreds of hours into my shepard. And first, they wouldn't let me import him. And then, no matter how I played him, it came down to the same stupid arbitrary ending that really made no sense.
And then Bioware go on about this is their vision! Really? THIS is the best you could do??? Would it have been that hard to let my guy live? And all of the final cutscenes just didn't make sense. Who approved that sequence? It was just a really average way to end the trilogy. Like finishing a great drink, and finding something gross at the bottom. You enjoyed it all the way, until you finished it. And then you were left with a ick! I can't believe I drank the whole thing just for that!
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I see they learned their lesson about over promising.
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I still think the game finished at "Best seats in the house."
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What a load of twaddle. The original ending was great. It reminded me of classic sci-fi with difficult and harsh choices. The fact that Bioware yielded to people who didn't like it just goes to show you that nothing in the gaming world is sacred any longer. Missing content that is a part of the story ark being provided by DAY 1 DLC, additional "DLC", changing the ending.... all of this has ruined a perfectly great and epic game that I loved. At first. Time to go back to PC gaming, strategy and simulators. I'm done with modern consoles.
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The ending was already ruined when it was written, because it was shit. It was stupid stupid shit. You can sit here and pretend like it meant something, like it was actually a good ending and was 'deep' or 'intriguing' or 'fulfilling' or even something as low-sight-setting as 'Sensible' or 'Built Up To', but if you actually believe any of those things it just goes to show how low your standards are.
The only thing around here that is twaddle is ME3 itself, and possibly also you. You might also be twaddle.-
What, you're not digging the emperor's snazzy new outfit?
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Given your inability to articulate "stupid stupid shit" I'm not wasting time on your response.
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Really? Even in hard sci-fi, relying on deus ex machina devices has always been seen as a very lazy way to finish a story. It's extremely unsatisfying.
It's funny, I used to be a single player man. But now I'm actually converting. At least multiplayer is a known bet. You know what you're getting, and the more you play, the more skill you attain.
I know play street fighter 4 and Battlefield 3 and that's about it. I don't want to put the time into another story game. My time's too precious these days (2 kids and a job). -
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I'm talking Asimov and Clarke. ME3's ending drew from those. Obviously before your time and generation of instant gratification and me-me-me - oh I didn't get to kiss Leara good-bye sob sob sob.
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As a huge fan of Asimov, no. Just no. You're comparing a modern genius of the craft of the short story to Hamburger Helper and her ilk?
No.
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Good thing they aren't changing the ending, so you'll be happy.
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I think you've missed the point, all three endings were almost exactly the same with different coloured backgrounds. If the ME series was never about choice and the ending didnt match with the story sure it was a old fashioned sci-fi ending that made no sense.
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Finally a sensible response. No, I never played all three endings. I struggled through the game to be honest. The pre purchase DLC soured it to such a degree that the entire experience left a bad taste in my mouth. I was happy with the final choice I made because Shepard came to an end bringing finality to a game that I once loved.
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All of you need to see this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZOyeFvnhiI&feature=related
Nails it.-
I watched that when it was first out, it still doesn't hold up, and still doesn't change the fact that it's still really very badly done.
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All of you need to watch this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZOyeFvnhiI&feature=related-
Delayed double-post. Jeez.
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Ugh! What I hate even more than the ending are the poor deluded souls that live in denial and that insist on the Indoctrination Theory.
You know what's even worse than Deus Ex Machina in story-telling?
'It was all a dream.'-
That's fine, not everyone knows the franchise. There were so many plotholes that I assumed they were pulling something and was going to show us later that it was all indoctrination.
If it's not, then it's quite simple - they screwed up with the writing. Either way, you mindless fanboys lose. :)
