Mass Effect 3

[Shane for Wax]

I never heard anything about you being able to romance Ash as Femshep. Simply that you'd get more out of romancing Liara and that you'd have another 'yeoman' to woo (Traynor). I've looked at the ME wikia and they didn't even have speculation on FemShep/Ash. EDIT- however you can save file edit on the PC to make FemShep/Ash viable. There is a plethora of proof of this all over the place.

Also that Bro Shep was going to get some same-sex choices now.

[VirtualStranger]

I read that both Ash and Kaiden can be romanced by males or females, and when Kaiden told my male Adept that he felt a 'connection,' I figured the same would be tru of Ash.  We'll find out shortly.

You can't. Ashley is male-only.

All romance options:

Ashley - Male
Kaiden - Female(1) Both(3)
Liara - Both
Miranda - Male
Jacob - Female
Tali - Male
Garrus - Female
Jack - Male
Thane - Female
Kelly* - Both
Steve Cortez - Male
Samantha Traynor - Female
Diana Allers* - Both

*Kelly and Diana are not considered full romance options, and they do not give you the Paramour achievement.

In other words, they lied AGAIN!  They said both Ash and Kaiden would be available for both genders.  And I was setting everything up in the first two games (avoiding relationships, being Really nice to Ash) so my femshep could get her in 3). 

Well it just gives me another reason to hate Kaiden.  I need to shoot him in a future game.

They never stated that Ashley was a s/s option. Unlike Dragon Age 2, each character has a strictly defined orientation. Kaidan's was changed to make up for the lack of male s/s options in the previous 2 games.

In unrelated news:

Hello, I'm Commander Shepard, and I take showers with my clothes on.

[Vypernight]

I know I saw it somewhere, they mentioned both Kaiden and Ashley.  I just can't remember where, and of course I can't find it.  Maybe it was just a rumor, but it still p****es me off since I was looking forward to it. 

[Shane for Wax]

I read that both Ash and Kaiden can be romanced by males or females, and when Kaiden told my male Adept that he felt a 'connection,' I figured the same would be tru of Ash.  We'll find out shortly.

You can't. Ashley is male-only.

All romance options:

Ashley - Male
Kaiden - Female(1) Both(3)
Liara - Both
Miranda - Male
Jacob - Female
Tali - Male
Garrus - Female
Jack - Male
Thane - Female
Kelly* - Both
Steve Cortez - Male
Samantha Traynor - Female
Diana Allers* - Both

*Kelly and Diana are not considered full romance options, and they do not give you the Paramour achievement.

In other words, they lied AGAIN!  They said both Ash and Kaiden would be available for both genders.  And I was setting everything up in the first two games (avoiding relationships, being Really nice to Ash) so my femshep could get her in 3). 

Well it just gives me another reason to hate Kaiden.  I need to shoot him in a future game.

They never stated that Ashley was a s/s option. Unlike Dragon Age 2, each character has a strictly defined orientation. Kaidan's was changed to make up for the lack of male s/s options in the previous 2 games.

In unrelated news:

Hello, I'm Commander Shepard, and I take showers with my clothes on.

lol well. It was either that or crafty camera angles.

EDIT- I wrote a thing about my companions through the trilogy: Spoilers spoilers everywhere though, so be aware.

[The Illusive Man]

In other words, they lied AGAIN!  They said both Ash and Kaiden would be available for both genders.  And I was setting everything up in the first two games (avoiding relationships, being Really nice to Ash) so my femshep could get her in 3). 

Well it just gives me another reason to hate Kaiden.  I need to shoot him in a future game.

Oh HAI guys, just a friendly reminder that Bioware is so internally fucked up that one department does not know what another is doing. Thus, are forcing the PR department lie to our faces about everything!

Examples: WARGARBLE straight from the community manager at Bioware!

Relay? Wut relay?
https://twitter.com/#!/JessicaMerizan/status/180504176068014081

Two moons, kind of like FemShep.
https://twitter.com/#!/JessicaMerizan/status/180510042385162241

Indoctrinate theory ahoy!
https://twitter.com/#!/JessicaMerizan/status/180524564542009345

Everyone will meet up with Shepard again...somehow.
https://twitter.com/#!/JessicaMerizan/status/180488192506605570

Star child is a lying bastard! HAI guys, remember how the destroy ending does not kill EDI? LOL PLOT HOLE!
https://twitter.com/#!/JessicaMerizan/status/180492732215734272

LOL I MADE EVERYTHING UP! U MAD? "I'm not a developer & no one should take me for one. These are my thoughts and no one told me to say them. Hope that helps."
https://twitter.com/#!/JessicaMerizan/status/180519075091464193


Of course try to stay on the light side of things:

Every day I’m shufflin’
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaQvLE4TCms" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaQvLE4TCms</a>


Hemorrhoids: THIS HURTS YOU!
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye0Rl16elKo" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye0Rl16elKo</a>
 

[Shane for Wax]

It's not the community manager. Don't push false or misleading information. It's a community manager. And they normally do things like police the forums, anyways.

As someone who was a community manager I will say upfront: WE NEVER KNOW WHAT THE DEVELOPERS/WRITERS/WHATEVER ARE DOING! We pass along information, we police the community, we make sure we get people to the right employees for questions, we broadcast things important to the community like events. But we rarely if ever know what goes on in development. And sometimes we do indeed make a mistake. A mistake we were fed by our superiors, most often. Or mistakes are made because we use what we have available and are told to basically decode it.

You want someone with a better idea of what's going on? Check Chris Priestly. Since he's the one actually at the studio ME3 was made. Since he's the one with the specific Mass Effect duties.

Also, I brokered peace between the quarians and the geth. Damn, I'm good. Or... Renegade. Since that's the option I used.

[The Illusive Man]

It's not the community manager. Don't push false or misleading information. It's a community manager. And they normally do things like police the forums, anyways.

As someone who was a community manager I will say upfront: WE NEVER KNOW WHAT THE DEVELOPERS/WRITERS/WHATEVER ARE DOING! We pass along information, we police the community, we make sure we get people to the right employees for questions, we broadcast things important to the community like events. But we rarely if ever know what goes on in development. And sometimes we do indeed make a mistake. A mistake we were fed by our superiors, most often. Or mistakes are made because we use what we have available and are told to basically decode it.

Wow, oh wow. In general, they have you guys doing PR and yet you are not trained to handle such. What could possibly go wrong?

You want someone with a better idea of what's going on? Check Chris Priestly. Since he's the one actually at the studio ME3 was made. Since he's the one with the specific Mass Effect duties.

Patrick Weekes tries to explain the ending.

-Did anyone on the Citadel survive?

Yes. We would never, ever do anything that made the player feel, on replay, that it would be better for everyone on the Citadel if they just died. The Citadel has emergency shelters and kinetic barriers - even if it blows up, millions might survive. You should assume that everyone plot-important on the Citadel survived.

(click to show/hide)

There were explosions on the arms even (2 endings, not blue)!

A BUH? How? HOW?  The Citadel blew the fuck up (Green, Red endings).  Complete with its arms detaching and drifting into space!

Red ending:
Arms exploding!

Arms detaching!


Green ending:
Arms exploding!


Arms detaching!


Those arms are going to go crashing into Earth due to gravity along with all the remains of space ships, bits of Reapers!  Endor holocaust anyone? Not to mention all the Eezo floating around, free cancer! There is precedent for this too!

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Eingana

The Krogan are going to love Earth, it will be so much like Tuchanka. Oh wait they can’t eat ANYTHING (except each other), never mind.

[The Illusive Man]

http://youtubedoubler.com/?video1=Z6v3PK88ZOM&start1=0&video2=rm82gjZDIDU&start2=0&authorName=NebulaCity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm82gjZDIDU

AHAHAHAHAHA Bioware ripped off Wintersun - Starchild cover art. Good lordy, it even changes colors from red to green to blue. AHAHAHAHA. Artistic integrity at its finest! Also a total of 16 colors! AHAHAHA. Two moons too! AHAHAHA. To top it off it even sounds like a vorcha is singing it.

Also look at the lyrics. Wow.
http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/wintersun/wintersun.html#6



A few funny things were brought up about the “stargazer” in the ending.  Look at the proportions of the child compared to the adult figures, notice something odd? The Something Awful Goons, NeoGaf, Bioware Forum goers are claiming that the proportions are off and both the adult and child are the same model but re-sized.


Also what the hell kind of story is Mass Effect for some little kid? Well, ok it can’t hold a candle to certain religious texts. Or maybe Grim, maybe.

Source for the below:
http://social.bioware.com/forums/forum/1/topic/355/index/11247275/2

"And then Shepard shot Mordin in the back."
"WHAAAAAAAT?"
"It's true, my sweet. Oh, but Mordin wasn't quite dead. He painfully crawled his bloody body along the ground and..."

"And then Shepard decided to maroon Ashley."
"But Grandpa, didn't he want to marry her? He was looking at her all lovey-eyed and all!"
"Sure did, my dear. But she was a xenophobic b***h, and besides, Kaidan later put out, so it was alright."


"Grandpa, why was Aria the queen of Omega?"
"Because nobody ****s with Aria, my sweet".

[Shane for Wax]

It's not the community manager. Don't push false or misleading information. It's a community manager. And they normally do things like police the forums, anyways.

As someone who was a community manager I will say upfront: WE NEVER KNOW WHAT THE DEVELOPERS/WRITERS/WHATEVER ARE DOING! We pass along information, we police the community, we make sure we get people to the right employees for questions, we broadcast things important to the community like events. But we rarely if ever know what goes on in development. And sometimes we do indeed make a mistake. A mistake we were fed by our superiors, most often. Or mistakes are made because we use what we have available and are told to basically decode it.

Wow, oh wow. In general, they have you guys doing PR and yet you are not trained to handle such. What could possibly go wrong?

Who said anything about not having the training? There's a difference between having to handle what we're given and not knowing how. But it's whatever.

You want someone with a better idea of what's going on? Check Chris Priestly. Since he's the one actually at the studio ME3 was made. Since he's the one with the specific Mass Effect duties.

Patrick Weekes tries to explain the ending.

What does that have to do with what I said?

Re: Citadel- I am quite sure the Citadel's arms have emergency propulsion systems to prevent such crashing. Hell, lots of things are floating above our little planet.

I think people are now desperate to make the ending seem even worse.

Re: Ashley- I'll let her speak for herself

[The Illusive Man]

It's not the community manager. Don't push false or misleading information. It's a community manager. And they normally do things like police the forums, anyways.

As someone who was a community manager I will say upfront: WE NEVER KNOW WHAT THE DEVELOPERS/WRITERS/WHATEVER ARE DOING! We pass along information, we police the community, we make sure we get people to the right employees for questions, we broadcast things important to the community like events. But we rarely if ever know what goes on in development. And sometimes we do indeed make a mistake. A mistake we were fed by our superiors, most often. Or mistakes are made because we use what we have available and are told to basically decode it.

Wow, oh wow. In general, they have you guys doing PR and yet you are not trained to handle such. What could possibly go wrong?

Who said anything about not having the training? There's a difference between having to handle what we're given and not knowing how. But it's whatever.

Is this correct, as a community manager you are put in a position to represent a company and explain their actions to an audience? If so, what is the training required to become a community manager?

I have been given the impression that community managers are the “fall guys” of sorts, a means to absorb audience hostility. Being given no info and forced to make stuff up always leads to the audience challenging your integrity. As discrepancies between what is stated by a community manager and what is planned is to be expected. Thus there is a disconnect between different groups in a company.

What does that have to do with what I said?

Re: Citadel- I am quite sure the Citadel's arms have emergency propulsion systems to prevent such crashing. Hell, lots of things are floating above our little planet.

I think people are now desperate to make the ending seem even worse.

Please do not try to claim that dreadnaughts, Reapers or the multitrillion ton arms of the Citadel as small, they are not.

Because Patrick Weekes is a writer for Bioware, not a community manager, who is fielding questions to try and justify the ending. Good luck with that train wreck. If find it funny that he also has to ignore the cinematics of the relays exploding (complete with debris too!).

And everyone forgets about the Destroy ending. Yay it destroys the Reapers (complete with the star child shorting out), but, the Reapers had all civilizations use their technology.

This includes:

• FTL drives, with the built in blocks that prevent anyone from slamming a ship at FTL into a reaper.
• EDI the Hannibal AI upgraded with Reaper hardware. Unless Joker is in a relationship with her, power of love plot hole I guess.
• The Geth, assuming they survive, after their upgrade via Reaper tech.

This has gotten to the point that is not about if Bioware botched the writing, its about just how badly they botched it. Grab a popcorn, a tasty beverage and watch the train wreck.

Re: Ashley- I'll let her speak for herself

Ashely has noting to do with the topic at hand.

[Shane for Wax]

You mentioned her being xenophobic, thus you brought her into it in your sarcasm.

No, I'm not saying they're small, I'm saying there are most likely ways to prevent such catastrophes as are being presented here. And that they could most likely float near Earth but not exactly crash into it. All I'm saying. I'm also saying people are now scrambling to make things look even worse. Conjuring up things that depend a lot on your own actions and your own experiences throughout the trilogy.

As for the training for community managers, it differs from company to company. I was taught how to speak, how to get the information out there, I was taught what things to pass on (since I only handled part of things. I was dealing with a specific console, while I had other community managers do the others).

Though I'm curious by your remarks about Stargazer and whether or not you actually played previous games. Since 2/3 of what you said are dependent on having played 1 and 2 to get a different show of things as well as once again your own fucking actions.

I am doing another Insanity run on level 60 with better weapons and better strategies. I'm doing better, I think. Since I'm choosing a better team to fit my character not just based on unique dialogue. I am dreading the later levels tho.

[The Illusive Man]

You mentioned her being xenophobic, thus you brought her into it in your sarcasm.

Actually those quotes are not mine, laziness on my part, the were lifted form the Bioware forums as a part of a joke. Simply put any quote into Google and you will find the source.

Source:
http://social.bioware.com/forums/forum/1/topic/355/index/11247275/2

No, I'm not saying they're small, I'm saying there are most likely ways to prevent such catastrophes as are being presented here. And that they could most likely float near Earth but not exactly crash into it. All I'm saying.

This is starting to sound like denial, I like that. All the excuses in the world will not make a difference because Bioware will ignore them. Ask the Indoct theorists about that.

Let’s bleed this a little more, it’s fun!

• How are they going to stop debits of Reapers and ships from plummeting to Earth? Line biotics up somewhere and have them use pull? Planetary defense turrets in space a la Halo...oh wait Reapers probably destroyed this if they existed.
• What, no addressing the Eezo released everywhere from all the destroyed ships? http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Eingana The more you realize that they wrote themselves into a corner the more hilarious it becomes.
• Be sure to remember that even dead Reapers can indoctrinate. If their core is intact they can keep an orbit too! Unless, everyone is going to forget about that derelict Reaper in Mass Effect 2.

I'm also saying people are now scrambling to make things look even worse. Conjuring up things that depend a lot on your own actions and your own experiences throughout the trilogy.

Bioware actually has to address info and context they put forth via the codex and how it applies to the endings, for all endings. Fret not though, I fully expect them to start retconning ("clarifying") or just outright ignore everything as an attempt to fixfic the ending.

Though I'm curious by your remarks about Stargazer and whether or not you actually played previous games.

Stargazer gives me the impression of being a rushed, blatant ripoff due to time constraints. It’s sad too because they got Buzz Aldrin to do a voiceover.

Mass Effect 3 needed another year or two in development. Hell even the poor mapping and collision/clipping problems in the Normandy are further evident of this. It is even possible to combat roll off a ladder in certain missions which breaks spawn points (no enemies spawn, can’t save).

Here is an example (I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite glitch on the Normandy SR2)
PC version of Mass Effect 3, walk (hold Ctrl) onto the floor panel near EDI. Suddenly you are stuck! Mose effective if you enter the panel according to the angle presented in the picture below.

(click to show/hide)

For debugging the following are the raw coordinates give via Gibbed's save editor.
X 106.506813
Y -1786.05518
Z 187.8289


I have played the games and delved into modding and console related stuff. I still remember the old but good stuff such as X_WAmmo_Harpoon and how to modify the supergun / superarmor commands for giggles. But the ending controversy and the info related tops everything else. It’s funny, as in tragic funny.

Since 2/3 of what you said are dependent on having played 1 and 2 to get a different show of things as well as once again your own fucking actions.

Aarrggg this reminds me of all the times I have to use one of the fan made save editors (Gibbed versions) to set flags and bool values because save files are never imported correctly from game to game. Bioware even put in a reference to this in ME3 via Conrad apologizing for accusing Shepard for pointing a gun in his face!

NEVAR FORGET!

[Witchyjoshy]

Get over it already.

[The Illusive Man]

Get over it already.

[sarcasm]But..but..but who will keep up the stereotype that gamers have no lives![/sarcasm]

On a more serious note, people bought a product only to be shafted. Have a little heart please.

[Shane for Wax]

You know what? I reiterate:



As per usual, it's clear to me you don't want to see other sides. You don't want to see anything. You don't want to listen. You're just like Councilor Sparatus, that fucking turian councilor. You will not, cannot, do not want to see anything besides what you have stuck in your noggin. Anything that goes against that you toss away. Anything I say is like the geth threat, or the Reapers.

You know what? I've looked at things from the other side. I can see why people would be upset. I get it. I understand. But people have gone far beyond upset to being downright despicable and putting their fingers in their ears or attacking people who don't find too much fault with the endings. Don't believe me? Check the bioware forums. There are a few threads where people have mentioned casually how they are okay with the endings and then you have dozens of people jumping on them, calling them an apologist, a troll, a moron, a fool, a shill for Bioware.

You say I'm in denial, but perhaps those who are so mouthy and rude about the endings are the ones in denial. Denial that it's over maybe? Denial that they didn't control the writing process? Denial that, regardless of anything, there was no way to account for everyone's views on how it should end? Denial that at the end of the day you can shape what you have into what you want and nobody needs to provide it for you? Denial that things aren't as bad as they seem?

Disappointment is when an author ends a story in a way you deem unsatisfying. Criticism is telling them as much. Entitlement is believing they owe you a new one.

So keep your Sparatus ideals. Keep your Sparatus mindset. Summer is coming and damn if people aren't going to bitch even harder because once again they are not in control of the writing process.

I'm sick, I'm tired. I'm disgusted by how people are acting. I'm not telling anyone not to be upset. I'm stating that perhaps there are better ways to do things, there is a better mindset? It has to be exhausting to be so angry and offended by something like this.