Update:Angry Mass Effect 3 consumers file FTC complaints en masse

[Shane for Wax]

It's 99% an amazing game. I think people have the right to ask for DLC to increase different types of endings, so you still feel as if you can control an outcome, and to threaten not buying another game, the usual first world problems and all... But people are acting like this is some sort of swindle or scam. It's pure, unadulturated bullshit, and these so-called "gamers" are ruining a relationship with a divison of EA that hasn't completely screwed gamers over in the past.

FANBOY! /troglodyte 'gamer'

Anyways, yes... I have been uh... very vocal on twitter over it. My friends are awesome tho and agree with the precedent this sets. It's a very dangerous one and a massive slippery slope that will cause more death of ideas than anything else.

[Yaezakura]

You know, I've never played any Mass Effect game, but I have a lot of friends who do, and have talked about this at length.

I don't think anyone's upset that unhappy endings are possible. They're upset that only unhappy endings are possible. For that matter, they're upset that only one ending is really possible--every possible ending is a different flavor of the same scenario. No amount of effort you put in over the course of three games matters, only one decision you make really affects the outcome, and even then no matter what you pick, it's basically the same thing as if you had picked something else.

It's not what people were promised, and I think people have a right to be upset over that. If they had said "yeah, every ending is basically the same, and all are pretty much a 'fuck you' to the player", no one would have room to say anything. Instead, they were promised meaningfully different endings and a bunch of other stuff that simply wasn't delivered.

[RavynousHunter]

Wooooooooow...really?  That's some Peter Molyneux-level failure, right there.  You make a promise, players are going to expect you to keep to them...and they're going to be rightfully pissed if you don't keep to em.

FTC complaints are overboard, yes...but, this does sound like a case where outrage is called-for.

[CaseAgainstFaith]

Wooooooooow...really?  That's some Peter Molyneux-level failure, right there.  You make a promise, players are going to expect you to keep to them...and they're going to be rightfully pissed if you don't keep to em.

FTC complaints are overboard, yes...but, this does sound like a case where outrage is called-for.

I agree FTC complaints are overboard as well however, it did seem like EA went into a bit of a panic and gave a quick response once it found out that this happened and now you can get a refund for the game should you want one. 

[Vypernight]

I'm proceeding under the assumption that the 'endings' are really illusions that Harbringer is using to try and control you.  Otherwise, the Catylist is just a pint-sized Jigsaw who wants you to either saw off your arm, your leg, or or your head.

[VirtualStranger]

From what I understand, the problem with the ending isn't that the endings are depressing, or even that all of the endings are depressing. The problem is that the ending renders every choice you have ever made throughout all of the last 3 games completely pointless. In the end, none of your past choices matter in the slightest. Every outcome is the same.

From the very beginning, ever since Mass Effect 1, players were promised that their choices throughout the series would affect the final outcome. They were told that every choice they made would have a substantial impact. The final game completely failed to deliver on that promise.

[e13]

The example I've given is this.

You're a kid. You buy a "you choose the adventure book." Every path you take ends with "go to page 50." Except a few that send you to 51 and 52. In those, you end the story wearing a different colored shirt. Why did you spend all that time making different choices?

[Witchyjoshy]

For the journey?

[RavynousHunter]

The journey can be good, damn good...but, the ending is like the icing on the cake.  While shitty icing may not ruin the whole cake, it does leave a bad taste in your mouth.  It only serves to make that bad taste worse if you were promised that the icing would be excellent from the time the cake was naught more than batter.

[Witchyjoshy]

On the other hand, I've sometimes found that too good icing can detract from a cake, and indeed, make it too rich to actually consume.

...No, that has nothing to do with Mass Effect 3 or choose-your-own-adventure books :V

[Yaezakura]

For the journey?

The problem is, you don't read a choose-your-own-adventure book when you want a linear progression. You want your choices to matter. Sure, maybe you make the "wrong" choice and get eaten by a rabid wolverine. But at least your choices actually lead you to that outcome.

When every choice leads you to the same place, what's the point of having choices at all?

Heck, I tend to prefer linear progressions to open ones. I think the tighter focus leads naturally to better storytelling, as you don't have to water anything down to compensate for choices some players did/didn't make. But you don't promise to sell me a a photo-realistic landscape painting, then show up with a piece of canvas someone squirt paint out of their ass in the general direction of. Sure, both are art, and if you're into the latter there's nothing wrong with it--but it's not what I was promised, and it wasn't what I paid for.

[e13]

For the journey?

I bought a "you choose the adventure" book. If I wanted a set ending I would not have picked that up. I wouldn't read twenty different stories that all ended the exact same way. I'd want to read one if it had a set ending. Otherwise there is no point.

I play a lot of visual novels. The point of a visual novel is affecting the outcome, like in Mass Effect. If you have no impact on the ending, you're no longer "playing" a visual novel. You're "reading" a storybook.

[Shano]

Here is my take on things. Aside from what everyone else already explained I have an issue with the vast discrepancy in quality that the endings present:

(click to show/hide)

You may have already seen many of these points in some excellent reviews of the endings out there. I will not generally outline the reviews - a particularly good one in my opinion is the Gamefront one - look it up.
1. Let's for now assume that the endings as they are were the definitive and final intent of the developers. Then the number of oversight ERRORS in the endings become very curious since before that and in the previous games the developers have shown exquisite attention to detail.
a) After the blast from Harbinger Shepard loses his armor and appears very bruised but with impeccable uniform! It is understandable that s/he has only a pistol, but darn if the blast destroyed the armor and bruised her/him all over, why is the uniform so clean and sound? And it is hard to imagine that someone (who?) removed her/his armor while s/he was unconscious.
b) What elevates the oversight here is that in the super ending after Shepard chooses the red ending (destroying all synthetics) s/he is shown to survive. But somehow someone put her/his armor back!
c) The whole issue with the people who are shown to survive on the Normandy after the destruction of the relays. How come the love interest is always present regardless if you took her/him to the final assault, in which as you hear on the radio NO ONE else survived... And how did they go to the Normandy if they survived somehow? And why are they running away through a mass relay?
These horrible oversights are creating the feeling that the endings as presented are of significantly lower quality than any other part of the game. That is in addition to all other philosophical and game lore points presented in various articles.
To me it just doesn't make sense that the developers would be satisfied with it. It's mind boggling.

Of course a lot of people are subscribing to the indoctrination/hallucination theory that rather nicely explains the oversight if it were intended by the devs. What irks me personally is that according to my interpretation of Dr. Muzyka's statement the current endings were the intended ones... Unless that is also part of the indoctrination spiel Bioware may be playing - but that becomes more and more implausible...