The release of Mass Effect 3 on March 6th was one of the most anticipated games of the year. The title was set to wrap up an epic story driven trilogy. A story created by the fans, driven by the fans, for the fans. So my question is, “Is the customer always right?” As someone who has worked in retail, the food service industry, sales, security and tech support I can unequivocally say NO! The customer is not always right. Simply paying for a product doesn’t grant license to an individual to impose their wants or misconceptions on the seller. A product is generally sold as is unless specifically told otherwise. That is unless the item is misrepresented in some way.
And there lays the rub.
Casey Hudson of Bioware was quoted prior to release, “This story arc is coming to an end with this game. That means the endings can be a lot more different. At this point we’re taking into account so many decisions that you’ve made as a player and reflecting a lot of that stuff. It’s not even in any way like the traditional game endings, where you can say how many endings there are or whether you got ending A, B, or C.”
In another interview Hudson stated, “There are many different endings. We wouldn’t do it any other way. How could you go through all three campaigns playing as your Shepard and then be forced into a bespoke ending that everyone gets?”
“Mass Effect 3 is all about answering all the biggest questions in the lore, learning about the mysteries and the Protheans and the Reapers, being able to decide for yourself how all of these things come to an end.”
“Every decision you’ve made will impact how things go. The player’s also the architect of what happens.”
“You’ll get answers to everything. That was one of the key things. Regardless of how we did everything, we had to say, yes, we’re going to provide some answers to these people.”
Casey Hudson has spoken openly for the first time about Mass Effect 3’s controversial ending, which has stirred up plenty of anger among some series fans:
“I didn’t want the game to be forgettable, and even right down to the sort of polarizing reaction that the ends have had with people – debating what the endings mean and what’s going to happen next, and what situation are the characters left in,” Hudson said, “That to me is part of what’s exciting about this story. There has always been a little bit of mystery there and a little bit of interpretation, and it’s a story that people can talk about after the fact.”
He went on to say that BioWare takes fan feedback very seriously, and that the Mass Effect community will help shape upcoming campaign and multiplayer DLC. “Oh, we pay very close attention to it. It’s very important to us and we will always listen to feedback, interpret it and try and do the right thing by our fans,” said Hudson, “That’s why if you look at Mass Effect 2 we knew that people wanted to spend more time with a character like Liara, and so we created an ongoing storyline with her as part of the comics and then built it into the DLC stuff, and we’re always listening to fans. We have some really great multiplayer content and some really great single-player content coming over the air, and their feedback will become part of how we design that.”
Let’s pretend to ignore that and so much more for a moment.
We as fans, as customers, the ones who’ve molded these adventures as our own since 2007 feel cheated. More so, we feel out right disrespected. We were looking forward to the game because A) It’s the finale to a phenomenal trilogy and B) because the creative brain trust at BioWare told us we were getting a vastly different title. What we were told to expect was radically different ways in which the story would end. Fans came out of every corner to show their disbelief, their hurt, their utter disappointment in being misled and let down.
This was and is an emotional series for the fans who have been with it since day one. You feel for every character. There’s a bond that’s forged in virtual battle. The story makes you wish you were there to see it all unfold before your eyes so you could witness first hand an epic tale in which through it all, the hero prevails while maintaining his or her humanity.
I won’t lie. There were moments where I felt like I wanted to actually cry over a death in the game. The unavoidable ones were the worst: Thane, Mordin, and – for the love of god – Legion. When a video game can be that engrossing, you know you’re involved with something special!
But…
There’s a rumor, although unconfirmed, Casey Hudson and lead writer Mac Walters secluded themselves to write the ending alone. Why? Were the other members of the writing team all of a sudden eaten by a Reaper?
Many sites have been started to help fans both cope with their disdain in an attempt to productively push forward with a movement to do what no organized group has done before: Change the ending to an already completed and released title. The crazy thing is, there’s true momentum to this movement. Demand a Better Ending to Mass Effect 3 on Facebook has over 56,000 members expressing their grief, disbelief, theories, and ideas to improve the game. Most are very productive as these are the core group who appreciate this series on a level that only the creators can. Shouldn’t these gamers have the right to petition for changes? In a way they directly shaped the game with their choices, relationships, and personal morality.
These various movements taking shape online are amazing on so many levels. So many different people all came together and said: No. Not to our story. Shepard deserved better. The series deserved better! WE deserved better! Let’s do something about it!
Emails began being sent. Forums created with thousands of posts. Actual hand written letters were mailed. Interviews with various online blogs and gaming press organizations took place. The ball not only started rolling, but was shot out of a cannon!
G4 did a story on the issue. CNN covered the issue. Forbes has released a few columns about the effort. I thought to myself, “Holy crap this is the greatest show of both support and will I’ve seen for something of this nature.” If that weren’t enough, the fans on Demand a Better Ending for ME3 also raised over $80,000 for Child’s Play charities as a way to help others while venting their frustration in a positive way. These are serious gamers with a serious love / hate relationship with BioWare. I’ll be honest many will openly admit they hate EA, seeing the company doesn’t hide the fact everything’s about the bottom line first, all else is secondary. BioWare on the other hand used to stand for the fans. Everything was for and about their most staunch supporters and it showed.
Now Bioware have a chance to make things right. Fans may never forget the violation of good faith but, given the right solution, they may very well forgive BioWare by sticking with them in the future having knowledge that should they be truly disappointed down the line, the company will actually listen. Not pretend to listen, which is how all fans – myself included – feel as everything stands right now. The ball is in their court. Will they let us play with it again or are they taking the ball and going home? Time will tell.
A problem is the longer BioWare waits, the more damage is done. Eventually the rift will get so great there will be no going back. Fans definitely don’t want that to occur.
We’ll see in April and I’ll keep you posted.
