The Mass Effect 3/BioWare Thread

[Kashrlyyk]

...
bros feel free to stop drop and collaborate : https://docs.google.com/document/d/...0H84DlCTUmzQ_uQh1voTUs/preview?pli=1&sle=true
....

I get the feeling this is just an attempt to justify their delusional "indoctrination theory".

 

[corvus]

I don't care much about ME3, haven't played it, probably not going to, but the real tragedy is that the game has caused Serious_Business to stop posting. That fucking sucks.

We got Sir Meltdown back at least.

 

[treave]

...
bros feel free to stop drop and collaborate : https://docs.google.com/document/d/...0H84DlCTUmzQ_uQh1voTUs/preview?pli=1&sle=true
....

I get the feeling this is just an attempt to justify their delusional "indoctrination theory".

I refuse to accept that Bioware are incompetent writers who can't plot their way out of a wet paper bag. That's an honour reserved for Obsidian.

Has anyone trolled them with KoTOR2 yet?

edit: There's a lot of "This is nonsense. This is impossible!" in the document when talking about the ending.

It's inexcusable. Part of what drove me to write this analysis is that it is inconceivable to me that a professional writer could have produced this staggering degree of literary incompetence and I truly want to believe that it's all part of the plan - not necessarily for the sake of the Mass Effect story, but for the sake of my continued faith in human competence.

 

[Ulminati]

Beauty and the beast? Gaston + Belle? Or is my pre-photoshop-fu weak?

 

[treave]

You are correct.

 

[lulurkinglurkerlurk]

 

[Kashrlyyk]

...
bros feel free to stop drop and collaborate : https://docs.google.com/document/d/...0H84DlCTUmzQ_uQh1voTUs/preview?pli=1&sle=true
....

I get the feeling this is just an attempt to justify their delusional "indoctrination theory".

I refuse to accept that Bioware are incompetent writers who can't plot their way out of a wet paper bag. That's an honour reserved for Obsidian.

....

It's inexcusable. Part of what drove me to write this analysis is that it is inconceivable to me that a professional writer could have produced this staggering degree of literary incompetence and I truly want to believe that it's all part of the plan - not necessarily for the sake of the Mass Effect story, but for the sake of my continued faith in human competence.

Even after seeing the sloppy photoshop picture of Tali's face, you still think all of them are competent? It only takes ONE influential person in Bioware to screw over the story. There is a reason "executive meddling" is an entry in TvTropes. It is because it happens.

 

[Saark]

Professional critics don't let the ending ruin the whole game for them. They consider all aspects of the game and the story is only one of those aspects

Haha. Fucking gold right there.

You heard it kids. In an RPG, story is only a small part of the game, that totally doesn't influence the rating at all when it blows. I guess that's how they all get perfect scores all the time, the story just doesn't count.

 

[treave]

Even after seeing the sloppy photoshop picture of Tali's face, you still think all of them are competent? It only takes ONE influential person in Bioware to screw over the story. There is a reason "executive meddling" is an entry in TvTropes. It is because it happens.

Of course they are competent. How could anyone who wrote that touching little vignette of Cortez weeping over his dead husband be anything but competent?

 

[Storyfag]

Moar liek butt competent, amirite?

Truth be told, though, the game is awesome for what it is. Consider this: my best mate's gf was a hopeless bio fangirl (and otherwise a normal, likeable person). After receiving this game for her birthday she now loaths bio with a passion

 

[Menckenstein]

Beauty and the beast? Gaston + Belle? Or is my pre-photoshop-fu weak?

You got it.

Moar liek butt competent, amirite?

Truth be told, though, the game is awesome for what it is. Consider this: my best mate's gf was a hopeless bio fangirl (and otherwise a normal, likeable person). After receiving this game for her birthday she now loaths bio with a passion

But does she hate them for the right reasons? It's more likely she despises them for denying her the chance for her fairytale princess ending with her manwaifu, like so many butthurt biodrones.

 

[The Genius]

This thread been linked to yet?

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/9993946/1

After Tali's photoshop face I thought nothing worse can happen...

...then it did.



1. Take a good long look at the at the time of upload
2. Watch the static picture and the shiny changing colours
3. Listen to/Read the lyrics
4. Enjoy

 

[DwarvenFood]

Fuck no, the worst part of Monday. Wading through 10 pages of this shit created over the weekend.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

It is hard to resist the syren call of Biofaggotry.

 

[Ion Prothon II]

What you guys would say if Bio turned the whole ME3 ending into lulzy rip-off of Planet Escape Tournament? Citadel instead of Fortress of Regrets, with Harbinger in the place of Transcendent One, killing all squadmates one by one or forcing them to turn against the protagonist. Player finally faces Harbinger One and is given a choice to merge with him or rather control/destroy this shit. Of course, everything would be shown in next-gen emotionally engaging way, with extensive usage of unskippable cutscenes including gay love and cover shooting.

 

[hiver]

There is another "great" article at RPS, those stalwart defenders of game quality.

No need to bother yourself with it.
last two lines:

Aggrieved players want footnotes and appendices detailing what happened to everyone and what the ultimate upshot of their decisions was, not additional side-content squeezed into the early and mid-game.

And some of them want it so much they’ve even filed a complaint to the US Federal Trade Commission, arguing that ME3′s finale doesn’t match up to what was promised by marketing. Good for them. I’m going to go and play another videogame now.

meh, its a video game.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Video games are Serious_Business

 

[K9doggie]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/...0H84DlCTUmzQ_uQh1voTUs/preview?sle=true&pli=1
"A Logical Breakdown of why Mass Effect 3's Ending Makes no Sense."

Have only skimmed through this. From what I've read, seems more like wishful thinking and excusing bad writing than something Bioware was actually planning all along.

In other words, fan fiction.

 

[CrustyBot]

Already posted but my God, the OP and collected posts!

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/10084349

The same holds true here as in every negotiation. There are trained PR people at work here. They are experts in double talk, delaying action and deception here. I cannot speak in PR stuff here, but as a former military I can say you this (and the PR guy from the first post will most likely agree):

The only viable strategy for you guys is doing exactly what the other side cannot handle: Keep the pressure up! DON'T fall in line, don't respond to false offers of peace.

The strategic position is this. On your side you have a vast military but still rather disorganized. On the other hand you have a very well trained and organized but outnumbered army.

The other side is currently in the following position: They are attacked on all fronts but still mostly disorganized so
they, being better trained, have been able to mostly hold the line for now. They are also most likely experiencing the first signs of sales losses, of dropping multiplayer counts and they have predictions on their tables of dropping DLC sales. In military terms: They are experiencing attrition effects, they have supply problems. The only viable strategy in that situation is: Keep your forces together, make only very thought through moves, do as many delaying and distracting moves as possible, because that's the only thing where you still have the advantage: The enemy is unorganized and cannot yet strike as an organized whole. If that were the case... bye, bye.

So what you guys have to do now is use YOUR advantages and exploit their weaknesses. That means: Keep the pressure up and increase it. Organize, do organized large scale strikes. They have NO way to defend against those. The more organized you become, the more they will be able to feel your numbers. They cannot defend against a full-blown strike. They can only delay you and try to disrupt you. If you don't let them do that, you'll
win outright.

So the best way to achieve this is to organize loud protests, organized, and well thought through. Also don't ever respond positively to ANYTHING but your initial demands. Don't even think about responding to "maybe"s or "let's talk"s. What you want is a full surrender; NOTHING else. DON'T stop before they bow down and literally talk to you on YOUR terms. YOU are the customers. Use that. This also means:

DON'T play the game, DON'T buy and DLCs unless they are EXACTLY what you want. They will feel the dropping numbers, they have Origin. Many people didn't like Origin, but now it is YOUR weapon. Don't play and the WILL see that. They do have the statistics. The fewer people order anything, the fewer people use origin the heavier you are threatening their supply lines.

Kill their supply lines while holding up the pressure and you WILL win this. But DON'T ever give in. YOU have the upper hand, DON'T let them take that away from you.

Also never become angry or uncivil, because that is another one of their strategies. If you become an angry mob, they will be able to sell you as such, gathering allies. You don't want them to be able to do that. Think of this as a war between a rebel force with huge numbers and the loyalist army of the head of state. If the head of state manages to picture you in public opinion as an angry mob, as terrorists or whatever, they might be getting help by powerful allies (read: the press). If however you remain civil, fight a gallant war and voice your concerns in a reasonable way, then YOU might be getting help and in the end the UN might intervene on your behalf (read again: the press will force them to give in or lose a ****load of money).

Keep this up people. Don't take the pressure of.

The minute you do, they have won.


Edit: To Bioware:


Don't take this the wrong way. I truly love you guys and I'm a huge fan. But this thing just won't fly. What you did here was just bad judgment and I think the best way for you to handle this is to fix this ASAP and maybe make some money with it (although if I were you, I'd be real careful with that one).

You have achieved something here that is really incredible. You should actually be proud of yourselves to some degree. If you hadn't done a whole lot of things right, people wouldn't be here complaining. They would sit at home and say "Who gives a sh*t!?"You have created a franchise that is so wonderful and so loved that people actually DO care. All you have to do now is make you that stays that way. And that will not be achieved by PR bullsh*t by the books. It will be achieved by showing them that this industry is not just about money and about sales counts and quarterly reports but that it is still about wanting to give people a great time and about making people happy with your creations.

Sorry I have to be against you guys this time. But see it like this... this entire army that is kicking your nuts right now... if you play things right you'll have all of them behind you, whenever you need them, in the next war.

I'm really hoping this war will end in a way that benefits both sides in the end.

So long...

 

[Ulminati]

Stuff

So you're saying that by never buying this turd, I'm indirectly supporting the whining Biodrones who can't handle getting the ending they deserved?

 

[LoPan]

Ulminati, I believe that's what he's saying when he goes off about cutting their supply line. I suppose the fellow may get a nice feeling writing that sort of thing, must feel good to get all hopped up on military-man-speak.

Already posted but my God, the OP and collected posts!

Yes, that KeldorKatarn one is by far the worst of the lot; it rankles the brain to attempt to piece together an explanation of what makes it so fundamentally erroneous.

 

[Menckenstein]

I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the Bioware offices starting from the leak onward. It must be awful to be a low-level worker in that hive, you bust your ass doing your job (unless you're the team doing animations) and all those at the top fuck it up so bad that it's basically a blemish on your resume.

 

[LoPan]

Didn't Bioware outsource animation, and most everything else, and had a temporary team or something along those lines? At this point Bioware may just be a board of writers getting pissed, in the British sense, over people not appreciating the conclusion to their ground-breaking epic that they have so delicately planned since half a decade ago.

 

[Menckenstein]

Pretty soon all AAA titles will be an amalgam of outsourced projects all slapped together. It'll be like 80's cartoons in game form.

 

[sea]

I get the feeling this is just an attempt to justify their delusional "indoctrination theory".

I don't think it was initially, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was heavily edited by BioWare fans who do support that outcome. Notice all of the "it's like a dream!" stuff and the general tone of it early on - the later arguments are much more critical.

The indoctrination hypothesis, while kind of plausible, ultimately is undone because there are so many plot holes and other problems in the game to begin with. If you're going to say "it was all a hallucination" then where does it start and where does it end? If things make no fucking sense at X point, does that mean X was also a dream? What if the "indoctrination" segments are directly contradicted by prior events? It's just such a fucking mess that it's impossible to say one way or another.