Mass Effect 3 - Casey Hudson Interview

Dhruin

Dhruin

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BioWare's Casey Hudson has answered some questions about Mass Effect 3 over at Digital Trends. Fan input, romances, the DLC controversy and, of course, the ending are discussed:
What are your thoughts on the reaction to the game’s endings?
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. 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.
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...and I thought I'd toss in Matt Barton's feelings on the ending:
GROW UP, GAMERS. Every friggin' game can't end with the Ewok cuddle patrol dancing and chanting "You sure are special, kid!"
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More information.
 
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I was more annoyed by the game's poor beginning (corny dialog, poor drama attempt with the airvent kid, magical mcguffin and convoluted plan) than the ending.

The Matt Barton article gets the facts wrong about what endings are available.

People seem to be bitching about the ending for all sorts different reasons, some wanted a hollywood ending, others wanted an epilogue, others wanted the original ending that involved dark energy.

The common point seems to be that mass effect fans are vocal whiners, from throwing a shitstorm about the game's original script and ending and getting those changed(how did that work out for ya?) to gay romance to origin all before the game even came out, to now bitching about the endings; they have to be some of the most whiny fans the genre has, I'd chalk it up to the soap opera/melodrama nature of the series.
 
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What I have heard about the ending reminds me of Divinity 2 (plain vanilla, no DKS or Add-On).
 
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Alrik Fassbauer said:
What I have heard about the ending reminds me of Divinity 2 (plain vanilla, no DKS or Add-On).
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Yeah I still remember that ending. You lose after everything you do but thankfully Larian made an expansion to flesh it out. I doubt Bioware will do the same.
 
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But the effect is the same :

Use a bad ending as a means to stay in the memories of the people forever.

Even when the ME series might perhaps one day be fully gone (just imagine; I doubt that this will happen anytime soon) - such an ending is something people will remember. Forever.

The impact of the Negativity is really a great emotional impact, no matter how you look at it. And bad things are often remembered much, much, much better than good things.

Someone might have said : "good endings, Disney-style ? Forgettable ! Let's unleash all available Negativiry to create the biggest emotional impact EVAR !" Ahem.

Well, it seems clear to me that some people really don't like good endings, Disney-style or whatever.

It's like … Heavy Metal music. Heavy Metal music isn't negative (except maybe Death Metal), but it isn't "Disney-style" either.
 
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Personally, I don't really care about "bad" or "good ending". It's not a happy ending, I seek, it's a ending that makes sense. There are plotholes you could fly the Destiny Ascension through - and this is even if you don't consider it simply badly written, as a Deus Ex Machina probably was considered a lame conclusion when it was invented by the ancient greeks. And of course, the ending for a trilogy that started out as a single player game should not depend on you playing multiplayer or not. It's nice that Multiplayer is there, mindless fun for people who see Mass Effect as a shooter, but making it a requirement for any kind of single player ending is simply a slap in the face to all the fans who were there long before ME3 with its multiplayer.
Oh, yes, and it would have been nice if any decision you made would have any consequence for the ending, but in the end, nothing you did mattered.
Made peace with the geth? Nope, doesn't matter, nobody cares, war between synthetics and biologic species is still UNAVOIDABLE. Yep. Why? Some mass-murdering thingy somewhere said so, so it must be true and Shepard doesn't even need to try saying something against that…
Again, a Deus Ex Machina is NOT a conclusion, even if it comes offering you three choices that have nothing to do with what happend until then. That doesn't make the game dramatic or dark or gritty or something... Just confused and badly written.
 
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Yep, definitely gives me the DA2 vibe - this is the choice we made for you, your actual choice didn't mean a thing.
 
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I don't need ewoks dancing in the streets - ehm - forest - ehm - wrong movie/game. Or that there is cake, drinks and celebrations and bonfires. As I said in the other thread many people on the BSN ME3 forums have argued politely, meaningfull and calmly that the endings make no sense at all. And they do mean at all. They feel the whole Mass Effect universe's terminology about the mass relays, why people can trek into the star systems, the starry sky etc. all went out the Normandy's windows... And got handwaved away...

Or as Anders says at a point in DA2: - a wizard did it...
 
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KapitanUnterhosen said:
The common point seems to be that mass effect fans are vocal whiners, from throwing a shitstorm about the game's original script and ending and getting those changed(how did that work out for ya?) to gay romance to origin all before the game even came out, to now bitching about the endings; they have to be some of the most whiny fans the genre has, I'd chalk it up to the soap opera/melodrama nature of the series.
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Maybe you should try to grow up and stop insulting people just because you do not agree with them? And besides, we are paying customers unsatisfied with the product we have bought, and which has been advertised in misleading way (there is no problem finding quotes of developers and producers saying things that are in complete contradiction to what we got), so we have every right to express our concerns. Despite what corporate apologetics think. In fact if we manage to create a unified front here, it would be really awesome to change the balance of power in gamers to publishers relations. And maybe then games will not be so often dumbed down or remade as first/third person shooters against player wishes, because marketing thinks it will sell more.
 
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More fuel for the fire: (SPOILERS)

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/9999272/1

On Deciding the End of the Game
The illusive man boss fight had been scrapped… but there was still much debate. One night walters scribbled down some thought on various ways the game could end with the line "Lots of speculation for Everyone!" at the bottom of the page.

And even in November the gameplay team was still experimenting with an endgame sequence where players would suddenly lose control of Shepard's movement and fall under full reaper control. (This sequence was dropped because the gaemplay mechanic proved too troublesome to implement alongside dialogue choices).
 
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KapitanUnterhosen said:
The common point seems to be that mass effect fans are vocal whiners, from throwing a shitstorm about the game's original script and ending and getting those changed(how did that work out for ya?) to gay romance to origin all before the game even came out, to now bitching about the endings; they have to be some of the most whiny fans the genre has, I'd chalk it up to the soap opera/melodrama nature of the series.
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I think that this is actually wanted by Bioware. They have their customers in an emotional bind. The whole web is abuzz. So much free advertising! Bioware will now be able to sell a juicy bit of DLC for a relatively high price. And everyone will be happy ever after.
 
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I have watched the ending on youtube. It is indeed very beautiful and calm to look at. If you follow the link Iranian posted, you'll get to a comment that links to the youtube video. In this video questions are asked - but not answered. Also the person behind posting the link to the youtube video suggests something.....

But first let me recap Bioware's dream sequences in games: In BG1 and BG2, there were dream sequences, in DA: Origins and DA2, we had to enter the Fade e.g. a dream state. If you look closely and watch what is happening in the end sequence shown on youtube, you'll notice how similar the ending looks to the dream state end in the Fade.
If the music played during the end scene (as shown on youtube), this should also give you a good idea about what the ending(s) suggest. The endings seem to ask, albeit implicitly, what is reality and what is virtual reality, e.g. A.I. i.e. artificial Intelligence.

However, the ending(s) also suggest that someone has watched I, Robot and the Spielberg movie, A.I, to many times, it seems.
 
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Honestly, you're really bad at reading names, aren't you? :) And I wouldn't mind a dream sequence, but the ending should be AFTER you awaken.
 
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Yes, sorry about that :) I think I need new glasses ;) ....

I'm pretty sure that the somehow it could be a dream sequence....the thing that convinced me was the music. Listening to it transports your clearly into another realm...
 
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aries100 said:
Yes, sorry about that :) I think I need new glasses ;) ….

I'm pretty sure that the somehow it could be a dream sequence….the thing that convinced me was the music. Listening to it transports your clearly into another realm…
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To me it seemed like Shepard was being indoctrinated. Like the saying goes assuming control all hail the next harbinger.
 
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aries100 said:
I'm not sure what this indoctrinated mean - (as I'm currently a decade away from ME3 gaming due to real life interfearing with my gaming ;) ) - the point I was trying to make was the ending seemed like a illusion to me…
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That's what indoctrinated means, The reaper overlord harbinger is taking over his mind with visions and illusions. Its how they assimilate you to there side of thinking. Just look at the illusive man for an example.
 
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