Everyone always talks about the next Star Wars type story that will take hold of our generation. Disney even tried toting this with John Carter that ended witha fizzle at the box office. Though entertaining it just wasn't another Star Wars. One of the things I think we have all come to realize is. If they're saying it will be the Star Wars of our time, they're pushing their unrealistic dreams of striking gold like Lucas did. Trying to push things to go viral, seldom result in it. Now as much as there have been all these claims of the next star wars type franchise taking root. Seldom do we see one pop up and then have it burned to the ground by both its creators and funding agencies. The franchise I speak of is Mass Effect. This series had some fantastic marketing claims by Casey Hudson. The biggest one being that all your choices would play out in a the final conflict. A fantastic idea that to this day has never been tried. The demise isn't just because of Andromeda's problems. Both EA and BioWare were still trying to get over a fan base that was clearly ticked off by what had come before with the previous installment Mass Effect 3. The following is a recap of those events.
Mass Effects first installment while a little buggy, was really a lot of fun. The mechanics were sound and needing a little refinement. Some lens flair lighting could be annoying. The exploration missions and lore behind the current and previous races was fantastic. The choices you could make that would effect the outcome of the games ending was game changing. The characters were written very well and they became staples of the Mass Effect universe. The voice acting, the expressions, the raw emotion behind some of the scenes. How pumped you got being the first human to be a Spectre. The choice between renegade and pargon is what made the game thrive. Like the choice between light and dark. The music and scenes coming together was on point. The back story of a Reaper threat was an interesting mystery. This galaxy and technologies around it were pretty unique and the writers, designers, programmers, all who came up with it truly deserve a pat on the back for the first installment.
Mass effect 2 was a vast improvement over the last game. EA had aquired Bioware since the first game, which lead to a lot of concerns about them forcing a multiplayer and affecting the overall single player story. Although some mechanics were stripped from the game, they had also added some new ones. Weapons now needing a heat sink that would be discarded, with the need for more clips that were essentially ammo. The elimination of omni-gel as a resource from weapons and armor. This was in an effort to make it more of a shooter than an RPG.
The M.A.C.O. and exploring with it being completely stripped out of the game was a big let down. Althou it did make an appearance at the Normandy crash site and they did add the M-44 Hammerhead, but the exploring you could do with it did not live up to the M.A.C.O. It was unique and still fun to whip around in. The biotic powers, squad usage and cover system were perfected for seemless combat. The completed game and loyalty missions were a lot of fun and integral to the outcome of the second installment. The story remained intact and concluded based on correct decisions lead to favorable outcomes. Your choices mattered! The enemies seemed real and a huge threat to the galaxy at large. Multiple game saves of your different decisions were not uncommon. This made fans feel like they had literally perfected the model and the promise of the final decisions playing out.
It looked as if Mass Effect 3, the next installment, was going to be in great hands and everything would only get better. Your decisions would all carry over. The decisions from the first game of saving the council had yet to play out. Anderson's role or the politicians role had yet to be realized. Saving/not saving the Destiny Ascension, saving/killing the Rachni queen were all things that could potentially bite you in the rear or help you in the final conflict.
Then there were all the decisions you made in the second game. The biggest one being the collector base, saving/destroying the Geth and the way you handled the Genophage all had great potential. Mass Effect 2 was a complete game with some great end game DLC that made the game even better. The additional DLC merged seamlessly within the game without having to load a completely separate game. This was the way to make a great game and it squashed a lot of fears that EA would kill or destroy Mass Effect and BioWare. They had finally found the balance of making a game and adding to it for additional revenue. Mass Effect 2 is something the industry should be using as a model. Make a great complete game and add to it. This is what fans wanted from here on out.
Now we have Mass Effect 3. The Reaper threat is finally upon us. The game came out in record time which was by far the biggest red flag. Forums were filled with threads saying. "Hey! Take your time! Just make a good game that closes out well" The game starts out and you're trying to get off the planet. Anderson on the council or not is like. "F it! I'm a military guy. I'll stay and fight." his role on the council was pointless. Shepard leaves to go and get help from all other races whom are also dealing with the Reaper threat. The Genophage story arc is closed and done well, but the results in question for the future. Leaving a great opportunity for future games about the Krogans and their renewed ability to breed. The Geth essentially have to be saved yet again. Although the closure of this story arc did seemed satisfying as the Quarians will get to return home. Then everything else after that just falls apart. The rest just came down to a lousy point based system towards building the Crucible. You also were forced to play an unrelated multiplayer horde mode to earn more points... WHAT? Playing in game content you were repeating missions/themes making the same choices again. almost as if you were starting over. You have to save the Rachni Queen again? If you save her in the mission she is more points and a hologram of the Admiral talking about how they work... The collector base has no real effect, nor does the council, or any of the other decisions you made. I mean things that really could have been awesome to see play out were just capped off or scrapped.
So we all know how the game ends. Yes there were some memorable moments, but the glaring problems in writing at the end was like they just gave up or didn’t have enough time. Disposable heroes and an upset in gaming unlike anything we have ever seen. A stupid cut scene of someone, assumed to be Shepard, breathing in N7 armor post credits that never ever goes anywhere. They literally did to Shepard what they did with Trinity in the Matrix. Bring him/her back just to kill them again. The time it takes to make these games, this is not cool to get back around to Mass Effect. This is a franchise that should be seeing these games pumped out with spin offs. The backlash produced some great fan theories that are so good. How could they not be? Even if the fans figured it out and there wasn't a surprise. Indoctrination theory would have been a masterpiece. Then a final statement by BioWare saying "We're done with Shepard” acted as a final nail in the coffin. The statement only enraged fans further. This is not how Shepard was going to go out. Not by a long shot!
So ME3? Shepard went out like a red shirt. The disposable heroes thing needs to stop. The idea that you need to kill off old characters to pave the way for new ones will always be a lazy and dumb idea. We want the story to move forward, but with either the character making cameos and referenced many times if only for you to fill their shoes. It also didn’t have to be a happy ending. Killing off the main character might have worked if they left him that way in ME2. But they brought him back and set the precedent in both 1 and 2 that proper choices leads to a favorable outcome. We all thought we just had to go back and make different choices. There was no possibility of a no win scenario. By killing Shepard, they killed in essence, the players themselves. Their progress, their achievements, hours of game play. It was like all those game plays and saves in the end... They all just didn't matter! It was a punch in the gut to everyone who had invested so much into the Mass Effect trilogy. They literally took a hero and just felt they were done with him/her and was discarded. Not only that but, the fans were starting to realize that they could also be discarded. The completed game was cut up and sold as DLC on day one and the fans were not having any of it. This was the EA they had come to know and expect and it was not okay they destroyed Mass Effect.
As complaints poured in, we saw BioWare claim artistic integrity. IGN who had a staff member in the game. Aside of the randomness that was Dianna Allers. This actor/commentator who hadn't even completed the game, was giving ME3 rave reviews. There was no integrity or objectivity with anyone at IGN. This showed the reviewers couldn't be trusted and completely shredded any credibility IGN had. EA was spinning the negative press like "it was the most talked about game" was laughable and a slap in the face of fans who were just getting more and more angry. Reports of EA buying reviews on Metacritic and having people troll the forums to up talk the game. While evidience of this was slim, it would not be unheard of. But you could see it was getting ugly really fast. The polls on BioWare's forums showed a 91% disapproval rating before dropping to about 89%. BioWare even started talking about Shepard's Legacy and legend should be all the fans should need. “Look where you came from and look what you did. Now your're dead and we're done with the character. Now buy DLC and move on!” They clearly were letting the fire burn that would eventually destroy and consume the franchise altogether. A game should not be treated like a political scandal. The consumer should not be treated the way Mass Effect consumers were.
Pushing to the forefront was EA and IGN calling the fans entitled while Bioware seemed to hide behind them, letting EA and IGN take the flak. EA was the bad guy after all. But BioWares statements and PR releases seem to resonate what the bad guys at EA were saying. They were standing behind a bad product. A product BioWare knew was not up to standard. Fans just wanted them to admit it and fix what was broken. Fans even said they would buy it as DLC if they had to. It would just be really crappy for them to do something like that. This could not be how Shepard’s story ended. BioWare stood their ground, all while doing nothing to address their failed promises and would not even acknowledge them. They had rushed the final installment and cut it up per EA's request or vision for the short turn around time and making bank on dlc. Changing anything would be admitting defeat or fault. All they could do was hunker down and hope things would blow over.
The Mass effect fan base had lost all trust in BioWare’s ability to make good single player stories anymore. With the DLC and push for multiplayer it was clear it was EA's vision was more important. The fans be damned! New ones could be bought through proper marketing. They literally set a recipe for success with ME2 and then ignored everything they did right to make a successful game. The fact these problems keep popping up in many of EA backed games while the same excuses are given. EA constantly telling fans no one likes single player games, despite it being a top request among all of their games. Or acting like they're entitled for not wanting endless DLC, cut up games, and micro-transactions. It just shows EA is telling the consumer where they want to bring gaming, and the people who buy the product just need to shut up and go along with it. People love single player games like Mass Effect.
After all the down talking to fans came what would be the biggest joke of all. "We are listening to fan feedback. We appreciate your input." It was said so many times that trolls on many of the Demand a better ending pages and forums were dealt with in a similar manner.
A month of the games release and the issues with the game clearly were not going away. Too little and too late PR releases. When they did eventually try to appease fans with a 2 gb comic strip DLC. It did little to address a lot of the holes and poor ending. At this point they weren’t just contending with the ending, rushed game, day one dlc. Now it was also about how you treat your consumer. The fact they had blamed fans for taking them up on their offers was now the glaring problem. This prompted Hold the line and hold the wallet campaigns to hopefully boycott anything to hit their pockets. BioWare gave up on their promises that all decisions would play out and you would not get an ABC ending. All fans wanted was the product they were promised and they had every reason to be upset with a game that didn't deliver. It was the same nonsense they got from EA all the time. Launch a game finished or not and fans will buy it off the name alone.
At PAX EAST a BioWare employee is even quoted as saying." All decision playing out is impossible. You would have over 147 different endings." The more they tried damage control and explain why it wasn't done. The worse it got! Fans of the Demand a better ending, Retake and Hold the line movements responded with. " We didn't want or expect 147 endings. All we needed was to see the decisions play out in different ways across possibly 6 different endings as promised. Instead of 7 RGB Deus Ex style endings." They just needed to see how the decisions played out. Like the Rachni saving the day or biting us in the rear. The collector base and illusive man saving or destroying our forces. Shepard fighting Harbinger in the Normandy. The council having an effect. I mean so many decisions that simply needed a cut scene added as to their role in the final outcome. BioWare's final attempt at damage control after ME3? They interviewed themselves asking if they thought a they did a good job. It was embarrassing!
So did they ever learn from their mistakes? Unfortunately no! The rest is history now. Mass Effect was a game that was so widely loved that a Facebook Page "Demand a better ending" raised 81,000 dollars for a better ending that went to a charity. Fans tried sending cupcakes with ABC printed on different rows. They were colored Red, Green and Blue. A polite jab at their Deus Ex ending 3 choices ending. Demand a better ending, which came shortly after games launch, had followers and clone pages spring up within days of its launch. As previously referenced above. Committed fans, even as Demand wound down, had a successful spin off pages committed to working with BioWare for the better of the Mass Effect universe. That page became Retake Mass Effect and Hold the line. But EA and BioWare stood by the game and the bad decisions. For some reason listening to their consumer was viewed as a sign of weakness as opposed to a strength to be able to handle criticism and listen to your customers. To deliver what you said you would and fix the game.
Then they said, after all seemed to have blown over. That they would have another Mass Effect game, which was Andromeda. They were going to listen to the fans and their feedback and work to earn their trust back moving forward. BioWare had done such a poor job tying up ME3 and a galaxy that already could have been expanded upon infinitely. That they literally had to run to the neighboring galaxy to continue the new story. They ran from the original Mass Effect and only made small mentions of the origninals. A lot of BioWare fans like myself wouldn't even look at the game. Other fans on The Retake Mass Effect Facebook pages were cautiously optimistic. They followed the games decelopment and kept everyone up to date. They aired what they wanted in hopes of making it better. But once the problems of the new game became apparent, even on the fence fans quickly stopped buying. The problems with creating the game weren't just bad animations and voice acting, but a huge problem was internal politics, incorporation of a new frostbite game engine not optimized for anything but an FPS. People started leaving BioWare in droves, even Casey’s Hudson was gone. The result? An indefinite hold on any Mass Effect game. Now they're taking a lot of the work on Mass Effect and turning it into Anthem. A ten year plan type game with F2P type loot schemes.... Like we need another cut up game like Destiny.
The result is a very great story and galaxy that was destroyed by its creators. A Star Wars type story/galaxy of our era like everyone always wants to do. And they just let it burn to the ground because they were done! This was a franchise that was worth billions in the long run in games, toys, books, possibly movies and its just all gone. Companies now instead of using the Mass Effect 2 model are using the Mass Effect 3 model of cutting up your game and selling it in pieces. Now the biggest thing to be weary of isn't just them talking about Legend and legacy. It's the 10 year plan. Which now is synonymous with basically being in BETA for 10 years and testing out unfinished games that gradually get better. But then are stripped down to their bones again when the sequel comes out. Mass Effect 1 and 2 will be beloved games that we will get to think back on as when developers actually tried to earn money through story telling as opposed to milking them with microtransactions and loot boxes. May this franchise rest in peace.
