Why the Ending of Mass Effect 3 SUCKED!

Image from doycetesterman.com

Recently a friend, (Yell at Jay for this one, people!) pointed out that I had not clearly stated why I hate the ending of Mass Effect 3.  There was one major reason of utmost importance to me; to avoid spoilage but still have a chance to warn other players of the badness ahead.  So I posted vaguely; a bit  about the game’s performance overall, some on how I felt that the canon of the series was broken by the ending but mostly it was about my heartbreak and sad disappointment.  You can find that post here, (but I warn you, I wrote that post right after finishing ME3, I ramble a bit and I am obviously very upset).  I could only wish I had been warned — perhaps it would have made the ending a bit easier to swallow?  But in hindsight, I realize that I wouldn’t have even bothered looking — I trusted BioWare far too much to have been concerned.  I believed in them — they gave me Mass Effect 1 and 2 after all.  They certainly knew what I wanted and they already had a successful formula…  I believed they would come through on what they promised.  Silly, silly me…

We now know they lied.  Even the Better Business Bureau agrees.

At the end of my article I will provide links which I believe are eloquent and enlightening for those seeking to understand the issue more thoroughly.  But there is one I feel is the penultimate of explanations and wish to mention now:  Mass Effect, Tolkien, and Your Bullshit Artistic Process by Doyce Testerman.  I highly recommend you read his article.  His comparison is sheer brilliance!  I could only wish I had come up with it first.

And if this needs to be said:  WARNING SPOILAGE AHEAD in both my article and Mr. Testerman’s.

So Why Do I Hate the End of Mass Effect 3?

When I was first introduced to Mass Effect 1 it was a tough time in my life.  My family and I had been displaced by Katrina, we’d lost our house and most of our possessions.  We were scattered all over the place as were our friends.  Our beloved city was nearly in ruins.  The stress killed my father (literally) and I had just been told I had Lyme Disease.  Yeah… Real life pretty much sucked.  Then my boyfriend suggested that I try this game he thought was right up my alley.  He said it would appeal to the “Pollyanna” in me.  And he was right!  It was the perfect escape from Real Life.  Full of hope, adventure, role play and the chance to win out against all odds!  I was in heaven.

For me the Mass Effect-verse was a lot like Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek.  Sure, there were some hard choices to make, heartbreaking in fact.  Yes there was some sacrifice involved, but HOPE still prevailed.  In both Mass Effect 1 and 2 we could earn ourselves the proverbial “Happy Ending“.  Yes, we had to work to get the happy ending, but the games were so amazing it was fun!

Let’s talk about investment.  Many of us who are upset over the ending of Mass Effect 3 have invested many hours of play into the series.  From Mass Effect 1 to Mass Effect 2 — we worked to create the perfect play-through to bring into each and every game.  Many of us have multiple play-throughs as we wanted to experience the differences between the choices we’ve made.  I understand that some out there may be rolling their eyes at those of us who would play and replay a game over and over again — but read on and perhaps you will gain insight as to why the Mass Effect Series is so special that it invited us to invest our time as we have.

The Mass Effect-Verse is full of amazing stories and characters.  It is easy to immerse yourself in the many worlds.  It is a set of games you can play over and over again and still find something new to marvel over.  But that isn’t all.  You see it really is all about the choices we have been allowed to make — This is what made the Mass Effect series so awesome and rather unique to begin with as I talked about in this article released the day before the launch of Mass Effect 3.  The choices we individually made determined the direction of the story we were told — they shaped our character, Shepard, they shaped our experience — The story felt like it was our personal adventure.  BioWare didn’t only invite us to emotionally invest in our Shepard, they outright encouraged it.  With DLC that extended the stories, or offering up new toys to play with, or by suggesting we try a different “build” of Shepard.  In Mass Effect 1 and 2 we were given the chance to OVERCOME AGAINST ALL ODDS.  HOPE was real.  In Mass Effect 3 — BioWare slaughtered HOPE brutally and what choices we were given were fewer and far in-between — And NOTHING — NOTHING! — we did could have changed the ending.

In Mass Effect 3 choice was limited throughout the game play but it was completely gone in the last ten minutes of play.  Sure some might argue we had a choice of Shepard’s destruction, but they are overlooking not only the canon of the game but that some of our Shepard’s would never have chosen any of those options to begin with.  Which brings up to the established canon of the series.

I am sure you’ve heard it a million times already: Mass Effect 3 goes against the established canon of the Mass Effect Series.  It’s true but throughout the game it is rather easy to overlook and dismiss because the stories are mind-blowing, touching and occasional gut-wrenching and intensely emotional.  Mass Effect 3 is an amazing journey… up until you reach the last twenty-minutes when everything goes into some surreal “Twin Peaks” kind thing. (A better comparison would be that it goes from being “Star Trek” to becoming “Battlestar Galactica” the New Series.)  The ending destroys everything that once was the backbone of the Mass Effect-Verse.  The ending murders HOPE and CHOICE serving us instead a diabolus ex machina that then delivers us our A B C choice of destruction.

When you create a game that caters to giving players choices and you advertise that this will be a part of the game then you turn it all around and serve up something else entirely — You have to expect the loyal fanbase to revolt.  It isn’t like BioWare is clueless here.  They know exactly what the players wanted– they’d managed to give it to us TWICE before — It wasn’t a secret we fans were keeping from BioWare.  We have no idea why they chose not to give it to us.  What we do know is that only Casey Hudson and Mac Walters were involved in the writing of the ending.  We also know that Casey Hudson wanted the ending to be “Memorable”.  Well, he certainly got what he wanted.  Mass Effect 3’s ending will never be forgotten and the entire series may well go down as an EPIC FAIL because of those last ten minutes.  All in the name of “Art“.

So here we are — at the “art argument”.  Are video games movies?  Are they sculptures or paintings?  Are they a TV show?  Or are they interactive entertainment which somewhat implies that if people don’t find it entertaining they won’t buy it?  If it were a movie, I would have invested $20 or less.  If it sucked, I could walkout and demand my money back — even if I didn’t get my money back the investment is minor — in both time and money.  If it were a sculpture or painting I would walk away and dismiss it — I never have to look at it again.  Once more my investment is even less than that of a movie in both time and money.  It it were a TV show, I would change the channel – no monetary loss and little time wasted.  I invested a lot of money and time in this series. Sure, I didn’t have to put that kind of time or spend that money on a video game, that bad is on me.  However, BioWare encouraged it.  They also made promises, many, many promises, about Mass Effect 3.  Since they had given me Mass Effect 1 and 2 there was no reason I would question their ability to come through on those promises.  At no point did BioWare step up and warn us that they were going to sacrifice game play, go against canon and give us their “Art” over what they had originally promised.  The “Art” argument has been disproved a thousand times better by many others and I honestly don’t want to further address it.  I am actually sick to near death of hearing about it.

The only point I want to make is:  They have every right to their art — but as an Artist myself I realize that when I put my art out there I have to expect criticism and sometimes it is nasty and negative.  It comes with being an artist.  It is time to stop victimizing BioWare.  They are not defenseless as some seem to want to paint them.  They most certainly aren’t guilt free: They chose the path that led to this situation.  They didn’t have to.  They chose to claim “artistic integrity” rather than own up to what they did wrong to the series and the fans. If you need to victimize someone or something?  Victimize the Mass Effect Series — because that is what BioWare has killed.

But let’s be clear and upfront here.  That ending wasn’t about art.  It wasn’t even about the fans, or even really about the ongoing saga of the Mass Effect-Verse either.  It was to win critical acclaim much like movies strive to do.  And that’s what it did. Critics out there all over the place bought into that artsy ending like flies to sugar.  Of course, the critics aren’t buying BioWare’s games, nor are they BioWare’s fans. They most certainly aren’t going to spend their money on DLC!  In fact, all BioWare did was shoot themselves in their foot.

Yes… some players claim to love the ending!  I would really like to understand why?  Only a few of them have been able to explain it to me so far and what they have had to say… well?  I wasn’t impressed.  I didn’t think the ending was great, (and I don’t think saying that is an explanation.)  I personally don’t believe that BioWare was attempting to draw a comparison between “The Shepard” and Jesus, ok?  But since there have been a vocal few who insist… I will add it to the ending because maybe someone out there will think it is redeeming?  I have read comments like “It was touching and hopeful” and all I can do is blink rapidly and wonder — what ending are they talking about?  Certainly none of the options I got!  At first, I thought there must be some hidden ending I didn’t quite earn?  But alas, no… they are talking about the same ending I got too.  Confused?  MUCH!

I would like them to explain how it is so touching and hopeful — but that has yet to happen.

Outside of that… we are left with Pro-enders trolling those of us who hated the ending, baiting us with how evil and vile we are for turning on BioWare as we seem to have done, (which we have not!)  Some even go so far as to say “Yeah, the ending was shite, but come on, it’s a video game, move on already!”  Yeah, ok, so some of them don’t like the ending either but apparently they don’t feel confident enough to stand up for quality in their video games…  Huh? As a gamer and a consumer I have every right to expect a company to come through on what they promised me.

The way I see the ending?  It was made to impress highbrow pseudo-intellectuals that can proclaim it was extensional and deep.  However… it was none of those things.  It was a series of overused and misplaced tropes that had no reason to be at the ending of Mass Effect 3.  We were promised closure instead we were given tropes.  Wow… <– sarcastically put.

(No worries, I am nearly to the point of addressing the issues of the ending directly — just one last point to make.)

The many lies BioWare told… before and after the launch of Mass Effect 3.  This is not me attacking BioWare — however yes, I am calling them out.  When you lie you should expect to be called out.  Lying is bad — yes, even if it is a corporation doing the lying.  You can call it whatever you like, from Puffery to Advertising Hype, if the game doesn’t deliver, much like a car doesn’t perform, or an appliance doesn’t do what it was advertised to do, it’s LIES.  Gaming companies should be held just as responsible as any other companies out there for the lies they tell.  There should not be any excuses.  Again, BioWare is not a VICTIM in this — they are the one perpetrating the crime.  For those who want to champion BioWare while making the fanbase into villains: Please keep the issue in perspective.

BioWare has told us too lies for me to be able to call them out on all of them.  So I am only going to pick the one most relevant to my current topic: the ending of Mass Effect 3.

In January of 2012 Casey Hudson said the following during an interview with Xbox Official Magazine:

“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… The endings have a lot more sophistication and variety in them.”

So basically Hudson is saying that we aren’t going to get an “A B C” ending.  Well?  That is exactly what we got.  Certainly, since he wrote the ending with Mac Walters, he had to know that was exactly what we were going to get at the time he gave that interview.  What?!  Why in the world did he feel the need to say that when the opposite was true?  We may never know.  What we do know is simply this:  We fans in the Retake ME3 Movement, have every right to be upset over the trash ending we were served in Mass Effect 3.  We were lied to, we were intentionally misled to believe that Mass Effect 3 was going to cater to us, it was going to give us closure to our Epic Trilogy, our endings would be sophisticated and based on our choices throughout  game play not just of Mass Effect 3 but from any of the two other games we played before.  It failed in nearly ever way it could to live up to the hype.  Let me reiterate Mass Effect 3 wasn’t made for the fans.  It was made to sate egos and for the critics.  And it worked… for the critics… maybe the egos… but not so much the fans.

The Ending

So here we are at last… It is time to address all that is wrong with the ending.

1 — There was only ONE ending — not multiple endings as we were led to believe.  Sure, they can claim there are multiple endings and we are given three (lousy as they are) choices.  But let’s break it down shall we?  (Note, you really only have to read the first one then whatever comes after the text with the strike-throughs.  I bolded the text that varies to make it easier to find.)

Option A:  Join the Reapers. (And DIE!)

In Option A you can chose to “merge” with the monsters you are trying to destroy.  When you do this, you die.  We watch as the Citadel glows blue (Paragon color btw…) and blows up.  Now, it has been pointed out that in this particular option we don’t see the Mass Relays blow up.   We then go to the cutscene where the Normandy is fleeing — yes, fleeing from the battle to save Earth — of course, we don’t know why?  I guess in the last few minutes they just up and decided to… ah?  Abandon Shepard and Earth and run away.  (Sounds suspiciously like a Monty Python Sketch to me…)  The color energy catches up with them and they crash on some lush Eden kind of planet.  Out of the ship steps Joker and whomever it was you were last fighting with although we were led to believe they were dead.  The credits roll and then we reach another cutscene where someone called “The Stargazer” is telling his grandchild about “The Shepard”.  Yes…  You read that right.  Shepard has somehow become likened to Christ.  Not sure how or when that happened, but hey, it’s “ART”.  Then we are reminded to buy DLC.

(Copy/Pasting… Why?  You will soon understand…) 

Option A, er… I mean… B:  Synthesis. (And DIE!)

In Option A… er… I mean… B you can chose to “merge” organics with synthetics.  When you do this, you die.  We watch as the Citadel glows blue (Paragon color btw…) Green and blows up.  Now, it has been pointed out that in this particular option we don’t see the Mass Relays blow up.  The Mass Relays Blow up, (more about this later…)  We then go to the cutscene where the Normandy is fleeing — yes, fleeing from the battle to save Earth — (any of this sounding familiar?)  of course, we don’t know why?  I guess in the last few minutes they just up and decided to… ah?  Abandon Shepard and Earth and run away.  (Sounds suspiciously like a Monty Python Sketch to me…)  The color energy catches up with them and they crash on some lush Eden kind of planet.  In this choice all organic life has an odd glow of circuitry in it now.  Out of the ship steps Joker and EDI — along with one of the characters we had last been fighting and we were led to believe they were dead.  The credits roll and then we reach another cutscene where someone called “The Stargazer” is telling his grandchild about “The Shepard”.  Yes…  You read that right.  Shepard has somehow become likened to Christ.  Not sure how or when that happened, but hey, it’s “ART”. Then we are reminded to buy DLC.

(Copy/Pasting again… but now you know why!)

Option A, B, er… I mean… C:  Destroy the Reapers. (And COMMIT GENOCIDE, killing allies and friends!  But… You might survive if you have a high enough War Asset!)

In Option A, B… er… I mean… C you can chose to Destroy the Reapers and all other synthetic life.  When you do this, you die might not die, but the Geth will be destroyed and so will EDI.   We watch as the Citadel glows blue (Paragon color btw…) Green RED (Renegade color) and blows up.  Now, it has been pointed out that in this particular option we don’t see the Mass Relays blow up.   The Mass Relays Blow up, (more about this later…)  We then go to the cutscene where the Normandy is fleeing — yes, fleeing from the battle to save Earth — (Boy, oh, boy is this sounding familiar, eh?)  of course, we don’t know why?  I guess in the last few minutes they just up and decided to… ah?  Abandon Shepard and Earth and run away.  (Sounds suspiciously like a Monty Python Sketch to me…)  The color energy catches up with them and they crash on some lush Eden kind of planet.  Out of the ship steps Joker and EDI (Because you killed her along with the Geth) — along with the characters we had last been fighting and we were led to believe they were dead.  The credits roll and then we reach another cutscene where someone called “The Stargazer” is telling his grandchild about “The Shepard”.  Yes…  You read that right.  Shepard has somehow become likened to Christ.  Not sure how or when that happened, but hey, it’s “ART”.  If you had enough war assets to survive you may get a cutscene where your Shepard gasps for breath under a ton of rubble, only Gods know where?  Then we are reminded to buy DLC.

The above are our “Multiple and varied endings” based not so much on our game play as…  Ah?  BioWare’s idea of… “ART”.

2- Mass Relays Blowing Up

In the “Arrival” DLC for Mass Effect 2 we were given a quest by Hackett to rescue Doctor Amanda Kenson.  Once we are in the mission it isn’t long before we learn that the Reapers are coming and that everyone on Dr. Kenson’s base has been “Indoctrinated”.  The only way to stop an encroaching Reaper invasion of Earth is to destroy the Mass Relay located in Batarian Space.  We are tasked with driving an asteroid into the Mass Relay but that will also destroy the entire solar system killing thousands of Batarians.  You see, there is a science behind all of this that Kenson talks about.  How Mass Relays have so much power stored in them that if they were to be destroyed the effect would be devastating on the solar system the Relay is located in.  The good news is they are really hard to destroy.

At the beginning of Mass Effect 3 Shepard is under House Arrest because of destroying that solar system and killing all those Batarians.  So…  When all the Mass Relays blow up — What happens to the solar systems they are in?  According to established canon — every solar system with a Mass Relay in it has been destroyed.

Sure… we can cite “Space Magic” and we can “imagine” something other than that happened…  We can make all kinds of stuff up.  But established canon dictates a logical progression here.  That logic says every Mass Relay blowing up equates to massive destruction of the solar system in which they were located.  There is no excuse why BioWare didn’t realize this.  Oh, wait?  Casey Hudson and Mac Walters wrote the ending…  hmm.. right.  That explains…  NOTHING!  Did either of them even bother to play any of the Mass Effect games… ever?!  Maybe spend a little time simply reading about them?

3– The Run for the Beam-o-Light

Before we ever even get to the lousy choices we have to make this run towards a beam of light that will teleport us to the Citadel where we will be making our last stand.  During this run Harbinger comes out of the sky and attacks up.  That’s it for Harbinger.  We don’t see him again or actually have any interaction with him again — although we had been led to believe in Mass Effect 2 that he would be our antagonist in Mass Effect 3 — This breaks Canon.  No excuses.  Harbinger was built up to be our big bad for Mass Effect 3 and instead we are given…  The Illusive Man — Indoctrinated, but still…  Really, BioWare?  Really?

Also… On that last run we awake from being blown up — we didn’t have a chance to dodge or jump to cover and we are very hurt.  We have no helmet — our armor is basically gone and there isn’t a living soul in sight.  We can only assume that the crewmates we had with us are dead.  (Later we will learn through a cutscene that they aren’t dead — they are running away with the rest of our crew on the Normandy instead. )

4- The Catalyst

A.k.a. GodChild, GhostChild, StarChild, Reaper in Disguise.  So… the Catalyst explains that in order to keep synthetics from destroying organics it has created the Reapers to destroy all advanced civilizations before they can be destroyed by synthetics…  Ah?  Excuse me… WHAT??!!!  And that is just the beginning of the problem…

We had no idea that GodChild existed until the last five minutes of game play (for me it was a bit longer as I desperately attempted to talk to him!)  There is no real interactions allowed.  He speaks, you listen and then you are forced to make a choice most of us would rather not make.  This goes against the established conventions of the series.  We can’t talk to the GodChild, we can’t ask it relevant questions; we can’t do anything but… sacrifice ourselves.  So… basically a game series that once was the embodiment of hope and the ability to survive even against all odds is suddenly all about “per-destination and sacrifice” — You know, Real life is hard and war is hell kinda thing.  Ok… That’s not even close to why I invested in this game series…  Not even an inch and from the numbers in the Retake ME3 Movement, I am betting there are a lot of folks who feel pretty much like I do.

With the introduction of this character suddenly there is a worm hole the size of our sun worth of plotholes!  For instance… why did Sovereign even bother to come into the Milky Way in the first place since the GodChild could have called the reapers in at any time?  Why did the GodChild allow the Protheans to “alter” the Keepers?  I mean… the Godchild was apparently there the entire time right?  It is a god after all why didn’t it stop the Protheans from making those changes to it’s “charges”.  But for me all of that is just the icing…  My real issue with the GodChild is the GodChild itself.  It never should have been introduced at this point in the game.  It was nothing less than a Diabolus ex Machina.  The whole existence of the GodChild is to give a reason why Shepard must sacrifice themselves — there is no other reason for the GodChild to exist other than to push us towards the DOWNER ENDING, which is little more than another abused trope so that BioWare can say “Frak all of you, Shepard is DEAD!!!!”

We don’t need “clarification” BioWare.  We get it.  We simply don’t want it!  It isn’t worthy of the Series.  And really?  You should know that even better than we do.

5 – The Normandy Running Away!

If someone had told me this would happen before I witnessed the ending of Mass Effect 3 personally, I would have thought they were lying!  Joker would never do that to my Shepard!  My crew wouldn’t have allowed themselves to run away!  They would have stayed and fought to the bitter end!

Yeah… Bitter is the right word.

There is no explanation needed here because it never should have happened in the first place.  Again I must ask: Did Casey Hudson or Mac Walters play any of the other Mass Effect Games… Ever???  And if they did… what’s their excuse for handing us this garbage?  Oh, wait… right, “Art”…

 6 – How Each of the ending options are flawed

Above I addressed the content of the endings — but now I want to talk about why each of them are flawed and shouldn’t be kept.

Option A– Join with the Reapers.  So… we are to become the monster we’ve been fighting?  And this is supposedly, according to the light that radiates out of the Citadel anyway, the Paragon choice.  No way my Shepard would join with the monsters.  If that is the case then why not just indoctrinate everyone?  Oh… wait… we do that in…

Option B — Synthesis.  Right.  Here we make everyone into some kind of hybrid of organic and synthetic.  Yay!  The reapers win!  And they don’t even have to work for it!  But let’s be real… this option is better than…

Option C where we have to commit GENOCIDE for the chance to survive!  Yeah… not my Shepard, thanks anyway.

None of them work for my Shepard.  And my Shepard wouldn’t have taken any of them.  She would have said to herself if not directly to that punk the GodChild, “I’ll find another way, because YOU are the real threat, not the synthetics!  Your logic is totally flawed and here’s why…”

Shepard brokered a peace between the Geth and the Quarians.  Joker and EDI fell in love.  Seems to me that the synthetics and the organics are doing just fine without any intervention from the GodChild and his hordes of Reapers.

So BioWare, “clarify” that please?

 7 – Hope is Slaughtered, Choice is Forsaken and Closure is Forfeit

At the end of Mass Effect 3 — Not only is our Shepard and so many billions of others the only sacrifices made.  Hope and Choice are among them.  At the end we are left with neither of them.  No hope to somehow win the day, and certainly no choice.  This was the foundation of the Mass Effect Series up until that moment.  This is what drew the vast fanbase back and back again.  The chance to shape their personal journey with their Shepard — knowing that Hope was alive and well — and that even against all odds if we worked hard and we tried our best, no matter Renegade or Paragon, we could not only survive but we could win!

The end of Mass Effect 3 takes all of that away from us.

Closure is forfeited for big gaping Plotholes Galore.

It is the end of our Shepard’s journey and we were promised satisfaction and closure.  We got neither.  Instead we are left with a bunch of unanswered questions and an sick feeling in our stomachs.  From the moment we made it into the Citadel during the ending part of the game until the final cutscene faded all we have now is the bitterness left over by that oddly out-of-place, half-finished mess of an ending BioWare decided to dub as “Art”.   It creates more questions than it answers and please don’t tell me to “Use your imagination!”  I didn’t pay $70+ to “imagine” the end of Shepard’s career.  It is ridiculous that people or BioWare would say such nonsense.  I use my imagination all the time for my stories!  I shouldn’t have to for BioWare’s!  They made promises they broke and BioWare knows this.

I am not alone in feeling that OUR SHEPARD DESERVES BETTER!  My Shepard was not a tragic figure, she did her best to right wrongs, to stand up for what was fair and just — and this is me now standing up for her.

No amount of “clarification” is going to change the ending as it is now.  It is unbelievable that BioWare doesn’t realize this.  Something else must be going on?

8 – It is the ending which will remain the defining moment of the Series.

Science has proven that our “remembering selves” will call back the LAST or final experience we had with any given situation and that experience, be good or bad, will define the memory of the entire event.  And so it is that the ending of Mass Effect 3 will become that defining experience for the whole of the Mass Effect Series.  In less than ten minutes of game play BioWare has manged to destroy what was up until then one of the most awesome RPG’s I have ever had the privilege to play.

But with the ending of Mass Effect 3 it has ruined any further game play of any of the Mass Effect games for me.  Why?  Because that ending will always nag me about how those choices I make are for nothing — they mean nothing and will effect nothing at the end.  I want replayability back!  I want my beloved game series back!  Drat you BioWare for stealing away something I once loved and cherished!  This bad is on you.

“Clarification” of their “Art” won’t save the ending.  Nothing short of a rewrite of the ending can save the series.  BioWare has no intentions at this time to offer alternative endings, instead the most we can hope for is “clarification” of the crap they decided to feed us.  And that… that is just downright sad… and it won’t be enough, at least not for me.

In closing… I deserve the endings BioWare promised so I can continue to enjoy my Mass Effect games, (games I spent a good amount of money and time on.)  I deserve the same considerations as those whom liked the current ending – replayability.  It may seem entitled, it may even sound like I am whining — but neither of those two are true.  I am a loyal fan of BioWare, I trusted them to come through on their promises — All I am asking is for them to do just that.  At the end of the day — that’s not really too much to ask for.  If it is, then they never should have made those promises to begin with.

We as consumers have every right to hold a company responsible when they don’t come through on what they promised and that is exactly what I am going to do.

As always — Holding the Line!

Lan

The Links:

• The Writer’s Block – All That Matters is the Ending, Part 2: Mass Effect 3
• The Writer’s Block – Mass Effect 3 Continued: Clarifications, Corrections and Comments (Also Alliteration)
• BSN – Musings of a Screenwriter: The Ending Thread
• Game Front- Mass Effect 3 Ending-Hatred: 5 Reasons The Fans Are Right
• IBN – ‘Mass Effect 3’ Ending: DLC Not Enough, Majority Of Gamers In Poll Say