toblix

Mass Effect 3

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Isn't that basically a reward?

I think they're trying to make a "point" in that all the cupcakes are vanilla, but are labeled 'A', 'B' and 'C'. On the other hand, while it's neat and I'm sure they'll all enjoy the cupcakes, but it could probably be construed as harassment and a couple other things if BioWare lawyers felt like it.

Also the thousand bucks was raised in less than an hour from the RETAKE MASS EFFECT 3 people, and that's just fucking stupid. People are idiots.

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I kinda wish I was harassed like that

What would I even do with a thousand dollars worth of cupcakes. The possibilities...

Probably build a cupcake catapult.

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Note to self: Piss off fans, get free cupcakes.

So now a lot of people seem all hung up on the ending and I hear very little about what was actually liked about it. In my experience, most of the game is pretty okay.

The more significant things, where you meet characters from the previous games, was generally cool. I think they intended it to be organic, where you'd cross paths with past game characters, and a lot of times it works out okay, but other times it feels too formulaic. It also took way too long before Tali (my favourite) finally showed up!! I'm glad they did away with the awkward sex scenes and instead some cute conversations and sweet displays of affection took their place. Mordin's arc,

who died in my story thing, got a really good ending, I think.

The little micro-stories they had going on, the conversations you can overhear, I liked a lot.

The Turian C-Sec person and the girl who was waiting for her parents, the Alliance soldier who wanted her kid to be sent to the Asari side of the family, among others

. Sure, the NPC's largely stand in the same spot and do nothing, but every time I'd go by these places and see what the latest developments were.

I also like that there are actually NPC's walking around now, in the world and on the Normandy. I know that all they do is walk in circles, but as a backdrop it adds a lot more life to the world. Going back to Mass Effect 1, I suddenly noticed how barren the Presidium was compared to ME3.

The thing they do where they you overhear a person who needs something and then you get a little *ding* on your quest log is bullshit though. Unnecessary padding, one of those artificially-lengthening-of-the-game things. I know you don't have to do them, but if you don't play online, I'm reasonably sure you have to do some of them in order to fill your little military meter thing up. In fact, I'd say that most problems I had with this game were the "game-y" things. Flying your little ship around and then, oh no, here come the reapers, better run! It didn't bother me a lot, but it just felt kind of silly. I did it all anyway.

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I thought I was prepared for that ending. My expectations were pretty low... but I was still surprised at how bad it was. I'm not even that attached to many characters, or the franchise.

The red/green/blue variations are hacked together. Nobody can say that day 1 when they planned out the story arc for this game that they wanted them to play out like that. I'm almost certain they just ran out of time and money. None of your decisions matter at all, the outcome is pretty much identical. And the idea that the "Green" ending is worth grinding for, or is even in any way tied to the work that you did to get enough resources and galactic readiness is crazy.

I don't understand people that believe that this was motivated by DLC or sequels though.

They've done their best to setup an environment that basically destroys the IP and any logical point for continued content. It feels more like the Fallout 3 ending where you literally cannot continue, and are forced to open an old save if you want to stay in the game. Honestly, this is something that they probably had to fight EA over. Sort of like Modern Warfare 2, it feels like the design team is one foot out the door burning down everything they've created before it gets spun out into a dozen variations.

In the end, I just don't think they earned that story. They can hang onto artistic intent, and claim that they did things the way they wanted to. But they didn't do it well enough.

Also, the multiplayer is a mess. They monetized that as if it was a free to play shooter, and there are free to play shooters that are less aggressively monetized. I'm not against that in principle, if it was a stand alone project that they launched separately, I'd be fine with it. But it no doubt took resources away from the single player game, and the "galactic readiness" map only made the single player content worse. Considering how stretched thin the game felt, I can't help but feel they put their resources in the wrong places.

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Isn't that basically a reward?

I thought that at first, but the payment term is actually COD - which, if I'm not mistaken, means "cash on delivery". So either the Retake ME3 people are going to be waiting outside BioWare to pay for the cupcakes and then try to give them to the employees, or they're attempting to stick BioWare with a thousand dollar cupcake bill.

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I'm no fan of the ending, but the cupcake thing is *really* passive-aggressive and immature. Do we know how many people were actually involved in this?

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I thought that at first, but the payment term is actually COD - which, if I'm not mistaken, means "cash on delivery". So either the Retake ME3 people are going to be waiting outside BioWare to pay for the cupcakes and then try to give them to the employees, or they're attempting to stick BioWare with a thousand dollar cupcake bill.

COD BLOPS?

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I'm no fan of the ending, but the cupcake thing is *really* passive-aggressive and immature. Do we know how many people were actually involved in this?

According to this, 96 people raised around a thousand dollars US. http://retakeme3cupcakes.chipin.com/retakeme3-cupcake-campaign

That would suggest that they aren't sticking Bioware with the bill, but that doesn't make it any less passive-aggressive or immature.

At least it wasn't a ton of lunatics… 96 weirdos isn't that many.

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I haven't played the game and probably never will because Origin so just tell me, do the cupcakes signify something, 'cause I just don't get it?

Also, for the record, it's not COD. They did, in fact, pay for the cupcakes. It's just the result of some weird way that company does their billings.

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I haven't played the game and probably never will because Origin so just tell me, do the cupcakes signify something, 'cause I just don't get it?

The ending of the game gives three choices, but you're not given enough information to have any particular reason to lean one way or another, and the results of each choice appear to be nearly identical.

The only noticeable difference between the three is an explosion which will be either red, green or blue. So, the cupcakes are A/B/C and have red/green/blue icing but all taste like vanilla.

There's a certain logic to it, at least.

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The ending of the game gives three choices,

Kind of wished I never read that, even if I don't have plans to play me3(which feels weird because I was a super fan of 1) but I knew what I was coming here for.

That's just disappointing to hear and very reminiscent to Deus Ex (a game I liked, but would have liked more if I didn't finish it).

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Kind of wished I never read that, even if I don't have plans to play me3(which feels weird because I was a super fan of 1) but I knew what I was coming here for.

At this point should I just read all the starred Google Reader items I have that spoil the Mass Effect 3 ending?

Right now my position is: "I'll play the game in a few months—maybe." Will knowing the ending cause me to budge from that position?

I am the type of guy who was so disappointed by Battlestar Galactica that I wish I never watched the show at all. I was so disappointed by Lost that I wish I never watched television at all.

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At this point should I just read all the starred Google Reader items I have that spoil the Mass Effect 3 ending?

Right now my position is: "I'll play the game in a few months—maybe." Will knowing the ending cause me to budge from that position?

I am the type of guy who was so disappointed by Battlestar Galactica that I wish I never watched the show at all. I was so disappointed by Lost that I wish I never watched television at all.

If you read the spoilers out of context you'll be bewildered and not know what to think.

Judging by your reactions to BSG and Lost, I'd say avoid ME3 altogether. Personally, I found it worth playing aside from that tacked on, ridiculous ending, but I tend not to feel that a series is retroactively ruined for me by a new, bad thing.

Kind of wished I never read that, even if I don't have plans to play me3(which feels weird because I was a super fan of 1) but I knew what I was coming here for.

That's just disappointing to hear and very reminiscent to Deus Ex (a game I liked, but would have liked more if I didn't finish it).

If you mean Human Revolution, then I'm right with you. It seemed pretty clear that they intended something that would have a more organic buildup and some consequence, but weren't able to deliver.

They're actually very similar… you're asked to pick between options on a philosophical basis when the game hasn't particularly encouraged you to develop a position on the issue at hand. It seems totally divorced from the rest of the experience.

The original Deus Ex was pretty ham-fisted, but at least the question was more relatable, as most of us probably have a real-life position on things like personal liberty and security and wanting to merge with an artificial intelligence to become a digital god. OK, the last one was a little esoteric, but also fucking awesome.

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Woops! Sorry, I should have specified that COD is just a part of "FUSS Cupcakes" default invoice form.

Still stupid.

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Right now my position is: "I'll play the game in a few months—maybe." Will knowing the ending cause me to budge from that position?

I am the type of guy who was so disappointed by Battlestar Galactica that I wish I never watched the show at all. I was so disappointed by Lost that I wish I never watched television at all.

I'm in the same bucket, mike, except I haven't seen or know about the last season of Lost and I aims to keep it that way.

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Woops! Sorry, I should have specified that COD is just a part of "FUSS Cupcakes" default invoice form.

Still stupid.

Yeah, but maybe appropriately so. These kinds of things seem to make an impact in a way that blind internet rage doesn't. The ending to ME3 is sloppy and shallow, and it deserves a cupcake.

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Yeah, but maybe appropriately so. These kinds of things seem to make an impact in a way that blind internet rage doesn't. The ending to ME3 is sloppy and shallow, and it deserves a cupcake.

What makes it stupid(er) to me, is that these people are enraged that they spent 60 bucks on and "demand" (not exactly, but they're basically holding charity hostage here), a change to the ending. If they're so worked up about giving BioWare money for something unsatisfactory, everything Retake Mass Effect has done so far is... stupid doesn't cover it. And while I don't mind cursing some on these forums, I have limits.

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I'm in the same bucket, mike, except I haven't seen or know about the last season of Lost and I aims to keep it that way.

You watched up to season 5 and got so sick of it by that point you didn't want to watch one more season to see how it wrapped up? Don't you at least want to find out all the answers?

Sort of on-topic: I love how every time I click 'next' onto this thread the first thing I see is Toblix's passive-aggressive complaint OP.

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I'm in the same bucket, mike, except I haven't seen or know about the last season of Lost and I aims to keep it that way.

Not to derail, but I think that is a good decision. In the final season the producers do worse than not answer any questions (which would have been fair); they reveal that the answer to every mystery is "because I said so."

They robbed their island of its mystery and replaced it with a dismissive response from a condescending parent. Mass Effect has far less mystery*, but it has a vast galaxy that (as mundane as some missions can get) has elements that are beyond human understanding.

Boiling their galaxy down to an A, B, or C decision is worse than anything the Reapers could do to it.

*For Mass Effect, the only real mystery is how the Reapers ate the Galaxy the last time around and how Shepard can know she truly is stopping them this time. I'm guessing this doesn't get a satisfactory answer.

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*For Mass Effect, the only real mystery is how the Reapers ate the Galaxy the last time around and how Shepard can know she truly is stopping them this time. I'm guessing this doesn't get a satisfactory answer.

The parallel here is surprisingly apt. The inscrutable alien menace of the Reapers is boiled down to "because a non-character who was introduced mere seconds ago said so."

Everything is demystified with the wave of a flimsy magic wand when there was no good reason to explain it in the first place.

I contemplated using spoiler tags here, but it's all so insubstantial that I don't think the concept applies.

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Lost should have ended at season two. But that is neither here, nor there.

The ending of the game gives three choices, but you're not given enough information to have any particular reason to lean one way or another, and the results of each choice appear to be nearly identical.

The only noticeable difference between the three is an explosion which will be either red, green or blue. So, the cupcakes are A/B/C and have red/green/blue icing but all taste like vanilla.

There's a certain logic to it, at least.

I feel like you're pulling my leg, only because of the explosion line.

...

But at the same time I wouldn't be surprised if you weren't? But, that is a joke, right?

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Lost should have ended at season two. But that is neither here, nor there.

I feel like you're pulling my leg, only because of the explosion line.

...

But at the same time I wouldn't be surprised if you weren't? But, that is a joke, right?

No, it is not.

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