Open letter to BioWare

To whom it may concern

By now, you've gotten hundreds of letters from people who have given you thousands of great reasons why you should either change the ending or introduce more options which reflect the choices made throughout the game. I won't want to just echo their words. I want to find my own to express my feelings on it. I do want you to change the ending, don't get me wrong. I just want to explain why.

Mass Effect was an incredible series. I want to start off with that. I purchased the third game without hesitation. You impressed me so much....made so much of an impact, that I had no problem putting down the money for the game without needing to watch one commercial or download the preview. I believed it would provide a compelling story. And you know what, for the most part...it did. I wanted a bit more roleplaying element in there. But that is a personal choice. I found the combat style engrossing and intuitive. The story itself sucked me in. There were things I didn't care for, but you know what....they were done very well. So even though I had a personal opinion on it, I could easily say that I could understand why people would like the things I didn't. You did that good of a job.

But the ending. It is tough for me to put it into words. I saw the Mass Effect universe as a continuing narrative played out through the interactions between certain characters. These characters were the bridge to help us all care about the galaxy as a whole. You know what? You made me care. I spent time playing and replaying Mass Effect 1 and 2 because of those relationships. I don't know how you did it, but you made something that felt real. It felt like a future which humanity could aspire to someday. It was a future forged by hard choices and friendships developed along the way.

All at once, I saw it all ripped away. In the ending, the friends which I really felt like I made stood around and said goodbye. They didn't fight alongside me. They said goodbye as if I was going to die. It made me feel abandoned. These characters that I really felt close to in some way were leaving me to die alone. That was when I knew something was horribly wrong. These warriors wouldn't just stand there. They all would have had an important part to play. I could come up with different endings where the characters would all play different roles, but that isn't necessary. The current ending told me there was something critically wrong. Shepard was going to die. And no choice that I could make would have any bearing on it.

The following sequence was nothing short of brilliant. I'll admit it. I was sucked right into the combat. I fought and fought and fought. I did not want to see Shepard die, and I was going to fight for every single inch I could. When I saw the Reaper coming...I wanted to keep track of it. But I was being swarmed from every direction. All I could do was take a quick glance at my coming death, hoping that EDI would come through one more time. And when she did, and I took that shot, I was able to take a breath and relax just for a moment. I knew victory wasn't in my grasp. There would still be more, but I felt ready.

What happened next just didn't feel right. Shepard got shot with a laser from a Reaper and somehow survived. The entire battle sequence changed so suddenly. There wasn't a reference for it in the game. Whenever Shepard was injured, he could still move normally. No matter how close to death he was. I couldn't heal or change weapons. I know there are theories of indoctrination. But quite frankly, it is ridiculous. Every character the player encountered on the journey who was indoctrinated explained what it felt like. And the experience did not match the explanations. So, quite frankly, it seemed like the entire game shifted without any reference at all. It just felt like something was horribly wrong. And there wasn't any reference within the game to explain it.

I wanted to finish the game. But that desire came from the hope there would be an explanation for this sudden shift. Maybe have one of Shepard's allies come up and heal him. Something familiar. Consistent. But I didn't get that at all. Everything got more and more confusing. There was no reference at all throughout the game for anything that happened.

Honestly, I felt betrayed at that point. Once I saw the Illusive Man standing there, nothing made sense. I couldn't figure out how he got there. What Anderson was doing there. How Shepard was being controlled. Nothing was making sense. I was really trying to figure it out. Was Shepard dying on the battlefield and this was a hallucination? I hoped not. That would be too depressing. After all the fighting, I didn't want the reward for it to be Shepard to lay down on the battlefield to die. And indoctrination didn't make sense either. I had to accept what was being seen was actually happening.

The event played out and I felt even more confused. I don't want to dissect it. There is no reason. I'm sure many have. All I can add is that the exchange left me feeling empty. I wanted it to be over. But it kept going. Anderson died and there was nothing I could do about it. All the paragon choices seemed meaningless. But I watched Shepard go on. And then meet the AI thing. And again, I am sure many have commented on it and made great cases. I want to avoid being a parrot and just talk.

It felt like I had no choice at all. I was presented with three options without understanding the full ramifications of the decision. The options just didn't seem to reflect the narrative which I experienced. It was asking me to care about something that I had no real reference for. I had no entry character for like I did with every other problem I cared about. I did not want any of the choices at all. I wanted to have any of my teammates there, fighting along side me. Watching my back. All I got was a strange child forcing me to pick one of three option. To make a decision I did not understand and did not have any apparent link to the story.

That was what hurt the most. In Mass Effect, I always felt like I understood what was going on. I felt like an important part of the narrative and able to direct it based on information and previous experience. I had neither. I don't want you to explain it. It happened. It is done. I don't understand it at all. I don't want to "interpret it." Mass Effect was not about interpretation. It was about a coherent and well packed story in such a way where the player would be able to understand the reality of the situation and truly believe this was a possible future for humanity. What was left was unexplained. It felt empty. Hollow. And meaningless.

What happened next was just a slap in the face. The Relays blowing up. Joker running like a coward leaving Shepard to die. And making a bizarre Adam and Eve symbolic gesture? All of it was a slap. Symbolism played, at best, a background role. It wasn't a dominant form of storytelling. But it was there. Watching Joker run away. With my team. All of them leaving me to die alone.

It left me feeling like every choice I made did not matter. Like it was never supposed to matter. I was only allowed to think that I could fight for a future. But in reality, no. In the end, everyone dies. All is loss. And the best you can hope for is momentary happiness before dying alone and afraid.

This was not the message I wanted in my video games. I want to escape the horrors of my life. I don't want a video game to remind me of the meaningless of life and the nihilism it entails.

Please fix it. Don't clarify it. The ending happened. If it wasn't clear originally, it wasn't a good story in the first place. Just let it go and walk away from it. Please. Just.....just fix it......

Michael

There is a lot of emotion in this letter. I read every bit of it. I'm not sure if it will get their attention, but it sure did mine.

Same here, I have no idea if they will take notice, but it seems written with the heart tempered by the mind, so I hope they will.

Michael, you said every word I had not been able to express up until now. Bravo!

I love you, Michael. Seriously.

Ah. Feeling mutual. Believe in wearing heart on sleeve. Especially with whatever happen to be passionate about.

Well done. I think everyone here appreciates the effort you put into this.

Well done.

Michael..I don't think you could say it any better.

Very nice article, I really enjoyed reading it because you perfectly sum up what's bothering every one who played ME3 through.

Let's just hope Bioware will listen to us and provide us an ending that makes sense. An ending that gives us a fulfilling feeling, an ending that makes us feel "important", and ending that shows the consequences and the importance of our decisions.
An ending that releases the player like in ME2. Your decisions had a direct impact on what happened next, your choices decided who lived and who died.
The first time I completed ME2 and all of my mates returned safely from the suicide mission, I was so happy and..well..proud of myself. There was this warm, good feeling you get. You felt good.
And then the cutscene with all my crewmembers, showing me they're ready for whatever-there-may-come. Joker handing over the Datapad with the Reapers on it. The begin of the Reaper Invasion. It was magic.

I would wish, Bioware would have made an ending (or several endings) "like that".

(Sorry, it's kinda impossible for me to stay short in texts. )

The part about feeling like your squad abandoned you... perfect. This will probably never be read by anyone at Bioware, but its good to see I wasnt alone in feeling like this. Thank you.

This is very well written, says everything I feel! Just out of curiosity.. did you ever send this to bioware?

Not yet.

I am sending this today to BioWare