Why we are here

We need to follow the example of the lovely Clarissant and always remember to hold the line with honor, grace, and dignity.
I understand the desire to rage about Bioware's ending to Mass Effect. I understand the desire to hit them again and again. However while you may feel good in the moment it weakens us all.
I joined retakemasseffect on the tenth of March filled with great anger and furious vengeance. I found myself among thousands that felt the same way.
From their I joined HTL and saw something I never expected.
I saw a fan base not only become enraged but I saw them turn that rage into something real.
They didn't just say I hate the ending. They said the ending is broken and your going to fix this.
From that point we expanded opening charities for children, and supporting those that already exist.
We have become something far great than I ever thought possible.
We not stand at the forefront of a great and epic battle for gamers everywhere. We strive to not only retakemasseffect but to retake gaming itself.
We are not just entitled whiners we are gaming advocates fighting to make sure the gamer gets what he or she deserves.
We aim to see all promises kept and all games made with love and quality in equal measure.
Does this mean we want to tear down the "established" gaming companies? NO!
What we strive for is a day when these giants companies remember it is the people that buys your product that matters. Not just your bottom line.
Gaming is at a cross roads right now. We can allow this chance to pass us by and one day games as we know them will no longer exist. You'll be paying ten bucks a level to download your games, or some other insane practice.
I say nah. I will not back down and I know they're are thousands standing beside me ready to hold this line.
Together we are unstoppable but broken we are just that.
I urge you, no I beg you to follow the great examples within our membership. And always remember the words of a man far greater than I.

"Will not the good people respond to a united, and earnest appeal from us? Can we, can they, by any other means, so certainly, or so speedily, assure these vital objects? We can succeed only by concert. It is not "cananyof usimaginebetter?" but, "can wealldo better?" The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save Mass Effect."

Abraham Lincoln (Paraphrased by Goose)

Sorry but members expressing their concerns at the direction of the movement or the movement saying thigs on our behalf isnt as i see it raging . And compared to Bioware forums members have been polite in there questioning and objections .
Soon as we are not allowed to ask questions of our staff or other members in a polite way then im out . There have been many issues that some members have objected to , the whole Chris P apology thread , facebook new chat rules etc but maybe the odd post i have not seen any hatefull attacks or trolling . If we are no longer able to post our concerns then Thank you to all who i have met and goodby .

Once again, all opinions expressed in a civilized manner are welcome on HTL. These sorts of posts as well as questioning the staff or BioWare employees are not what Goose was alluding to.

As for the rules, they are there for one reason: to protect the amazing members of this community. They are only introduced after careful deliberation and consideration on the part of the staff. If you have questions or concerns regarding them then please review the terms of service and send me a PM so I might address them.

Clarissant has it right I never meant for the post to come off as me telling people to be silent. What I mean is to always be sure to be respectful of the people your talking to just as you would want them to be respectful of you.
More importantly we must not make every single thing we do be about the endings. This makes us look one note.
I welcome people speaking up for what the believe and I do hope we can get Justin Simpson to stay. I dn't however want us to devolve to people just screaming. "Shut up and fix my ending."
I hope this is a little clearer.

but what has promted you to post ithis what bad examples are we talking about here , its like we have to keep saying sorry for stuff we might have done / havent done or someone else did . If it was just a rallying good job staff and member speech then why put the " noticed a disturbing trend among some of our members " line .

I'd just like to point out that I have a little honor but not a single shred of grace. I have a tiny amount of dignity but I think it fell down the back of my bed or something. This is all.

That was just a bad line I'm afraid I started this post a week or so ago just after a flame war broke out on twitter between Evil Chris Priestly and a couple of our members who I don't know their HTL names. I should have deleted that Line and I think I will now.
Never cut and paste a post without rereading it is the moral here

It's a fine line we're walking on that's for sure.
I agree with Chris that I haven't seen much "raging" but I do have picked up a change of tone from many members. I'd say it's only natural that time makes us all weary and unnerved and that should be our biggest enemy. That's what ATGhunter told us would happen months ago and it seems to check out. I'm inclined to keep following his advice to remain calm and civil.

As for the HTL staff and management team, I do not doubt they are doing what they can for the community. They are part of it. Even though I personally believed the "apology thread" was on the front of the website way too long. And in my opinion, the last paragraph with the word "apology" could have been left out. Still, Clarissant and Volion and every staff member I've talked to encourage us to speak out and that's precisely what HTL is about. So anyway, I don't think people are raging, I don't think there's a giant chasm between members, and I don't think people should blindly follow management. Volion doesn't want that, I don't want that.

Meh, I'm tired.

I just think that we should come to a unanimous conclusion fast and move on.

Maybe what we need is a "rage" subsection in the forum, clearly marked so it's easily avoided by those who don't wish to be offended, where everyone is free to rant and rave to their hearts' content, censor-free. If it gets out of hand or the opposition to our group starts pulling quotes from it, it could be scrubbed, but if it would help ease tension maybe it's worth a try...

A week ago some guy (we all know ) asked what was the best thing in ME3...I had two answers in my mind but I mentioned only one (the Genophage story arc)

The other answer I kept for myself but I'll share it now...it was the moment when I finished ME3 for the first time. This isn't the real ending, there must be more was my first thought, so I looked it up on Google, BSN and so on...and I suddenly realized I wasn't alone. And there it was...this best moment when all those Fleet Banners popped up in the signatures. So many people united with a common goal...

Yes, there are differences about this goal. Some people are optimistic, others feel betrayed...some believe in the IT, others say they are grasping at straws emergency induction ports...some want the product they've been promised, others just want an ending that Mass Effect and their Shepard deserve.

As for me, I just want "my" Mass Effect back...but this community can and will hopefully do much more. I've seen a lot of change in this world...why not the change when game developers and gamers communicate with each other? Everybody would win I suppose...

(The original post was removed by mods, I guess for cussing so I will go ahead and just edit those out. Since cussing is bad, mmk. All edits are in bold.)

Flirting right Chris. I'm done. I thought we were going to be calling out developers on their bullpoopy because IGN and Kotaku are in their back pockets, not cow towing to them when they post because "OMG a BioWare employee is talking to me, Squee." And then when people have a problem with useless polls and posts about hurt feelings (who gives a fecal castle anyway, really?) people jump on that person because they are big meanies!

Well, I'm a meanie. Flirt BioWare. Flirt EA. And Flart this, I'm out.

(there, all PG-13...)

Justin Simpson
I hope you stay because this is the only ME site I've been to where people can disagree but still get along and what I mean by that is at BSN, I tried to keep going and posting there but the atmosphere over there( at least in the Storyline spoilers allowed section) is really negative and posters with history attach each other without even reading each post made.
It's the game we love that brings us together, and we shouldn't allow our differences drive us apart.
We all react differently and the internet is not the best place always for a conversation because you can't see, hear the poster as he/she posts.
Anyway I hope you stay if only because we need to hear from everyone in order for us grow and accomplish our goals.
...Ya know.....being a Stepford Wife/Husband is really boring ......hopefully my humor has translated we can't all be the same

I appreciate what you said and I agree. Though my first post removed for some reason. It can't be cussing because I've done it before and we're all adults I think. So, I guess they really didn't want that opinion here? lol

I have no idea, but stay.
I'm just stubborn, I refuse to let BioWare think I've given up and gone away. My feelings about BioWare are very mixed. I either feel like they are my mother-in-law or I'm married to them.......just joking

or both at the same time

I like the rage. As long as it is short. Reading long posts makes my eyes hurt. Unless it's funny. Rage can be funny too. I gota say though.... I think there is to much butt kissing of BioWare going on here. I mean WTH is this "Thank you card" thing? Are we (HTL) saying thanks for the crappy ending and the PR female dog slap? <---(See what I did there) I don't like it. I want to beat the dead horse to life so as we can beat it to death once again. (Hey my dogs gota eat too) It's fine to be polite. However! I don't see any good reason to smooch rectum or blow sunshine at people who screwed up and then told us to shove it.

And Another Thing! Are we being censored? Can we not curse anymore? I'd really like to know. Because if we are then why is there, at least one, link to XXX fan fiction in another thread? Also some pic's that are very close to if not actually softcore porn in a few other threads. Someone please clarify this for me. (Oh heck! I said "Clarify")

Holding The Line

Because not everybody at BW is to blame for the ending. The people who wrote Garrus are obviously awesome. People who wrote Mordin, and Tuchanka, and Rannoch, and Tali are also all awesome, as I'm sure it was entirely Casey Hudson's idea to not reveal her face properly (he said as much in the Final Hours videos). They all deserve our gratitude for making the game as GOOD as it was. It's not their fault the final product sucks, they did THEIR part very well. The only thing we can legitimately blame them for is for not staging an intervention when the ending was being written, but I'm sure they had their reasons (job security chief among them, probably).

Are we? I haven't noticed. I self-censor (except when I post Asari Rule 34 art, obviously), so it doesn't really affect me, but I've seen more than one person use "frell" (ocrap, there goes the self-censor again, well, guess the word, okay?) with no consequences. Just be able to tell apart whether you're insulting someone or you're using it for dramatic purposes (and no, the insults override the drama, not the other way around) so it won't break the other, non-swear-related rules, and you're safe, I promise.

I think it is a failure for all of BioWare and EA as well. Just because someone does a great job on one part or a few does not give absolution for the failure of the company or it's product. No, everyone there has to take a bite of this dookie sandwich. There is to much fail in this to not get some on everyone. Including the people who paid for the game. Using the "I'm not going to do anything because I have to pay my bills" excuse does not absolve that person. If you and others do that to much then there will be no company to pay anyone. If I had ever taken that kind of "It's not my fault everyone else sux" attitude at one of my jobs I wouldn't have had it for very long. It's like having a customer come up to you and say "There's a rat in my sandwich" and you say "Oh well I made the bread. Isn't it great?" Yeah the game was pretty damn good until the end. The problem here is that the end f'd up the whole damn series. All 3 games and the DLC. (For me at least) Am I bitter? HELLZ YEAH! 200 + bucks out the window! Ok rant over.
Anyway I'm withholding any praise until the EC DLC comes out. Then we'll see what we see.

Holding The Line