NOTE: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE MASS EFFECT 3 STORY AND ENDING. STOP READING IF YOU DON’T WANT ANY PART OF MASS EFFECT 3 SPOILED!!! YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!
Here’s the news: Mass Effect 3 will be getting its Extended Cut DLC on June 26th. This DLC will not change, but rather expand on, the controversial Mass Effect 3 ending, and “reveals greater detail on the impact of player decisions.” It will be a free download for anyone that wants it. To use the content, you have to load a save file from right before your assault on the Cerberus Base. “The Extended Cut expands on the endings of Mass Effect 3 through additional scenes and epilogue sequences.”
I’m pissed off about this, and not for the reason you might think.
I was wary about this content when it was first announced a few months ago. A lot has been said about whether or not Bioware should have even addressed the complaints from the vocal minority by expanding on what was an admittedly weak ending to an epic saga. The side where I fall on the topic is I believe an artist’s work is an artist’s work, and it’s not right for us as consumers to petulantly scream at a creator to change it to fit our needs. What we should do is be better consumers. I’ve bought many products over the years that have disappointed me. I don’t buy products anymore from companies that have failed me as a consumer. It’s called voting with your wallet, and it’s what begets actual change in consumer-driven industries. Want to know why Apple is constantly adding features to iOS that have been in other mobile operating systems for years? It’s because they’re selling a crap ton of iPhones every year, and there’s no urgency for them to innovate at the speed of other companies.
But yet, here we are. To quote our friends at The Nerdpocalypse, the Neckbeards reared their heads and demanded change, and Bioware is delivering. And what are they giving us? As I mentioned before, I was wary about the Extended Cut, and the reason was because I figured it would just be a glorified Director’s Cut that tossed in some arbitrary dialogue and cut scenes so that the whiners would be placated. Guess what? That’s exactly what we’re getting! This “expansion of the meaning of the original ending” will probably amount to about 20-30 minutes of new content. The even funnier thing is it will do nothing to change what a lot of people griped about in the first place: the dumbness of the actual ending itself, nor should it, as you can’t just blow up what already exists.
The even crappier part about the whole thing: the fact that you’ll need to trudge through about 5 hours of gameplay that you’ve already played through just to experience this new content. That’s right, 90% of this extended ending will be you replaying the end of Mass Effect 3. The end that the majority of Mass Effect players have already played through, and this time without the excitement of experiencing that content for the first time. Maybe to some gamers, they don’t mind that. For me, having to replay something I’m not particularly wanting to replay just for this little bit of story feels like work, not fun.
Experience it again, for the first time!
I can hear what a lot of you might be saying right about now. “Why is he bitching about something he hasn’t even played, will be free of charge, and doesn’t even have to play if he doesn’t want to?” It’s a fair question, and here is my answer:
I loved the Project Overlord DLC from Mass Effect 2. I loved the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC. I even enjoyed Arrival quite a bit. Thanks to the Neckbeards and their internet rage, I might not get to experience a new separate wrinkle to the Mass Effect story, and to me, that sucks a whole lot more than a weaksauce ending.
Don’t get me wrong, Bioware deserves their fair share of blame as well. I respect an artist who stands by their convictions. Halo 3 comes to mind as a game that also provided a little controversy for its ending (certainly not as much as Mass Effect did, but I digress). If the vocal minority had flung the same vitriol at Bungie, I’d like to think Bungie would’ve stood by their vision, and went right back to making multiplayer maps and Halo Reach. That’s dealing in a huge hypothetical, but it’s what I gather would’ve happened being as Bungie then went on to make two more Halo games that forced you to play as characters far underpowered than that of your old friend Master Chief. They did so, because the felt those games would speak for themselves and tell a solid story. Bioware did the opposite. During a podcast that released alongside the Extended Cut announcement, Mass Effect 3 director Casey Hudson said the reason they did the DLC is because the development team felt bad about the criticism they received about the ending, despite that fact that the reviews for the game were overwhelmingly positive across the board.
Well guess what, Casey Hudson? You’re going to receive criticism when you work in an artistic medium (roll with me, folks; that’s a discussion for another day). Don’t let your feelings get hurt just because a small amount of people took issue with a tiny part of a 120-hour experience. You think David Fincher would’ve gone back and filmed additional scenes for the ending of Se7en if people got pissed off that it wasn’t what they were expecting it to be? Hell no! It’s his damn movie! Bioware probably thinks they’re doing the community a service by expanding on the ending. What they’re actually doing is devaluing their vision of how the Mass Effect story ended. People may not have been happy about it, but there was no issue with leaving things up to people’s imagination. I don’t need definitive proof of what happened to Detective Mills at the end of Se7en; I can draw whatever conclusion I want to. Before this controversy erupted, I do feel like Bioware originally wanted people to draw their own conclusions about what happens as a result of all of their choices at the end of Mass Effect 3. Regardless of whatever they say about it, I’m always going to believe the only reason this extended ending is happening is they caved to the pressure of their “fans’ and abandoned their vision as a result.
The proper way to expand your story
If they truly wanted to expand on the story, they could’ve done so by adding actual new storylines and content. Hell, they could’ve addressed some of the perceived deficiencies of the ending in this new content! Maybe a rogue Salarian scientist manages to create a new Genophage, and you have to help/stop him delivering it to the Krogans. Maybe a new endgame mission where the remaining members of your team have to find a way to reactivate the now-dormant mass relays. I’m just spitballing, but you get what I’m trying to say. There were ways to address this without having to slog through already-played missions and events. The Extended Cut feels like an ineffective Band-Aid being slapped on a gaping wound whose purpose is to stop the bleeding, but in reality, it probably won’t help at all. The same Neckbeards that cried and threw a tantrum like 6-year olds whose toy was taken from them will still likely find fault with whatever they get in this new content.
The grim reality is people who bitch and moan about other people’s artistic works won’t ever be placated unless they get exactly what they want. And what one person wants from the Mass Effect ending isn’t the same thing that I want from it, and that’s not the same thing the next guy wants. Hudson said himself during the podcast you can’t please everyone. So why try to? Instead, those Neckbeards need to get with it and vote with their wallets. Didn’t like the Mass Effect ending? Fine. Don’t buy another Bioware game ever again. If you really feel like the final 30 minutes of Mass Effect 3 destroyed the other 120 hours you invested, why would you ever give that company your hard-earned money in the future? Instead, Bioware and the Neckbeards have opened the door to a slippery slope that we shouldn’t be going down. What’s going to happen if the eventual end of the Assassin’s Creed story turns out to be a giant disappointment? Will the internet rise up again to get its way? More importantly, will Ubisoft cave much like Bioware did just to try to appease the masses?
Maybe I will end up playing through the Extended Cut. Maybe I’ll still eventually get the real DLC content I desire. Maybe seeing Bioware get artistically castrated by their “fans” will sour me from ever buying another one of their games; after all, how can I trust them as storytellers if they can’t even defend their own vision? All I know for sure is I wish this rant had never had to have been written, as I much would’ve rather written a news post about how excited I was about the new Mass Effect 3 DLC.
Source: Mass Effect Extended Cut
Image Credits: Hex 19, Game Informer