I knew things would get set aside as soon as I received my copy of Mass Effect 3. I honestly don't know of a story I've experienced to date that was both as well-done and as immersive as the ME series. I kind of figured it would take me out for about a month; it would take me two weeks to play it, and two weeks to "wind down."
It actually took longer. No, that's not true, 'cause that implies I've wound down from it. It's one of those stories that can't help but become a part of you. What you experience going through Mass Effect will, in some way, change the way you approach things afterward, even if it's just in the context of stories in video games.
Don't get me wrong; it's not a perfect game, and not a perfect story. But it's damn good at what it does. I would even venture to say that it is the best storytelling experience you can have in a video game to date, and it's more than gripping enough that even those who aren't big on playing the games will greatly enjoy watching it played through.
But as some of you have noticed, the response from the fanbase over the ending has been overwhelmingly negative. As in, spilling into other games and genres negative. It's been really bad.
Now, the endings worked for me. They weren't exactly stellar writing, but I thought they did a decent job with the situation they got themselves into. And, really, what BioWare did with that whole game was unprecedented. So, the ending was about a 4 when the rest of the game was a 10. It still didn't break the experience for me. I got to accomplish almost everything with my Shepard that I wanted to accomplish, including a handful of things I thought game limitations would never let me do. Given all that, I'm going to keep speaking highly of the series.
But because the reaction has been so bad, I've found myself having to speak these things in forums other than my usual ones. Namely, the BioWare Social Network forums. Why bother, you ask? Because it isn't fair to only provide negative feedback to your artist.
This goes double when they tell you they are going to try and amend the situation, which is what BioWare has done. They're releasing an extended cut of the game, free of charge, for players to download. And they're taking their sweet time with it so they can do it well.
But it's hard to create a quality product when the people you are making it for (the fans) are telling you that you owe it to them to succeed, but you did so poorly the first time that they doubt you ever will. So, I've been spending some time being a voice to counterbalance that. It's kind of a messy job, and it's fighting against the majority, but someone needs to do it, and I'm someone. If they're having trouble making the extended cut because of fan negativity (and a Twitter post by one of the developers suggests they are/were), then hopefully they can find a few fans like myself who are welcoming its coming, and who haven't lost faith in them as storytellers.
But that's not the only reason I haven't updated here.
About a month after ME3 came out, our case load at work increased, and I found myself pulling massive amounts of overtime. For those who don't know, my job requires a LOT of keyboarding. Which means in short order I shot out my hands.
Our work load has (thankfully) decreased over the last week, but not enough that my hands are back to full functioning, so I've been trying to save my typing time for important stuff. I'm on the mend, though, which is why you get this update. Hopefully, this will move to actually producing stories sometime soon.
Don't get me wrong; it's not a perfect game, and not a perfect story. But it's damn good at what it does. I would even venture to say that it is the best storytelling experience you can have in a video game to date, and it's more than gripping enough that even those who aren't big on playing the games will greatly enjoy watching it played through.
But as some of you have noticed, the response from the fanbase over the ending has been overwhelmingly negative. As in, spilling into other games and genres negative. It's been really bad.
Now, the endings worked for me. They weren't exactly stellar writing, but I thought they did a decent job with the situation they got themselves into. And, really, what BioWare did with that whole game was unprecedented. So, the ending was about a 4 when the rest of the game was a 10. It still didn't break the experience for me. I got to accomplish almost everything with my Shepard that I wanted to accomplish, including a handful of things I thought game limitations would never let me do. Given all that, I'm going to keep speaking highly of the series.
But because the reaction has been so bad, I've found myself having to speak these things in forums other than my usual ones. Namely, the BioWare Social Network forums. Why bother, you ask? Because it isn't fair to only provide negative feedback to your artist.
This goes double when they tell you they are going to try and amend the situation, which is what BioWare has done. They're releasing an extended cut of the game, free of charge, for players to download. And they're taking their sweet time with it so they can do it well.
But it's hard to create a quality product when the people you are making it for (the fans) are telling you that you owe it to them to succeed, but you did so poorly the first time that they doubt you ever will. So, I've been spending some time being a voice to counterbalance that. It's kind of a messy job, and it's fighting against the majority, but someone needs to do it, and I'm someone. If they're having trouble making the extended cut because of fan negativity (and a Twitter post by one of the developers suggests they are/were), then hopefully they can find a few fans like myself who are welcoming its coming, and who haven't lost faith in them as storytellers.
But that's not the only reason I haven't updated here.
About a month after ME3 came out, our case load at work increased, and I found myself pulling massive amounts of overtime. For those who don't know, my job requires a LOT of keyboarding. Which means in short order I shot out my hands.
Our work load has (thankfully) decreased over the last week, but not enough that my hands are back to full functioning, so I've been trying to save my typing time for important stuff. I'm on the mend, though, which is why you get this update. Hopefully, this will move to actually producing stories sometime soon.
