Blast from the Past - How the Gaming Media Rumor Mill Has Gotten It Wrong Before

That's quite interesting because even though it was still...well four years ago and thus very early....I believe BioWare had already made an announcement where it wouldn't do such a thing. 

I think it was 2013 for sure when Shepard was considered done. Might have been 2012 because that is when people were most upset and I remember it not being taken well to put it mildly. Come to think of it, I now believe a huge part of the hate has to do with that. People still wanted milky way and their beloved crew, but the crew had changed over the years. I think 2 was received less well at first because of this change. But I think the biggest blow was Shepard basically being dead. There is still even speculation over if Shepard could have survived. Most people don't think so with the breath scene ending still being wildly debated and a huge portion of them think that certain color endings give Shepard some kind of immortality. I remember some people picking certain endings just to keep shepard alive. As I sit here now, I wonder if SJW is possibly less the reason for hate from some people and more the fact that they might feel BW murdered their favorite RPG character. There is that mindset that if someone or some character goes through so much, they should be given the gift of a happy life for it. The idea of sacrificing one's life to save a galaxy seems noble but when you are playing that character and it means they are no more, I can truly understand this as some element that factored largely into the unhinged factor.

Dare I?

Ah, they're not that bad, but it goes to show how few people wanted to let go of the OT...and why they might have been mad about ME:A. Can't always get what you want and all of that.

Indeed.  Which is why I always try not to form serious expectations I guess.  I always said the best way to get over the ending would have either been massive time, or massive distance.  I found it quite brilliant that they did both.  

I'm not really sure how well that worked though. Sure explains a chunk of the hate. People just protesting that Shep and crew are gone. Heck if shep and crew headed to andromeda I think people would be thrilled as hell. Of course, doing it for a reason other than having left the galaxy in near ruins probably would have been best.

'tis annoying. 

And that was only one game. Three games and I guess what you get is what we've seen. And of course, the warden just went off to look for a cure. Nothing so traumatic as left dead under a pile of rubble while said galaxy burns and said crew leaves said hero for dead. I'm starting to think BW pretty much loaded that gun and shot themselves in the foot 4 times. One for the crew. One for the galaxy. One for the endings. And one for shepard. There was no way MEA was going to get as well received with that kind of emotional baggage. Of course, you can't really blame BW completely. They clearly didn't understand the stewing rage of a fandom that's been wronged. Probably having to hammer into their skulls that shepard is dead repeatedly over the years should have been taken as a sign or warning of sorts. File it under things to never ever, ever do to your fan base. 

Fake news back then. Fake news now.

They have cause, because in people's playthrough's the Warden is either: alive, King/Queen of Ferelden (that's the big one for me, personally) has a "child" legitimately or "not", or has a romantic relationship to a possible Divine. In other words, BioWare hasn't ended Warden's story at all and is unwilling to do so. I see both sides' of their arguments. But that's a long rabbit hole, that's been discussed so I'm done. 

It's almost like separation anxiety. I get it, I do. After building relationships with those characters over three games it's tough to have to leave the series behind. Of course carrying that anger over to the next game five years later, well, that's shit's a little weird.