Everything Wrong With Mass Effect 3 Redux by GCN

Buddy... you don't believe for one second that the writers of the Mass Effect franchise, nor those that work in Bioware in general, are bad writers.

If any of us actually believed that then we wouldn't have liked games that spend half of their time in dialogue scenes. We enjoyed the Mass Effect trilogy precisely because the writing was wonderfully constructed and engaging from the very first entry, all the way through the second and also into the third.

Now, you want to say that some stuff was dumb, hey that's perfectly fine. But let's not pretend that Bioware has low standards when it comes to picking their writers.

You suppose. Okay.

Maybe... just maybe, they are actually talented and a great track record of games does indeed prove that, ya know ?

Come on. It's obvious that they've done a horrible job on Andromeda and Anthem, and gave a half-ass extended cut ending that makes the ending more problematic. So either they did not listen, or they don't even care. If it's both, then why should other gamers care about them? When they could get other games that has high quality, and better than BioWare could ever make.

I understand, and maybe those things did happen (I've seen no source to confirm it).

Those issues however, are regarding management and direction. They have no bearing on the talent and the capacity of the writers involved. It's one thing to say "Hey, I think they shat the bed when it come to properly arranging the story and gameplay of the endings of ME3" and another to say "These writers have no talent and should be flippin' burgers". You should be aware that you contradict yourself when you say the writing team was apparently furious at Hudson and Walters but was also a team that had no skill in their craft.

We've had the conversation with Weekes' posts many times, ever since the original BSN.


And the writing. The bad writing is produced through writing. Usually done by writers.


I think and as it was short of conveyed to us by Patrick, some of the writing staff, I won't say who, I don't think I really need to, where too far up their own asses to accept criticism.

As far as the "flipping burgers" goes, yeah, it is a gross exaggeration on my part, as it is a job that allows for very little creativity to be leveraged and therefore much less probable to cause harm to the franchise. FYI, I exaggerate all the time. You can ask around.


Not everyone, just the ones that had their heads too far up their own asses.

Even so, I am on record for having said that
-Mac should have a job
-Mac should write for ME
-Some of my favourite crew members were, at least, conceived by Mac

He is not irredeemable, he can actually be quite good at times, but he has a lot to make up for. At least he has admitted to be wrong in how he handled the "lack of player agency" in ME3 and that's a step in the right direction for me. But there's so much more than needs to be fixed and stalling till the next installment, some time in 2026, is only helping ME slide even deeper to irrelevance.

You? A fan? That's a good one. 

[/quote]You? A fan? That's a good one. [/quote]

Hold up, I'm confused. Are you saying someone can't be a fan and be critical of a product? I hope not, cuz that would be like saying someone isn't a friend if they're critical of something you did or are doing wrong.

You? A fan? That's a good one. [/quote]

Hold up, I'm confused. Are you saying someone can't be a fan and be critical of a product? I hope not, cuz that would be like saying someone isn't a friend if they're critical of something you did or are doing wrong.[/quote]

There's being critical and then there's being insulting. Some fans I've seen fall into the latter for example the people who don't like the prequels, while there are some who give constructive criticism there are others sing that George Lucas raped their childhood.

i will cut ya

That's kind of a problem for Bioware.


I mean, Mass Effect being forcefully put on ice should be a reason to consider change. If not for cloud9, at least for Biowre's own baby. Regardless if that change happens to coincide with what cloud9 has been asking, as well as other members of the online ME community, that spans, might I add, many more places than these here boards.

Hold up, I'm confused. Are you saying someone can't be a fan and be critical of a product? I hope not, cuz that would be like saying someone isn't a friend if they're critical of something you did or are doing wrong.[/quote]My point exactly. [/quote]


Well, if they are speaking the truth and all you do is insult and complain rather than offer constructive criticism or possible alternatives to what you think is wrong... then they also have a point. A friend should be brave enough to speak up when their friend does something wrong. Should be brave enough to speak the truth when someone needs to hear it. However, speaking up does not mean belittling them or constantly insulting them because they can't do anything right.
And speaking the truth does not equate to being unnecessarily cruel. When you care about someone (in this case, a product and it's creators) you don't do things to hurt them unnecessarily.

But some fans have a bad habit of lashing out when they are upset or displeased.

Why should fans and reviewers take the blame for something they didn't like? As much as I can support a team, if it falls a division, it's not going to be because I didn't cheer from the stands. The team has to play a good season. Bioware didn't and have, indirectly, told me they don't even want me as a fan. So what am I supposed to do?


Well, people will want what they want.


I'll say that they looked less interesting than the original trilogy ones. And their personalities certainly didn't help. None of them managed to capture my interest with their introductions, less so with what followed. Again, it's not my job to like them. It's Bioware's job to make me fall in love with them. And I'm not talking just about the romanceable characters.


Are you saying people called for a boycott? We all know that doesn't work. People didn't buy it, because it was a product they didn't want. Again, it's Bioware's problem to make people want to buy an entertainment product. What people do is their own business. The release state of the game being a sorry display was also not helpful and people had a go at it. As they did with Anthem.


EA shelved the franchise and it took a lot of begging from Bioware to be allowed to use the franchise one more time. According to EA, the game caused a critical franchise failure.


Nobody ever got an award for fastest game made. It's not a selling point.


Why? The writing would be exactly the same, the characters would be just as void of charisma and charm, the plot would be just as dumb, the UI just as convoluted. I doubt the animations or the technical issues of the game would have been that much better. But the studio wouldn't be in constant crunch and you may have an extra planet to explore.


First, you need to convince either side that they made a mistake. I don't think Bioware believes they made a mistake. I definitely don't believe I made a mistake.