Editorial cartoon illustrates my prediction of the effect of the advertised ME3 "Extended" Edition on the built up fan outrage (spoilers in the blog post, I think)

dork_diggler · 29 days

I would love feedback on this stuff (the comics and the site) I'm new to the whole process of writing and drawing a webcomic and I'm sure everyone here has seen hundreds of 'em. /r/gaming and /r/masseffect encouraged me to start this site and I hope you guys enjoy it (whether or not you agree with my opinions).

dork_diggler · 29 days

I can't ACCURATELY make any assumptions, but there are still some things we can infer from BioWare's communications.

Doesn't the fact that this extended edition doesn't contain any further gameplay refute the Indoctrination Theory? And the fact that Shepard won't be in the Extended Edition? If IT is true, Shepard would wake up on Earth and the fight with the Reapers would continue, right? Or is the current theory that Shepard is critically wounded and the fight will continue without her, or that her resistance to Indoctrination somehow defeated the Reapers?

I'm genuinely curious, I haven't heard much about new versions of IT with Extended Edition in mind.

dork_diggler · 29 days

In my post I link to this: http://crystalprisonzone.blogspot.com/2012/03/bioware-day-one-dlc-developed.html?m=1

That's a lot of content on the disc when BioWare claimed otherwise. And again, its not an issue that I necessarily care about but it was one that DID generate a lot of controversy.

As I say later in the post, 90% of the community still LOVED the game - I was trying to show how little we cared about all those complaints, however valid they may have been. I think I'm in the same boat as most ME fans - I love 95% of the game unconditionally. But if you're accusing me of criticizing BioWare for some of their decisions, I guess you've got me?

You can love something and still point out its flaws, you know.

dork_diggler · 29 days

Doesn't the lack of any meaningful input from Shepard (the player) fundamentally change the way that Mass Effect has been telling the story so far?

Based on what BioWare has said, we know what the ending will and won't fix. It will fix the problem of no closure, which I'm very happy about. It will tell us more about the fate of our crew and the galaxy, again, that's awesome. It might even expand on what happens to Shepard if she lives - great!

But no new endings and no new choices means that the primary problem of the endings - three terrible A, B, C choices from a God-Child Deus Ex Machina with very similar outcomes and very little impact based on previous decisions - will remain. I hope I'm wrong but that's the impression I'm getting, from this: http://blog.bioware.com/2012/04/05/mass-effect-3-extended-cut/

dork_diggler · 29 days

Yay! Someone got the reference :)

dork_diggler · 29 days

Well I guess I should have said "dialogue choices", since afaik Hale isn't involved.

dork_diggler · 29 days

Turning Casey Hudson into the Fonz was just a happy accident! Thanks for pointing that out.

Cannot be unseen

dork_diggler · 29 days

Thanks, although reading over the post again I can see how it could easily have been misconstrued.

dork_diggler · 29 days

It seems I worded my post in a way that caused a lot of misunderstanding here. I wasn't trying to imply that I agreed with every complaint I listed, I don't. My intention was to document all the problems that occurred during the development and release of Mass Effect 3. Whether you agree with those "complaints" or not, they did in fact exist and there was a lot of controversy around the game long before it released.

You'll notice I follow up the complaints with "we didn't care, we still loved the game". None of those things really bothered me. They were the same minor issues that accompany any AAA title these days. I didn't care about most of them, and neither did most of you. 30 minutes before the game was over I turned to my wife and said "I think this is probably my favorite game of all time, by far".

I was trying to illustrate that our problem WASN'T with all those other things, our problem was almost exclusively with the ending - and additional cut scenes with no new choices and no new endings isn't likely to address all our complaints.

Forgive me /r/masseffect, for I have sinned.

dork_diggler · 29 days

Basically, what bulls55 said.

From what we've been told, "Extended Edition" offers no new choices, no new dialogue, no new endings, and Jennifer Hale won't be involved at all (meaning its likely that neither will Shepard, at least in a speaking role). It's a minor fix to a major problem, which is what I was trying to portray. I don't see how "additional cinematics" is going to make anyone happy. The only problem they are trying to fix is that the ending didn't offer enough closure. That is one of a hundred issues people have with those last 10 minutes.

dork_diggler · 29 days

I'm commenting on what we DO know about the "new" endings, which is that they aren't going to be new 'endings' at all and will only offer a few cinematics and epilogue scenes to explain the previous endings and offer more closure, thus fixing one minor problem out of a hundred major problems.

Yes, for all we know this band-aid could fix the whole thing and everyone will love BioWare again - but I doubt it.

dork_diggler · 29 days

Looks to me as if you went into my post with an axe to grind. I wasn't commenting on the validity of those complaints, but you can't deny that they existed.

For the record:

I had Aliers on board and I thought she was an interesting character.

I liked Vega and felt he was well acted, but didn't end up using him much in favor of characters I was more familiar with.

I would argue that you miss out on A LOT of good story content without Javik. His interactions with the crew were some of the highlights of the game for me.

It is factually accurate that you only needed to change a few lines of code to unlock a lot of the DLC content on the disc. I'm not as big of an opponent of Day One DLC as others, but this was still an issue and thus worth mentioning.

Just because something was patched doesn't mean it never happened.

Again, my intention wasn't to validate those complaints - I was only attempting to document them. They existed, they upset enough people to make the rounds on gaming news, and most of them were directly addressed by BioWare.

dork_diggler · 29 days

First of all I don't really care for the multiplayer, as its the same horde mode we've all played a thousand times before. Monetizing content and labeling it as "free" (especially since it wasn't originally intended to be free), just seems disingenuous to me.

I get what you guys are saying though, I'm just wary about any form of monetization. I don't like that the industry is starting to nickel and dime us to death on a product that already costs $60-90.

dork_diggler · 29 days

Not meant to be a complaint so much as a 'problem', which I agree with your assessment. Jessica Chobot in the game is a 'living' product placement for IGN, a site ostensibly dedicated to criticizing the very thing she has been inserted into.

dork_diggler · 29 days

I wasn't claiming that every complaint listed was a valid complaint that I agreed with, but instead trying to document all the problems and controversies that have troubled the game throughout development and well into release.

If it came off as me personally bitching about it, that wasn't my intention. That is why I followed it up by explaining that all of those problems were minor and 90% of the community still absolutely LOVED the game until the ending.

My point was that we don't really care about all that pre-launch stuff or the minor problems with gameplay - what we care about is the story.

dork_diggler · 29 days

All the ME3 multiplayer is "free" with quotes necessary. Chances are, people spent money trying to get the new unlocks. Introducing new ways to spend money isn't free in my book.

kragniz · 1 month

Technically speaking DICE still exists, but its kind of in the same way that Maxis and Mythic "still exist".

kragniz · 1 month

Hey cool, I made that! Glad you guys like it

dork_diggler

TROPHY CASE

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