The Mass Effect of Entitlement

Fishy Shepard questions your decisions.

That's right! The Internets dead horse of all subjects, Mass Effect 3! As everyone has an opinion, I would love to throw mine into this vortex of hate, crying and complaining. The "mass" opinion seems to be that the ending didn't tickle the Internets fancy and a ton of players want EA to whip up a new ending for them. Then there is also the infamous day one DLC will forever be disputed like politics. So lets go right ahead and swan dive into this in hopes of there is a return from this black hole. (Don't worry, there won't be any spoilers.)


The Ending

The simply best mechanic Mass Effect has is the fact that if you make a choice to take a dump at the beginning of the game or at the end results in saving an entire planet. To sum that up is choices that change game play. The choice you make in the first game doesn't just effect the first game, it spans for 2 more games! Mass Effect is like a disgruntled girlfriend who will never forget what you did, even if 5 years has gone by since your very first decision. Unfortunately I jumped into the series late at Mass Effect 2 but had my trusty brother to fill me in so I got the gist of what happened in Mass Effect. In Mass Effect 2 I wanted my ending perfect. I wanted to go in, gun blazing and layout Reapers like I was putting up Christmas decorations with my bullets. Then have everyone walk out, blast my way back home through the Omega 4 Relay, fill up the Harbinger's body full of space candy and bust that bad boy wide open for the children of Earth. But in Mass Effect fashion it stuffed my dreams pretty early in the suicide mission. I got to watch Kelly get turned into a human smoothie. Later I realized I look to long mining planets for resources to pay for ship upgrades. I was strangely okay with all of that though. In the end my crew walked away with an exception of a few non-combat crew. Now the ending in Mass Effect 3 did have different endings but it was more based on the decisions made all the way from Mass Effect to Mass Effect 3. Unlike in Mass Effect 2 where choices before the mission and a lot of choices during the mission will change the out come. I will admit. I liked the ending. Yeah it wasn't "ideal" or happy but it was different. The gaming community had a little more to say about that. A lot of people seemed to disagree and simply said "The ending sucked and I didn't like it. EA, make me a new one." EA responded, "Okay.."

My big questions is.. if the internet didn't exist, would any of this happened? In situations like this, the internet is like that guy at a sporting event with a megaphone yelling dumb things and you just want him to fall off the bleachers so bad, or someone else to come along and hit him. No one would ask a director to remake the ending of a movie because, well, it is what it is. That's how it ended. End of story. Why does the gaming community treat a video game any differently? If it's bad, that's it. Walk away. It's over. Go find comfort from a more similar, safer and happier game. There is no reason for EA to get up and abide to the gaming communities wishes. I will let my good friend Old Han Solo handle this message to the general public.  I also understand that EA said they would make an extension to the ending. As vague as that can be who knows what we are in for.

The DLC

First day $15 DLC is ballsy. Like, really ballsy. And EA did it. Yeah, they went there. When they first announced the DLC, my reaction was "Yeah, no. I'm out." Then the game came out and my friends got it and I was that kid inside looking out a window looking at my friends have a good time. So I caved and got it. Justified it to myself that if I don't get the DLC it will be enough of a protest.

There are a lot of factors on why this makes me actually angry that EA would do this. First reason. From what I have read it has a great story and actually clarifies some of the main story with the Protheans. Now if it was a side mission where you just go to a planet and it's a whole new story all together and was purely new content that didn't make the player feel left out, perfect. Make the living crap out of a DLC like that. But when you come out with a DLC that makes the gamer feel like if they don't get it they are missing a part of the story, that's just cruel. That's like stealing a baby from candy. And NO one steals my baby. Second Reason. You give it to your deluxe owners for free and not your standard owners? Is this like not taxing the rich because, well, they are rich? Yell at me for that one if you want but I feel like it has the same thought process. All that says to me is, "Hey! You spent 80 bucks on our game for some extra crap. Here's more extra crap!" Yeah I am pretty sure other games have done it too but it wasn't in my path of "Games I wanna go all Napoleon on". Third Reason. You did this for Mass Effect 2 but for free. What happened? It might take awhile for me to accept that this is EA's way of running their business. (Relevant)

The Multiplayer


Here we are with the third installment of the Mass Effect Series with a multiplayer mode. Fun! I get to play one of my favorite series with my friends for fu... Wait whats that? Multiplayer effects my Single Player Galactic Readiness? And if I don't play the game it goes down about 2% a day? And it's only one game mode? No PVP? Wha.... I don't even...

Now for those of you who don't know how Galactic Readiness works, this is how: If you don't play for a day, it will go down 2%. Every match you play, win or lose, you get 3% for that match. A match can take 30 - 45 minutes. Depending on who is in your group or how many people stick around for the end. Now, lets continue.

I enjoy playing with my friends as much as any other social gamer. But there is something broken about how EA approached this whole multiplayer thing. I will admit, at first I was excited to see multiplayer kind of "effect" your single player campaign. Then there was a span of like 2 weeks where things like, you know, life.. happened. So I tried to keep  up with the app on my iPhone but life was still happening. I logged back on when I had a whole night to just put this game to bed. At this point I have fallen about a week behind on using the app and doing multiplayer. The number I was looking for was somewhere around 80-90% Galactic Readiness. The number I found was, Dwayne Johnson with a 2x4 swinging full force with a target landing area of my face, which translates to 70%. I shrug it off, hit multiplayer, and played for FOUR HOURS to get my Galactic Readiness up to 100%. I just dumped a whole night of mindless survival mode to get my Galactic Readiness to the point where I want it. I wake up the next day, renewed, hair is so elegantly disheveled, and ready to finally finish this game. Log in. Main Menu pops up. Galactic Readiness = 99%. WHO are you? Why do you insist on making me play this god awful survival mode for the millionth time? I suck it up. Play one round. After about 30 minutes, I'm finally ready to do this. Start up single player. Two hours later, I finish the game. I laid on my couch and stared at the ceiling expecting some kind of truth, or even a good feeling to wash over me.

A close friend of mine has the same issue right now. He hasn't played due to having, you know... life. He will be looking at about 50% Galactic Readiness. Yup, this is his exact reaction when I told him that's what his Galactic Readiness will be when logs back in to beat the game. At this point he simply texts me back, "I will not be finishing ME3 due to multiplayer." I offer a couple texts of motivation and help. But that's it, we lost him.

The only reason I can come up with for multiplayer being in this game is strictly for the fact that if the game gets pirated, you cannot complete the game with 100% Galactic Readiness. Therefore some players will not get the ending that they were looking for. In a situation like my friends, EA over did it. He is now staring at hours of online game play to make his Single Player game where he wants it. They are so worried about people who pirate, it actually killed it for someone who spent money on their game. He might be only person, maybe there are more people out there like my friend, but a situation like this blows my mind. It is truly sad to see someone who has been very dedicated to the series fall because of a terrible multiplayer that can sink your single player if your not a hardcore gamer.

My honest opinion: EA's business morals are sinking, but trying to being the gaming industry with it by making terrible "norms."

Time to take this last swig of Shipyard Applehead. I shall swan dive into bed and close out today, this article and this sweet, delish beer.

-EF