On Mass Effect 3: An Introduction to the Outrage

Mass Effect 3 released just one month ago to wild critical acclaim, including receiving 75 perfect review scores from across the spectrum of video games media. By all accounts, its release has been wildly successful--initial sales reports indicate that it approached or exceeded sales of each of the prior games in the series from day one sales alone. Yet, user review scores on sites like Amazon and Metacritic are nearly the polar opposite of those from facets of the professional gaming media. Amazon itself has cut the price of the game to $49.99, and various Amazon partners are selling the game for around $40 (and it's been posted for as low as $30) only one month after release, something largely unprecedented for a release of such magnitude. Other retailers, such as GameStop, have put in place similar price reductions on the game. [Update: April 10, 2012 - GameStop's price drop has been reverted, and the price at Amazon has risen slightly.]

There's no need to rhetorically ask what happened. If you're reading this, you probably know enough about games--or you know someone who does, and won't be quiet about it--to know that many fans of the Mass Effect series and its developer Bioware had a visceral, negative reaction to the game's finale. The fan reaction, often compared to the response to the endings of television series like Lost or The Sopranos, has spawned one of the largest video game-related online protests in recent memory. Petitions have been signed and polls have been taken. Donations have been made to worthy charities by fans hoping to channel their frustration with a once beloved company into something positive. Fans have started letter campaigns, created alternate fan endings, and even, in one delicious means of protest, sent cupcakes frosted to symbolize the game's ending to Bioware's offices in Edmonton.

There's so much that can be said about the entire phenomenon that no single post could say everything without pushing reader patience "to infinity and beyond." Three main factors contribute to the disappointment for a majority of fans: the perception that Bioware mislead or lied to fans regarding the nature of the game's ending during the pre-release period; the ending itself, which is incredibly ambiguous, ignores long-established character motivations, personalities, and development, and abandons key themes of the trilogy; and Bioware's largely dismissive response to the disenfranchised fans. Each of these topics deserves a lot of thought, and in posts to come, they'll each be covered in turn.

Bioware has announced an "Extended Cut" download to be released this summer, which is their saving throw versus angry video game mobs. Whether or not they'll be able to adequately address all of the issues surrounding the ending in a way as to quell the rebellion of so many loyal fans remains to be seen. Until then, it remains worth talking about, as the extent of the controversy is pretty new for the video game industry as a whole.