When Mass Effect was released in 2007, it gained traction and a passionate fan base that not many new games today have achieved. At the time, the sci-fiRPG's claim to fame was giving players choices that would matter, either in the immediate moment as it related to their companions, or in the future as Commander Shepard did their best to gain allies and prepare for the Reaper threat against organic. When Mass Effect 2 ended with the sight of the Reapers leaving dark space, everyone had their own ideas on how the Commander's story would come to a close. Mass Effect 3, which was released 10 years ago this past weekend, may have been received as a satisfying, if bittersweet ending to a blockbuster space opera with a hokey epilogue. The reactions surrounding the conclusion were much harsher. Commander Shepard's three endings were a choice between merging synthetic and organic beings together, controlling and converting the Reapers into a galactic peacekeeping force, or destroying them and all synthetic life. There is no point in asking how the ending has aged a decade later, nor is it worth wondering if it would have been better for BioWare to tell fans to accept the ending as it was. Either you hate it now as you did back in 2012 or you have decided to accept it for what it is. There is still a lot to be said about this game, mainly in regards to what comes out of that divisive closer. The range of reactions to the end of ME3 is interesting to look back on. There was a conspiracy theory that the end of the game would only be given to players if they paid real money. The public reputation ofEA is notoriously Not Great. There were also cupcakes with icing themed after the game, along with petitions to change the ending, and even FTC complaints. There is a question about Mass Effect 3 and other public instances of fan backlash, a lot of which dominated the late 2010s. The original ending of the game has been hounded by a bad smell ever since the free Extended Cut patch was released. The developer's games have been all over the place, but some of the venom towards them can be attributed to ME3. The tide has turned on it and more people have been able to see that game.
Mass Effect 3 is the first step in what has become a decade of fan backlash to controversial pop cultural story decisions, and how the creatives behind those decisions react to them. The last few years have made clear that creators have to deal with a lot of fans. Most of them choose to log off for the sake of their mental health, as they don't want to get harassed again. John Boyega was able to hit back after the bag was fully secured, and he did so by responding to the rude fans in their only language. Because of how easy it is for fans to twisted their words into something more malicious, creators and celebrities have to dance around the subject of fan harassment.
Fans haven't really gotten a real victory from these movements. Mass Effect 3's reaction won't win any awards, but to this day fans are tearing themselves apart over various slights, either legitimate or imaginary. If those fans aren't trying to distance themselves from their original fans, they're disappointed with how the franchise has ended. Fandoms can bring people together through shared interests. They will make you hate the very thing you came to love, or potentially love, in a few weeks. Corporations bear some of the blame in the way they have weaponized fandom to what it is today, but by and large it is fans themselves who helped get them there. Their passion for the things they love and their mapping of that passion onto the corporate constructs that made those things in the first place has made it so that wading into any fandom without a safety zone to stop and catch your breath is a very dangerous endeavor.
If it wasn't for Mass Effect 3, Fandom would have been something else in 2012 This may have started with BioWare, but it has grown to the point where they are trying to rehabilitate their image with the help of a new Mass Effect. If that new game hits, it will either address Shepard's choice or close the wound. Shepard was able to bring an end to the Reapers. The fandom hell we find ourselves in is begging for a deus ex machina to break its exhausting cycle. If more people understood the purpose of fanfiction, we could have avoided this.
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