Mass Effect 3.5B: Taste the Rainbow (Story and Ending Discussion; Spoilers!)

[Derthric]

Also, Emily Wong is kinda... dead.

It was in a tweet. Easy to miss. Didn't know it had happened until I went looking a week after launch. Still an odd choice though. Could have just had Chobot read the lines for the background news and actually feature her introducing Wong's reports.

[Trazoi]

Also, Emily Wong is kinda... dead.

Well yeah, but that whole tweet marketing thing sounded supsiciously like the end result of Emily Wong being originally cast as the in-Normandy reporter, then some marketing wonk getting the idea to throw in Chobot as herself Allers instead so they then throw Wong to the wolves Reapers instead to justify introducing a new reporter.

[Avilan the Grey]

Well yeah, but that whole tweet marketing thing sounded supsiciously like the end result of Emily Wong being originally cast as the in-Normandy reporter, then some marketing wonk getting the idea to throw in Chobot as herself Allers instead so they then throw Wong to the wolves Reapers instead to justify introducing a new reporter.

I have been saying all along that the whole Chobot thing reeks. And reeks bad. American game critics (in particular) are on the wrong side of things most of the time, being friends with the very people they should be reviewing. I guess it is a small club, and it's easy to squee and fanboy when you get to be on the same red carpet / Comicon panel as your favorite developers. IGN is just one of the worst, it seems.

The point is that it leads to the wrong priorities; instead of looking out for your reader's / viewer's interest, they focus on "getting access" and "cool stuff".

I don't see old fashioned movie, music or food critics being even remotely as chummy with their "subjects".

(Edit: I also find it funny that if they actually cut Emily out somewhere for Chobot, they must have had a reason; probably PR. The bad thing is that Chobot is not really famous, at all, outside the US geek circuit, while Emily Wong is a likable character that we all wanted to see more of, or at least could stand to see more of.

I would say it was a minor miscalculation. The ending was a MAJOR miscalculation. Incidentally I am seriously wondering if Bioware actually have competent market researchers.

Of course the "uncanny valley Snooki" face-fail doesn't help, either.)

[Derthric]

I have been saying all along that the whole Chobot thing reeks. And reeks bad. American game critics (in particular) are on the wrong side of things most of the time, being friends with the very people they should be reviewing. I guess it is a small club, and it's easy to squee and fanboy when you get to be on the same red carpet / Comicon panel as your favorite developers. IGN is just one of the worst, it seems.

The point is that it leads to the wrong priorities; instead of looking out for your reader's / viewer's interest, they focus on "getting access" and "cool stuff".

I don't see old fashioned movie, music or food critics being even remotely as chummy with their "subjects".

(Edit: I also find it funny that if they actually cut Emily out somewhere for Chobot, they must have had a reason; probably PR. The bad thing is that Chobot is not really famous, at all, outside the US geek circuit, while Emily Wong is a likable character that we all wanted to see more of, or at least could stand to see more of.

I would say it was a minor miscalculation. The ending was a MAJOR miscalculation. Incidentally I am seriously wondering if Bioware actually have competent market researchers.

Of course the "uncanny valley Snooki" face-fail doesn't help, either.)

She's not that famous in the US either. I go to IGN a few times a week and to me she was just some face on videos I ignore. Had no Idea she made out with hardware until I saw that pic in this thread. Was that really how she got famous?

On the face, I picture the EA directive being like this
"Jennifer Hale and Mark Meer's faces aren't in the game, but dang gone-it we need Chobot's face in this now!"

[Grif]

(Edit: I also find it funny that if they actually cut Emily out somewhere for Chobot, they must have had a reason; probably PR. The bad thing is that Chobot is not really famous, at all, outside the US geek circuit, while Emily Wong is a likable character that we all wanted to see more of, or at least could stand to see more of.

I would say it was a minor miscalculation. The ending was a MAJOR miscalculation. Incidentally I am seriously wondering if Bioware actually have competent market researchers.

Of course the "uncanny valley Snooki" face-fail doesn't help, either.)

I was looking forward to seeing Emily Wong in ME3, after how they teased her appearance in ME2 with her broadcasting the news.

Then I heard people throwing the name Chobot around. At the time, I had no idea who or what she is. I assumed it was some ME3 injoke. Then I discovered Emily Wong's final tweets. Then I saw who replaced her.

I died a little inside when I saw how ugly the model who was replacing the eminent Emily Wong.

The irony? I don't even know Chobot until she was mentioned as the model for the horrible, horrible Diana Allers. My view of IGN is now forever tainted by this Chobot scandal. How is this even good PR for the international market?

[ShinyRocks]

Add me to the list of people who didn't have the faintest idea who Jessica Chobot was until I looked up who was playing Diana Derpface.

Emily Wong's only dead because they wrote her dead. We meet her on the Citadel in ME1 so there's no need for explaining 'how she got off Earth' or anything. She's our mate. There's just no reason to bring in another reporter. Shoulda been Wong.

I've had another think about what I don't like about the endings, and a lot of it ties into War Assets and EMS. In ME2, your decisions had an effect on your outcomes, but it was direct effect. Don't upgrade your ship, people die. Use the wrong people for tasks, people die. Your decisions had clear outcomes.

War Assets are too much of an abstraction. The fact that you've got a small or large EMS effects whether squadmates die, and whether the Crucible works, and so on. It just doesn't make sense. Worst is Shepard living in the Destroy ending if you've got a high enough score. There is just no tie between 'I've got a big fleet' and 'I survive this explosion'.

You could argue that loyalty was a bit too abstract, too, and kind of binary, but at least you can make sense of it with 'Shep has done something for Squad Member, so now Squad Member has the will to fight and survive'.

EMS just doesn't make sense, or at least doesn't make sense in the way they presented it. Which all ties in with the ending being rushed, because we didn't get to see, say, Krogans riding dinosaurs and how that affects the outcome.

I also wish they'd had the guts to leave out the Rachni mission entirely if you killed the Queen in ME1. People would complain about missing content, and it would be kind of hard to justify in multiplayer (what is a Ravager? Y U mutate Rachni when Rachni not exist?). But it would have been awesome for them to say 'No. You made that choice. You killed the Rachni. So there are none.'

[LordShotGun]

I was looking forward to seeing Emily Wong in ME3, after how they teased her appearance in ME2 with her broadcasting the news.

Then I heard people throwing the name Chobot around. At the time, I had no idea who or what she is. I assumed it was some ME3 injoke. Then I discovered Emily Wong's final tweets. Then I saw who replaced her.

I died a little inside when I saw how ugly the model who was replacing the eminent Emily Wong.

The irony? I don't even know Chobot until she was mentioned as the model for the horrible, horrible Diana Allers. My view of IGN is now forever tainted by this Chobot scandal. How is this even good PR for the international market?

This. I had to google chobot to even get an idea of why she was in the game. Who I really wanted to see what Gianna Parasini and finally get that beer she owes me!

[Morty]

Put me down as another person who had no idea who the heck Diana Allers' model was until they read that somewhere. TVTropes, I think. Anyway, it's painfully obvious the whole point of her character was so that the journalist could end up being in game. Never mind that Allers looked somewhere between out of place and creepy.
So, yeah. I'd like to think that the ending didn't have to be cobbled together in a rush because they wasted their time rendering IGN journalists. Most likely not, but it still doesn't make them look better.

[Aotrs Commander]

I still don't know who she is.

Nor do I especially care, mind.



I would like to hope, in the expanded ending, Bioware put some of the cut stuff there back in (since the intention was clearly to make you play through the entire end missions again, given the lack of save-points...)

But hope springs eternal, don't it?

(And do be fair, while not exactly good, the last mission was alright up to Harbinger's beam.)

[Psyren]

I don't see old fashioned movie, music or food critics being even remotely as chummy with their "subjects".

To be fair, that is an evil of the medium itself. A movie or book review site/magazine can attract advertisers from a wide variety of sources, because just about the entire planet likes movies and books.

But a publication focused on gaming attracts just one kind of advertiser - game companies, the very people they're supposed to be objectively critiquing. A powerhouse like Penny Arcade can get away with insulting their advertisers (look at how many times they've slammed D&D, but WotC doesn't dare leave them), because they stand head and shoulders above the pack. But they are very much the exception rather than the rule. It's a really nasty and ethically muddy state of affairs that I unfortunately don't see changing anytime soon.

There was an article shortly before the game's release about Jessica Chobot, and how a conflict of interest like that would be unacceptable for any other form of journalism, yet somehow gets a free pass in the gaming industry. It's an interesting read.

[Derthric]

To be fair, that is an evil of the medium itself. A movie or book review site/magazine can attract advertisers from a wide variety of sources, because just about the entire planet likes movies and books.

But a publication focused on gaming attracts just one kind of advertiser - game companies, the very people they're supposed to be objectively critiquing. A powerhouse like Penny Arcade can get away with insulting their advertisers (look at how many times they've slammed D&D, but WotC doesn't dare leave them), because they stand head and shoulders above the pack. But they are very much the exception rather than the rule. It's a really nasty and ethically muddy state of affairs that I unfortunately don't see changing anytime soon.

There was an article shortly before the game's release about Jessica Chobot, and how a conflict of interest like that would be unacceptable for any other form of journalism, yet somehow gets a free pass in the gaming industry. It's an interesting read.

I think that article had a good point in spliting "personality" and "journalist". She is a personality. A stunt of sorts for IGN, G4 and Bioware/EA.

The problem is that this backfires over both sides. G4 and IGN for further seperating themselves from a more regimented journalistic perspective, and Bioware/EA for wasting time and effort on a cheap and unneeded stunt. I highly doubt anyone bought the game because Chobot was in it. And given the level of her work, really casts doubt as to why they did it in the first place.

[Androgeus]

You know what annoys me about Allers/Chobot? The clothes she wears when making reports. I mean you can wear whatever you want in your free time. And the get up works if you are presenting for a gaming network, but I don't think the main human military's news network needs their (probably top) war correspondent to bring in the teenage male viewing figures. I guess in the future that have super duper fancy editing software to change what she is wearing.

[Zevox]

I honestly don't get the hate directed at Allers. Sure she was under-used, but that's about there is to say about her in my opinion. What does it matter if she was based off a real person or not?

Zevox

[Marnath]

I honestly don't get the hate directed at Allers. Sure she was under-used, but that's about there is to say about her in my opinion. What does it matter if she was based off a real person or not?

Zevox

Try to watch this whole clip without wishing for a renegade interrupt like you get with Khalisah al-Jilani. That voice acting is some of the worst I've ever heard.

[Androgeus]

I honestly don't get the hate directed at Allers. Sure she was under-used, but that's about there is to say about her in my opinion. What does it matter if she was based off a real person or not?

Zevox

Because a) it makes game journalist appear far too chummy with game developers/publishers
and b) it most likely took resources that could have been put to work else where.

Try to watch this whole clip without wishing for a renegade interrupt like you get with Khalisah al-Jilani. That voice acting is some of the worst I've ever heard.

I never got punching her. Just because someone ask difficult/dumb/annoying question does not mean hitting them is a valid response.

[Morty]

Eh, I really don't think that putting Allers into the game took much time and resources. She's just one fairly minor characters. She just feels shoehorned in and it really doesn't look good contrasted with the rushed half-assedness of the ending.

[Tebryn]

Honestly...some of Shepards lines in that little video was worse than the...I'll admit horrible looking character. Not stellar voice acting on either side but not horrible.

[Androgeus]

Eh, I really don't think that putting Allers into the game took much time and resources. She's just one fairly minor characters. She just feels shoehorned in and it really doesn't look good contrasted with the rushed half-assedness of the ending.

Yhea, it's not resources that would make the ending better, it would be more around the level of having female Turians or something.

[Zevox]

Try to watch this whole clip without wishing for a renegade interrupt like you get with Khalisah al-Jilani. That voice acting is some of the worst I've ever heard.

I did play the game, you know. I have no problem with her voice acting - if that's some of the worst you've ever heard, you must be very lucky about what you've heard.

Also, I don't even like punching al-Jilani when I'm playing renegade characters and feel obliged to do it because of that, of course I'm not going to want to do it to Allers.

Because a) it makes game journalist appear far too chummy with game developers/publishers
and b) it most likely took resources that could have been put to work else where.

I guess I have a hard time caring about A, since I don't care about game journalists. And B I sincerely doubt, given how little she did in the game - as I said, about all I have to say about her is that she was under-used. Kinda like Kelly in 2.

Zevox

[VanBuren]

Emily Wong's only dead because they wrote her dead. We meet her on the Citadel in ME1 so there's no need for explaining 'how she got off Earth' or anything. She's our mate. There's just no reason to bring in another reporter. Shoulda been Wong.

Nope, I'm a fan of how Wong went out. Granted, I would have liked that to have been an in-game thing rather than an easily missed series of tweets, but I'm glad Wong got the chance to suicide-run a Reaper. If anything, it cements her status and credibility as head and shoulders above her peers.

[Derthric]

I did play the game, you know. I have no problem with her voice acting - if that's some of the worst you've ever heard, you must be very lucky about what you've heard.

Also, I don't even like punching al-Jilani when I'm playing renegade characters and feel obliged to do it because of that, of course I'm not going to want to do it to Allers.


I guess I have a hard time caring about A, since I don't care about game journalists. And B I sincerely doubt, given how little she did in the game - as I said, about all I have to say about her is that she was under-used. Kinda like Kelly in 2.

Zevox

Its more about how much she was played up, they made her unveiling a bit of a big deal, IGN helped by fawning over their own person. It's the fact that they face modeled her. They took more time putting her face into the game than they did Tali's. Overall you could cut her and lose a handful of EMS(meh). Or have used one of two, Al-Jilani or Wong, previously existing and established characters take on a bigger role. It was all basically a marketing move.

Overall her romance was hackneyed, her character flatter than a door, and the attention given her avatar unwarranted. Cortez and Traynor, two great new additions, were given less attention than her, in both their modeling and their marketing. Same can be said for more established characters, people like Bailey, Udina, Joker, Adams, Gabby, Ken, Chakwas etc. And at least Kelly fed your fish.

[VanBuren]

Its more about how much she was played up, they made her unveiling a bit of a big deal, IGN helped by fawning over their own person. It's the fact that they face modeled her. They took more time putting her face into the game than they did Tali's. Overall you could cut her and lose a handful of EMS(meh). Or have used one of two, Al-Jilani or Wong, previously existing and established characters take on a bigger role. It was all basically a marketing move.

Overall her romance was hackneyed, her character flatter than a door, and the attention given her avatar unwarranted. Cortez and Traynor, two great new additions, were given less attention than her, in both their modeling and their marketing. Same can be said for more established characters, people like Bailey, Udina, Joker, Adams, Gabby, Ken, Chakwas etc. And at least Kelly fed your fish.

Yeah, but she also introduced scale-itch onto my ship.

Bad Kelly.

[Marnath]

Yeah, but she also introduced scale-itch onto my ship.

Bad Kelly.

Technically we don't know it was her, right? Mordin doesn't actually say who did it.

[Beowulf DW]

For the record, I'm a geek in the U.S. and I had no idea who Chobot was until I read the last ten posts.

[Derthric]

Yeah, but she also introduced scale-itch onto my ship.

Bad Kelly.

That's all slander started by Gardner who kept varren in the Shuttle bay, which is why you couldn't go there in ME2. He didn't want people to know one had gotten out and got friendly with some crew members legs while they slept.

[Trazoi]

Eh, I really don't think that putting Allers into the game took much time and resources. She's just one fairly minor characters. She just feels shoehorned in and it really doesn't look good contrasted with the rushed half-assedness of the ending.

Yeah, this. My issue with Allers when I was playing was she felt "off". She's got a strange model and her voice actress isn't as good as the rest of the cast. When I first met her when I got the Citadel I was thinking "Who are you and why do you think Shepard should let you on her ship?" I was expecting her to turn out to be a Cerberus saboteur. It wasn't until after I finished the game and was reading forums that I learned she's based on an IGN personality, which was when everything clicked. (Also: why? It's not as if IGN wouldn't have fawned all over the game anyway.)

I'm certain Allers/Chobot replaced Wong at some point in development. You're given the option of bringing either Dr. Chakwas or Dr. Michel on board, as well as the two engineers from ME2 and the Virmire survivor. The Mass Effect series already has two established female reporters, and Wong fits the role of inbedded reporter so much better.

Mostly though the Allers/Chobot thing is another reason why the "artistic integrity" argument is so hollow. An awful lot of the decisions around ME3 are designed for marketing reasons. It's a big reason why the game is so Earth focused - "Take Back Earth" makes a better slogan, especially for newbies to Mass Effect.

[Avilan the Grey]

Its more about how much she was played up, they made her unveiling a bit of a big deal, IGN helped by fawning over their own person. It's the fact that they face modeled her. They took more time putting her face into the game than they did Tali's. Overall you could cut her and lose a handful of EMS(meh). Or have used one of two, Al-Jilani or Wong, previously existing and established characters take on a bigger role. It was all basically a marketing move.

Overall her romance was hackneyed, her character flatter than a door, and the attention given her avatar unwarranted. Cortez and Traynor, two great new additions, were given less attention than her, in both their modeling and their marketing. Same can be said for more established characters, people like Bailey, Udina, Joker, Adams, Gabby, Ken, Chakwas etc. And at least Kelly fed your fish.

Kelly was both extremely adorable AND very sexy. So is her British replacement in ME3.

But yes, I think this is a very valid point. Bioware put MORE WORK into Aller's face (and failed!) than they did Tali's. It's downright tragic.

[ShinyRocks]

Nope, I'm a fan of how Wong went out. Granted, I would have liked that to have been an in-game thing rather than an easily missed series of tweets, but I'm glad Wong got the chance to suicide-run a Reaper. If anything, it cements her status and credibility as head and shoulders above her peers.

Oh, absolutely. 'At ramming speed' is an awesome way to go out, but if Emily Wong's gonna die, I really think we should see it. But that's been my problem with a hell of a lot of the game. It would have been more satisfying to see more things. Seeing all the fleets signing in. Seeing my Krogans on dinosaurs! Seeing Geth Primes stomping through London killing Reapers. Seeing Jack's biotic squad helping out. It doesn't really change anything, but it just gives a lot more weight to your decisions, IMO.

It'd have been nice for her voice actress to get some more work too.

Also, Allers is just Uncanny Valley to me. Creeps me out.

[Avilan the Grey]

Oh, absolutely. 'At ramming speed' is an awesome way to go out, but if Emily Wong's gonna die, I really think we should see it. But that's been my problem with a hell of a lot of the game. It would have been more satisfying to see more things. Seeing all the fleets signing in. Seeing my Krogans on dinosaurs! Seeing Geth Primes stomping through London killing Reapers. Seeing Jack's biotic squad helping out. It doesn't really change anything, but it just gives a lot more weight to your decisions, IMO.

Exactly. They cut out SO much OBVIOUS AWESOME. If the intro of the game had included her ramming a reaper to save some civilians... GREAT. And for the rest... Oh yes. I want all of that, and more.

[LordShotGun]

Oh, absolutely. 'At ramming speed' is an awesome way to go out, but if Emily Wong's gonna die, I really think we should see it. But that's been my problem with a hell of a lot of the game. It would have been more satisfying to see more things. Seeing all the fleets signing in. Seeing my Krogans on dinosaurs! Seeing Geth Primes stomping through London killing Reapers. Seeing Jack's biotic squad helping out. It doesn't really change anything, but it just gives a lot more weight to your decisions, IMO.

It'd have been nice for her voice actress to get some more work too.

Also, Allers is just Uncanny Valley to me. Creeps me out.

The geth one at least was entirely planned but scrapped as shown by the combat lines recorded from the geth prime platforms.