Dark Soul’s endings (of which there were two) seemed to answer nothing. Much like the construction of the lore itself, it required you to make your own conclusions based entirely on what you figured out -of- Lordron and it’s history while playing. If you went through it with no regard for digging around through the lore (via item descriptions and NPC interactions), you’d probably have been pretty confused. But even if you had, you were -still- confused, which has since lead to all manner of speculation as to what either of the endings could entail. I find it interesting. Dark Souls certainly is not the kind of series to deal in direct, simple answers, and that’s part of the allure that the ending preserved.

As to the ME3 fallout, my understanding was that people were angry that they were lead to believe that every choice would have deep consequences than were ultimately delivered on, and lots of loose threads woven lazily into a multiple choice ending, each that overwrote the setting completely. Having not played it, or being interested in it (I did play the first two but lost interest afterwards) I can only repeat what I heard from others at the time. Let it also be said that I find modern Bioware an obnoxious company helmed by annoying people. Looking at you, David Gaider.

ME3’s ending is interesting. It would have been good if the series worked to earn it. It did not. If the second and third games were developed in the spirit of the first and not in the spirit of “AAA blockbuster”, then maybe it would have.

If it were aimed at being a PR move, I’d say it showed they have little conviction and about the ONE place stubborn conviction belongs is in the creative process. It’s not design by committee. But Bioware responded to the echo chamber of the internet that bounced small demands made large right up the spines of the people in charge at that company.

If you are a developer, I’ll say it again, don’t listen to social media. Don’t maintain a presence on it. Leave that to some intern if you can or no one at all if you can’t.

That said, it is entirely legitimate to complain about an ending. If the ending is shit, there is nothing wrong with saying so. That is the job of criticism, really: to analyse and evaluate. But to try and enforce changes upon the narrative? Absolutely not. That is more self-entitled shit of the sort all-too-visible in our self-centred society full of empty-headed little narcissists.