That doesn't address my point at all, I already knew that. That still means the entire story arc is left unfinished. The indoctrination theory means the game ends before the war with the reapers is finished. We don't know what happens. It would be the same as if Halo finished before the fight with the flood was over. 

Oh and yo_john117 thanks for telling me how to have my own opinion, that's a reasonable thing to do. The ME3 ending is the worst ending ever created. The post is written from my point of view so I don't have to state 'I think'.

Even from an objective view I think it must be close. 100 hours of brilliant fantastic story then 20 minutes of sewage. An ending must be compared to what came before it. Of the thousands of games, tv shows, movies, anime etc I've seen/played I can't think of anything that ends worse. Even things that other people view as bad such as the Lost ending seem good compared to ME3. Even things that I utterly despise such as the second half of the Death Note anime (following an amazing first half it turns into almost a parody of itself) doesn't seem bad to me compared to the ME3 ending. At least the writer of Death Note didn't lie and then tell me to buy DLC to get more explanation of the ending -_-.

I would say the huge amounts of articles, posts, petitions, fundraisers etc set up perhaps back up it even objectively being the worst ending. 

Zim, I agree with you wholeheartedly.

I watched that video and the beginning perfectly illustrates why I loved ME1 (talky techy) then started losing interest in 2 and 3 as the focus shifted more to action.

And in his trend to compare ME to Star trek, the indoctrination theory would be like TNG ending with Picard assimilated by the Borg. That's not an ending, just a big cliff hanger. And ME3 doesn't even do a good job at that, which ever way you look at it.

The ending literally cannot be the worst ending ever simply because no ending is better than an ending. You could easily say the ME3 has the worst ending in any game you've ever played which would be perfectly fine since it's your opinion (even if it's slightly wrong  ) but you cannot say it's the worst ending ever because you just don't know that. As far as hype and expectations to good ending ratio go ME3 could be considered as having a very poor ending by many. 

To emphisize my last point I made a graph.

Like I said it's all about the hype/expecations ratio. Expectations were so high that there is no way ME3 could have had an ending that made most people happy. So because they didn't feel fulfilled, were lied to by Bioware and Activision is paying them, the internet decided to do what it always does...which is blow things sky-high out of proportions.

Official Mass Effect website:
http://masseffect.com/about/story/

''Experience the beginning, middle, and end of an emotional story unlike any
other, where the decisions you make completely shape your experience
and outcome.''


Interview with Mac Walters:
http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/02/28/mass-effect-3-mac-walters/

''[The presence of the Rachni] has huge consequences in Mass
Effect 3. Even just in the final battle with the Reapers.''


Interview with Mac Walters:
http://business.financialpost.com/2012/03/05/qa-mass-effect-3s-mac-walters-on-how-the-game-tries-to-reach-all-audiences/

''I'm always leery of saying there are 'optimal' endings, because I think
one of the things we do try to do is make different endings that are
optimal for different people''

Interview with Mike Gamble:
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/334598/interviews/mass-effect-3-weve-brought-back-a-lot-of-what-was-missing-in-me2/

''And, to be honest, you [the fans] are crafting your Mass Effect story as
much as we are anyway.''

Interview with Mike Gamble:
http://www.360magazine.co.uk/interview/mass-effect-3-has-many-different-endings/

''There are many different endings. We wouldn’t do it any other way. How
could you go through all three campaigns playing as your Shepard and
then be forced into a bespoke ending that everyone gets? But I can’t
say any more than that…''

Interview with Mike Gamble:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-02-bioware-mass-effect-3-ending-will-make-some-people-angry

''Every decision you've made will impact how things go. The player's also the
architect of what happens.''

''You'll get answers to everything. That was one of the key things. Regardless
of how we did everything, we had to say, yes, we're going to provide
some answers to these people.''

''Because a lot of these plot threads are concluding and because it's being
brought to a finale, since you were a part of architecting how they
got to how they were, you will definitely sense how they close was
because of the decisions you made and because of the decisions you
didn't make''


Interview with Casey Hudson:
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/04/28/casey-hudson-interview-mass-effect-3.aspx

''For people who are invested in these characters and the back-story of the
universe and everything, all of these things come to a resolution in
Mass Effect 3. And they are resolved in a way that's very different
based on what you would do in those situations.''

Interview with Casey Hudson:
http://venturebeat.com/2012/03/02/casey-hudson-bioware-co-created-mass-effect-3-with-the-sometimes-cranky-fans-interview/

''Fans want to make sure that they see things resolved, they want to get
some closure, a great ending. I think they’re going to get that.''

''Mass Effect 3 is all about answering all the biggest questions in the
lore, learning about the mysteries and the Protheans and the Reapers,
being able to decide for yourself how all of these things come to an
end.''

Interviewer: ''So are you guys the creators or the stewards of the franchise?''
Hudson: ''Um… You know, at this point, I think we’re co-creators with
the fans. We use a lot of feedback.''

Interview with Casey Hudson:
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/01/10/mass1525-effect-3-cas5ey-fdsafdhudson-interviewae.aspx?PostPageIndex=2

Interviewer: [Regarding the numerous possible endings of Mass Effect 2] ''Is that
same type of complexity built into the ending of Mass Effect 3?''
Hudson: ''Yeah, and I'd say much more so, because we have the ability to
build the endings out in a way that we don’t have to worry about
eventually tying them back together somewhere. This story arc is
coming to an end with this game. That means the endings can be a lot
more different. At this point we're taking into account so many
decisions that you’ve made as a player and reflecting a lot of that
stuff. It’s not even in any way like the traditional game endings,
where you can say how many endings there are or whether you got
ending A, B, or C.....The endings have a lot more sophistication and
variety in them.''

''We have a rule in our franchise that there is no canon. You as a player
decide what your story is.''

Mike Gamble:
http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1027650/mass_effect_3_reapers_can_win_bioware.html

Mass Effect 3 will shake up the player's moral choices more than ever
before, even going so far as allowing the Reapers to win the battle
for Earth, according to BioWare's community representative Mike
Gamble.


In an inteview with NowGamer at Gamescom, we asked if BioWare was taking risks with Mass Effect 3's
plot, including a negative ending in which the Reapers win. Gamble simply said, "Yes". We asked him again to confirm what he had just said and he said, "Yes".


Mike Gamble:
http://www.nowgamer.com/features/1229983/mass_effect_3_developer_interview_shepard_coop_story_details.htm

"Of course you don’t have to play multiplayer, you can choose to play
all the side-quests in single-player and do all that stuff you’ll
still get all the same endings and same information, it’s just a
totally different way of playing"


Casey Hudson:
http://gamescatalyst.com/2012/03/casey-hudson-kinect-the-future-of-interactive-stories/

''The whole idea of Mass Effect3 is resolving all of the biggest questions, about the Protheons and
the Reapers, and being in the driver's seat to end the galaxy and all
of these big plot lines, to decide what civilizations are going to
live or die: All of these things are answered in Mass Effect 3.''

Casey Hudson:
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/336331/interviews/mass-effect-3-we-cant-go-on-holiday-our-dlc-is-really-good/?page=2

''There is a huge set of consequences that start stacking up as you approach the end-game. And
even in terms of the ending itself, it continues to break down to
some very large decisions. So it's not like a classic game ending
where everything is linear and you make a choice between a few things
- it really does layer in many, many different choices, up to the
final moments, where it's going to be different for everyone who
plays it.''


Ray Muzyka:
http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/the-doctors-from-bioware-discuss-the-old-republic-launch-ending-a-trilogy-a

''I just finished an end to end playthrough, for me the ending was the
most satisfying of any game I’ve ever played….the decisions you make in
this game are epic,''

''The team has been planning
for this for years, since the beginning of the Mass Effect franchise.
Largely the same team, most of the same leads have worked on this for
years and years. They’ve thought about [the ending] for years and years.
It’s not something they’ve had to solve in a week or a month even, but
over the course of five or ten years.''

The above is what Bioware said about ME3 pre-release. This isn't about gamers having unrealistic expectations, it's about Bioware not delivering what they said they would.

I addressed that up above with the lying part. There's a reason I don't pay too much attention to what devs say. 

But I guess if I would have listened and believed what they said about ME3 then I wouldn't be a very happy camper either. But I mean come on...that's like believing in fairy tales!

To me the "ending" of Mass Effect 3 sucked so bad that I haven't been able to play any video game for the last 2 weeks... I'm still so f-ing upset by that bad ending that I don't know what to do..... yes the ending f-ing sucked, if anone say otherwise they are kidding themselves

I just finished the game yesterday too and since then I am sunk in grief... I keep listening to this http://youtu.be/x5JvbD2Zc9I and I even started a new campaign, this time on Insanity instead of Hardcore.

I would have perfered a walkoff into the sunset w/ the girl ending. (JMO)