Spoilers commence now.

For those who may have missed it, the backlash to Mass Effect 3’s ending has been tremendous.

Enraged fans have taken to the Internets demanding satisfaction with the usual online petitions and forum polls. One such support group, calling itself “Retake Mass Effect”, even launched a charity drive on ChipIn.com for Child’s Play, raising $80,000 in the process.

Child’s Play put a stop to this with co-founder and Penny Arcade cartoonist Jerry Holkins saying in a blog post: “Child’s Play cannot be a tool to draw attention to a cause. Child’s Play must be the Cause.”

Despite the massive outcry against the ending, I submit that it isn’t that bad.

The illusion of choice

Although there are fairly plausible rumours that the real finale is yet to be released as a download, it’s also worth looking at the ending of Mass Effect 3 in the context of the rest of the series.

At the end of the first game, none of the choices you made leading up to the finale affected the last big decision you had to make. You were simply presented with two unpleasant choices: Save the council at the cost of human lives, or let them die to minimise casualties.

The options I would have preferred, and which I think might’ve been more realistic, weren’t there.

The ending of Mass Effect 2 was more satisfying, and yet still your final decision boiled down to whether Shepard hands the Collector base over to Cerberus, or destroys it.

Nothing he did leading up to that point could affect this decision, which appeared monumental.

Never as it seems

Mass Effect has always been more of a telling of Shepard’s story, rather than you actually being Shepard. We’re more of a guide, rather than the character itself. Shepard’s own Jiminy Cricket, if you will.

We choose conversation options without knowing exactly what will come out of Shepard’s mouth, similarly so for the Paragon or Renegade interrupts.

All that said, it’s impossible to ignore what has become known as “The Indoctrination Theory”, which states that the end of Mass Effect 3 isn’t the real ending. The below video is a well put-together primer on what the theory proposes.

There have been rumours that Bioware plan to release downloadable content (DLC) called “The Truth” in the next two months.

There has also been excessive hint-dropping of “big news” coming from them sometime this month (April 2012).

If this turns out to be true, it is a brilliant move on Bioware’s part on so many different levels.

Suggestion and innuendo everywhere!

Who indoctrinated who?

In terms of the narrative, BioWare would have succeeded in indoctrinating you, the player that is the controlling force behind Shepard. Suddenly the indoctrination isn’t a battle in Shepard’s mind determined by a skill check or score, but in your mind.

This tack also allows BioWare to see fans duking it out over the theory on forums and social networks: a great way to have potential plot holes pointed out before releasing the real ending.

Business-wise it’s also a brilliant move because not only do they have the standard day-one DLC to discourage piracy and second-hand sales, now the conclusion must also be downloaded.

Another business benefit is the continued interest the controversy generates in the game. If Mass Effect 3 had a conclusive ending, I for one would’ve put it down and probably not looked at the DLC.

Now, because I must know whether the indoctrination theory is true, I’m glued to the Mass Effect and BioWare Twitter streams, and will be watching the news from PAX East like a hawk.

It’s all plausible

That’s probably the best part of the theory: It’s provable.

If the theory is true, it means that Shepard’s story isn’t finished yet. Without the rumoured DLC, all the indoctrination theory does is leave the series on an unsatisfying cliffhanger.

With the rumoured DLC, BioWare may have one of the greatest endings in cinematic science fiction history.

Whether they decide to charge for the DLC or not remains to be seen, though the rumours are that it will be free. If it isn’t, you can be sure that I’ll be here on the forum complaining about it and launching petitions… right before handing over my money.

So what this all means is that Mass Effect 3’s ending isn’t that bad. Not yet, anyway.