"It's not so bad if you know it gets better:" Late finishing ME3

I did a hybrid-style, "compare and contrast" thing when I finally finished Mass Effect 3 a couple days ago-- I watched the original ending, waited a few hours while the Extended Cut downloaded, then finished it again with the Extended Cut. I had two reactions. (Spoilers, duh)

One: I now totally understand why people were enraged at the original ending of that game.

It bummed me out and confused me with its careless lack of detail, and then it almost made me feel like there could never be another Mass Effect game with its horrible "jumping ahead into the pastoral past-future where all the events of the story have become fairy tales" epilogue. It felt like reading a particularly condescending obituary for the entire Mass Effect universe.

Two: Having finished it again with the Extended Cut, I was blown away by how much it fixes things.

The sense of "this story is over, but the universe continues" was much, much stronger; the decisions you made are given at least a token of representation; and most importantly, by fixing the tonal problems, it now feels like there can still be Mass Effect games made in the future that I would want to play. (As long as they use the "Destroy" ending-- the others are just too crazy.) The old man stargazer at the end was probably just living on some backwater planet that never got its mass relay repaired! He doesn't know what he's talking about, space travel and space adventures still exist, clearly! The universe is not over. Everything is fiiiiiine.

Basically, what I'm saying is if you consider the Extended Cut to be the "true" ending, the game is now great. Anyone who has their first experience with the Extended Cut will think it's a satisfying ending. And I feel fortunate that I got to experience that version of the game.

Unfortunately, for millions of people, that isn't the case.

They had a different experience. And now, they're being asked to believe that the bad experience they had wasn't really real. Are they eager to do that? Or does being asked to forgive by someone who doesn't need their forgiveness just make them feel like an even bigger chump?

When it comes to public opinion, it's hard to figure out what the deciding factor will be. Will time heal all wounds, and eventually cause people to want Mass Effect to return again? Would a good new Mass Effect game begrudgingly convince people that the concept is still worthwhile? Will people rationally look past the initial disappointment and the bitter, spiteful backlash, and choose to believe in the good intentions of all involved-- particularly in light of how hard they worked to fix it?

Or, will the mere fact that Mass Effect could create such a feeling of betrayal mean it's just not worth the effort anymore.

In the end, the whole thing was driven by such an emotional reaction, and met with such an unprecedented direct response by its creators, that, for possibly the first time in entertainment history, an audience's future enjoyment of a franchise is incumbent upon whether or not they accept its apology.

Whether they want things to get better or not.

I'm not sure what can be done for that.

(Unreal Engine 4, probably.)