Funny thing. These endings are pretty much exactly what I assumed would be the result upon seeing the original ME3 endings. I just let my imagination wander, and went "hmm... Generic flag-waving 'everyone involved, survivor or casualty, is a heroic patriot' ending, disseminate your consciousness through the reapers and become their moral compass ending, or make everybody forcibly experience some sorta hybridization/enlightenment ending? Neat!"

I gained literally nothing from the extended cut. All I had was my imagination validated. I'll freely admit that the ME3 ending initially was abrupt and perhaps a modicum underexplained, HOWEVER, I managed to make due with that and still came up with really cool thought-provoking endings, ON MY OWN. God fucking forbid people actually have to think a minute for themselves while making a decision regarding the morality of decisions affecting FATE OF THE ENTIRE FUCKING GALAXY.

Holy shit.

Indeed. But then you have to remember, people were taking their "imagination" and coming up with ridiculous outcomes like "Everyone starves to death" and "Galactic civilization is forever dead".

If you want to see how silly people got, I can direct you to two people who basically spent journal after journal whining and bitching about it.

Honestly, all I needed from the EC was the pickup scene (for Garrus saying "I love you"), and the Catalyst explaining what the choices did. Everything else was filler, including his info dump and the epilogue slideshow.

I felt the same way you do. The EC only validated what I already knew to be the case and just reinforced it. That everyone else refused to even consider the possibility of anything besides a negative outcome on the grounds of "But that's what would happen!" boggles my mind.

Don't even get me started on the Reject ending and how the producer stating "The next cycle uses the Crucible" started a shitstorm.

Indeed. But then you have to remember, people were taking their "imagination" and coming up with ridiculous outcomes like "Everyone starves to death" and "Galactic civilization is forever dead".

Well, on the flip side, I really don't think it's fair to call these ideas "silly" and "ridiculous", either. With what we were given at the time, I have to admit -- they were actually very valid points.

They were valid, but they were AS valid as the "people use standard FTL" and "Quarians have liveships to feed the turians".

The problem was people were treating the negative possibilites as the ONLY valid conclusions at worst, and at worst, and even at best, they were MORE valid.

For a fanbase that puts so much into "player agency" and "It's our story" they SURE wanted the company to tell them the ending.

Seriously, why is an opinion always seen as something that has to be condoned and shot down?

As I've said, once the Catalyst explained what each choice entailed, there was NO need to give any more info. But apparently, despite players demanding that it be their story, they want the company to tell them what happens anyway.