The Retake Mass Effect 3 petition got underway not too long after the game’s official March 6th launch in response to its controversial conclusion. The movement teamed up with Child’s Play charity to gain donations as a symbolic gesture from passionate fans who would like to see more of the story than they were given at Mass Effect 3's conclusion. Thus far the charity donations sit at more than $54,000 in pledges, which in itself is quite an accomplishment and worth taking notice of.

BioWare’s Chris Priestly recently posted a response to the Mass Effect 3 forums indicating that BioWare is willing to engage players in “healthy discussion” once more players have completed the game. In his post, Priestly stated:

We appreciate everyone’s feedback about Mass Effect 3 and want you to know that we are listening. Active discussions about the ending are more than welcome here, and the team will be reviewing it for feedback and responding when we can. Please note, we want to give people time to experience the game so while we can’t get into specifics right now, we will be able to address some of your questions once more people have had time to complete the game. In the meantime, we’d like to ask that you keep the non-spoiler areas of our forums and our social media channels spoiler free.

We understand there is a lot of debate on the Mass Effect 3 ending and we will be more than happy to engage in healthy discussions once more people get to experience the game. We are listening to all of your feedback.

In the meantime, let's give appreciation to Commander Shepard. Whether you loved the ME3 ending or didn't or you just have a lot of questions, he/she has given many of us some of the best adventures we have had while playing games. What was your favorite moment?

More and more players have been debating the game’s ending on the official forums and the Mass Effect Twitter has been getting loads of feedback over the last week. Mass Effect 3 Executive Producer Casey Hudson kicked that into overdrive with his interview with Digital Trends earlier this week in which he stated, "I didn’t want the game to be forgettable, and even right down to the sort of polarizing reaction that the ends have had with people–debating what the endings mean and what’s going to happen next, and what situation are the characters left in." Mission accomplished.

Love it or hate it, BioWare has managed to generate a staggering amount of discussion about the game for better or worse. Of course, it could be possible that this is all part of their evil plan for world domination. I expect we'll see plenty of Mass Effect 3 DLC in the pipeline given the game's popularity and the fact that Mass Effect 2 had quite a bit itself. Chances are that despite the reaction from both sides, this saga isn't quite over yet.

Sources:

Post from BioWare’s Chris Priestly (Note: This is in the spoiler section.)

Retake Mass Effect 3 – Child’s Play

Retake Mass Effect 3 Facebook Page

Casey Hudson Digital Trends Interview