Retake Mass Effect to close Child's Play drive
After talks with Child's Play members, the Retake Mass Effect movement campaigning to change Mass Effect 3's ending has decided to close its charity fundraising drive.
"As of today, I have set an end goal for our fundraiser at $80,000," primary organiser Robb noted on the BioWare Social Network.
"As evidenced by the statement from Dr. Myzuka yesterday, we have made our voices heard. Those of you here have taken special care to be heard in a polite, positive manner, and I believe that this is a major contributor to that success. We have shown our sincerity and passion. We have brought positive attention to the Retake Mass Effect movement."
Robb then revealed that his decision to end the drive was partially motivated by a request from Child's Play itself - not because the campaign is at an end.
"I have been in contact with a manager at Child's Play. First, he wanted to stress how grateful they were for our efforts here, and the huge impact it will have in helping the charity. However, he pointed out that several sources are incorrectly assuming a link between the charity and the petition, or outright support of the petition by the charity.
"This has been a source of difficulty for them, and it has been requested that we wind this effort down. Again, I want to stress that the charity is not unhappy with our work, they are exceptionally pleased with what we have accomplished."
Robb went to some length to distance Child's Play's message from that of its founders at Penny Arcade, and to voice his support for ending the fundraising drive, but the response was predictably negative.
As a result, project manager Jamie Dillon took to Reddit to directly address concerns.
"While we did receive some negative mail regarding the drive, I can assure you our decision was not about bowing to pressure from anyone- corporate, individual, or otherwise," she said.
"The real concern on our end was the slippery slope that attaching causes to fundraising for Child's Play can create. While RME had the best of intentions and was overwhelmingly generous, it shed light on an issue that we needed to address. It pointed out a dangerous precedent for others to use the charity for agendas we clearly do not support.
"We're taking a step back and looking at our policies to see what we can do to still appreciate and support the community while avoiding implications of Child's Play being attached to other causes."
Retake Mass Effect is a movement to bring attention to fan displeasure with the conclusion of Mass Effect 3; displeasure which BioWare is taking very seriously. The campaign's ChipIn page and core website WeWillHoldTheLine have both come crashing down as a result of renewed interest.