ToastiestZombie said:
The ending was SHIT, but you know what? When has gaming ever been about the end goal, gaming has always been about the journey and what you see, experience and interact with along the way. I must say Mass Effect 3's JOURNEY was the best goddamn Journey I played until I played well, Journey. It's like to all these people, they were only playing the Mass effect games because they wanted to see the end, not because they cared about the bits inbetween. Also one more thing. Ever thought that Mass Effect 3 was just one giant end? We see what happens to pretty much EVERY character, including Mordin, Wrex, The illusive man and many more. Don't forget the stuff like curing the genophage, a major part of the universe's lore. It's sad that us games forget all of that because of a crappy ending.
Let's be very clear here: the reason the ending has overshadowed the entire journey in "Mass Effect 3" (and I agree with you that the rest of the game provides an excellent, epic story) is that it renders said journey moot. Yes, we can quibble about the potential ramifications of different-colored space magic, but by the end of the game, you have an equal amount of information about each ending - to the extent that you don't even have enough information to extrapolate which option is the "best" one for your Shepard (ie: the path your character would roleplay).
That's why the controversy over the ending has been so vehement, so powerful and forceful, and why it's drowning out anything and everything that's
good about the game. Because, on the narrative level, the ending just doesn't fit. Square peg, round hole. And that incongruity is just... well, as I was saying to a friend the other day, this game could've been remembered as one of the best: a fresh SF franchise, an epic story, memorable characters, all of that. Instead it's a punchline for webcomics. And all because, according to comments made at PAX, the dev team didn't actually think players would
care how the story ended.
And why is this happening with "Mass Effect" and not, say, "Duke Nukem"? Well, as Vault101 points out upthread, this also has to do with expectations. If the original ending for ME3 had been implemented - where you choose between sacrificing humanity to save the universe or destroy the Reapers and hope for the best - people would've been annoyed, certainly, but it would
never have reached the sheer scale we're at now. This month-long explosion isn't being caused by entitlement, it's not being caused by fanboys whining, it's not egotism or naivete or selfishness or anything like that. It's the
recognition that this ending is lazy, poorly written, sloppy, and - most damning of all - it didn't
need to be that way.
The fact that BioWare is addressing this issue isn't a reason for people to pull at their hair and declare video games a lost cause: if anything, it's proof that video games
can be considered art or a new form of literature, that people
care about the story rather than simply shooting at things, that it
matters when you experience a coherent and well-written narrative and get sucker-punched by a sloppy conclusion. Other forms of literature are revised all the time, we have director's cuts of films which add scenes or contexts (and it's often an improvement - the Final Cut of "Blade Runner" is
absurdly superior to the original and I think all they did was cut out Harrison Ford's unnecessary narration and let the scenes speak for themselves). And now we have a video game that's recognized for excellent storytelling, in which the creators recognize a flaw and are preparing to address it. And if they deliver a better ending - not necessarily a
happier one, but a
better one - then as far as I'm concerned all is forgiven.
And maybe, just maybe, they'll make more of an effort to
maintain the standard of "art and story" in the future.
