AnarchistAbe said:
This is one of those, "You won the battle, not the war" moments for gamers. Just wait. Call me a troll, write me off, whatever you want to do. But, just wait and see what publishers respond with.
What you - and, by extension, those critics who've shrieked to high heavens about the terrible potential consequences of this backlash - fail to understand is the following:
1. This whole situation is very much the outcome of specific factors that all came together in a very unique way: it was the ending of a game that concluded an incredibly popular trilogy, it was a subpar ending in comparison to the rest of the game (if the entirely of ME3 had been poorly written, there would still be negativity, sure, but the
outrage here is coming from the last-minute swerve, not the game itself), it was an RPG (and yes, genre matters here, because that affects how you perceive the game world and the narrative) and, perhaps most importantly, there is a clear and overwhelming
consensus among people who played the game that the ending was problematic. The extent of that is (and has been) debated, but this is still a scenario where the vast majority of players are saying the same thing - I'm sure I don't have to tell you what a rarity that is in this particular medium.
1a. I'm also of the opinion that many ME3 players may have been fans of "Lost" and "Battlestar Galactica" and this was simply the very last straw.
2. BioWare's decision to release a revised/expanded/whatever ending doesn't constitute a precedent - that would be the "Broken Steel" DLC for "Fallout 3", which - while primarily designed to extend
gameplay rather than story - had the end result of fixing problematic aspects of that game's conclusion. The precedent existed, and it doesn't seem to have affected, say, "Skyrim" in the least.
3. By the same token, BioWare's decision to address the problematic nature of ME3's conclusion does not and will not compel other game companies to follow in their footsteps. Blizzard won't summarily have Sarah Kerrigan marry Jim Raynor because the fans demand it.
3a. However, if a lesson
is to be learned here by other game companies - and, indeed, by BioWare itself - it might be this: if you make the supreme effort to craft a well-written and well-designed game, and you win the hearts and loyalties and wallets of many fans, it
might be a good idea to avoid getting lazy or sloppy in the last act just because you think you can coast and get away with it. Have the professional courtesy to maintain the standards
you have set until the game's final moments. Do you realize that
all of this could have been avoided, that ME3 could have been considered an excellent game
without quantification of that statement, if the writers had put the slightest bit more effort into those last ten minutes?
Consider all these factors, and how likely they are to recur in such a way that so many people respond
in the same way, before blaming whiny, entitled gamers for whatever apocalyptic scenario you're imagining.
