Well, I'd pretty much agree that the creator is the absolute authority, but like most authority it can be mis-used and make the person doing it a douchbag. A douchebag can also realize they did something wrong and fix it, by insisting that they are right despite all evidence to the contrary they just become increasingly bigger douchebags.Vault101 said:
The demand to change the ending of ME3 is sort of an acknowlegement of that abillity in the hands of the creators of the game, which is why it's up to them to change the ending, as opposed to say some fan fiction writer who simply comes up with a better one, even if everyone liked the fanfic better it wouldn't be the actual ending, that would have to come about in the actual game, the guys creating it have to be the ones that acknowlege it.
What your seeing in the case of ME3 is pure arrogance on the part of the creator and increasing levels of douchebaggery as they refuse to acknowlege the problem and fix it, despite people being nice enough to inform them of it. Nobody has seriously argued that the creators don't have the right to give this game that ending and keep it, just that it makes them jerks. Like most jerks and douchebags it influances whether people are going to be interested in their future work.
There is no way to force EA/Bioware to fix things, all you can do is refuse to patronize their works and hope they get a clue.
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That aside, there are some seperate issues here, like who is "the creator" in cases like this, which I think is half the problem. A lot of the issues with the ME3 ending revolve around them deciding to not give the promised answers and resolution for marketing reasons to drag this out. There was a lot said about the ending in some "facts app" that got released, showing that what EA/Bioware was telling people about the plans for the game as it was being made and released, was not the same as what the team was actually doing while it was being made. A deliberate effort was made to not deliver the ending and answers people wanted and were told to expect.
In short, ME3 and it's ending was pretty much the work of a commitee of businessmen, even if a specific writer can be credited for various things, they were ultimatly being dictated to based not on the needs of the story and the integrity of the work, but what the bean counters thought would be the best direction to take in order to maximize profits.
I personally suspect EA didn't have the ending changed and the promises delivered on, due to the philsophy that "any publicity is good publicity". The people raging already paid them, leading to a massive payday. They probably figure the furor will turn into more sales with people buying the new game just to see what they did, much like you mentioned. That's why I refuse to buy it upon initial release, I'm not going to give them money anymore until I am sure of the quality of the product, which includes the writing, right down to the end. I encourage others to do the same thing.
At any rate, the "authority" of a creator is something that exists when it can be clearly tracked to one person. In cases where that isn't true, I think it's an increasingly touchy subject for reasons demonstrated by ME3. Any way that it goes, for something to be "official" it does have to be done by those who have the liscence and can produce the media.
When it comes to guys like George Lucas, as sad as it is to say, Star Wars was his to ruin. I think a lot of the problem is that as you said, he never really understood the appeal of his own work. I also think a lot of it is simply that he became seduced by the money and increasingly looked at things from a merchandizing perspective.
One thing I read a while back was about how when it comes to Star Wars the least popular aspects of the series with the fans, are the ones that made the most money. Stuffed Ewoks and Jar Jar merchandise and things like that sold stupidly well in products aimed at the very young, and were non-threatening enough to appeal to parents. Simply put, a gun toting Han Solo isn't the kind of thing your going to want to give your 3 year old, but an Ewok to snuggle up to is a possibility. Part of the merchandising genius of Star Wars is there was something there for everyone from really little kids, to teens and adults interested in the action and fantasy, the problem is those things don't entirely play well together, the cutesy elements don't really belond in a serious action movie. By forcing all of this together (and is's amazing how well it worked despite all of the hate) a crazy brand name was created which can produce a product for just about anyone. The extension of cutesy elements and inserting them into the older movies makes a degree of sense if it does happen to be true that things like the Ewoks outsold other kinds of products and merchandise, with more people actually spending the cash for that stuff for young children, than say more "serious" props and replicas and such for themselves.
