As above, so below. I have an interesting theory about the fan reaction about ME3 that I would like to collect some empirical evidence on.
The hypothesis:
PLEASE READ ONLY AFTER FILLING IN THE POLL, AS THIS WILL SKEW THE RESULT. THANKYOU.
I think that national character has a great deal to do with how people react to the end of Mass Effect 3. While National character (or, 'stereotypes') are not the be all and end all of a persons personality, culture expectations in storytelling will colour your response to the end of a game like Mass effect, especially when there is a great deal of emotional investment.
To whit; most British people I have spoken too are very happy with the original ending. I believe that this is because most British people are very fatalist, and somewhat whimsical. Their home grown science fiction (with the notable exception of modern Doctor Who) is often very hopeless. It often revolves around a clash of modern culture against another, much more advanced culture, or it represents a used future where we have as a species have failed, or are about to fail. And we lose, or if we win, it is at such terrible and phyric cost that the victory was barely worth winning. For example, 1984, Warhammer 40,000, Judge Dredd, The Last Train. Often mankind is in its last days, and mere survival is justly hailed as victory. I think this springs from the national experience in world war two. They won the war, but at what cost? They owed the Americans millions, the economy was in ruins, and the empire was falling apart. Victory had come at a high price, and terrible sacrifices of both the European allies and their own people had been asked for and given. Does this start to sound familiar?
Now, the other side of the pond. I once heard it said that Americans don?t just love winners. They love people that win big. Not only must you win, but it must be crushing. Not only should your victory be total, it must be publicised. Everyone must know that you won, and the other guy never stood a chance. Very often American popular Science Fiction features aliens or threats with a single point of weakness, that when exploited, wraps up the whole thing neatly. I think this stems from victory over Japan using nuclear weapons: a secret weapons project defeats a powerful enemy at the last minute of the War. Again, does that sound familiar? That idea, and the Alien mothership trope, make up the end of most Hollywood produced science fiction movies. Star Wars is an excellent example of this: kill the Emperor, destroy the Death Star, peace in the galaxy. That, and the fact that for America World War Two was the best thing to happen to the country. They where owed millions by their allies, had access to the most powerful technologies on earth, and had extended the reach of their economy across the globe. The USA went from an isolationist state to a global super power, with an economic boom to match.
Now, Mass Effect 3. In many ways the story changes right at the end, it?s a sucker punch: you build a super weapon, that doesn?t work as advertised or intended. Ignore the other problems with the ending and focus on that: The Super weapon doesn?t fix everything. The implication that even if you save the galaxy, it will still be in ruins from the destruction of the Mass relays and most of the citadels species economies and infrastructure.
The British have lived through that. It was the end of the World War two. So far, their American cousins have not. While there are moments where one battle wins the war in Mass Effect (for instance, the destruction of the reaper on Rannoch), by and large, the game is a death march to the moment Shepard dies firing the crucible. And I think that, more than anything, is why Mass Effect 3 was so unpopular with American audiences, and why most British gamers where happy with it.
In my own personal experience (As a Briton) I loved ME3, and thought the ending took a lot of guts from the writers. They where right not to have an easy fix, right not to change the end with the new DLC. The ending is what it was always meant to be: a demonstration that sometimes, no matter what you do, or how much you struggle, the galaxy will still spit in your face and crush your efforts. Does that make the journey, or the effort, less worth while? No. Shepard, and those that fought with him, remain heroes for trying anyway, because success was never guaranteed.
The hypothesis:
PLEASE READ ONLY AFTER FILLING IN THE POLL, AS THIS WILL SKEW THE RESULT. THANKYOU.
I think that national character has a great deal to do with how people react to the end of Mass Effect 3. While National character (or, 'stereotypes') are not the be all and end all of a persons personality, culture expectations in storytelling will colour your response to the end of a game like Mass effect, especially when there is a great deal of emotional investment.
To whit; most British people I have spoken too are very happy with the original ending. I believe that this is because most British people are very fatalist, and somewhat whimsical. Their home grown science fiction (with the notable exception of modern Doctor Who) is often very hopeless. It often revolves around a clash of modern culture against another, much more advanced culture, or it represents a used future where we have as a species have failed, or are about to fail. And we lose, or if we win, it is at such terrible and phyric cost that the victory was barely worth winning. For example, 1984, Warhammer 40,000, Judge Dredd, The Last Train. Often mankind is in its last days, and mere survival is justly hailed as victory. I think this springs from the national experience in world war two. They won the war, but at what cost? They owed the Americans millions, the economy was in ruins, and the empire was falling apart. Victory had come at a high price, and terrible sacrifices of both the European allies and their own people had been asked for and given. Does this start to sound familiar?
Now, the other side of the pond. I once heard it said that Americans don?t just love winners. They love people that win big. Not only must you win, but it must be crushing. Not only should your victory be total, it must be publicised. Everyone must know that you won, and the other guy never stood a chance. Very often American popular Science Fiction features aliens or threats with a single point of weakness, that when exploited, wraps up the whole thing neatly. I think this stems from victory over Japan using nuclear weapons: a secret weapons project defeats a powerful enemy at the last minute of the War. Again, does that sound familiar? That idea, and the Alien mothership trope, make up the end of most Hollywood produced science fiction movies. Star Wars is an excellent example of this: kill the Emperor, destroy the Death Star, peace in the galaxy. That, and the fact that for America World War Two was the best thing to happen to the country. They where owed millions by their allies, had access to the most powerful technologies on earth, and had extended the reach of their economy across the globe. The USA went from an isolationist state to a global super power, with an economic boom to match.
Now, Mass Effect 3. In many ways the story changes right at the end, it?s a sucker punch: you build a super weapon, that doesn?t work as advertised or intended. Ignore the other problems with the ending and focus on that: The Super weapon doesn?t fix everything. The implication that even if you save the galaxy, it will still be in ruins from the destruction of the Mass relays and most of the citadels species economies and infrastructure.
The British have lived through that. It was the end of the World War two. So far, their American cousins have not. While there are moments where one battle wins the war in Mass Effect (for instance, the destruction of the reaper on Rannoch), by and large, the game is a death march to the moment Shepard dies firing the crucible. And I think that, more than anything, is why Mass Effect 3 was so unpopular with American audiences, and why most British gamers where happy with it.
In my own personal experience (As a Briton) I loved ME3, and thought the ending took a lot of guts from the writers. They where right not to have an easy fix, right not to change the end with the new DLC. The ending is what it was always meant to be: a demonstration that sometimes, no matter what you do, or how much you struggle, the galaxy will still spit in your face and crush your efforts. Does that make the journey, or the effort, less worth while? No. Shepard, and those that fought with him, remain heroes for trying anyway, because success was never guaranteed.
