The Big Picture: Mutants and Masses

[MovieBob]

This best explains the whole Mass Effect 3 controversy.

Ye. Gods. The sheer level of smugness in that video is STUNNING - and please keep in mind who's saying that.

Auteur theory can't apply to video games because they're team-efforts? So is film, which is where the medium the phrase "Auteur Theory" was originally coined for. "Staff of fan-fiction writers?" The same tired "these people have no qualifications!" trashing of game journalists? "You're just praising 'art games' to sound smarter?" Give me a break.

 

[TheProfessor234]

Two things;

One, I didn't think anyone could hate Bastion, that game was awesome.

Two, what if all of this really was a plan? If so, I highly doubt they wanted this much negativity, but what if it was their plan to amend to change the ending or whatever? What happens then? Will this all blow over? Will people care anymore?

Though, at this point, I doubt BioWare is going to admit to anything.

 

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

I have said it before and I will say it again: What was so bad about the ME3 ending?

If you've said it before, and you're saying it again, then you really aren't looking for an answer. You're just looking to piss off the people who are annoyed with the ending.

Seriously dude, this is a trolling post. 100% troll post. There's nothing else to it. Sure, it's slightly higher quality as you aren't insulting all of us who dislike the ending, you aren't blatantly looking for a fight, and you've spelled everything correctly.

But by this time to ask "What was so bad about the ME3 ending?" can only be a troll. There are dozens of articles - even on the Forbes magazine website! - about what people think was wrong with the ME3 ending which are reasoned, researched, dispassionate and make absolutely no mention of settling down with Tali on Rannoch, and there are at least a dozen threads on the Escapist itself which are full of rational and mature discussions from both sides, that to ask the question at this stage, and on these forums, is merely a higher class of trolling.

I ask again because no one gave me an answer that justified the outsized response that this ending has garnered. I don't go out of my way to Forbes or the NYTimes for them to explain it to me or read the "dozens of articles" about it. I want to read, in their own words, why each player has a problem with it. So far, all I've gotten is: it wasn't conclusive enough, it ends abruptly/goes in a odd direction that disrupts the plot (I disagree with this one), and my decisions earlier didn't matter (also disagree).

Here's the thing: All of that could be said about DeusEx:HR, but it barely registered a blip. Why are people in arms around ME3 to such an extent?

And here's my big problem: why is it bad? It's cliched and really predictable in its general scope once you're about 2/3rd through the game (you know there's definitely going to be a choice between control and destruction at the end, Shepard is dead no matter what happens, and the Reapers will no longer be a threat). That's not the same as being bad.

I have said it before and I will say it again: What was so bad about the ME3 ending?

I don't know whether or not this has been replied to, but thank you for being polite

The main reason this whole debacale occured is because of an built up emphasis on YOU and YOUR CHOICES thoughout the series, ME3 ending though doesn't emphasize YOUR CHOICES insted it does something really weird and makes all of those choices moot and kills the universe at the same time, thus the ending (it is also the climax) is non-reflective of the 130+ hours piece of art that is Mass Effect.

So, what choices are not addressed from ME1/2 that is not addressed in ME3? ME3 is not written as a stand alone game, it is a third act all its own and the entire game consists of Shepard wrapping up those decisions from prior games, from the romances to the lives saved. What is missing then?

All the fans are doing is telling bioware they can make it amazing, and giving them the chance to fix it; sometimes quality trumps artistic integrity; which is why you never could sell a picture of stick figures- even though you think it is the best picture in the entire world

But that is not how this works nor is that how it should be. The precedent set if Bioware capitulates to you guys would be one where all creative control is lost to the mob. What's the point of being a game writer if everything you wrote (and, more importantly, the most essential element of it: the conclusion) could be rewritten by the mob outside because they didn't like it?

Analogy:
Books: building a great story, then just as the climax happens; an astroid hits

Upton Sinclair's original printing of The Jungle had the character joining the socialist movement in the first real sign of uplifting glory at the very end. In the original publishing, it ends with a single sentence where the protagonist is arrested the next morning.

Movies: Just as the hero is beating up the bad guy or getting the love intrest, an criminal comes up to him and kills him, then it shows the L.I with someone else, or the bad guy robbing a bank; CREDITS

Martin Scorsese won an Oscar for a similar ending in The Departed. The last five minutes is just people getting shot in the head almost randomly.

Painting: Just as the masterpiece is finished the artist puts a stick figure over a central part of the painting

Can't remember the artist nor the artwork (I saw it ten years ago), but one gentleman painstakenly repainted the Mona Lisa by hand, and then, when finished, created a print of it over which he Sharpie'ed over the painting various crude and rude things (mustaches, cigarettes, messing with the background, etc.). Originally taken as a cheep rip off by critics, an analysis by experts revealed the true nature of the painting.

 

[dragonswarrior]

AGH Snippets

Snippers

Snips

Then why the heck are people trying to force someone to rewrite something?

This is no different than censorship. The fans are more or less shouting "we dont like it! Make it not exist!". It is funny how fast ones own audience would turn on you when you dont pander to it. Takes one bad ending and we are no different than the people who decided that "you cant do that in games! I dont like it!".
Worse than that some fans believe they own it, while some only believe they should own it.

Aiieee how can you compare this to censorship? That is silly. They aren't telling Bioware to censor the ending, they are telling Bioware that the ending was bad and it needs to change. It's about the actual quality of the work, not about the philosophy involved in it.

Unless you mean that people who were expecting something good that are then given crap can't say "hey, you promised us something good, could you kindly please deliver now?". If that is censorship then yes, yes it is no different.

And again, your whole "the fans are just butthurt and entitled and whiny and blah blah blah" argument falls flat because, as I have stated before, there have been many intelligent, researched, and considered responses to this ending. They're easy enough to find if you want to verify it, some of them are pretty long though. Hence, intelligent and researched.

Here is one. It's long but completely proves the above point. And trust me, there are plenty more out there like it. http://www.themetagames.com/2012/03/why-you-enjoy-art-and-one-problem-with.html

And again, you attribute these silly economic ideas to something that has nothing to do with economics. Creation, imagination, creativity, intelligence; when the hell did ownership ever factor in to all this? What does "ownership" have to do with a story? Or a game? Or a painting? What does ownership have to do with an idea?

If you argue the above point you're being too capitalist. Capitalism has no place in good art, yet always ends up mixed up in it anyway ('cause artists gotta eat dontcha know). I would ask you to take a step back and reexamine from a more humanist standpoint. (if I'm using humanist correctly there, I might not be, I've always been pretty lousy knowing which labels go where...)

 

[MovieBob]

REALLY BOB, REALLY? *Cough* Going Green Part 2 *cough*

Oh yeah, I had a Twitter debate/argument with Grey Carter (one of the critical miss guys) and pretty much ending with HEAT because, if nothing else, that's the closest thing that Bob has covered to Retake Mass Effect. And I don't remember him saying it was a bad thing. HEAT is to comics as Retake Mass Effect is to games. It's hard to support one without supporting the other as they practically stand for the same things.

I called HEAT "the biggest, longest, most preposterously powerful act of fanboy pissing and moaning in the history of fanboy pissing and moaning." If you read that as "not a bad thing," I dunno what to tell you

 

[mfeff]

This best explains the whole Mass Effect 3 controversy.

Ye. Gods. The sheer level of smugness in that video is STUNNING - and please keep in mind who's saying that.

Auteur theory can't apply to video games because they're team-efforts? So is film, which is where the medium the phrase "Auteur Theory" was originally coined for. "Staff of fan-fiction writers?" The same tired "these people have no qualifications!" trashing of game journalists? "You're just praising 'art games' to sound smarter?" Give me a break.

"Smugness" sounds a touch ad hominem...

Who is saying that? A guy on YouTube, who is saying he is smug, a guy on the Escapist, that lives at home with his parents? I mean, why even play that game? I think we all have a lot of respect for you Bob, it is why we support your work. Be above the argument man.

Now barring that, good call on Auteur theory... though I think in his context, he is referring specifically to Casey Hudson, and or higher ups at Bioware... who may, or may not have much, if any influence on the creative process. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. Maybe he got involved in the process at the 11th hour? Who knows?

I'm not sure people took all the pre-release PR to mean a "Total Recall" Philip K. Dick scenario, loaded to the brim with Matrix and Battle Star homages... shrug.

As far as Mass Effect goes... methinks what was done was pretty edgy (bordering oft times on the sophomoric)... almost but just "maybe" the closest to an M. Shyamalan moment yet in video games. The exposition just really let it down. Very Cassandra Syndrome, Hesiod Trojan War-Trojan Horse, Zeus Achilles and the Fates, that video games have ever come, and may ever come... shame really.

It just wasn't finished. For the love of DLC maybe?

Taste bad I guess...

Ya got time to put Jessica Chobot of IGN in the game?

It all begs a sense of credulity, much of what one would expect in Jody Foster's "Contact".

Which is exactly what is in the box. A messianic "contact" moment, which you mention, without directing it specifically at Mass Effect, nice slight of hand!

Clearly part of the design of ME was to generate this sort of buzz... With a Mass Effect movie in the works... all press is good press... I think that's what they say in Hollywood.

It is all just a game anyways... from the bottom to the top. Vestment is really just a matter of choice, though people that play games, are interested in games, and those that invest dollars into them (from the bottom to the top) are watching this pretty closely.

It's neat. It's better than the game in the box.

 

[DrWilhelm]

Here's the thing: All of that could be said about DeusEx:HR, but it barely registered a blip. Why are people in arms around ME3 to such an extent?

Mostly I'd imagine because Human Revolution wasn't the epic finale to a beloved trilogy that many gamers have spent the last 5 years heavily emotionally investing in, but rather the prequel to an already concluded story from a decade ago. The excitement and hype surrounding the Deus Ex franchise had already died down, and I expect many players of Human Revolution had never played the original anyway. Moreover, being a prequel, there were only so many ways for Human Revolution to end and still have the original Deus Ex make any kind of sense, though that is far from a flawless excuse.

 

[Korolev]

I really liked the last line, bob. Yes, I was disappointed by the Mass Effect 3 ending, but if that's all I have to worry about, then I'm doing pretty damn good. And I am. I mean, I don't have to worry about clean water, food, heating, education, violence, war, political repression or most things a lot of people have to worry about, day in, day out.

I like Mass Effect - I like the series a whole lot. And yes, I am disappointed by the ending. I am disappointed by how slip-shod, short and illogical it was. But that's life - sometimes things end poorly. Sometimes a book ends badly, a movie ends badly or a game ends badly.

Can we accept that it ended poorly and move on like adults? Could we? I agree that it ended poorly! I agree that it ended badly! I agree that it could have been done a whole lot better with even minimal re-writing! I also don't think it's something to flip my gourd over, because I actually have a life outside of video games.

It ended poorly, and we need to accept that. If you really don't like the ending, feel free to write your own and imagine that to be the ending.

Yes the ending wasn't what was promised by BioWare. Yes, we know they could do better. Yes, it hurts that the ending to such a good series ended so poorly. I understand that. But:

THAT. IS. LIFE.

No, I'm NOT talking about "Downer endings are good because that's how life is!". I'm talking about how sometimes you will be disappointed. That really is life. And you have to get used to it.

Disliking the ending is NOT irrational or bad. I disliked the ending. What's scary is the sheer amount of anger, hatred and vitriol being hurled around. I have had quite a few books that I've liked end poorly. I've had a lot of films I've liked end poorly. I've had even more games that I've liked end poorly - but I don't lose my mind over it.

When ME3 ended for me, I was sad. Disappointed. Annoyed. Even upset. For perhaps 3 hours, then I did what adults do and I moved on with my life and I went back to studying for my medical degree, talking with friends, reading other books, playing other games, going out for walks in the park, playing with my pet dogs, looking at a nice sunset and in general being sane.

Calm down people. It's a bad ending to a much loved series. I really enjoyed Mass Effect. I played through the first game 6 times, the second 4 times and I did buy all the books and I read all the codex entries and I played the hell out all of them. I even got Mass Effect 1 twice - first on the Xbox, then on the PC. I even bought a copy for my brother. I like the series just as much as anyone else.... BUT:

It is a video game series. A. Video. Game. Series.

And before you start: yes, people who obsess over Harry potter and Dune or even Lord of the Rings have an unhealthy obsession. People who obsess over Star Wars or Citizen Kane or Charlie Kaufman films (and I LOVE Kaufman's films) have an unhealthy obsession - and people who obsess over mass effect to this degree also have an unhealthy obsession. There's more to life than video games or movie/film/book series. Those things are all nice things to have in life, but once they BECOME your life or make up a SIGNIFICANT part of it.... dude, go outside. Go get a job. Study harder.

Passion is good when it's spent on things that REALLY matter - like studying, your relationship, your family, your philosophy and ethics, your life journey or your political ideals. Not when it's spent on pop culture.

Right now we have people literally dying and fighting for their right to live free. The internet has generated more passion for a VIDEO GAME ENDING than, oh, I don't know, the FATE OF THE SYRIAN REVOLUTION. And that's just sad.

 

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

Here's the thing: All of that could be said about DeusEx:HR, but it barely registered a blip. Why are people in arms around ME3 to such an extent?

Mostly I'd imagine because Human Revolution wasn't the epic finale to a beloved trilogy that many gamers have spent the last 5 years heavily emotionally investing in, but rather the prequel to an already concluded story from a decade ago. The excitement and hype surrounding the Deus Ex franchise had already died down, and I expect many players of Human Revolution had never played the original anyway. Moreover, being a prequel, there were only so many ways for Human Revolution to end and still have the original Deus Ex make any kind of sense, though that is far from a flawless excuse.

This is true, but I find "emotional investment" to be a massive cop-out and a synonym for "it wasn't what I thought it was going to be and am angry because of it."

I find the entire fiasco that has resulted to be very petty in the end. Like I said above, I played the game, I found the ending to be reasonably satisfying if a tad cliche, and I moved on... Not everything, especially in media, will go the way you want it to. The trick is just to get what you can out of it and move on.

 

[Joush]

Bob reminds us all that he doesn't know what he is talking about.

The ME 3 endings fail as art, a narrative, or as game play. This wasn't a daring choice to take a risk, this was a stupid person ruining a massive collaborative work.

Now the game has this awful ending on it while it's otherwise a very good product. That it needs to be fixed is blindingly obvious to basically everyone that has played the games.

Yeah, Electronic Arts has every right to not change it and to instead leave it as a shitty product. It isn't artistic integrity and the defense of taking 'risk' that would guide them to do so.

 

[Sentox6]

So please forgive me oh wise internet guru, I will now go scourge myself because obviously in your eyes misusing a term is a horrible sin.

1. Person A says something stupid.
2. Person B highlights Person's A stupidity.
3. Person A adopts excessively defensive posture, trying desperately to cover their stupidity with sarcasm and barely-veiled insults directed at Person B.

Tragically, this is a true story.

 

[Darkmantle]

I'm still waiting to hear why Broken Steel hasn't ruined the industry yet.

I mean, shouldn't have bethesda stood by their ending?

Captcha: public good

 

[caladors]

First off calling people who are upset with the ending of Mass Effect 3 as "Butt Hurt".
Classy.

For who don't get why people are angry here is a non spoiler version of events.

Mass Effect 1

Mass Effect 2

The Majority of Mass Effect 3

The end of Mass Effect 3

Mass effect was ment to be this generations answer to Star Trek.
Build around three core princpiles.
1. As hard Sci Fi as we can make without scarficing story/action.
2. Your actions have consquenseces so don't take what you do lightly. You can ethier work within a system or rail against it.
3. Always fight against the odds.

You know those look like three kick ass messages, kinda like how Star Trek said one day we will go beyond racism and hatard, we will be better people. I like those messages.
It says the following to me.

1. Science matters it's how we understand the universe, you don't have to love it but just respect it, cause it helps you understand stuff.
2. If your going to be good or bad thats going to come around (aka Karma) don't expect to be able to talk people down off a building if there scared of you and don't expect people to fear you if your known for doing good.
3. Is there a glass ceiling F--- that break through it, someone said you can't do something F--- that you can.

The ending I am sorry but it Sh--s on all of that.
1. Somethings you will never understand don't try and make sense of them.
2. Don't worry if you have been an ass your whole life you'll get a chance to choose different at the end.
3. Aim low and avoid disappointment.

But we're just Butt Hurt. This is a joke right? We want our game to mean something, we wanted just a fallout style end wrapping things up and cause we expected better from them were Butt Hurt? Really?

 

[dietpeachsnapple]

Bob! Please stop being such as arsehat! I generally agree with you, Retake Mass Effect is silly, but stop having such a ***** whinefest over it. If it bothers you so much just ignore it, nobody is making you sit down and read the threads or the tweets or look up the latest picture on deviant art! Just do as I do and ignore it, it real is that simple. Instead you seem to relish in showing your moral superiority and proclaim to the world that everybody else are such children and your the only adult who can show them the way to nerdvana. I don't know maybe your trying to copy Jim Sterling but you don't have the same self mocking that he does and you just come of as arrogant.

As a point of fairness to Bob, he is paid to NOT ignore activities of audience communities. This may mean reading threads and tweets, and finding the latest deviant art pictures. Any presumed superiority is something that he gets paid for as well, as it presents his material in a manner that retains viewers. I VERY often disagree with Bob. I enjoy HOW he presents things, not necessarily WHAT he presents.

More opinion than counterpoint, comparing Jim to Bob is unfair. They handle different material, in unique manners.

 

[Frotality]

oh, bob....

what few respectable journalists in the industry seem to all be suddenly tuning out every single issue people have in favor of throwing the "art" excuse at us. i really dont understand this. the thing i love about bob is that even though i disagree with him on numerous issues, he explains his opinion so thoroughly that i have to respect it.

but now he has done the same god damn thing every other journalist out there is doing, completely missing the point and flying into a hyperbolic tantrum about the apocalyptic future where consumers take issue when they buy something on false pretenses. though the artistic failings are many, THEY ARE NOT THE ISSUE. people dont want the ending changed because they take issue with it creatively, they want it changed because THEY SPENT 180$+ ON A SERIES OF PRODUCTS THAT FAILED TO DELIVER ON WHAT THEY ADVERTISED.

money is involved bob, that makes it a product as well as art, however much you might want to ignore that fact. if we ignore this then publishers will just have a new excuse for ignoring the artistic value of video games, so really, letting the ending stand as it is is just as damaging as trying to get it changed. the fault is bioware's for putting us in a lose-lose situation.

 

[krellen]

Auteur theory can't apply to video games because they're team-efforts? So is film, which is where the medium the phrase "Auteur Theory" was originally coined for.

What if I just think the "Auteur Theory" is complete bullshit?

 

[DrWilhelm]

Here's the thing: All of that could be said about DeusEx:HR, but it barely registered a blip. Why are people in arms around ME3 to such an extent?

Mostly I'd imagine because Human Revolution wasn't the epic finale to a beloved trilogy that many gamers have spent the last 5 years heavily emotionally investing in, but rather the prequel to an already concluded story from a decade ago. The excitement and hype surrounding the Deus Ex franchise had already died down, and I expect many players of Human Revolution had never played the original anyway. Moreover, being a prequel, there were only so many ways for Human Revolution to end and still have the original Deus Ex make any kind of sense, though that is far from a flawless excuse.

This is true, but I find "emotional investment" to be a massive cop-out and a synonym for "it wasn't what I thought it was going to be and am angry because of it."

I find the entire fiasco that has resulted to be very petty in the end. Like I said above, I played the game, I found the ending to be reasonably satisfying if a tad cliche, and I moved on... Not everything, especially in media, will go the way you want it to. The trick is just to get what you can out of it and move on.

I wouldn't say that emotional investment means quite that, though you're kind of on the right lines if you prune away the negative perspective. Without thinking too hard about it (it's 6 in the morning where I am, I haven't slept a wink and I have a very busy day ahead so Mr Brain finds this "thinking" idea suspicious and worthy of scorn) I'd say that it's a fairly nebulous concept that a storyteller really wants to instill in his audience because it will amplify their reaction to the story, simply because they care more about it. It's a double edged sword though, because negative reactions will be amplified in the same way, for the same reason.

It's all about gauging your audience, and understanding what it is they want out of the story. Hopefully what the audience wants from the story is the same thing that the writer wants from the story, and if that isn't the case then I believe the onus is on the writer to adjust. It's the same way that a stand up comedian needs to adjust his routine to the audience if he's expecting to get any laughs.

If that didn't make a lot sense (and I suspect it didn't) then I refer you back to Mr Brain, who is currently casting dark glances at Mr Logic and Mr Rational Thought, and sharpening his claymore.

 

[Joccaren]

*sigh*
People aren't pissed about the ending not being exactly what they wanted. They are pissed about it being, quite literally, the worst case scenario for the ending, and not living up to the promises that the Devs made.
Why worst case scenario? I'll see if I can find a thread, but one person on the Bioware forums literally predicted this whole thing (Sort of). "Probably the worst they could do is push in some god thing, destroy the mass relays and kill everyone, and not give different endings" were pretty much his words. This is exactly what I got.
Also, before some idiot comes up and says 'I was promised this but I didn't get it' - think about what is actually happening here. Promises were made on a PRODUCT that CAUSED people to SPEND MONEY to PURCHASE said PRODUCT. These PROMISES were NOT MET and people BOUGHT said product thanks to the FALSE ADVERTISING offered by the Devs. There is a reason this isn't instantly refuted, and there are some business and law professionals taking this seriously - this was false advertising, whether intentional or not. It must now be decided whether this was acceptable because it may not have been intentional, or whether it is not acceptable, and you should keep to your promises to fans. I speak for a lot of people here when I say that had Bioware told the truth, and said 'None of your choices will really matter in the end. We'll offer you one ending, with three variations, and no matter what it will really screw things up for the universe, and the choice will be given to you by a godlike AI', we wouldn't have bought the game. The example that I saw of this was that someone was promised a demo who's sales would determine whether a game was made or not, but the demo never came out. That is a completely different case, and if you think they are the same you need to re-evaluate how you would feel if you bought a $1500 fridge that was supposed to have a water and ice dispenser, and compartments for different food types, as well as an attached freezer, but what you got was a fridge that could get its temperature down to 10 Celsius minimum, had no compartments nor freezer, and did not dispense water or ice.

In addition, what would you have us do, all you criticisers of the Retake ME3 movement? Resell all our games on day one and never purchase another Bioware game again? 'cause currently that's the alternative. We are giving Bioware a chance to keep our business because we care about them, and want them to continue existing. For the most part, they have lost our trust though, and had they not rewritten the endings, many would not have returned to them as a company - something they can't afford if they don't want EA to repurpose them to a generic shooter design team or something.
I'm also not going to bother pointing to all the sites with the NUMEROUS literary failings of the ending. You can find them if you want I'm sure, and go 'It doesn't matter, its what the devs wanted' all you like.

Really, the bottom line is that the Dev's artistic integrity is still intact, even if they change the endings. Why? Because they decided to. They could very well decide not to change it, but you know what? We would take our money elsewhere. If you say that is entitled and childish, you may want to rethink that - saying that basically means you think they are entitled to our sales, and that is wrong in so many ways.
Honestly, those who say Bioware changing the endings is a bad think, and criticising them for it, are as damaging to Bioware's artistic integrity as those who demanded they get changed. It was Bioware's artistic decision to change the endings, and just because it was because the fans begged them to doesn't mean the final decision wasn't with them. They could have left the endings, but they didn't. As such, if you're telling them that them changing the endings is a bad move, your doing the same as those telling them that them making the endings was a bad move - you are criticising their artistic decision - but worse than that, you are telling others off for doing the same thing.

 

[Seanfall]

Auteur theory can't apply to video games because they're team-efforts? So is film, which is where the medium the phrase "Auteur Theory" was originally coined for.

What if I just think the "Auteur Theory" is complete bullshit?

*reads up on what the Auteur Theory is* ....Yeah...yeah I agree it's BS.

 

[Lalo Lomeli]

Just because Bioware promised something or other and you wet your panties in anticipation doesn't mean that you raging fans are being less ridiculous.