Saturday, March 24, 2012

ME3 Ending Debate (the nice kind)


A VISIT TO THE FORUMS
“Oh Mass Effect 3 , they just don’t understand you, be patient with them for they know not what they do,” was my initial reaction to the venom and outrage directed at the final installment of one of my favorite trilogies at first it seemed like the final sequence was a dream and I wondered if something hadn't been slipped into my system and maybe I was indoctrinated or dead or dreaming.  It was weird, but I had no huge problems with it (especially because there was an Adam and Steve ending).  Then I wrote this http://gaymism.com/articles/commentary/galactic-whine-and-ending-mass-effect-3 where my main premise was the whole game was an ending and to distill it down to one decision and fifteen minutes was unfair.  And was angry, so I went to the forums to find out what others thought.  Here is part of what I found.

SLYRED PANDA:
Warning! Warning! Massive wall of text approaching at great velocity. It is advised that you evacuate immediately. Warning! Warning! Massive wall of text approaching, brace for impact in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...
/startrant
Let me start by saying that the Mass Effect series is my favorite video game series of all time.
Naturally I had high expectations for the game. Overall the game has been exquisitely crafted, except for some issues that should have been addressed in QA... But that belongs in to another discussion all together, for now I will stay on topic and discuss the ending.
The Ending to Mass Effect is not bad. In fact, content-wise, I like it. Bioware did not fail to deliver in the story department, but the execution of said story was quite pitiful.
Issue #1
In ME3, you regain control of Commander Shepard. You've been playing with the same character for years. With this individual you have faced thrasher maws, indoctrinated specters, the collectors and the reapers. Shepard is nothing short of a badass, and thus he is treated as such. Within minutes of starting the game you are back in the Normandy flying across galaxy, rallying friends and foes to join you in the greatest war the galaxy has ever seen. As you progress though the game, many plot points are closed, allies are gained and even entire races are saved or extinguished. The game constantly reinforces the fact that your decisions affect a greater outcome. Will you save the Geth or destroy them? Will you cure the genophage or doom the Krogan to extinction? Cut scenes and dialog play vastly different depending on who lives or dies. In this game, more than ever, you decisions carry a heavy weight... except for the ending. It does not matter whether you choose control, synthesis or destruction of the reapers. The outcome is still the same: The crucible is activated and the citadel is destroyed along with the mass effect relays. Then we (the player) are treated to a brief (and boy I am not a size queen but that was really short and unsatisfactory) cut scene with my crew and a STATIC IMAGE of two humanoid silhouettes talking.
Does it matter that I saved the Geth? No. Does it matter that I saved the Krogan? No. What if I had destroyed the Quarians and not the Geth, would that matter? No.
Nothing matters. Essentially, it all boils down to picking a color. That color represents a decision to which we do not get to see the result of. So in reality it does not matter what you pick, because as long as you fall into a pre-determined set of clauses, you will essentially get the same ending.
I'm okay with my Shepard dying, he dies an honorable death. But I am not okay with sacrificing a great character to see my crew mates in some lush jungle and then a static image with voice over. Talk about underwhelming.

Issue #2
I'm going to talk about another game to illustrate a point. So bear with me while I talk a little bit about Final Fantasy XII. While not my favorite final fantasy, I do believe that this was the first game to really elaborate on the concepts of war, politics, conflict, etc. In previous final fantasies I go the impression that, while they all have great lore, the story was about the characters. In XII, the game is about the world of Ivalice and the avarice of a man seeking dominion over it. The characters in XII are there, but they aren't necessarily the focus. Long story short, not everything is as it seems, and before you know it a third power comes into play: The Occuria. The Occuria in FFXII are essentially the hidden power players in the story, controlling the fate of mankind and blah blah blah (you know the drill if you played the game). This was the "twist" or "shock factor" of the game. I particularly didn't care much for The Occuria, but it was nice to see the closure of a story arc that had been foreshadowed earlier in the game. It is obvious that writers in FFXII took the time to slowly/gradually introduce the Occuria to the player, in order to create a cohesive narrative.
ME3 does something similar to FFXII by attempting to introduce another "power player" to the story, but fails to do in any way that makes sense. In ME3 you've got 3 powers at play, the Reapers, Cerberus and the galaxy at large (citadel races alliance). The Reapers want to harvest everyone, Cerberus wants to control the reapers and the Galaxy at large want both Cerberus and the reapers gone. By the end of the game, you are transported up to "somewhere" where this young holographic kid is talking to you. He talks and talks about "the cycle" and how the reapers have a purpose among other wonderful background lore chatter. But my question when I saw him was: Who the fuck are you?!
Apparently, you might get some foreshadowing on the holographic crucible boy if you talk to Liara at certain times. I do remember there was some discussion about why the Reapers were harvesting people instead of killing everybody. This implied that the Reapers were being led or controlled by somebody else. During my play through, that is all the foreshadowing I got about this fourth mysterious power. The introduction of this holographic boy creates more questions then answers. Who is he? What is his purpose? Is he a VI? Is he an AI? Is he part of the reapers? Is he part of the race that created the reapers? Too many questions unanswered.

So in the end, no pun intended, I was left dazed and confused. I did not know what to say or how to react. I did not know where my crew landed. I did not know what happened to the Krogan, or to any other species in the galaxy. The premise of the game is to "Take back Earth" and save the galaxy, but in the end we really don't get to see how things turn out. Was earth rebuilt? If the citadel and the mass effect relays were destroyed, does that mean that earth then became the epicenter for the rest of species who were displaced by the war? The purpose of a good ending it to provide answers and closure. This ending only created more questions. Yes you could read in to the ending and assume that earth was saved and civilization carried on, but is that how you really want one of the best video game trilogies to end? I think Mass Effect deserves better than that.

/endrant


  
Frag Dean
I respect your viewpoint and the time it took you to get all that down, but I see it all differently, Mr. Panda.
Shepherd has done amazing things and made huge decisions and, for me, those decisions were endings. We do not know if the Krogan are given their fertility what they will do with it, Clan Urdnot seems ready to lead their people to new greatness, will they stay in control, will the salarians attempt a new sabotage, will the Krogan begin a campaign to create an empire, can the they control their urges? These things cannot be answered at the end of the game (especially if there will be further forays into the ME universe sans Shepherd).
Shepherd was a great leader and he brought the races and cultures of the galaxy to a new place, a new start- this is the best anyone can do. He is not immortal or omniscient. I liked that he made these tough choices and he, like us, can only guess at what will happen and hope for the best. At some point the galaxy must be responsible for itself. I liked that there was no best ending and that the final shots are of others. It's their turn.
It all turned a little bit Jesus-y, but myths are there for a reason. His memory has been left, lives of been touched, futures have been molded. Shep was fucking busy.
The day one dlc argument has never been very convincing to me. The game is huge and comprehensive; it's not like we didn't get our money's worth. If you love ME3 you can get the content day one and play through it instead of a few months later and then maybe play through again. The dlc was quality and added to the universe and I'm glad it was there.
I see your powers argument, but I believe Cereberus was indoctrinated, the Illusive man did it to himself and then people he kidnapped to serve, Cerberus as an organization out to protect humanity ceased to be, they had obviously given up their "morals" when they attacked human colonies and killed and indoctrinated humans, so I think your counting is too high, the weird little boy at the end says the Illusive man was his creature. Yeah, the force behind the Reapers taking the shape of a little boy was strange. It seems the big conflict was between organic and inorganic life and the cycle of destruction that we bring ourselves to through technology that we can create but cannot control. Tower of Babel, nucleor weapons, Icarus, we overreach, and instead of the galaxy being destroyed we killed organic life while keeping a reflection of it to save the whole. We are the infection.  I'm guessing the dreams were that force trying to rule Shepherd and failing. Shepherd was proof the cycle could be broken.
No story wraps up everything and if it tries it seems frail and false. The big arc was completed and I don't think we can really ask for more.
  
  SLYREDPANDA
An alternate ending... March 22 at 8:05
SlyRedPanda
Something I found at other forums that I think is worth looking at
...and my response:
This is what i wanted. Good or bad. Happy or Tragic. It doesn't matter. But I want something to play out. I want Galactic readiness to matter. I don't understand how somebody who has mediocre galactic readiness can have the same ending as somebody who has united an entire galaxy. This ending would show case all of the hard work done not only throughout the game, but throughout the trilogy.
EDIT: This doesn't mean that I want Shepard to live. The Reapers are, after all, a very powerful force in the galaxy. I still think the ending should be limited to the three choices it gives you. I just think there should be more exposure to the Galaxy at war conflict, which was the main focus of the game (and the multiplayer) before the ending.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Galactic Fail

Mass Effect 3 Ends in a Whine

I am so done with whiners and misplaced crusading.  A number of gamers have been complaining about the ending of Mass Effect 3 and through the magic of the internet they have found a place to congregate and whine.  A fund was even started to have the ending of the game rewritten.  Agog.  I'm agogged.  A more agogging fact- a complaint has been filed with the FTC.

Saving the galaxy was not epic enough

This shrieking minority is upset because they wanted more choice in the ending which I read as- they want a perfect happy ending where no one dies and everything is fixed.  The game begins with Earth being destroyed by the Reapers, millions are killed, cities erased, a small force remains to fight back and while they are doing this, you as Shepherd are attempting to make alliance to save what is left of the Earth and the rest of the galaxy.  On the way you see massive destruction of other planets and civilizations.  How is any ending going to fix this?  Who would believe that ending?

Mass Effect 3 is the last in the trilogy and, to be honest, the whole game IS an ending.  Players get to see plot points wrapped up, visit their old acquaintances and see what time and the war have made them; there is denouement for all the major and many minor players in this drama, and these are peppered throughout the game and don't just get forced on you at the end in some sort of cutscene.

Mass Effect treats us as adults.  We know that "War is Hell."  We know their are tragedies and causalities and heroics and lost causes.  Mass Effect does not talk down to us and tell us everything is going to be alright and it was all just a dream.

What the?!

So what is this really, this outrage and cacophony?    I can't help but make parallels to our own country in three wars that we don't hear much about, partially because we don't want to and we don't know what we're fighting or quite why we are fighting, and we don't know what victory in this places could even look like, so we ignore it.  We feel powerless because we felt we had no choice, no one asked us or explained to us and we have partisan arguments that never quite hit on the truth.  We don't want to look at what we've lost because of these wars or the price those that have chosen to fight for us have paid or how they have suffered.  Could that be why?  Do we want our games to show us a simpler world without any gray and heroes that shield everyone from pain and defeat?  Have the constant bombast of entertainment news shows and their extreme views that turn the other side into Hitler and make any contrary idea mark of a traitor, infiltrator or liar become how we talk?

Is it sadness over the ending of a beloved trilogy, your last chance to be your Shepherd?  Do gamers feel all their effort and struggle was for naught because the Reapers really did almost destroy all life in the galaxy, and we were powerless to stop it?  Is it a feeling of entitlement?  Maybe the internet gives everyone a microphone and we feel the need to create drama and to be right and righteous.  Maybe some gamers can not handle reality or endings.  As much as I believe there are sane voices that can tell people to calm down and take a real look at what they are screaming about it really seems that that only causes some to scream even louder, to drown out their own thought, to avoid introspection, or entertain any emotion but anger.

AT first I found the whole thing silly, then the vehemence of the arguing made me try to look again and see what they might be saying.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but does every opinion need to be shouted full voice, does every opinion need a villain?  The Mass Effect 3 ending deserves reflection not reaction.  There is so much about that game that is good and to say the whole thing is trash and attack the creators who have given us something beautiful is childish.  All the shouting just proves the game is something special because otherwise it would not even be worthy of a whisper and would be dismissed.  It disappoints me that a group of people shout at the top of their lungs, cover their ears, close their eyes and let no other possibilities in and they can't stop to take a breath and look again.