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.