DustyDrB said:
I'm gonna do something crazy and say...I understand both points of view and am pretty conflicted about it myself.
There is no reason to be conflicted. Bob is totally ignorant on this subject I'm guessing.
All arguements about artistic integrity do not apply to the ME3 ending contreversy since the problem more or less comes down to EA wanting to turn this into a franchise instead of ending the trilogy properly. The more they can hold back for later games, the better from a business perspective. Basically, any artistic integrity present in this already went out the door before the fan reaction. Indeed if anything the fan reaction is due to them already sacrificing artistic integrity and putting an ending onto the work that does not belong there.
It's also about far more than just the ME3 ending, which is something I believe the industry wants to pretend it's ignorant of to avoid having to address. This is about the entire relationship between the industry and the users, and with Bioware it's a continuation with a fight they picked when they released "Dragon Age 2" in the state it was in.
I'm also guessing Bob is unaware of the whole $3 app EA wanted to make that was all about the ending, information from which has been floating around the internet. Part of the issue here is that EA/Bioware said flat out that this installment was going to wrap things up and answer all the questions. In the interviews from that source the guys doing the writing are quite frank about saying that they created the ending to be ambigious and not to give the answers people wanted. Given that the company was saying one thing, and deciding intentionally to do another means that they were out to defraud the customer base, and it happens to have backfired.
I understand where Bob is coming from, but he's probably ignorant, if he knew the details I'd imagine he'd be on our side more than he is.
Bob also seems to miss the point entirely that there is good art, and bad art, it's not all equal and being artistic does not justify something not being called a piece of crap. The thing is that with most media if it sucks to the point of outraging the vast majority of people exposed to it, they are going to be refunded their money. People have stormed ticket booths at movie theaters, gotten refunds from artshows and performances, and other things. With something like Mass Effect 3, part of the rage is that people spent $60 for this installment alone, and $200 or more in some cases for the whole series before it got to that ending which ruined the entire thing. EA/Bioware isn't exactly offering refunds.
Bob's attitude is more defensible when it comes to things like TV shows because the TV show doesn't really cost the person viewing it anything other than their time. If the finale of say "Lost" doesn't float your boat, it's not like you paid J.J. Abrams anything for the honor of watching it only to see it end that way. This is an entirely differant situation.
As I've said before, if you were say watching the original Star Wars triology, and it was like you know except for the end of RoJ... when Luke walks into the Emperor's throne room instead of the whole ending that clinched the series with the redemption of Vader and the destruction of the second Death Star, your treated to the screen whiting out into a 70s style light swirl of the type intended to simulate an acid trip, while a rainbow hued cartoon platypus appears in the middle of the screen and introduces itself as a manifestation of the force. The platypus rambles on about the light side and dark side, and what has happened in the series so far, and about what might happen from this point on, but cautions you that whatever might happen might only SEEM to happen because it could all be illusion like Luke's experiences in the cave on Degobah. Then the credits roll... aftr the credits you see some little old guy walking along with a young boy begging for another story about "The Skywalker".
If that happened, you'd be saying Star Wars was crap, you'd be demanding a refund, and there would be no prequels since nobody would have cared after that. The style of ending described might work for some stories, but not for "Star Wars". That ending would destroy the entire series, nobody would care how great it was before that, because none of that mattered anymore now that you knew where it was going.
You might think I'm joking but the above description is actually a pretty good analogy to what happened at the end of ME3, and why Bob is simply wrong. I think he's jumping on his artistic defense bandwagon without really being aware of all the facts that apply to this.
I'd probably agree with Bob if EA/Bioware offered to buy back all the Mass Effect games (the whole series) and associated products they have sold at full initial retail value, much like a ticket being refunded at a theater.... but that's not what's happening.
Overall them creating a proper ending that fits with the rest of the series, and isn't a giant franchise cash grab is the right thing to do under the circumstances. Indeed if they want to be taken seriously ever again, it's their only real viable option because I'm not even sure if EA could afford to buy back all the Mass Effect stuff they sold.
