Terramax said:
I would like to start by saying I've no intention of upsetting anyone on these forums, nor am I criticising their oppinion. I'm genuinely wanting to understand the difference between what I see to be a similarity.
So I've noticed the gaming industry's come to a near complete stop surrounding the controversy of this ME3 ending, not that this is the first time a game has flooded the news and forums.
Throughout the years I've seen people pointing out the hypocracy or stupidity of politicians taking videogames out of context, parents raging video games are the fault for a multitude of social ills, people mis-enterpreting stories and symbolisms, with their actions far beyond logic, reason, and so forth. And then this happens.
A video game has an unsatisfactory ending, and it seems the entire gaming community cries in outrage. Petitions, hate against developers, filed complaints, talks about people never buying Bioware games again, people believing they've been robbed financially!
On the latest Jimquisition, he argues we should be proud of this - proud, that as gamers, we take the medium as seriously as film, television or books. That games contain the same level of artistic value. But isn't this more a reflection of the immaturity within our community, and that we shouldn't be taken any more seriously than the eccentric politicians we rebuke?
As he mentions, people were pretty upset about the ending to the Lost TV series. Or how George Lucas milked the Star Wars franchise for all its worth. But surely these aren't examples of the fans of the said medium showing sophistication, rather the latter, that in many ways people reacted pretty childish or overzealously?
Picture yourself as a non-gamer looking into this. Or even watching, from a distance, fans of a franchise you don't like making a fuss over a similar issue.
Imagine the final Twilight book ending on an unsatisfactory cliffhanger that had teenage girls worldwide go crazy. Would we respect them more for taking the same extreme actions than what's on display here? I suspect not. We'd probably be poking fun at them.
So my question is - what is the difference? Are people within the gaming community going too far? Or is this really a serious issue for the gaming community and industry?
Finally, I've decided to add a poll to see how many people, at least on these forums, really do care about this issue. As I'm not a fan of this franchise, I'm somewhat exhausted to see 80% of threads being solely of this one issue.
On a positive note, perhaps these reactions to endings might see companies interacting more proactively with fans. In the film industry, there are test screenings to see audience reactions to stories - should we see something similarly implemented in video games (I don't think play-testing counts as it's mainly for bug searches)?
A lot comes down to context. This is about more than just the ending when you get down to it, it's about how the game industry chooses to treat it's fan base. I sort of saw this happening back when "Dragon Age 2" was released and the way how that game turned out.
The basic gist of things here is that Mass Effect was supposed to be a trilogy, EA/Bioware decided that instead of being a triology they wanted to turn it into a franchise. As a result they chose not to end the story properly and expected people to just sit back and take that, while they raked us over for more money.
What's more, a point that those who are critical over the uprising over the ending fail to get, is that even if this wasn't actually caused by a long series of events, there are substantial differances between gaming and other media. If you say go to a movie and everyone agrees that it sucks, chances are you can get your money refunded, and that sends a clear message to the people making the film, TV shows like Lost don't require any inherant investment in money on the part of the viewer so the loss inherant in them sucking is minimal. With video games your paying $60 a pop, plus more nowadays for DLC. Mass Effect 3 was basically coming with a hidden $10 charge to unlock content on the disc which was a contreversy even before the ending was found to suck, bringing the cost up to $70 just for that installment. In playing the game if you decide the ending sucks, you can't just return it for a refund, especially if you have the PC version. What's more an ending that is so bad, and so greedy, that it can retroactively ruin the entire trilogy up to that point in people's minds creates an even biggier issue... a lot of people are sitting there thinking that they in many cases have spent over $200 for that craptastic resolution, which is largely fueled by Bioware/EA wanting to make even more money off of them.
The entire industry is responsible for mistreating the fans in both the quality of games and the way things are sold, but Bioware is in a somewhat unusual position of having gone from being a very fan friendly company, to the height of arrogant money-crazed jerks over a very short period of time. Bioware has basically been slapping their fans ever since that whole "is it okay if we limit the character generation in Dragon Age 2" fiasco where the fans clearly said 'no' and then they not only decided to do it anyway, but had the audacity to say it's what the fans wanted (which is one of the quickest ways to piss people off, given the overwhelming negativity on that point), then of course "Dragon Age 2" reused all those enviroments, had a lame combat system, and a crappy ending. Then of course we had "The Old Republic" which after years in development and numerous delays wound up being a lot less than it should have been, and of course then we wind up with "Mass Effect 3" which continues the already contreversial "this is now a cover based third person shooter with customization rather than an RPG" design, but also suffers from some truely bad writing (Leng, I am looking at you again), and that horrible, horrible ending.
The bottom line is that even a company with a huge fanbase can wind up abusing them to the point where they turn on the company, and that is what happened with Bioware in record time. A lot of things simply "broke" here, and I think it's a sign that they are going to get worse if the industry as a whole just doesn't start dialing back their attitudes a bit.
There is more behind this than I think most people give it credit for, people were angry to begin with, and that's why we're seeing such an explosion. Bioware DID lie about the ending. What's more pretensions of "artistic integrity" just piss people off more when it was made 100% clear they planned to turn this into a franchise. That wasn't a proper ending for the trilogy given the high fantasy vibe established from the get go (ie a spiritual successor to Star Wars: The Old Republic), this was a proper ending for something they wanted to turn into a franchise and leave as open as possible. Arguably the story of Commander Shepard and ending it in a satisfying fashion became diametrically opposed to the marketing potential of the Mass Effect Universe. People aren't stupid and can see this, as Bioware was hardly subtle.
What's more, when game developers and publishers decide to point to professional reviewers as a defense, that continues to build the rage, since right now gamers are becoming increasingly aware that these reviewers are simply a form of advertising. High reviews for Mass Effect 3 does not redeem the game and make the fans feel silly, rather it create skepticism where reviews are concerned since not one of those people detracted marks for an ending that slotted people off by the millions. Heck, even if not paid off, any reviewer who didn't subtract points for that shows themselves as being unqualified for their job by not matching the attitudes of the audience it's supposed to review for.
and oh yeah... on the review front, Bioware in paticular was caught shilling their own product to offset amateur reviews when "Dragon Age 2" came out. I'm sure other companies have done the same thing, but in this case they were caught, and that makes anyone in their company invoking reviews as a defense into a joke. I don't care how high up someone in Bioware is, using reviews as a defense right now is basically looking for a fight.
We'll see what happens next month. Truthfully, even if Bioware comes forward humbly, hat in hand, and admits that they screwed up and promises to change it's ways, it's going to have to endure some suspician and scorn. It does that and it might be what it once was again.
I'll go further in saying that I think the industry watching this means something as well, this needs to be pushed, because I think "beating" Bioware is going to cause a lot of companies to realize they need to adjust their attitudes.
Such are my thoughts.
