So much for my Happy Ending

[Der Kommissar]

Forgive me for my crude methods, but: why have a happy ending? Why not have a more lasting impact through sorrow than a shallow through "joy"?

Why does a happy ending automatically make the ending shallow? And why does a sad ending automatically make the ending have more impact? The trick to having a good ending isn't in what emotions are conveyed, but instead it is in how they are conveyed.

Because as someone already stated, it is a good way to seem different and in most cases to actually be. One of my personal shortcomings is that happy endings tend to bore me often as they are shallow, put there because "we can't have a sad ending". Outrageously joyous endings though do haave an even greater impact on me and I would imagine the case to be same on many individuals.

It seems to me that games with sad endings are more thought-out, and that those with happy endings are mostly done, so to speak, to go through the motions; this is the basis for my notion.

While I'm at it, I'll give an example: KoTOR's good ending was incredibly weak - so much so that I can feel the vomit in my mouth already - if you compare it to the strenght of the main storyline. All you got for it was a conclusion of "good, you killed the bad guy. Now, let us celebrate!".

 

[Kagim]

Well, what if the story doesn't call for a happy ending. Sometimes a happy ending would just feel tacked on.

On the other side simply having a sad ending doesn't make it deep and can seem just as much a cop out as a generic happy ending

'Everyone dies at the end' can be as much a generic cop out as 'The bad guys die and the hero gets the girl'

What i like sometimes are mix endings. Like at the end of Kingdom Hearts one. While I realize they were setting it up for a sequel i still loved it.

Spoiler

Riku and Mickey were trapped in the darkest part of Kingdom hearts. Kairi is saved but sent back home all alone without either of her best friends, doomed to slowly begin to forget them. Sora, Donald and Goofy are dropped in the middle of nowhere with the only hint being the letter from mickey. The heartless are still powerful and in great numbers as the overflowing amount of them in Kingdom Hearts suggests. Despite your best efforts Its like you have done nothing. Yet still you feel like you have done so much. Its a very powerful feeling. Enough to leave the ending imprinted in my mind at any rate.

 

[Rarhnor]

Depends on the game.
Mass effect has happy endings, if you play it right.....

I don't think you're counting the ME1 ending:

Spoiler: Mass Effect Spoiler

I recall there being a Let the Council and the rest of the destiny ascension die, to save the citizens of the citadel, or vice versa. Saving the citizens seems more pure-hearted, but it is still that "you-couldn't-save-all" ending.

 

[teutonicman]

I thought this was going to be about massages......

 

[chinangel]

Best-thread-title-ever.
I have no idea whether it was deliberate, but nothing beats a good double entendre.

Oh, and OT.
I'm not sure it's as big a trend as you may believe, but I'll grant you that recent tendencies in the medium have been leaning towards the bleak.
What really matters is the execution.
Though I won't hide that I demand the possibility of skipping through a field of daffodil with Jack at the end of Mass Effect 3.

Yeah it was pretty deliberate ^^

 

[IamQ]

it seems that a lot of games lately have taken to the 'depressing = good' path. What happened to the hero beating the villain at the end and riding off into the sunset or what have you? Why have the hero win but at a cost, have the hero die in the process or even (as is the case of Divinity II) have the hero fail entirely and the villain win in the end. Does anyone else have thoughts on this?

Both Uncharted games have happy endings. Uncharted's 2'sending almost made me chuckle a little also,

Spoiler

with their conversation about how afraid Drake was that Elena was going to die.

 

[RowdyRodimus]

Because happy endings aren't very realistic. In the real world, good does not always triumph over evil, the guy usually doesn't get the girl and the corrupt polition stays in office.

 

[chinangel]

Because happy endings aren't very realistic. In the real world, good does not always triumph over evil, the guy usually doesn't get the girl and the corrupt polition stays in office.

We don't play games to see the real world. Like we don't watch movies to watch the 'real' world. Not entirely anyways. They may be 'realistic' but ultimately most of the forms of entertainment (keyword; most) are stylized to some degree or another.

There is absolutely nothing realistic about Halo or Modern Warfare 2 (before people start saying it is realistic, your character is a bullet sponge. Okay I'm nit-picking here but seriously!) or any fantasy game. Which kind of makes it awkward when this 'realism' is suddenly forcibly injected.

 

[zombiejoe]

it seems that a lot of games lately have taken to the 'depressing = good' path. What happened to the hero beating the villain at the end and riding off into the sunset or what have you? Why have the hero win but at a cost, have the hero die in the process or even (as is the case of Divinity II) have the hero fail entirely and the villain win in the end. Does anyone else have thoughts on this?

One game with a happy ride off in the sunset ending is [spoiler/]alpha protocol[/spoiler]

 

[Kajin]

Because as someone already stated, it is a good way to seem different and in most cases to actually be. One of my personal shortcomings is that happy endings tend to bore me often as they are shallow, put there because "we can't have a sad ending". Outrageously joyous endings though do haave an even greater impact on me and I would imagine the case to be same on many individuals.

It seems to me that games with sad endings are more thought-out, and that those with happy endings are mostly done, so to speak, to go through the motions; this is the basis for my notion.

While I'm at it, I'll give an example: KoTOR's good ending was incredibly weak - so much so that I can feel the vomit in my mouth already - if you compare it to the strenght of the main storyline. All you got for it was a conclusion of "good, you killed the bad guy. Now, let us celebrate!".

Anything that becomes popular sooner or later ends up going through the motions. The more popular the sad endings become, the more people do it because it's the cool thing to do and the more crappy the sad endings become. There isn't any ending kind of ending in particular that I prefer. If the story is told correctly and the writers know what they're doing than any ending is capable of being spectacular.

It's almost impossible to be different, because those who are different end up becoming popular. When Halo first came out, it became popular because it was different. Now if you looked up the definition of generic in the dictionary you'll find a picture of master chief standing right next to it.

 

[SonicKoala]

I'm quite impartial either way. A feel that a good ending should produce some sort of strong emotional response from the gamer - if a game manages to do that, then I consider the ending to be a high-point. An example would be Silent Hill 2, and the various endings that game had; some of them were quite positive, whereas others were downright depressing. Regardless of the mood of the endings, I found all of them to be very well done, as they provided a sense of closure, stirred me on an emotional level, and also felt like a natural extension of the storyline.

 

[SonicKoala]

Best-thread-title-ever.
I have no idea whether it was deliberate, but nothing beats a good double entendre.

Really? I feel that any title which references an Avril Lavigne song should be burned to the ground.... but perhaps that's just me

 

[Doclector]

On the title: God, remembering that song makes me feel old...

On the topic: Leave the cliche endings to cliche games, I say. When Duke Nukem kicks all kinds of ass and saves the world, it fits, but seeing soap mctavish do as such wouldn't fit with the style of the rest of the game. (talking modern warfare 1 here, there never was a sequal. RIGHT!?).

 

[Gralian]

As much as i hate to beat on this dead ol' horse,

"Conflict is the essence of drama"

You can't have cliché fairytale endings. They're predictable and they contain no excitement. Have you ever watched a movie or tv show with zero conflict? Noticed how woefully dull they were? Look at songs, even; the most beautiful and heartfelt ones are often the saddest and most depressing. We as human beings associate with cynicism, pessimism, depression and so on on a far deeper level than happiness and similar feelings. You also have to experience sadness in order to feel happiness. If you get to the final level of a game / last chapter of a story, and it looks like the villain is going to win, but suddenly the protagonist does something incredibly noble such as sacrifice himself / take a bullet so the world or his girlfriend or whatever can be saved the ending feels incredibly rewarding and more uplifting than if the villain blasted off into the sunset, team-rocket style with no direct impact on the heroes. You feel sad that the protagonist is dead, but so much more uplifted that his sacrifice meant so much to his loved ones / the world. And so you remember him more because of it.

Just my two pence.

 

[Tazz Azreal]

It really depends on the theme of the game. If the theme of the game is "FRIENDSHIP TRIUMPS OVER ALL! " it has no buisness having a sad ending. If the theme is "No matter what the individual does, it will never end the fighting," then yeah, I guess a not-happy ending is kindof in order already.

Or to even further on your statement, the whole "FRIENDSHIP TRIUMPS OVER ALL! " could ahve a sad ending to lead up to an insane secound part full of redemption (maybe the hero could of prevented something bad and is now trying to stop it from doing further bad) and then lead to the happy ending or the likes. But personly the whole "Grimdark" aspects of games is a nice change

 

[superbatranger]

Forgive me for my crude methods, but: why have a happy ending? Why not have a more lasting impact through sorrow than a shallow through "joy"?

Why have a sad ending? It doesn't automatically make the make the ending better.

Well, it's because the "good guy beats all the bad guys and saves the day" ending has been overdone way too much. Sometimes the bad guys win, sometimes the good guy wins but at a cost.

 

[Spiner909]

Sad endings are the great counter to generic "and they all lived happily ever after" stuff.
A bit melancholy, yeah, but I like the odd sad ending.

Even if I do cry through it.

 

[Not-here-anymore]

Depends on the game.
Mass effect has happy endings, if you play it right.....

Thats totally dependant on how much of a paragon you are

Well it's not, but it was for me. I miss miranda, I hate jack. Why did I think the crazy would be funny

I liked Jack she made me larf.
Miranda was ok but I didn't really like Cerberus.

I miss her, it also slowly dawned on me that jack is just a crazy hormonal bag of insane (the baldness and tatoos somehow didn't tip me off).

Eh, I know a 'Jack' in real life, so I was vaguely sympathetic to the character.

OT: Basically, because not all stories have an entirely happy ending. So developers have gone a little overboard on the 'faintly depressing' series of endings recently - it makes up for decades of constant illogical happy endings

 

[Treeinthewoods]

I agree completely with you OP, there is nothing I hate more than investing countless hours over the space of a month so that I can be depressed by the ending of a game. If I want to get depressed I'll just look at pictures of oil soaked pelicans in the gulf or some other crap like that.

I play games because they are fun and they make me feel good, not so I can realize how futile everything really is. If this makes me less "mature" then I really couldn't care less.

However, I really do enjoy a good "evil" endig after I have created a really wicked character.

 

[Mr. Grey]

Spoiler: Because someone had to.

I dunno, I don't mind it... so long as it makes sense. Same goes for happy endings, so long as it all falls into place, I couldn't care less.