Babble: The battle for Mass Effect 3's ending (Spoilers naturally)

So if the title didn't make an impression, please note that by discussing the ending, I will actually be giving away things you don't want to read if you still plan on playing the game. So don't read.


Are you gone yet?

Really?


Okay.

So I am still planning this massing ramble about the glory that is Mass Effect 3. And it is glorious, no question about that. What has people up in arms is in fact the last ten minutes of the game. My first playthrough hit 25 hours of game time. This is of course not counting the millions of times I had to reload after dying. But let's stick with 25 hours for now. I'm not going to call a whole 1490 minutes' worth of game play garbage just because the last 10 minutes wasn't what I wanted.

But let's get into that.

For this post I gave myself only three questions to answer. This limit was necessary seeing as I am such a babbler.

Did I like ending?

Needless to say, I didn't.

I think the biggest mistake the guys over at Bioware made was to try and explain something they shouldn't have. From the first Mass Effect, the players were denied the motivation of the Reapers. Sovereign told them it was above their understanding. In Mass Effect 2, the same notion was given of "we don't know why, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't stop them". In Mass Effect 3, one of the first things Shepard says is that the Reapers are more intelligent and more powerful than all the races are.

Now yes, avoidance is an easy way out. The most important message in the story was "The Baddies are coming!" That's what it needed. It didn't have to go into the whys and hows and make this whole thing a logical debate. And so they didn't bother.

Why bother about it now? Why go from "we can't understand" to "well, actually, here's why" and have that reason be nonsensical and somewhat insulting? 

Also, why give a power higher than the Reapers? What's up with that? So let's say the Citadel got blown into itty bitty bits, would that mean the Reapers wouldn't have come? Their boss who was directing them was there after all.

In Bioware's defense, their material got leaked. I was one of those who avoided watching anything leaked, but that is one helluva blow. Trying to cobble something together, something different or better in a short period of time with no relief from the overlords (*cough* EA *cough*)... that's gotta be a tall order.

I was with Bioware up until the beam transporting Shepard up to the Citadel. What went on beyond that... I think they could've just killed Shepard in that horrific laser blast, seriously. It would've caused an outcry but nothing compared to the venom that they're getting now. Would we have been satisfied? Not in the slightest, but I think more than anything fans just feel insulted.

I knew Shepard was going to die. He/She had to for the franchise to continue without Commander Shepard being turned to the next time the shit hits the fan. I didn't need the foreshadowing (I'll complain about that in the next post). I knew kicking the bucket was in Shepard's future. But the way things went down... *shakes head*

Do I agree that it should be changed?

No.

No, I really don't. I don't think it should be in the audience's power to demand a change in a story when they're not satisfied. Games are an art form. Legally. Seriously. See here. And as such, the story is in the hands of the writer. And this first-world consumer mentality of "I have the POWER!!!" is just bullshit when it comes to art. Sorry, it's true. Deal.

And if you can't, go write some fan fiction.

A couple of years ago, I read Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. I slugged through it and, as soon as I read the last page, the book flew across the room. Literally. I got more satisfaction from throwing the book than reading it. Same could be said of some vampire books floating around, but let's not go there... That doesn't mean that I'm now going to arrange a protest and burn the book and expect someone to dig up ol' Vic to have him rewrite it. I'm going to just have to accept his story.

I'd have loved to see Shepard kick the bucket in a way that was awesome and heroic. I love Shepard's determination through all that the writers threw at her. There was nothing as striking to me as her crawling to the console asking Hackett what he needed to have done. That was Shepard in a nutshell. I'd love to have seen the commander die in a way that made sense and honoured the character in the way he/she should have been. But I'm not going to sit like a puffer fish and hope that the writers run into my spikes.

Why are people so upset about it?

Devotion.

I've played through all three games. Let's say that the average time it takes to finish a Mass Effect game is about 25 hours. (It's more than likely more, but bear with me). So we're talking about 75 hours in total, right? Let's say that a church service averages 1.5 hours. (Yes, that came way out of left field, but bear with me). It would mean that a gamer would've spent the same amount of time playing the series than a devoted believer would've attended church for a year. Now most believers don't go to church every Sunday. A gamer would actually spend more time on the series in ONE playthrough than a believer would spend in a church for a year.

And that's just one playthrough.

The beauty of Mass Effect is that most people haven't just played it through once and stopped. In my case, I've lost count of how many times I've played the first two Mass Effect games. It would've been more four times for each game. I'm already busy with my second playthrough for Mass Effect 3 and I have a character in Mass Effect 2 whom I was almost finished with when I realised I made a mess up earlier on, and so now I'm starting with her back in the beginning of Mass Effect 2.

A year's worth of church services one playthrough of the series. Multiple playthroughs... it does point to intense devotion, doesn't it?

So here you have people so intensely connected to a game and have the very last moment, the last crucial finale, to their connection end in a way that would be kind to describe as disappointing. 

You can understand where the hurt and frustration comes from.

In the end:

It's a game. Granted a passionate, intense, wonderful game. But a game. Men and women spent HOURS really doing their best to make it a fantastic game - which it is. 

It is therefore shameful the way that people have attacked Bioware, the writers, the people who worked and spent a lot more than 75 hours on Mass Effect 3. 

I will never be satisfied with the ending. I don't download DLCs and have to wait for them to do with ME2 and 3 what they did with the first Mass Effect where they eventually included it on the discs. And I will buy those discs - even if I already have copies of the game. And I will spend even more hours on the series. I will still never be satisfied regardless of how they explain Shepard's end.

But you know what? The next Mass Effect game that comes out? I'm totally buying that. And the next. And the next. And the next...