It’s been a point of contention on the Internet, obsessively in some forums in which I’ve frequented, and to a much lesser extent on our own forums.  People still don’t like the Mass Effect 3 ending.  With recent news of Casey Hudson leaving Bioware and The Escapist’s new article on the endings, it appears that picking at the scab has made it bleed again.  My purpose here, today, is to provide some postmortem perspective and purpose to these events, and offer better closure than you may have felt from a franchise once loved.  If in the process I kick a hornet’s nest, than I’ll handle the consequences.

You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

I begin with my own observation.  Mass Effect 3‘s ending was objectively bad.  There are those who, looking through subjective eyes, like and appreciate it.  I support those people.  There are those who, looking through critical subjective eyes, liken it unto the worst abomination of human creation.  Those people I cannot support as much.  The point I’m trying to make is that the ending to this game isn’t the boogeyman.  It didn’t cause the levels of harm people have purported.  Individuals who required professional counseling upon completion of Mass Effect 3 have no case should they choose to send a medical bill to Electronic Arts. Before I go on too far, I have to confess,  I didn’t really mind the endings.  They were quite bad, yes, but I was not originally on board with changing them as a mandatory response.  It wasn’t until the Bioware staff responses to the fans irritated me to no end that I decided to start speaking up with everyone else.  I thought the cupcake thing was hilarious.  And yes, I threw some gasoline on the fire at times when I really wasn’t as devoted to the cause as others.

Overall, however, I didn’t need the ending changed so much as I wanted some individuals at Bioware who were perhaps a bit too flippant and pompous about it to eat some crow.  Although, changing the ending would have gone far to fix things and, while I don’t feel Bioware was obligated to do so, it was a good idea in terms of listening to their market.  In the end, the ending was expanded, and while I never got the feeling crow was eaten, it was at least tasted, if not nibbled a bit.  To further my confession, I actually really liked the Extended Cut DLC.  I’m perfectly okay with a crap-tastical ending, so long as there is a decent enough prologue to go with it.  My expectations were low, however, as I did read Mass Effect: Deception.  I knew the risks. Now, I can understand folks who say they won’t buy another Mass Effect game.  I wouldn’t dream of twisting their arms otherwise.  Truth be told, I probably stand with them.

A game franchise that built a house of action set-piece cards upon a foundation of storytelling was certainly setting itself up for failure.  When one can’t trust their lore-driven science fantasy to care about its own lore, certainly the player has no obligation to do so.  However, to outright dismiss any semblance of what might be a good game and a return to form should be taken hesitatingly. Assuming that anything with Bioware’s name on is trash is probably a prudent course, but is not guaranteed to be accurate. It’s not my intention to become a Bioware apologist.  I’m not.  The studio has very much earned the distrust of their fans.  However, have they earned the hate and bile they have received?  I would submit they have not.  They are guilty of shifting focus into a new direction across a few deeply beloved franchises, that is true.  They are also, however, not my friend.  They are not my family, nor are they your family.  They are a company.  I’m not saying they get a free pass, but they should probably have never had anyone’s implicit trust and devotion in the first place.  It’s unrealistic to expect a game studio to love the gamer as much as the gamer may love the studio.  That goes double, possibly triple, for a studio owned by a publicly traded company.  Their loyalty is to shareholders.

This hurts you…

Hopefully having given enough perspective as to why a company should not be given the trust to provide this level of betrayal, I can go into the lessons learned.  Firstly, and most importantly, nobody ever cares about the lore as much as the fans.  Whether it’s the Star Wars prequels, Star Trek V, or fill-in-the-blank, content creators just don’t quite seem to love the source material as much as the fans.  For as loyal and devoted as Transformers fans are, Hasbro will continue to pay Michael Bay to dump out sequels.  In this way, fans put their feelings in the hands of somebody who, honestly, doesn’t care.  They say they care.  But, especially in the video game industry, once they have your sixty dollars, you’re nothing but a number.  To ever have believed anything else is naive. Secondly, one can take away that whatever the next Mass Effect brings, it will likely have a fairly well-defined ending.  At this point, I doubt the studio will greenlight any pseudo intellectual faux artistic vision.  Sadly, it’ll probably scare them off any bitter-sweet or deep ending.  But, sometimes, you just want to beat the end boss and see a happy ending.  Call it video-gamey if you must, but it releases endorphins.  In my own opinion, the moral ambiguous and bleak storytelling trend in games is getting old.  Sometimes I just want to see Mother Brain destroyed and Samus take off her helmet. It’s the simple things.

Thirdly, don’t pay money for a product sight unseen.  It’s dangerous.  There’s no accountability there.  I know how tempting pre-order DLC is.  I’m wrestling my own demons right now over Arkham Knight and it’s Gamestop Exclusive content.  I understand what it’s like to a devoted fan.  Despite everything I’ve presented up until now, I still get the itch to pre-order.  I won’t, however.  If that means I miss out on content, it’s a small price to pay for sending the message that my time and money is worth more than the game companies give it credit for, and certainly more than a mountain of flowery, ambiguous promises born more of hubris than reality. Finally, and this lesson is for Bioware but is something the fans should hear: no company is above falling victim to their own hype.  Much like one shouldn’t hunt what they can’t kill, one shouldn’t promise the world.  No company can deliver the world.  If the promises are becoming so grandiose they couldn’t possibly be true, then fans, take heed.  We now know.  And hopefully these lessons will make us all more educated, and more discerning, consumers.

It’s from our end, on this side of our money clips, that we can improve the practices of an industry that seems too in love with itself. I understand that some individuals still hold strong feelings after Mass Effect 3‘s ending.  In closing, I wish to address those people.  I believe that the time to learn and let go has long since passed.  Letting an unchecked ego, and mismanagement of a series of 1’s and 0’s, dictate your life to such an extent is not healthy.  It’s not representative of a mature fan base.  It makes us the malleable, manipulated sycophants that the gaming companies want from us.  As we continue to discuss this game, even as I write this, I give Mr. Hudson more credit than he probably deserves for his prophetic statement:

“I didn’t want the game to be forgettable, and even right down to the sort of polarizing reaction that the ends have had with people–debating what the endings mean and what’s going to happen next, and what situation are the characters left in….”

If you truly want to stick it to the man, and show truly show you’re above him, then prove him wrong.  Take the lessons learned with you, but forget this ever happened. If I can ignore the fact that Ghostbusters 2 ever happened, then certainly we can let Mass Effect 3 fade unceremoniously into obscurity.  Let this be the final nail in the coffin.  Take a breath and bury it.  There are other games much more deserving of your attention.