Grumpy Old Nerds

Before I get into this, I just want to say that just because we are grumpy does not mean we are going to nerd rage and be ridiculous like a lot of the folks have been in response to the ending of Mass Effect 3. Am I perturbed? Maybe...I still don't really know what the hell I am feeling about this, not anger or disappointment, but....I do feel empty. I do understand why folks are upset. Which is why I intend to give my two cents (albeit no one has asked for them, nor I wager are they welcomed) on the matter and why damn near everyone is wrong, including the self-righteous poser douches that fancy themselves artists in the "gaming media" biz. So, before I get to it...let me just say that there be spoilerth ahead. I will distract those of you who have yet to beat the game with a picture of kittens. For those who want to read on...well, fight the urge to keep staring and scroll forth!

There, weren’t they just adorable? Now back to the issue at hand. The first thing I would like to do is to commend Bioware, Casey Hudson, and all the people that were involved in the Mass Effect series. No, seriously. They did a fantastic job. These people managed to make a universe so engaging with characters that people connect with so strongly that when they came up with an ending that the alleged majority did not like, they were attached enough to damn near riot. I think any aspiring writer would wish for even a little bit of that kind of loyalty to a work.

Having said that, I can not say I am really happy with the ending but for much different reasons than the supposed popular one in which the outcome is “too dark”. I honestly expected Shepard to die, and I expected the war to not end as well as any of us would have liked. It is a sad truth of war, they aren’t exactly pretty, neat, or perfect. However, I do feel as though the uproar over the lack of decisions mattering for the player is one in which they have a point. You can not say that all of the choices you make are important when in the end, they really weren’t. It is bad for business. So because of these two things, there is a movement demanding a better ending, which has caught the attention of every asshole with a blog or is in charge of some arbitrary news blip.

There have been some sensationalists who are likening this demand for a better ending to changing Hamlet, or The Great Gatsby. Another bit I had come across stated essentially that it is the public’s misguided sense of the first amendment they feel they have the right to demand that a company bend to their will. It is to these people I’ll go ahead and refer to Dick Cheney. The people do have every right to make these demands, and they have every right to be upset. Belittling that just makes you look like a bigger asshole than I am…bravo. The companies however can choose to ignore the demands as is their rights, so there ya go.

There are however milder stances similar to the Gatsby and Hamlet folks essentially equating to “one shouldn’t try to change a work of art”. Which, yes I get that. I would never want a work of mine to be changed just because someone doesn’t like the ending. There are a few problems with this however.

First, this is not a new thing. Arthur Conan Doyle was given endless amounts of hell because the public hated him for killing off the beloved Sherlock Holmes. He eventually caved and wrote him back to life. I am sure the people who played the Gatsby and Hamlet card would argue that this is totally different. Not really. His vision, his art was changed because of the will of the people, his fans. Despite any of this however, the second thing to keep in mind is that this series has been extremely interactive. You could have a room of 10 people who have played the entire series and up until the end of 3, each one would have had completely different game experiences. They (we, really) arguably shaped the story and made it their (more our….but hey) own. Giving the people this kind of control and then severely limiting it in the final installment is just begging for backlash, plain and simple.

My personal opinion, the ending was dark enough, and I was okay with that, it just didn’t feel completed or very…Mass Effect. What bothered me more were the massive plot holes that my ending seemed to be chalk full of and I had done this ending three times now with every game in the Deus Ex series. I chose option 3, which was to blow up the citadel which would then destroy the Reapers, the Mass Relays, and logically speaking, every other ship in the stars. I unleashed the equivalent of a doomsday EMP blast that covered the entirety of the galaxy. With this ending, I watched as Joker managed to get away and crash on an unknown planet, amazingly enough with Liara (who was with me on the final mission) and other crew members who were on Earth while Joker was supposed to rejoin the fleet. How exactly did THAT happen? Was that just him imagining a happy ending for his friends? It was a little hard to tell, really. Which then leads me to the ending you get only if you have adequate galactic readiness; you know…the split second where you see a body of someone you assume is Shepard because of the N7 tags (who else flaunted that logo in this series, I ask you) gasping for air. How exactly, does a man (or woman) survive an explosion AND re-entry? And where was the citadel debris? I didn’t see any around him, did you?

There are countless theories about the endings on forums all over the place. Which are great, the people are thinking, and I applaud that. However, I am not holding my breath on this one. I get the feeling this is the end we have to deal with, and Bioware is going to have a hell of a time getting themselves out of the proverbial corner they just wrote themselves into. For now, however, I am going to wait and see what happens and what the company says on the matter. But for now, if their intent was to give me the finger and leave me an empty shell of what I once was until something good and pure comes along to bring me back? Mission Accomplished.