![]() Consumer demand modifying artist expression is called “selling out”. The precedent that could be established here is not, in my opinion, in line with treating video games as art. On the opposite side of the issue, Forbes contributor Dave Thier eloquently explains why this debate is so important to video gaming as an art form, and discusses how player interaction is at the core of the medium, but the argument reeks of tyranny of the majority, and I’m having a lot of difficulty reconciling customer complaints with artistic goals. The New Yorker, of all publications, weighed in on the side of preserving the artist’s vision, but they did it with an air of disdain, almost disgust, for gamers that I find extremely offensive, and many like them already dismiss gaming’s legitimacy. I don’t know if either side in this debate is right. This has created two camps: one that believes the story belongs to the creators, and the integrity of their vision needs to be preserved for it to be called art and one that asserts that we, as players, have just as much of a role in the storytelling of the game, that indeed, the player’s involvement is what makes the art of video games unique. Ray Muzyka issued a formal statement to the effect that they want to listen to the community’s feedback, and add to the game’s content to help flesh out or modify the ending. However, I wouldn’t be talking about it here if the issue was just that some (or even most) people didn’t like the ending.Īfter outcries from the fan-base reached alarming levels, with people going as far as filing FTC complaints against publisher EA, BioWare’s Dr. Before this final installment came out, I said that there had never before been a time when I wanted so badly to find out how a story ended.įor those of you who somehow managed to miss all the controversy surrounding the ending, here’s a quick synopsis, as I understand it: Fans have complained that while Mass Effect 3 claims to have 16 different endings, there are really only effectively three, and even then they’re fairly similar, and more importantly, aren’t really affected by the choices the player made throughout the trilogy rather, one final decision in the penultimate sequence determines the ending. I think it’s important to start by saying that I love Mass Effect, and like everyone who’s speaking to this issue, I was extremely invested in the story, the characters I’d grown to know and love (or dislike, in Kaidan’s case), and most importantly my very own Shepard, whom I’d crafted for a grand total of around 100 hours by the end. THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD, so if you haven’t finished the game yet, I urge you to do so before reading, and please, try to avoid all the other crap out there until you’ve seen it for yourself. However, given my chosen subject matter, I think I would be remiss not to talk about it. I originally didn’t want to do a piece on this because, well, everyone else was. Today, I went ahead and looked at what all the hubbub was about. ![]() But last night my Shepard (a fiery, curt FemShep with a heart of gold), completed her story. I hadn’t finished the game yet, so I had avoided reading any of these articles. ![]() For the last week or so, it seems like every other video game article I see is about the controversial ending to BioWare’s space epic, the Mass Effect trilogy.
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