Editor’s Desk | Vagary.TV

Editor’s Desk Archive

Editorial: The Mass Effect 3 Ending Controversy

– March 18, 2012Posted in: Columns, Editor's Desk, Jeremy's Blog, Staff Blogs

For the past week or so, I’ve had to almost ignore the internet. Since about the day after Mass Effect 3 was released, all I kept hearing was the controversy over how “Bad” the ending was. Not having beat the game myself, I didn’t want anything ruined for me. Mass Effect is a series that has grown close to my heart, and seeing the ending for myself –spoiler free– was something I couldn’t wait to accomplish.

Saturday, after 45 hours of gameplay (Single Player and Multiplayer). completing every single quest and side quest in the game and achieving 100% Galactic Readyness, I finished the story. For me (and to quote my twitter comment), the ending was a bittersweet ending to an epic storyline, which as far as gaming goes ranks in my top 5 easily. Bioware has successfully crafted one of the most spectacular stories in recent history, and should be praised for their accomplishment.

Instead, all that I’ve been reading online are whiners, naysayers, and trolls who didn’t get the ending that they wanted, and now think they have the right to DEMAND a new ending. One player even went so far as to file an FTC complaint. Hopefully, Bioware is smart enough to see past the “unsilent minority” and keep the integrity of Mass Effect intact. Afterall, it is BIOWARE’S story to tell. They wrote, and made possible, all three entries into the Mass Effect series. That gives the the right to make any creative choices that they choose. Let me reiterate that: Bioware is the CREATOR of Mass Effect; they can end it however they see fit. It is their right to do so as the creative artists behind the franchise. Don’t get me wrong, the ending was sad, and even unexpected in ways, but it was not “bad” or in need of a rewrite. Far from it.

Demanding that Bioware create a new ending (with all of the writing, coding, voice over work, and production that goes with it), is nothing short of childish.

If your favorite author decided on an ending to their newest book that you did not like, would you demand that the book be rewritten to suit your needs? NO.

If a movie you had been waiting to see for a long time ended in a way that you didn’t feel fit the film correctly, would you demand that the ending be refilmed? NO!

So what gives jilted gamers the idea that since they don’t like the fact that Mass Effect didn’t end the way they envisioned, they can demand a new ending to the trilogy?

It really speaks a lot of where our society is heading when people feel so entitled that they can just demand whatever they want and get it. I really hope that Bioware keeps their integrity on this issue and doesn’t change a thing.

And to those that still feel the need to huff and puff, read past the break:

*SPOILER ALERT*

Shepard dies to save everyone. That’s it. You need to stop raging and come to terms with how the writers over at Bioware decided to tell their story. As happens a multitude of times over the years in different works of art, the protagonist that we’ve grown to love sacrifices himself (or herself) for the livelihood of everyone that he (or she) has sworn to protect. The ending was extremely heart-wrenching. We’ve lost a character we’ve grown to love, and I still feel a bit of sadness over that.

To me, that just makes the story that much more grandiose. My Shepard did exactly what was necessary to save the galaxy, just as Shepard would have. There are no surprises there for me. I know that I would have loved to see Shepard and Liara’s babies running around after the final battle, with them living happily ever after on a beach somewhere.

But in real life that doesn’t happen. War is gruesome, and doesn’t always end on a high note for everyone. It’s that realism that I feel that Bioware was really able to portray in the ending sequences of ME3. And honestly, looking back at the trilogy as a whole, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m not saying it’s ok to dislike the way it ends, because everyone is entitled to their opinion, but to say that the ending is “bad and needs to be rewritten” is nothing short of poor taste and lack of maturity.

My hat’s off to Bioware and friends for putting together one of the best series of the past decade, and yes, ending it in an amazingly epic and graceful way.

This was brought to my attention after I wrote this and thought I would share: does anyone remember the ending to Final Fantasy VII?!?! Talk about gaping holes…

Editor’s Desk: Submersing in Skyrim

Christopher Coke

– November 15, 2011Posted in: Columns, Editor's Desk, Editorials

I never made it past the first couple hours of Oblivion. I got as far as the first major city before petering out. I killed things, this being a video game and all, but the omnipotence of the guards vexed me. I would sneak through the hillsides, take out a bandit (or travelling salesman) only to find a stand of guards over the next rise, somehow having seen my dark deed and demanding that I surrender or die. The world, full of collectibles and hidden treasure as it was, couldn’t overcome the immersion breaking logic that dictated the AI. I wasn’t much of an Elder Scrolls guy.

Until now.

Skyrim is, hands down, the best RPG I’ve ever played. It’s better than the Final Fantasy’s of my teendom and the Dragon Age’s of my twenties. Its open world makes linear stories like Mass Effect 2 seem almost cinematic in their rigidity. Character development is meaningful and based only on skills used in context; gone is sneaking for sneak’s sake or magic missiling to the empty sky. Replacing these are bigger, less frequent gains and much quicker levels.

The beauty of Skyrim, though, is in making you the stranger in a strange land. In one fell swoop Skyrim has accomplished what MMOs have sought for over 10 years: Tamriel is a living, breathing world that begs to be explored. It invites you to daydream about its darkest depths and hidden treasures. It invites you seek what’s just beyond. What stands out most, however, is the utter appropriateness. Snowstorms will assault you in the mountains and obscure your vision. Elk run in herds and frighten away tiny mountain goats. Dragons will circle you, and taunt you, but you might just be able to hide. If she sees you, be sure to keep your distance because one good bite will make you a meal. Should you win the day, however, you’ll witness a fire sear the flesh from its bones and leave behind a skeletal carcass to mark your triumph. The score underlining it all is written to an epic tee, perfectly cued and wonderfully orchestrated.

Skyrim, in at least one way, introduces a new contradiction. The story is engaging, at times visceral, and the player often feels the impending hammer-fall above their heads; the dragons have returned and they aim to destroy… unless you, the Dragonborn, stop it. There’s a certain amount of pressure in such a quest. At the same time, the game-world invites me to craft a character from my avatar. I am a ranger, a woodsman with a flair for magic and a love of dual swords, and if I can save the world then it is my duty to do so. But every quest sends you trekking across large swathes of land, tempts you with each dungeon diversion and necromancer’s haunt. It is woefully and delightfully tempting to forget questing entirely and just explore. The game asks for a cognitive dissonance. Its dialogue is resonant, imploring; its world a place worth saving, a place worth getting lost in. At times, it’s as if your travels exist in a vacuum where the dragons are always in mid-flight and their mystery remains in wait.

I play on the PC but I use a controller. The UI feels built to suit the scheme. Some players hate that but I’m not one of them. Skyrim handles fine on a keyboard, even if it doesn’t let you rebind certain keys – but then, this isn’t an MMO, so who ever said it had to be? There’s a duality present here. The game, quite obviously, has been built to take advantage of modern PC hardware – the graphics lack nothing on seminal powerhouses like The Witcher 2, though indeed they differ in style. Blurry texture-work is non-existent on Ultra — if you can run it. Yet, for that, it still feels made to suit a gamepad. Pay attention, PC players, because this is what next-generation console games will be aiming for and you have it now. Congratulations.

Skyrim is a work like no other. It is an amalgam of fantasy tropes blended and presented with audacity, a keen eye for the keen observer, and a seriousness more at home in Winterfell than Tamriel. Perhaps a bug comes forward – a townsman walking between you and a lazy Jarl, a wolf floating hundreds of feet in the air – but even these are only slight reminders of the imperfection of video gaming; they are smile and nod moments on the way to greater deeds. I don’t know yet if there is a damsel in distress or a mountainous dragon lair filled with gold, but I wouldn’t doubt it. Skyrim is a pool of familiar water found fresh with submersion. It is, in the world of open-world RPGs, revolutionary.