Mass Effect 3: Is Changing The Ending Right?

             I recently finished Mass Effect 3 and can finally comment on the outrageous behavior that has surrounded it since the day that the game was released. For anyone that doesn’t know; petitions and polls have garnered a couple thousand people that are ready to wage war with Bioware over and ending that they, quite frankly, don’t feel like they had any part in. The question that I am asking however is if this type of behavior is good or bad for the gaming industry. 

            If we could go back and change the way things played out in our favorite movies or books would we? That question has already been answered by Arthur Conan Doyle when he was forced by his fans to bring Sherlock Holmes back to life. Was it right though? The man was sick and tired of writing about the character and possibly wanted to just put the character out of its misery before he started hating him. Was Sherlock Holmes nearly as good after the series was forced to continue? 

            One of the biggest questions that is being asked by big time media outlets is “Is it okay to change art?” The question is entirely legitimate because of the growing acceptance of video games as a form of art. PBS actually commented on the subject the other day and said that Mario is actually a form of surrealism. If it is art how can we condone the questions that follow such as “should people be allowed to alter paintings and films just because they don’t understand the artists’ intent or think that they could do better?”   

   

            Fallout 3’s ending was changed when fans hated how sudden, abrupt, and unsatisfying it was. Most Bethesda fans probably expected to continue exploring the wasteland but when your hit with what basically comes down to a Game Over screen it’s understandable why they would feel a little betrayed. When the ending was changed we also got some amazing downloadable content to go along with it. This is a case where changing the ending turned out to be a good thing after all. 

            The ending to Mass Effect 3 was intended to be polarizing according to Bioware director Casey Hudsen. He didn't want it to be forgetting and hoped that it would get people talking. In a way it worked because that's all that people have been doing since they saw it. Most fans would take this as the lazy way out. Sort of like saying, the sink was meant to be broken or that we “intended for those glitches to exist.” What if that’s not the case however and the writers of the story poured their hearts into trying to make something that they thought and believed would satisfyingly conclude the series? 

As a growing writer I am used to being criticized, it comes with the work and the fact that before I get better I'm going to have to fail a few times. I can’t imagine working out something as big as this however and being told that I was wrong by over 20 thousand people. I imagine that they are feeling backed into a corner at this moment as they try to figure out what to make of one of the biggest decisions that modern gaming is going to have to answer. Is it right that art to change art? If the ending is changed what exactly will it mean for the industry as a whole? 

I am not going to criticize those complaining about the endings, it is their right to do so. After spending over 300 hours in the series including the books and comics, it was a little jarring to me to see that it all came down to three choices. I can perfectly understand where they are coming from. The difference is that I loved what came after the decisions. It was heart wrenching watching a universe that we have come to love become so damaged, knowing that some of your best friends were never going home again and would possibly perish in the process. 

I thought that in a way it was the end of one adventure and the beginning of another as the races of the universe are forced to start over again. The reapers were destroyed, but at what cost? What was also interesting however was that it makes you wonder if fighting the reapers was even the right choice? Maybe the universe would have been better off being destroyed by the reapers and built up again.

My own explanation for this having to happen is that sometimes you can prepare for the worst, put on your seat belt, and still die in the crash. It happens and there is nothing that we can do about it. The reason we didn’t know about this god child is simply how could we? No one knew much of anything about the reapers. Something like this was always going to be behind the curtains or under the stage.