(no subject)
So. I haven't used this thing in awhile, but the time has come that I have something to stream of consciousness at and have nowhere else to do it. Feel free to disregard.
So, tuned me out yet? Yeah, I don't blame you. I missed the boat on the ending controversy because, frankly, when I read the brief synopsis of the ending back in March, I simply turned my 360 off. I knew what was on the disc wasn't going to satisfy me, and I knew there was little chance of that changing. So I stopped playing. It just wasn't worth it to me anymore. I was also not thrilled that we were basically forced into multiplayer to get the best endings. (I've not had good experiences on Live when it comes to actually playing games. I frankly won't do it now.)
Recently, however, I got curious. Turns out the Extended Cut resolves some issues with the endings and made it possible to do the best endings just with single player. Plus there was some Cthulhu-sounding DLC out. Well, okay then. I have a Vanguard partially through Mass Effect 2 I could finish up and run through Mass Effect 3. So I took him through the rest of ME2 and ME3, and I actually finished the game. I picked Synthesis, not because I really wanted to but because I felt I didn't really have a better choice.
That's weird for me to say. Why? Because Synthesis is a transhumanist utopia, and while I don't really talk about it much and I'm not dogmatically into it, I do consider myself a transhumanist. I'm in favor of integrating technology safely into our bodies and minds to help us overcome biological limits of the human condition. So an ending where you basically use a giant space magic blaster thing to do this to every organic and synthetic in the galaxy should have had me jumping for joy, right?
Except...no. I'll get to why in a bit. Well, what about the ending where you assume control of the Lovecraftian machine race that you've been fighting against throughout the entire series? Nope. Strikes a little bit too much of a deal with the devil, especially with the ominous notion that you will lose your connection to humanity. What good is assuming control of the Reapers then? The human psyche is not built to last longer than it's normal shelf-life. Ever wonder why so many mythical immortals tend to be fucked up? There's a reason for that. So you assume control of the Reapers and everything is okay at first. But what about 100 years from now? What about 1000 years from now? When you've seen the deaths of all those you cared for, when you have seen the rise and fall of empires planetary and galactic, when the problems of the meager little beings scurrying about the surface of the cosmos no longer mean anything to you on any real level, what then? Then, as with the Intelligence, everything becomes little more than a cold intellectual exercise. Organics and synthetics are caught in a constant loop of creation and destruction, or maybe dark energy is about to rip the galaxy a new asshole, or maybe one of the other rumored "original endings" is true. So what do you do to stop it? How do you preserve life when it seems entirely inevitable that life is constantly changing, beginning and ending in a never-ending loop of conflict? Oh, hey, I guess you do have these Lovecraftian machines designed to harvest and store the essence of all galactic civilizations...
So what about Destroy? That doesn't really fit either. If you don't destroy all tech and start from scratch (a stupid, stuuuuuuupid idea) you haven't really solved anything. If you do destroy all tech, then fine. What happens when necessity forces you to start developing new tech? THE CYCLE MUST CONTINUE. Eventually you will come to the point of conflict and, when you cannot find a solution, you will write an app for that. And the app will decide that the problem is inherent in all life, so the only solution is to harvest and store all life once it reaches a certain point...oh. We're back where we started? Huh.
So what are we left with? Originally, nothing. Those were the only options. With the Extended Cut, we get the option to refuse all three choices, either by giving a speech or just, you know, shooting the embodiment of the Intelligence. (The Intelligence is that app I mentioned, just with probably millions of years of complexity added.) If you do that, galactic civilization is harvested and the next cycle uses a time capsule one of your crew made to win their cycle's war with the Reapers. Officially, it's called Refusal.
None of these endings really do it for me. Of the options available, Refusal sits the best, but only because I don't see Destroy as solving the problem, Control is a pointless deal with the devil, and Refusal basically dooms every single character you have ever met in this series. So what about Synthesis? Shouldn't this be the ending that does it for me, with my transhumanist ideas?
Dice = no. Here's why: For me, Mass Effect was never a series about the conflict of organics vs. synthetics. It was never even a series about a guy zooming around the galaxy doing awesome shit and having psychic sex with blue aliens. Ultimately, at the end of it all, for me, Mass Effect was really about one thing:
"What you're doing is impossible. Give up."
"Nah."
"But it's impossib-oh. You, uh, you did it anyway. Huh."
Thus far, there is no ending to the series that allows that. The closest we have is Refusal, and while I can see a sort of bittersweet beauty in choosing to die with the ideals you've fought so hard for, it wasn't really the payoff I wanted or expected. I expected that things were going to get dark. That was fine. I wanted them to. But I guess I also wanted the option to have a victory on my Shepard's own terms. I guess I wanted to have the option of saying, "Nah, I'ma win this thing my way." and actually do it. Maybe that's naive. Maybe Mass Effect really always was the slow march of the Light Brigade to its inevitable doom and I was just too blind to see it. Maybe an ending like that flies in the face of common sense, maybe David really couldn't ever beat Goliath, maybe the force with superior numbers and firepower will always win in real life, but Mass Effect is a story. Sometimes the impossible can happen.
Sometimes, maybe it should.
There. I feel a little better now.
So, tuned me out yet? Yeah, I don't blame you. I missed the boat on the ending controversy because, frankly, when I read the brief synopsis of the ending back in March, I simply turned my 360 off. I knew what was on the disc wasn't going to satisfy me, and I knew there was little chance of that changing. So I stopped playing. It just wasn't worth it to me anymore. I was also not thrilled that we were basically forced into multiplayer to get the best endings. (I've not had good experiences on Live when it comes to actually playing games. I frankly won't do it now.)
Recently, however, I got curious. Turns out the Extended Cut resolves some issues with the endings and made it possible to do the best endings just with single player. Plus there was some Cthulhu-sounding DLC out. Well, okay then. I have a Vanguard partially through Mass Effect 2 I could finish up and run through Mass Effect 3. So I took him through the rest of ME2 and ME3, and I actually finished the game. I picked Synthesis, not because I really wanted to but because I felt I didn't really have a better choice.
That's weird for me to say. Why? Because Synthesis is a transhumanist utopia, and while I don't really talk about it much and I'm not dogmatically into it, I do consider myself a transhumanist. I'm in favor of integrating technology safely into our bodies and minds to help us overcome biological limits of the human condition. So an ending where you basically use a giant space magic blaster thing to do this to every organic and synthetic in the galaxy should have had me jumping for joy, right?
Except...no. I'll get to why in a bit. Well, what about the ending where you assume control of the Lovecraftian machine race that you've been fighting against throughout the entire series? Nope. Strikes a little bit too much of a deal with the devil, especially with the ominous notion that you will lose your connection to humanity. What good is assuming control of the Reapers then? The human psyche is not built to last longer than it's normal shelf-life. Ever wonder why so many mythical immortals tend to be fucked up? There's a reason for that. So you assume control of the Reapers and everything is okay at first. But what about 100 years from now? What about 1000 years from now? When you've seen the deaths of all those you cared for, when you have seen the rise and fall of empires planetary and galactic, when the problems of the meager little beings scurrying about the surface of the cosmos no longer mean anything to you on any real level, what then? Then, as with the Intelligence, everything becomes little more than a cold intellectual exercise. Organics and synthetics are caught in a constant loop of creation and destruction, or maybe dark energy is about to rip the galaxy a new asshole, or maybe one of the other rumored "original endings" is true. So what do you do to stop it? How do you preserve life when it seems entirely inevitable that life is constantly changing, beginning and ending in a never-ending loop of conflict? Oh, hey, I guess you do have these Lovecraftian machines designed to harvest and store the essence of all galactic civilizations...
So what about Destroy? That doesn't really fit either. If you don't destroy all tech and start from scratch (a stupid, stuuuuuuupid idea) you haven't really solved anything. If you do destroy all tech, then fine. What happens when necessity forces you to start developing new tech? THE CYCLE MUST CONTINUE. Eventually you will come to the point of conflict and, when you cannot find a solution, you will write an app for that. And the app will decide that the problem is inherent in all life, so the only solution is to harvest and store all life once it reaches a certain point...oh. We're back where we started? Huh.
So what are we left with? Originally, nothing. Those were the only options. With the Extended Cut, we get the option to refuse all three choices, either by giving a speech or just, you know, shooting the embodiment of the Intelligence. (The Intelligence is that app I mentioned, just with probably millions of years of complexity added.) If you do that, galactic civilization is harvested and the next cycle uses a time capsule one of your crew made to win their cycle's war with the Reapers. Officially, it's called Refusal.
None of these endings really do it for me. Of the options available, Refusal sits the best, but only because I don't see Destroy as solving the problem, Control is a pointless deal with the devil, and Refusal basically dooms every single character you have ever met in this series. So what about Synthesis? Shouldn't this be the ending that does it for me, with my transhumanist ideas?
Dice = no. Here's why: For me, Mass Effect was never a series about the conflict of organics vs. synthetics. It was never even a series about a guy zooming around the galaxy doing awesome shit and having psychic sex with blue aliens. Ultimately, at the end of it all, for me, Mass Effect was really about one thing:
"What you're doing is impossible. Give up."
"Nah."
"But it's impossib-oh. You, uh, you did it anyway. Huh."
Thus far, there is no ending to the series that allows that. The closest we have is Refusal, and while I can see a sort of bittersweet beauty in choosing to die with the ideals you've fought so hard for, it wasn't really the payoff I wanted or expected. I expected that things were going to get dark. That was fine. I wanted them to. But I guess I also wanted the option to have a victory on my Shepard's own terms. I guess I wanted to have the option of saying, "Nah, I'ma win this thing my way." and actually do it. Maybe that's naive. Maybe Mass Effect really always was the slow march of the Light Brigade to its inevitable doom and I was just too blind to see it. Maybe an ending like that flies in the face of common sense, maybe David really couldn't ever beat Goliath, maybe the force with superior numbers and firepower will always win in real life, but Mass Effect is a story. Sometimes the impossible can happen.
Sometimes, maybe it should.
There. I feel a little better now.