I think they got so caught up in the idea of an arty and ambiguous ending that they didn't really consider if it was an appropriate way to end a trilogy. That sort of "What will be the consequences of this choice? Who can say? It must be left to your interpretation!" ending is perhaps appropriate for a two-hour long indie game, but simply insufficient for a trilogy of ME's scope. Especially so when they must have realised - given the lovely stuff elsewhere in the game - that not many of their audience were there for the *deep themes* stuff.
I mean, I kind of understand their point, and I can see the core of something potentially intriguing there, but... hrm. I keep meaning to set my ideas about the ending out proper. Maybe I'll try again later.
I've seen some quite convincing indoctrination theory videos, so I might just headcanon that if Extended Cut doesn't deliver. I plan to replay all three games when XC comes out, rather than (as some people have said) just play from where ME3 leaves off or watch the new endings on YouTube. See how I feel then.
Yahoo Groups is back up. With a few carefully chosen search terms, I found this Neil quote: "Some people love the story and some hate it. Some understand it and some don't." ... yeah.
At its heart, Mass Effect is all about Commander Shepard and friends kicking mecha-Cthulhu up the arse. Just as importantly, there's a strong theme of choices and consequences throughout the trilogy. So what better way to end the series than an elite mook for a "final boss" and a choice of three almost identical and equally unsatisfying outcomes that are completely unconnected to anything that's happened in the series so far?
You know what pissed me off about this, szaleniec?
YAHTZEE actually AGREED with the "artistic integrity" argument!
All this said, I'm still cautiously optimistic about Extended Cut. More so than I probably should be, because despite everything I do like the series.According to a Bioware blog post on the Extended Cut, the endings are not going to be changed, merely "explained and expanded upon to provide proper closure to the series
( ... )
I get the feeling that Yahtzee wasn't really invested enough in Mass Effect to care that the ending sucked. (Remember how apathetically he reviewed 1 and 2? Basically "kind of good, not really my thing, meh.")
The artistic integrity argument as he framed it shows a total lack of perspective. "You might as well let people choose their ending" is essentially how all commercial art works anyway, because anything made for the mass market will have had someone look over it with an eye to whether it's what the mass market actually wants. (They're not always right, but still.) And the great thing about games is we can be given several possible endings.
EDI surviving a Destroy ending also opens up the possibility of the geth surviving, i.e. that Starkid was lying and it didn't affect all synthetics, only the Reapers and their creations. Combined with indoctrination theory and fixable relays, that might just be the best ending.
See, when I saw his reviews of 1 and 2 and read his EP's about them, he seemed to like them to an extent and enjoyed the series. 3's review was a lot more "I couldn't give two shits", though, I'll give you that.
But even so, this is YAHTZEE we're talking about. Previous EP's and ZP's he'd done and spoken on that "artistic integrity" tripe had him being very scathing and condescending toward the concept...until ME3 and RetakeME came along.
I'm hoping that the Extended Cut does give me some decent closure and an actual HAPPY ending. If not, then, well...it'll be an interesting day when BETHESDA, a company known for making backdrop-material stories for their games, has a better reputation for showing consideration and respect for their fanbase than Bioware.
He's always been in favour of games as art, just not people using that idea as an excuse to be pretentious dicks. And the "artistic integrity" argument for ME3's ending is pretentious dickery as far as the eye can see. I don't get where he's coming from at all.
Sure, it's art. You know how art survives? By people buying it. People who want their stuff sold need to bend to what people want in little ways. And no one who plays a video game trilogy wants "And then you screwed over the entire world, everyone died or was depressed for the rest of their life. Oh and you also died of a horrible bone eating bacteria." for every single ending that they coulfd have gotten.
Hell, Fallout 3 managed to make a happier ending because fans complained enough, why is ME3 making such a big deal about it?
I'm honestly happy for people who do like the ending. I just wonder what they got from Mass Effect that the rest of us didn't, because nothing in the games I played seemed to be leading towards a deus ex machina that screws the universe no matter what Shepard does.
Like I said, I'll give Extended Cut a chance. I'll have plenty of time to replay the games if it's out in the summer. And failing that, there's always fanfic. (I think if everyone who was unhappy with the ME3 ending wrote a fix-fic for it, Mass Effect would overtake Harry Potter and Twilight on FF.net overnight.)
I've noticed that "it's art" or "it's my vision" or even "it's my opinion" is often used as a Get-Out-of-Criticism-Free card. I've seen quite a few fanfic authors who believe that criticism can't be anything beyond correcting bad grammar and inconsistencies. It ticks me off, really- it just comes across as kind of arrogant and pretentious. Imagine if the author of My Immortal claimed that it was actually some sort of artistic experiment, and that it's terribleness was on purpose.
Keep in mind I have no familiarity with Mass Effect, so I'm only commenting on the HE side of this post.
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I mean, I kind of understand their point, and I can see the core of something potentially intriguing there, but... hrm. I keep meaning to set my ideas about the ending out proper. Maybe I'll try again later.
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Yahoo Groups is back up. With a few carefully chosen search terms, I found this Neil quote: "Some people love the story and some hate it. Some understand it and some don't." ... yeah.
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YAHTZEE actually AGREED with the "artistic integrity" argument!
All this said, I'm still cautiously optimistic about Extended Cut. More so than I probably should be, because despite everything I do like the series.According to a Bioware blog post on the Extended Cut, the endings are not going to be changed, merely "explained and expanded upon to provide proper closure to the series ( ... )
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The artistic integrity argument as he framed it shows a total lack of perspective. "You might as well let people choose their ending" is essentially how all commercial art works anyway, because anything made for the mass market will have had someone look over it with an eye to whether it's what the mass market actually wants. (They're not always right, but still.) And the great thing about games is we can be given several possible endings.
EDI surviving a Destroy ending also opens up the possibility of the geth surviving, i.e. that Starkid was lying and it didn't affect all synthetics, only the Reapers and their creations. Combined with indoctrination theory and fixable relays, that might just be the best ending.
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But even so, this is YAHTZEE we're talking about. Previous EP's and ZP's he'd done and spoken on that "artistic integrity" tripe had him being very scathing and condescending toward the concept...until ME3 and RetakeME came along.
I'm hoping that the Extended Cut does give me some decent closure and an actual HAPPY ending. If not, then, well...it'll be an interesting day when BETHESDA, a company known for making backdrop-material stories for their games, has a better reputation for showing consideration and respect for their fanbase than Bioware.
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Hell, Fallout 3 managed to make a happier ending because fans complained enough, why is ME3 making such a big deal about it?
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Like I said, I'll give Extended Cut a chance. I'll have plenty of time to replay the games if it's out in the summer. And failing that, there's always fanfic. (I think if everyone who was unhappy with the ME3 ending wrote a fix-fic for it, Mass Effect would overtake Harry Potter and Twilight on FF.net overnight.)
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Keep in mind I have no familiarity with Mass Effect, so I'm only commenting on the HE side of this post.
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