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| Mass Effect 3's ending, yesterday... |
Well this is awkward. Until this weekend I was all set to post an article about how fans and consumers have no right to complain when art or media doesn't turn out the way they expected. I was going to centre it around the furore surrounding the ending of the final chapter of Bioware's Mass Effect trilogy.
I thought I'd make sure I had played the ending first.
Fuck me.
In a style that I freely admit is quite becoming of me, I've completely changed my mind. That ending... that fucking ending. You don't base an entire gaming series around choice then throw out choice in the final frame. You don't pull the same trick as the original theatrical release of Blade Runner and have everyone drive off into the rural sunset safe and sound. I love Bioware with a creepy pseudo-sexual passion and pretty much worship their every game with a Donnie Darko level of distance from reality, but this... it wasn't even a kick in the crotch, it was the understanding that a kick on the crotch was coming, but that the foot just couldn't be bothered to deliver it.
Still. I had rant on fandom expectations ready. I can do this. With some editing.
As a consumer of art, media or any other product, you're not entitled to anything. Nothing. You're not owed a better story or a better ending to something simply because you don't like the one you're given. You aren't being ripped off, you aren't being stabbed in the back, you are simply being given something that you don't like.
Producers of TV, gaming and book series don't owe you consistent quality for your fandom, just as they don't owe you any changes based on your opinion.You don't demand the current Doctor Who is scrubbed, you don't campaign JK Rowling to change the ending of Book Seven, and you really shouldn't wish for some extra downloadable chapters to fix a truly abysmal ending for the game series you gave more attention to than your "real" life. You really shouldn't...
Support isn't following something with dedication then bitching when it gets a bit shit, support is sticking by something no matter what, championing it because you want it to succeed, not because you want something personal out of that success.
Texts, objects and events aren't concepts that exist in a bizarre floating context between reader desire and audience reception, they're just things that are made in the best achievable fit to expectations. Beyond concepts of value for money, which should centre more around functionality than style or quality, no-one ever really owes you anything. Not a studio, not a network, not a writer, actor, mother, dancer, lover or president. View it, judge it, then bugger off and view something else.
But still... that fucking ending...
Nick
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Consumers can say "we will buy no more of your X merchandise unless Y is changed" though it is then the creators choice. Also a consumer can complain about statements like "There won't be any A,B or C endings" which is a direct falsehood.
ReplyDeleteRefusing to purchase something isn't any different from deciding to no longer purchase something. It's just a loss of support under different wording.
DeleteOn your second point I am inclined to agree, since consumer rights cover a product "doing what it says on the tin" so to speak.
How much do you think loss of fan faith would affect fan expectations of the quality in rewrites or additions?
Nick
Neeedles
ReplyDeleteYou must admit, that BioWare is all like "The ending is good, our artistic vision is good, its you fans who arent ok with it and its beacouse of you that we must add some shit to it!" And the DLC will be like this anyway→ Sheaprd to starchild "Wait, will the sol systems get destroyed with the mass relays destroyed?" starchild to Shepard "NO". And thats enough for shepard to listen to the starchild and do exactly what he tells him to do, coz Shep is a toatl jerk in the end.
Was your Shep a total jerk all the way through? mine was bit...accidental genocide-y...
DeleteNick
The fan complaints aren't about "I don't like the ending so BioWare should change it" but about "I bought a game that is sold as A and was given a game that did not have any A." It would be an approximate equivalent of going to a restaurant and ordering a fillet mignon and getting rump roast instead.
ReplyDelete"Experience the beginning, middle, and end of an emotional story unlike any other, where the decisions you make completely shape your experience and outcome." -http://masseffect.bioware.com/about/
Except you get the same cookie cutter ending with slight variations depending on the color you chose. Your choices and decisions have no effect at all on your outcome. Look at the amazing story writing and emotion you get from the Tuchunka mission and the large amount of possible outcomes coming out of there. Look at the variety you can get out of Tali and Legions missions. Then look at the "choose a color" ending they gave us. Ignoring the 11th hour plot twist Deus Ex Machina and plot holes created by it, my complaint isn't because I feel entitled to a better ending, my complaint is that I want to get what I was promised out of a product I paid for.
You are right, they don't owe me a better ending because I didn't like this one. They do owe me an ending they promised me though.
I can't disagree with you there, and believe that brighter and clearer voices also share your opinion. But fans bitching "no that's rubbish, do it again" do seem to outnumber those with rational points based on the difference between what fans were promised and what fans were given.
DeleteBioware could probably work around the legal issue of misrepresentation by claimg the WHOLE of ME3 is the "end". Which would be a pity.
Nick
You're right in that the fans of Mass Effect are not "owed" a better ending, however, Bioware should want to give us one. As you know this ending was complete s@$t! The artistic integrity arguement aside, because it is being sold as a product it is commercial art. If the consumer does not like the product then set product will not sell. Bioware should want to change the ending if only to make their product sell in the marketplace. This is nothing new or unheard of but actually pretty commonplace. Motzart changed his works, Shakespeare altered King Lear, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed Sherlocke Holmesand then brought him back after fan disapproval. Need a better example? Ok, Bethesda software released Fallout 3 not so long age and though the game had critical acclaim many were not so happy with the ending. So, they released the DLC pack "Broken Steel" which altered the ending and all was well. Bethesda made the right move and in doing so kept its fanbase as is evidence by the continuation of the Fallout series with Fallout 4:New Vegas being a success. Bioware could learn a thing or 2 from them
ReplyDelete"Bioware should want to give us one"
DeleteYou don't see enough of phrases like that. The Bioware response of sntading by their work might've been received better if it was tinged with a disappointed "We're sorry you din't like it."
Kinda like the parent of an ungrateful child at Christmas...
I actually considered Shakepeare, Mozart and Charles Dickens while writing this, but the difference (at least for the first two) is that their work was never set in stone as a single release. Perhaps the growing prominence of DLC is making these releases more like the rolling arts of drama and performance music and less like single issue ediffices.
It's definitely something to consider.
Nick
"
ReplyDeleteYou don't demand the current Doctor Who is scrubbed, you don't campaign JK Rowling to change the ending of Book Seven
"
Why do you not do that? Really, why? Are you saying that the people who do it don't have the freedom of speech to do it? Are you saying it's somehow unethical or wrong to use your freedom of speech how you see fit?
You might not _like_ it, but surely everybody has every right to make demands like that! I mean...are you the judge of what should go and what shouldn't go when it comes to using your freedom of speech? Should people use _you_ as an arbiter to figure out whether what they're about to do is wrong? Because then your life will get a bit more busy, won't it?
I'm not saying that the examples you bring up are good or worthy, I'm saying, if these people want to make those demands, they should in fact be free to do so. It's freedom of expression, and if you don't like it, view it, judge it, then bugger off and view something else!
Hi! I caught myself nodding along with your last point. However... I think the very point that I've found my position on the issue stumbling after viewing the Mass Effect 3 ending places ambivalence on whether I belong to the very group that I'm slamming. I'll let you judge my creative ego for yourself on whether that's intentional or not..
DeleteIf I stopped to ask myself "Says who? Says me?" all the time then a whole lot more writing would get pulled or culled! Everything here is just opinion. I'm aware that claiming that an opinion on HOW THE ENTIRE WORLD SHOULD BEHAVE is "just opinion" is a little bit of a fallacy... and I'm going to have to end that point as deftly as ME3 was ended...
Nick
You may have found yourself nodding in agreement with that point because I borrowed the words from the end of your blog post, which you may or may not have already noticed :-)
DeleteAnd I'm not really asking you to have you clarify it's just an oppinion; that part is, honestly, fine. The reason I really drill into it is because I think you need to consider the ramifications of that point of view.
Saying something is wrong is, more or less, the request that someone adhere to some abstract set of rules. You can debate definitions back and forth, but there's a pretty clear equivalency between those two.
My point is...so what's abstraction here? I point to you as an arbiter because that would be an absurdity; there must be some coherent way to determine why and how it is wrong for fans to pursue literary influence over finished works.
Even if it's just an oppinion, even then, you must still provide this, because otherwise it's actually an absurd point of view. If you described it as something that felt wrong, or some sense you got that it was wrong, that's different, but your rhetoric is "they shouldn't", which is really prescriptive rather than descriptive I feel.
So why do I care to badger you about these things? Can't a man say someone should know better without actually describing how they should know better?
Well not here, because I think the way you make your argument makes it inherently contradictory. I'm not sure if you already realized this yourself by saying that you're perhaps included in the group of people you slamming, but here's what I think it comes down to, if you'll allow the elaboration:
All art is, to some degree, about influence: The main thing that gives art worth is that it can show, illustrate, influence or otherwise impregnate your audience with ideas and concepts and emotions and feelings. This is worthwhile and valuable.
Criticism is itself art, for that very reason. It's much more direct, often, and much more rarely does it draw upon the artists tools...And in fact, if criticism was devoid of the qualities I described, it would be worthless.
Consider your piece here. Suppose everyone in the retake mass effect read your post, realized you were right, and then stopped the movement. While not the goal you had with your post, it's certainly an intrinsic goal of your post: It's the perspective you argue in favor of. So if your post was as successful as possible, if it reached it's ultimate state of being....it would change the behaviour of the people it meant to criticize.
Now this is my exact point: If such influence upon others through criticism is wrong, then just as your post claims the retake movement is in the wrong, it would itself be in the wrong.
Said in other words, if you say that the retakers should put a stop to their criticism out of some fundamental adherence to ethics, then it'll very likely be the case that you yourself should never have written your criticism out of the same adherence to those same ethics.
Of course, if you can come up with some abstract ruleset where the retakers criticism is wrong, whereas yours is fine, and still has worth, then my argument is obviously flawed. But I honestly don't think you can.