6 réponses à ce sujet

[Nekroso22]

So yeah, I'm not here to state the obvious. The proof is in the pudding, as my grandfather used to say. No, I'm here to analyze exactly why ending a story the way Bioware did doesn't work. I don't claim to be an expert on the subject of storytelling nor do I presume my opinion to be important enough to effect Bioware's future decisions (the chances of ANYTHING having an effect on that are slim as it is...)

Imagine that you are a long-distance hiker. You have been told that you must hike up a mountain and, along the way, collect a series of stones and place them in your backpack. You are promised a reward if you make it to the top of the mountain. You eagerly set off on your journey, stepping over loose rubble and clearing through brush as you climb up the mountain. You suffer a few scrapes and bruises along the way and your journey becomes more difficult with every rock you place into your backpack but you press on, heartened by the knowledge that your efforts are not in vain.

After a long and harrowing journey you make it to the top of the mountain with your backpack full of heavy rocks. At this point, you are expecting your reward. Imagine your surprise, then, when you discover that there is no reward. All those rocks in your backpack mean nothing; you carried them to the top of the mountain for no reason at all.

Now, in my creative writing class, we call this kind of story "lackluster" or "ambiguous," but only because we feel the need to be polite to our fellow writers. What we mean when we say these things is "failure." The story that leaves you with a bag of rocks at the top of a mountain is a failed story. It has failed to adequately address the propositions it introduced and leaves the reader with more questions than answers.

So why does Mass Effect 3 require an ending that amounts to a sack of rocks? The answer: misguidance.

The creative team at Bioware is certainly one of the best in the business and they've done a great job of creating the story of Mass Effect over these last five years. Unfortunately, they got scared. I'm not saying this from a position of first-hand knowledge; I am not a Bioware employee nor am I affiliated with them. The ending of Mass Effect 3, though, is telling.

I will continue my analysis over the course of the next few days, updating when I can.

[GothamLord]

They didnt just say there was no reward they unzipped the backpack and poured all the rocks out on the ground in front of you. You reward was your backpack now all beat up and full of dust given back to you minus the rocks. Hollow, empty, and pointless.

[deathscythe517]

You know the people trying to justify the ending seem to love calling people who hate the ending childish when in fact people who make threads like this seem to use more brainpower beyond 'lol you're all just bratty children, praise bioware!'. I can respect people who are okay with the ending or like the gameplay enough to move beyond it, but they're probably playing the ****ing game instead of being on here for the sole purpose of baiting people or arguing needlessly. :/ Your opinion is no more or less valid than ours, except we have majority rule.

[Nekroso22]

 Well, scratch my post.

http://social.biowar...5/index/9704512

He's covered everything I was going to talk about.

[AdmiralCheez]

GothamLord wrote...

They didnt just say there was no reward they unzipped the backpack and poured all the rocks out on the ground in front of you. You reward was your backpack now all beat up and full of dust given back to you minus the rocks. Hollow, empty, and pointless.

Accurate metaphor.

Seriously, we knew the fight with the Reapers would be hard; that was evident in the heavy combat losses (including friends and loved ones) and the absolute desperation of the final battle.  And we knew the galaxy would never be the same afterwards; it was clear when we saw the homeworlds of the most powerful civilizations up in flames and when we made decisions and enacted strategies that shook the power balance to its core.

The situation's already in the crapper when we make our final push against the Reapers; one would think that their defeat would at last change things for the better.  Instead, we're wondering what the hell just happened and whether or not we just made things worse.

[Dean_the_Young]

The giant omnicidal killer space squid robots are no longer trying to kill us all in a war we were losing.

That is better. That is much, much better. That is something worth dying for.

[AdmiralCheez]

Dean_the_Young wrote...

The giant omnicidal killer space squid robots are no longer trying to kill us all in a war we were losing.

That is better. That is much, much better. That is something worth dying for.

I know that, but I don't feel that.  Fiction is as much food for the heart as it is for the brain.

Shepard dies and the Relays are destroyed?  I can live with that.  But the devil's in the details.