http://drewkarpyshyn...?p=381#more-381
Excerpt:
First, let me say that Mass Effect has been universally recognized as a fantastic game, with a MetaCritic rating well over 90%. That hasn’t stopped people from complaining about the ending, though… and it really shouldn’t. If you played the game you are entitled to your opinion and you’re free to express it. I’ve also heard from plenty of people who like the ending; sometimes the folks who are happy are hard to hear over the cries of those who are dissatisfied.
Now, I understand that fans are passionate about the series, and many of you want to discuss the ending, express your opinions and have intelligent discussions about what you’ve experienced.Since I won’t be able to give you my opinion for several months (please – stop Tweeting and e-mailing me to ask for it!), I figured the next best thing was to give you some interesting analysis from both sides of the spectrum.
WARNING – THESE LINKS CONTAIN SPOILERS!
Here’s an article from the Penny Arcade Report from someone explaining why he liked the ending, and here’s another article from someone at Game Front explaining why he felt the ending had some issues. And here’s an interview with Casey Hudson, project director of the entire Mass Effect series, in which he addresses fan reaction to the endings and other aspects of the game.
Of course, some of you are also pinging me to find out what the “original” ending of the series was when we started planning out the trilogy. Sorry, but that’s not something I’m even going to attempt to answer. The collaborative creative process is incredibly complicated, and the story and ideas are constantly evolving as you go forward. Yes, we had a plan, but it was very vague. We knew we wanted to focus on some key themes and bring in certain key elements: organics vs synthetics; the Reapers; the Mass Relays. Beyond that, we didn’t go into detail because we knew it would change radically as the game continued to evolve.
A good example of this is Cerberus. When we wrote ME1, Cerberus was basically a throw-away group of pro-human radicals: a name we dropped for some side missions to play the role of villain. We didn’t even have a concept of who was running them, and we didn’t think they were that important. Obviously by the time of my Ascension novel and ME2, that had changed radically. The Illusive Man and Cerberus became central to the story and themes – that never would have happened if we had nailed everything down and refused to make changes to the story.
So I don’t like to say “here’s what we originally were thinking” because it gives a false and very distorted impression of the process. Mass Effect was the creation of a huge team, with contributions coming in from many people at many stages of the project. Some things I liked ended up getting cut, some stuff I wasn’t sure of worked its way in. That’s the nature of the beast with collaborative works, and I think in the end it makes the final product stronger. But talking about the changes after the fact feels like I’m sitting on my throne and proclaiming, “That’s not what I would have done!” It’s easy to sit on the sidelines and say “I would do this or that”, but it’s very different when you’re part of the process, working with multiple ideas, trying to piece it all together and still hit your deadlines. Anyone who wasn’t part of the ME3 team is an outsider – even me – and whatever they say about the creation of the game is just unsubstantiated speculation.
Wow – long update. I’m exhausted. And I now I have to get back to finishing up my novel. This keeps up I might have to skip a day or two of golf… oh, the horror!
Drew
Modifié par TheKillerAngel, 15 mars 2012 - 11:02 .
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