So, here's a few things about the ending only, that I would like to point out from the perspective of traditional roleplaying. Slowly and surely I'll be trying to get this trimmed down to the bare essentials.
Now to the meat of my post.
There are two kinds of players in most traditional RPGs. Players and game master(In video games the game master is the game developer). Game masters responsibilities are focus, continuity, challenges, rewards, atmosphere, NPCs, forces of nature, passage of time and supporting roleplay.
Focus is what the characters and players can see and know about the world. In video games this is done by graphics, sound, gameplay, text, voice and so on. What the ending did wrong in this regard, is the forced focus. The players cannot influence what they get to know or see from this starchild or about the characters/groups that he/she cares about.
Continuity is destroyed with plotholes. Plotholes are a thing that I do find myself do from time to time, but usually I can also come up with things, that adhere to the verisimilitude of the games and worlds internal logic, which would fill those plotholes. In the Mass effects ending, the only things that could explain it are so far the indoctrination theory and some other tidbits that explain why the catalyst didn't help Sovereign in ME1 or the collectors and reapers in ME2. Jokers and squadmates sudden disappearance from the battle falls under this too, even though they are "just" NPCs.
Challenges. Now, personally, I do consider a smacktalk and debate to be challenges just like shootout. In videogames, you can't usually do things like this. In DE:HR you could conflict with someone on intellectual level, even if it was just a puzzle to figure out which of the lines was the "right" one for getting the best result. In ME3, the puzzle wasn't there, but there was still a challenge. The challenge was that of motivations vs getting results. Shepard needs to build an army against reapers while still trying to hold on to his/her gender unspecific morals.
For paragon it was always a challenge to get everybody trough the troubles, with no one left behind. You didn't lose a health bar but you took a hit to your morale when you couldn't do things that you hoped. "How does Shepard go against the threat of reapers without regrets, without giving up on his/her principles?" That is why I do consider the talk with the Illusive man to be the last boss fight, instead of Marauder Shields(Hi! His name is... Wha? His name is... Who? His name is...). Granted, the system doesn't allow for much imagination and argumentative maneuvers, but it is still a system that has its challenge value. That's also a thing that the ending did wrong. You couldn't challenge the starchild.
Atmosphere changes in ending. The change is sudden and combined with the forced focus, broken continuity, lack of reward and no support for roleplaying, I would bet that the shattered immersion that this creates is the reason for the hollow feeling that it left with many people. The atmosphere was utterly destroyed in the ending for those who were heavily immersed in their characters.
Now, briefly about the NPCs. I hated KL, the cyborg ninja with plot-armour. The amount of bullets I put trough his head alone when he was refreshing his shields could jumpstart the metal industry! If the earth would have survived, that is. But back to the ending with Starchild.
Where did Starchild get these clearly sub-optimal "solutions" to a problem that is open for debate under the light of latest data? It's rather sad that a being so old and powerful is unable to think with scientific method. Starchild clearly has the advantage of time and he controls space magic, yet he seems so pitiful in logic and imagination on what to do with his powers. That underlines the supposed age of this being. It's like this thing is truly a young child, both in mind and motivations, despite the overwhelming amount of time he has had to ponder his logic.
Next on the list is rewards. What was the reward for saving the galaxy? Getting to the beach with Garrus, enjoying the royalties from the vids? Blue Children? House on the magical invisible rocks with Tali? Going to see your mom and saying "Mother! I saved the galaxy, yo!" while emptying your pistol, held sideways, to the nearest reaper. Yes, these were some of the simplest and smallest rewards that were promised in the game. Yet, you couldn't get them, not because of lack your characters skill, dedication, lack of morals or anything else that would stem from you or your Shepard. You were forced to abandon these rewards. In the end, you couldn't even save the galaxy or earth. Not because of lack of skill. Because you weren't allowed to do so by the game.
Forces of nature and passage of time. There's nothing really big with these two. Just the thing with Shepard breathing in space and Jokers Taco run shenanigans and the time he found for it.
Now the last thing, and this is an important part. Lack of support for roleplaying. I've stated this before, but I have a heavy traditional roleplaying background. Dungeons and dragons, world of darkness, Mouse guard and so on. With ME, I always thought that the game would force me to go certain direction.There's no such freedom in video game RPGs as one would have in traditional ones but certain rules for fun still apply, regardless of the limitations forced by the medium. (No holding two pistols sideways and ridiculing the harbinger with "Yo momma so fat..." jokes inside ME3 is the greatest lack of freedom in games I’ve come to face in my life)
The most important one of those rules, which you broke really badly in ME3 ending, is player choice. In roleplaying games, the game masters role is to rule the world. What the characters see, what consequences their actions create, what happens in the background, what motivates the non-player characters and how the non-player characters act. In short, game master is responsible for everything and rules everything, EXPECT for player characters actions.
Players are the ones who control player characters. This rule is absolute. Only certain things can take that control away, like mind control and even then this should be under heavy scrutiny. There must be a way for the character to break free from the control, no matter how small of a chance.
If this rule is bended it's called railroading. Railroading is not good practise when the story is on some important part because it breaks the collaborative story creation process. The game is no longer a brainchild of two or more individuals. It turns the participants into one storyteller and his listeners. Railroading is fine when you talk about going from point A to B. Railroading is not fine when the player character needs to decide the fate of the whole galaxy. Deus ex machina is excellent for when everybody, players and game master, wants something to happen(save some loved npc in example) but only a sudden stroke of luck could do the trick. Deus ex machina isn't a good way to force a tragic hero ending. Especially when the players do not want such an ending for their hero.
There was absolutely no support from the game for roleplaying on the last stretch of the game. In fact, the game pushed the player away from the ring of collaborative storytelling and started to tell the player how it all went down. This broke the immersion. This broke the connection between the players and the game. This is the reason why so many feel betrayed. They couldn't influence the last part, the most important part that would have allowed them to let go. There was no debrief for coming off the character of commander Shepherd for the players who were immersed. You took control of their characters and everything that they had build, everything that they had put their emotions into, and killed it in front of them without allowing them any way to accept it. This is railroading and it's cruel in role playing games that people immerse themselves in. There are debriefs in live-roleplaying games for reason. To give the players a change to let go of the characters. The ending of ME3 did everything wrong in this regard. What kind of roleplayer would want to play in any new campaign with that kind game master?
So, there it is. A rather long and boring post from a guy with a bottle of chocolate drink and some time to spare after finishing the game over the night. Thank you if you read this far and cheers for Bioware for inspiring me to have giggling adventures with gangstarappers in space. Even if most of the dialog was inside my head.
(edit number goes to the pile on the left)
Modifié par Yorumu, 18 mars 2012 - 10:46 .
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