Sunday, March 18, 2012

An Open Letter to Bioware/Mass Effect 3 Haters: Reality Check

This article is spoiler free so feel free to read if you’ve not experienced the ending of Mass Effect 3 yet.


Like anyone with a pulse that follows video games I’ve seen the large amount of rage surrounding the ending of Mass Effect 3. This particular article isn’t to discuss how I feel about the ending, though if you want to read my opinion you can do so here. Instead this is an open letter to the gamers at large with so much anger and impotent nerd rage aimed directly at Bioware after witnessing an ending to Mass Effect 3 that you weren’t happy with.

Please understand I don’t write this to those of you readers who disliked the ending and have discussed it among your friends and fellow gamers with educated words and actual opinions instead of profanity laden rants. This is to those gamers that see fit to threaten developers lives, go on diatribes and personal attacks against an individual at a game company whom you’ve never met, threaten lawsuits because Mass Effect 4 hasn’t been announced (?!?!), attack any people whose opinions aren’t your own,  and ultimately act like the epitome of human trash due to the anonymity of the internet. To those people I begin with these two possibly harsh yet ultimately needed words: grow up.

I’m going to share a little pearl of wisdom with you that may rock the very foundations of your world right now. Seriously the aforementioned folks may want to hold onto their proverbial and digital hats. Here we go. Mass Effect 3 is a video game. GASP, I KNOW!!!! Imagine my shock when I discovered those very words were true. Please understand that you are threatening the lives and personally attacking people you don’t even know and raging up and down the forums because of the bad ending (debatable in my opinion) of a video game. Understand how absolutely ridiculous that sounds to mentally sound individuals who rationally discuss the topic and then imagine what you sound like.

I know it’s unheard of within the forums of the gaming community, but pretend for a moment you aren’t protected by anonymity and that the people you are attacking have personal feelings. I’ve heard people state that they felt raped and that this was the worst offense they’ve ever seen. First of all rape victims would probably disagree with you that a violent crime that steals all of your humanity is likened to the debatably bad ending of a video game and secondly if this is the worst thing that has happened to you or even ranks up there in a realm that would make you this disappointed or angry, you have a really blessed and easy life. Congratulations.

In addition it’s crazy to me that people are hating on Bioware on the level they are, it almost seems popular right now. Really, even if you consider Mass Effect 3 a bad game, which I’ve not really heard as much as it has a bad ending, that puts them with an amazing backlog of games and two games (arguably) that aren’t up to snuff. Honestly I even enjoyed Dragon Age 2, in spite of playing the same map a hundred times. It had some of the most fleshed out characters with true faults and flaws of humanity, regardless of their race, and a very personal character driven narrative that resonated with me. While not the best game ever it’s certainly nowhere near the worst. So why turn on the company that has brought you so very many great experiences now due to an ending you didn’t like? Let me use a restaurant analogy as made infamous in another article by one of my fellow writers.

Let’s say you have a favorite restaurant and they are the best at making a particular dish. Every time you’ve eaten there you’ve been very impressed even though occasionally you’ve not gotten the best of service. On one visit you enjoy the meal greatly until the very end and your last few bites are burnt beyond being edible. Most rational people would say blech and move on even if they were unimpressed and it’s doubtful that they would never eat there again, after all the restaurant has proven itself before. Instead, if we followed the popular gaming community right now, the response would be to call the manager, fling the dish against the wall, cuss and yell in his face personally attacking him and threatening his life, threatening law suits, spitting in his face and condemning his entire restaurant stating that you will never eat here again (even though you probably will).

Does that seem like the behavior of a rational human being to you? Be disappointed in the game, by all means that’s your opinion, though I don’t share it, and feel free to share that opinion, but please do so in a manner that doesn’t degrade you, the entire gaming community, and personally attack an individual you don’t even know.

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