Mass Effect 3 (Spoiler-less!) and Ramifications of the Response

Mass Effect 3 released last month and since then, for anyone who's kept up with the news, it has generated tons of controversy.  A recent Consumerist tournament-style poll saw fans vote Electronic Arts (the publishing company for Mass Effect 3) voted as the "worst company in America", edging out Bank of America.  For the last half-decade, the Mass Effect series has been celebrated as one of the revolutionary, landmark games of this generation.  In my personal opinion, Mass Effect is king when it comes to providing solid gameplay alongside of careful, cinematic story telling.

The majority of the uproar from fans has been related to the ending of the game.  Having just finished playing through it, I understand the gripes that fans have, even though I may not agree with those gripes.  At times, I've felt that fans have been allowing their sense of entitlement to reach unacceptable levels, but I do respect the opinions that have been voiced.  More than anything else, the fan uproar should be a positive sign of passion for this product.  Any devoted fan should be passionate about their experience; just think about what the uproar would have been like if J.K. Rowling had provided an ending to the Harry Potter series that was deemed unacceptable by fans.

That said, nobody would discredit how hard Rowling worked on the series, just as no one should discredit what the Bioware crew put into the Mass Effect series.  Video games themselves may or may not be art, but the stories that developers attempt to tell within video games should certainly be viewed as such.  Thus, everyone should respect what Bioware put into the series and the ending, no matter how they felt about it.

One of the most troubling things for me is the way in which fans have responded on review/rating sites such as Metacritic and Amazon.  The information on these sites matter to companies and consumers.  It was recently reported that the developers of Fallout: New Vegas did not receive bonuses for their work because the Metacritic score for their game was 1 point short of the target for the bonus.  Mass Effect 3 was (at last check) sitting at a 2/5 stars rating.  It is my hope that employees at Bioware don't have their jobs on the line because of this.  In particular, the Amazon rating is troublesome, as consumers who might not know as much about games and are looking to possibly buy a game as a gift for someone may be deterred by the 2-star rating.

Like I said, I like that everyone has an opinion about this as it reflects their passion for the product.  However, when the opinions are expressed in such a manner that they can affect the lives of others (such as rating/review scores), that's when I start to become a bit disappointed.  The good news is that sales of the game are doing fine, and at most, this will probably stand as just a moment of passionate outcry from the fans.

All of that said, Bioware has been kind enough to respond to the fans' cries by announcing a free "extended cut" download "that will offer gamers deeper insights into how their personal journey concludes."  They are in no way obligated to do this, and I appreciate that they followed through with it and made it a free product.  But to compare back to Rowling again, we can just hope this "addition" is better-received than that "epilogue" Rowling had at the end of book 7.  Yikes.