[Finally breaking radio silence to put my opinion on this whole ending issue out there.  The weeks long ordeal is fascinating.  And with every Tweet and new twist, it just gets better and better.  

This post is pretty spoiler free, but, I would encourage anyone who hasn’t finished the game to ignore anything about the highly controversial last ten minutes until they get to the end of those credits.]

Dear everyone who is demanding that BioWare do “something” about the ending,

When I first finished the game, about two hours ago I was angry.  Not at BioWare, at you.  I took you all for a bunch of entitled, whiney and unappreciative douchebags.  The purpose of any story is not the ending, it is the telling.  Or in this case the interacting, I guess.  And I simply can not understand how you can be so upset at a company that has given you such a fantastic game.  Is the ending perfect?  No.  Did I think it would be?  No.  I am glad that Shepard didn’t kill all the Reapers and then retire to Eden Prime with Liara to have a bunch of blue babies who would undoubtedly learn to handle firearms from their awesome uncle Garrus.  

BUT!  I’m nothing if not curious.  I spent the last couple of hours reading up on why you are all so upset.  I get it.  I really do.  I’m sorry for calling you douchebags.  After looking things over, I actually have to agree.  To a point.  The ending is really weird.  It breaks established canon, and admittedly does ruin lots of the interesting player choice and philosophically interesting parts of the game.  More than anything though, it just seems very out of character for Bioware.  It feels a bit tacked on, and out of left field.

Having said that, I don’t necessarily buy the (very ridiculously hopeful and conspiratorial) Indoctrination Ending stuff either.  I think it may be giving BioWare too much credit.  Although, I could see them running with it now that you may have given them the idea.

I do think there’s more to the ending though.  And I’m interested to see how it plays out.  I love Mass Effect.  Its probably my favorite game series of all time.  And anything that shakes up that world and fanbase is pretty awesome.  Especially this.

So, in the end, I agree with you.  But I’m not going to yell at BioWare about it.  But, by all means, keep it up kids.  You are making for some interesting reading during my downtime at work.  And, you’re funny.

Love,

Jake.

PS - While we wait for “The Truth,” who wants to kill some husks in multiplayer?  I haven’t even tried it yet!

paxvalkyrie:

Let’s face it, you can’t be a geek and hate everything problematic. I love a lot of things that have moments that make me go “ugh, really guys?” Star Wars. Batman. Lord of the Rings. Resident Evil.

The article linked gives examples of things I don’t like, either because I haven’t yet consumed them (A Song of Ice and Fire) or because dear god (Scott Pilgrim). And sometimes I wonder how people can like these things despite their obvious problems, and how can I like the things I like despite their obvious problems.

Liking problematic things doesn’t make you an asshole. In fact, you can like really problematic things and still be not only a good person, but a good social justice activist (TM)! 

Rachel describes three “easy” things you can do to ensure you are consuming your media responsibly but still able to enjoy it. I put “easy” in scarequotes because, well, examining your internalized prejudices and taking the things you adore down a peg can be pretty tough. Easy to say, hard to do.

Interesting read, check it!

A real quick second thing.  This is just super cute, don’t you think?

While my intention is to talk about games from a less geek-out fanboy perspective, sometimes things are just too awesome.  For instance, Hideo Kojima’s new business cards.  Enjoy!

shattercity:

When you get it, you will understand so much.

I’m glad to see this issue getting around more, not only for games, but for the greater “nerd culture” (that phrase makes me cringe by the way,) in general.

In the world of gaming, it can be hard to tell exactly when something is being sexist.  I know.  I get it.  We all grew up with Heavy Metal magazine, and gobs of Dungeons and Dragons books, films, and video games showing the men in big suits of cool looking armor, and the ladies in a chainmail bikini and leather mini-skirt.  So, maybe you’re just desensitised to it now.  Well, this handy chart should help you out!

(source - http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/mv1ni/when_is_it_sexist_chart/)

Yup.

Interesting article.  Warning: It is published in a psychological journal, so its kind of dense, though not hard to read.  

The study surveyed 400 or so 12 year old kids on how much they use four kinds of technologies; computers, the internet, cell phones and video games and how creative they were (for details on testing creativity, check the article.)  They found that there is a correlation between playing video games and creativity.  No correlation was found between the type of game being played.

At the face of this, I’d have to say, no duh.  Lots of the people that I know who are big gamers are also very creative folks who make art, or write, or otherwise express themselves creatively.  They’re also all pretty smart (but I digress.)  This is a fascinating avenue of research though.  Creativity is a mystery to science.  And psychologists don’t really know what causes some people to be more creative than others, or where that creative drive even comes from in the first place.

I am forced to wonder though, is this a chicken and the egg kind of scenario?  Maybe creative kids are just drawn to playing around in virtual worlds.  I loved the hell out of Legos long before I ever played Nintendo.  

Just got mine!  

See you guys there???

paxvalkyrie:

follow @iggmarathon!

Signal boost!

I’m at work, so I can’t really tune in.  But, Child’s Play is an awesome charity if you don’t already know that.  Plus, indie games are rad, and they’re playing some good ones.  Any money you can send their way is money well spent as far as I’m concerned!  Either way, its probably gonna be fun to watch.