I’ve been having a really interesting discussion with a number of fans over on the BSN (BioWare Social Network).  This group seemed to be moderate, thoughtful, and far more polite with one another.  The topic was foreshadowing, and needless to say we ended up discussing the tragic failure to foreshadow pretty much anything that mattered at the end of the third game.  A year of analysis, looking at this game solely as a writing exercise, and the enjoyment of writing my own ending, and follow-up story has eased the disappointment.  I am now far more sanguine about the entire debacle, and I will probably replay Mass Effect 1 several more times before I’m too old to adequately handle the X-Box controller.  🙂  But it got me to thinking about the men responsible for this conclusion.

I mentioned on the forum thread that I thought this trilogy could have been the greatest game that’s been created to date, but because of the dreadful ending it has become the most returned game in the history of the industry, and has alienated a significant number of passionate BioWare fans.  I confess I am among them.  I had total confidence in the company after Dragon Age: Origins and Awakenings, and Mass Effect 1 and 2.  DA 2 began to shake my faith, but I knew it had been rushed so I was undeterred.  Then came Mass Effect 3.

As I was chatting and typing I suddenly found myself considering the position of the two men who, it is believed, were solely responsible for the ending.  I wondered what they think, or may admit to themselves in the dark hours between dusk and dawn.  To have the awesome responsibility of concluding this epic adventure into which people had poured at least a hundred hours of their time was probably daunting and suddenly I felt very sorry for them.  This is resting on their shoulders.  Yes, both companies, EA and BioWare, have said all the appropriate things — “the ending is the artistic vision and we stand behind it”, but they’ve got to be looking at those return numbers, and the rather sluggish sales of the DLC’s (Downloadable Content), and have some regrets.  So, how much more regret must the creative team feel and in particular those two individuals?

If you try to make or write something, and it fails right out of the box it’s undoubtably disappointing and you feel bad, but to take something that was outstanding, critically received, adored by legions of fans, and then mess it up must be a particular kind of hell.  I think about Lucas with those dreadful prequels that have almost destroyed mine and many other people’s love, admiration and enjoyment of Star Wars and Empire.

Endings are hard.  I don’t argue that isn’t the case, look at Lost and Battlestar Galactica, but this was a self-inflicted wound, and all the more tragic because it could have been salvaged.  I hope BioWare returns to it’s pre-eminent position as one of the great game companies, and I hope the writing team has a chance to regroup and find their center again.  Basically I feel bad for them because this has to have been a painful and devastating experience.