Mass Effect 3 and the Art of Criticism

One of the few upsides of the whole Mass Effect 3 ending controversy has been that it has offered a unique opportunity to explore the nature of videogames as an art form, and to examine the manner in which they are received by their audience. However, in many ways it is the response that has been reflected in the multiform hydra of the gaming media that has been particularly extraordinary €“ if at times rather alarming. The unsettling part of this arises because €“ even if one puts aside the proliferation of painfully reductive terminology like 'Entitled', 'Retake', 'Whiners', 'Artistic Integrity', those who 'get it', 'Vocal Minorities', 'Pro-' and 'Anti-Enders' €“ the mass media has delivered some mystifyingly antagonistic responses to the negative fan feedback, and exhibited disappointingly out-dated thinking about 'Art', applying anachronistic definitions to the videogame form as though they were still applicable. ...And yes, it's at this point that reference Colin Moriarty. Now, I freely admit that until very recently I had no idea who Colin Moriarty was, although I have come to learn that he is an editor of IGN Playstation. Having been involved in an extremely lively discussion about the Mass Effect endings on the Bioware forum I was introduced to him by another poster (the delightful KitaSaturnyne), who provided a link to an interview with the man. My first impression, it must be said, was a little underwhelming. Not negative in any way, just odd. I watched him speak and had the curious sensation of not being able to follow his reasoning in the slightest, so in my confusion I carried on to find another of his videos to help get some context. In the second clip (which chronologically came first) he was far more forthright, railing against the temerity of fans who were unsatisfied with the endings delivered. And this diatribe made me rather more perturbed... Now, to be honest, I don't know the context: Moriarty's comments may be a heated reaction to some specific 'Retake Mass Effect' action that particularly riled him up; it might just be his tired shtick; or have some larger motivating undercurrents of which I am not aware (frankly he at times sounded so agitated it was like somebody had kidnapped his pet for ransom), but I have to admit that I found his comments very... strange. Strange to the point where I literally struggled to comprehend what he was even trying to communicate (therefore I freely admit my summations of his thoughts may be slightly misrepresentative). His premise seemed to be (particularly in the quick-cut rap-video inspired 'opinion' piece he took considerable effort to produce) that as a reviewer and editor, he has the capacity to speak to the quality of a game, but that the audience's response lies solely in the choice at the point of purchase. One either buys or does not buy the product in order to express their engagement with the text. It is Art; you are you. You can buy the Art or not buy it, but that is all. Move along. He seemed to go on to say €“ overall supporting the ending €“ that although he felt there were elements of the work that also left him unsatisfied, he was adamantly against the idea that the creators should go back in to correct, expand or clarify anything. My guess (and I think I'm meeting his verbal spit-take more than half way) is that he felt altering the ending in any way immediately betrayed the inviolable artistic sanctity of the text. He even declared himself 'disappointed' with Bioware for 'caving' to fan pressure and selling out their vision. Moriarty's position seems particularly untenable however, since it was the creators of the work themselves (whether prompted or not) who declared that they would like to better elucidate their text €“ presumably to help audience members (I must say, like myself) who felt the ending was wholly jarring and inconsistent. And surely that validates rather than undermines the artist's prerogative? In theory at least, Bioware is ensuring that they articulate their intended message to their audience in the most accurate manner possible, conceding that (at best) the execution was flawed, and that widespread misinterpretation was not part of their vision. In any case, it will be impossible to know what the results are until after the Extended Cut is released, but Moriarty's comments seemed ironically reactionary and protective of the text in precisely the manner that he accused disappointed fans being. He similarly even shamed the creators themselves for failing his expectations. ...Although I'm fairly certain the hypocrisy completely escaped him. Read on for part 2...