User blog comment:Kaloneous/Mass Effect 3 Ending DLC Denied and PAX/@comment-99.251.227.190-20120315040633/@comment-99.251.227.190-20120315105120

"but please don't use the word entitlement; I have only seen it used with derogatory meaning by the majority of defenders of the games endings"

But I mean exactly that, a derogatory sense of entitlement. It's "the customer is always right" run amok. Let's set aside speculation about whether any leaked scripts led to any hastily thrown together and sub-optimally executed re-writes and say for argument's sake that the endings are exactly what BioWare intended from the start. Assume that what we go was their sincerest vision for the conclusion to the story and that the work they produced means as much to them as whatever our anticipation as fans meant to us. And assume that all the attacks are deeply hurtful to them as a creative team, and that all the calls for a do-over are profoundly offensive to their sense of integrity. What, then, is the fan community's defense of all these demands?

Without this idea that some extenuating factor "made them botch it"-- whether deadlines, or subverting a lack of surprise, or whatever-- then all the complaints boil down to "we just hate the ending and we're calling for re-writes or refunds because what the creative team put out wasn't what we wanted," and that is absolutely the spirit of spoiled, childish entitlement. It's like kids kicking over the Christmas tree because they got a lovingly hand-knit sweater from mom instead of an Xbox.

You alluded to other entertainment media. I think that contains an inherent recognition that the makers of video games are a kind of creative artists. An inherent concession they aren't tradespeople expected to crank out some focus-grouped-to-death 'product' that's expected to supply the same maximum gratification for everybody. They aren't manufacturing one-size-fits-all shoes, they're authoring a story, and as artists they have a right to their creative license. In this case, the story they're creating is more interactive, they've given us some choice in how we experience everything between the middle and the end, and I think some people-- a lot, unfortunately-- have mistaken that for us being entitled to have everything turn out just as we want it. We don't. We never did. Ultimately, our only 'right' vis-a-vis their creation was to participate or not, to buy and play it or not, but the say we got in the outcome was the say they gave us, and we were invited to come along for the ride. But I seem to be in the minority (again) that realizes that they didn't owe us a damned thing, and that if I bought their game and hated it my recourse was not to patronize them any further. Not to demean their work in hopes of shaming them into compromising their vision. If they're artists, then it's no one's place to tell them they did "wrong," because that profoundly ignores the point of "art," which isn't to please everybody, it's to provoke some inner reaction. To make us think or feel something we wouldn't have otherwise.

Personally, the end of ME3 provoked huge sadness and longing and a sense of sacrifice and catharsis for me. It hurt. Profoundly. It still does just thinking about it, not because I was outraged or disappointed but because of my relationship to Shepard and my 'extended family.' They blew open this whole reservoir of feeling for me and it reminded me I'm alive, reminded me of my humanity, and I'm grateful for that.

What ticks me off is witnessing now the gross *inhumanity* other people are directing at these artists, the ingratitude and disrespect and yes, the (derogation intended) sense of entitlement whereby these 'readers' of the story are saying "I didn't like the ending (because you didn't execute it to my satisfaction, or because it made me feel bad), so you have to change it or you're a bad author." To that, I'd encourage BioWare's people to do what other, more 'established' and self-possessed artists have done in the past: tell those who don't "get it" to take a hike if they're unhappy with it, and not to let the door hit them on their way out. No one *made* them take part, and while they paid for the opportunity, they're owed nothing for choosing to come along for the ride.

In short, the customer *isn't* "always right" and sometimes your mom knits you a sweater. You can at least try it on and say thank you for her efforts before never wearing it again, or you can throw a fit, move out, and maybe someday you yourself will have the pleasure of having your work spat on by an ungrateful child who hasn't done better themselves but still thinks the world revolves around them.