Editorial: Going Backward Is not Forward

There is an unsettling trend that has been going on in the video game industry. To be fair, it is not limited to video games. It also has shown itself in almost any story telling medium: the need to go back in time after a story has already reached its conclusion.

Reluctant case in point: Mass Effect. A new franchise with an incredible backstory and sandbox to play in. With all its talk of a dynamic story at the whims of the player, it ultimately ended on a sour note when after the many promises of it not ending on an A, B, or C ending by Casey Hudson, it proceeded to do just that. It eventually sparked a large outcry that resulted in an ‘extended ending’ DLC that seemed to be nothing more than an explanation for each ending, due to the shoddy nature of the original endings. While it did explain the endings, it still left a rather sour taste in the mouth of many.

The basic tenants of a story cover starts with an introductions, then follows with rising action, climax, and finally the resolution. Mass Effect followed this structure thusly:

Introduction: Space, the Final Frontier… that has already been discovered by several dozen other races. Late to the party, eh, humanity? Go sit with the Volus and the Elcor. And do not touch the Quarian. Who knows where they have been.

Rising Action: The Blue Oyster Cult was wrong. One SHOULD fear the Reaper and its many, many buddies, servants, and not too bright allies.

Climax: Should the player do everything they can to ally the races together to defeat the Reapers, the player then chooses one of the three infamous conclusions that rendered all promises of a fulfilling story null and void.

Resolution: The player then watches the same ending three times, with a single color being the difference between each one. Provided they actually chose and not chose to see Casey Hudson throw a fit when the player refuses because the general public is not intelligent enough to appreciate his ‘artistic vision’.

The many holes in Mass Effect’s story aside, it did, for all intents and purposes, follow the proper flow of how stories are told. Granted, prospective writers would do well to have an ending in mind almost as soon as the story begins to give the story some direction and avoid the misstep Bioware made.

However, with what little has been spoken concerning Mass Effect 4, there has been rumblings about the story possibly going back into the past, before Mass Effect 1 started, such as the First Contact War, which was a significant event concerning humanity’s entrance into the galactic society. Apparently, those who want to see this happen have not seen the Star Wars Prequel trilogy. There is a reason why Episodes 1, 2, and 3 are not as well received as the original movies. It also goes beyond the many trappings that the abundance of computer generated graphics created, and which still could not make up for the atrocious writing nor Hayden Christensen’s lack of acting ability.

While on the surface, it is good to see a story expand and see more of it. However, when the story writers go into the past in attempts to dredge up more material than a codex would be more than adequate to explain, it leaves the reader with the bad feeling that it will change nothing, because they already know what is going to happen in the future.

And to be frank, there is only so many times that Bruce Wayne’s motivation for hunting down criminals can be told over and over and over again.

Another pitfall of Presequeling, a term derived from the upcoming Borderlands game; The Pre-Sequel, is that it shows that the writers are being forced to not move forward with a story that is ostensibly finished and seems more like a cynical cash grab than hopes to tell more stories.

As wonderful a villain Handsome Jack was, one playthrough with him behaving like a tantrum throwing middle school boy gets tiresome after the first time.

There was also no need to go back into Gears of War’s past in the aptly named: Judgement, as it was judged to be decidedly mediocre dudebro game that Cliffy B insists, amid much bitching and whining, deserves perfect scores.

There was no need to make any other games after God of War 3; where Kratos proved himself incapable of self-reflection or character growth, killed everything and everyone in sight and with no one left to kill, killed himself. While not an accurate description of the ending, it does give the general feeling that the story needed to end then and there. No more games. No more stories. Yet, the developers felt the need to make God of War: Ascension, which, like Gears of War: Judgement, proved to be both mediocre and unneeded.

Presequeling at its core, appears to be the result of corporate meddling. The writers do not know where to take their story since it ended, however, the shareholders and the CEO of the company, who probably have little understanding as to how game development works, want to expand the franchise and milk it for as long it can be milked. So, the developers, with their jobs at stake, have to exhume a story from somewhere to keep making more games. Why the past? Why not the future, instead?

A possible, and possibly much less story-intensive conclusion to Mass Effect’s transition into Mass Effect 4 would be simply to let the conflict with the Reapers be just put aside and not at all related to plot. If they are determined to know what happened, just let the game say, ‘The Reapers have been defeated! Hooray!’ and never speak another word of it. After all, the galactic politics of the Council on the Citadel, the culture of the Council races and their homeworlds, and the shady slums of Omega are far more fertile grounds for continuing stories than another galaxy wide conflict.

In addition, since it has been stated that Shepard’s story ended with Mass Effect 3, it would be more appropriate to see the Mass Effect sandbox from the perspective of, say, someone who is not a member of the Systems Alliance, or even human for that matter. Will they proceed to create a game akin to Skyrim? Who knows? However, until details are released, there is the chance they could easily mess it up the way the aforementioned games have been ruined.

Stories are meant to go forward, not backward. To go backward to fill in gaps shows a lack of creativity of the writer and a reluctance to show what has happened to the characters after a story has ended. There is nothing stated that one cannot simply let a story be done and move onto another story that can be completely unrelated to the previous story. Why not attempt something new? Create new characters, create new worlds, and new cultures.

In short; stories do not go forward by going backward.