A large group of devoted Mass Effect fans absolutely detested the ending to the game’s third, final installment. The outrage became so frenzied that developer BioWare announced that they were going to change it. This news has led to further frenzied outrage from game developers fearing that their artistic integrity will no longer be respected, critics decrying it as the death of games-as-art, and other general quasi-enlightened indignation.
The simple answer to all this is that video games are inherently a collaboration between author and audience. The more holistic answer is twofold:
- An author’s intent is meaningless if they fail to communicate it to the audience
- Art and meaning does not have to be intentional, and is often unintentional
The first point is a uniquely metamodern observation: it neither rejects nor accepts the validity of authorial intent, but makes it contingent upon its relationship to the audience’s interpretation. The second point is something that has been well-established since the dadaist and surrealist movements (but obviously not widely-understood). The result is that Mass Effect is not a mere series of video games. It is performance art, being unwittingly performed both by BioWare and their fans.
VAGUE SPOILERS FOR MASS EFFECT 3 FOLLOW
Continue reading ‘Mass Effect 3 as Automatic Performance Art by the Collective Unconscious’
Mass Effect 3 as Automatic Performance Art by the Collective Unconscious
A large group of devoted Mass Effect fans absolutely detested the ending to the game’s third, final installment. The outrage became so frenzied that developer BioWare announced that they were going to change it. This news has led to further frenzied outrage from game developers fearing that their artistic integrity will no longer be respected, critics decrying it as the death of games-as-art, and other general quasi-enlightened indignation.
The simple answer to all this is that video games are inherently a collaboration between author and audience. The more holistic answer is twofold:
The first point is a uniquely metamodern observation: it neither rejects nor accepts the validity of authorial intent, but makes it contingent upon its relationship to the audience’s interpretation. The second point is something that has been well-established since the dadaist and surrealist movements (but obviously not widely-understood). The result is that Mass Effect is not a mere series of video games. It is performance art, being unwittingly performed both by BioWare and their fans.
VAGUE SPOILERS FOR MASS EFFECT 3 FOLLOW
Continue reading ‘Mass Effect 3 as Automatic Performance Art by the Collective Unconscious’