Moving On, Moving Forward

It has been several months since I finished Mass Effect 3 and was inspired to start this blog, and I think I can finally say I've moved on.  I've found my will to play games once again and found other games I can enjoy, as well as new things to focus on.  "Moving on," however, is not the same as "getting over it."

I'm still somewhat bitter about the whole thing.  It leaves a wound that I am not sure will ever heal.  I do not believe I will ever be able to trust a game developer again the way I did before ME3.  It is a lesson I have learned, and it's one I don't intend to forget any time soon.  The business of video games is a dangerous place where anything can become corrupted by greed or apathy, and I still desire to do anything in my power to promote awareness of these issues among fellow gamers.

A media company holds a lot of responsibility.  They can hold the hopes and dreams of thousands, even sometimes millions, in their hands, and they must be gentle with that power.  To take the imagination of so many who only want to see your work succeed and to crush it as thoroughly and abruptly as ME3 did is, I would argue, criminal in a moral sense.  Other cases, stories peter out slowly over time, and the people who initially saw something they love grow tired and eventually lose interest.  It is less tragic in the emotional sense, but it is still a tragedy, like watching a loved one grow old and wither away.

Like the Tower of Babel, the industry has built itself a mighty ziggurat in the sky but has failed to take heed of the hubris that leads to corruption.  The driving forces of the industry have constructed a platform of success, but success is fleeting.  They have accepted a status quo that they do not want to give up, but as with all things in a market economy, nothing ever remains in a bubble.  The foundation of the industry, the consumers who purchase the products these businesses wish to sell, will inevitably shift, and if these businesses refuse to adapt to the changing patterns, they will crumble to dust.

It is a tragedy to see someone who holds so much possibility fail so utterly, but it is a greater tragedy to stand by and allow it to happen.  I, for one, will do everything in my power to preserve the good that I can while pushing away the bad.  When the businessmen and women who manage the financial end of the market begin to see that their methods no longer work, I will be the one there already working to fix the problems while they struggle to accept their failures.  I hope I am not alone.