With the recent tantrum surrounding Mass Effect 3's ending (No, I have not played it, and I have no intention to. Mass Effect 1 really didn't hold my interest, so I'm not going to bother.), a lot of people shockingly from within the gaming community are challanging the idea of games as art. What is happening? Suddenly, because we are not happy with about twenty minutes of one game, the entire medium is now just a product that deserves no protection? Have people gone insane? Games and what they are used to be something that united all of us, and now suddenly it suddenly isn't importnat, just a product to be sold. Crys of "You took my money, therefor I deserve the best thing ever!" are almost defening on any story related to ME3.
Fact of the mater is, Games are art. Who said so? The Supreme Court:
"Like protected books, plays, and movies that preceded them, video games communicate ideas- and even social messages- through many familiar literary devices (such as characters, dioluge, plot, and music) and through features distinctive to the medium (such as a player's interatcion with the virtual world). That suffices to confer First Amendment protection." -Justice Antonin Scallia, author of the majority decision in the Brown vs. Entertainment Merchants Association
The Supreme Court, a group of 9 judges, lawyers, and government officals, all of whom are over 50, have stated that Video games are art. These people do not play games, do not care about games, and likely are completely unfamiliar with them. Yet they see them for what they are. Contrast that with the scores of angry posters on the boards, who all play, love, and deeply care about games coming forward and saying they are nothing more than a product to be consumed, like a box of cereal or a bottle of Pepto-Bismal.
Some people have responded to me by saying "But it sucked! It can't be art if it's bad." Well, art is in the eye of the beholder. Do I like Chris Ofili's "The Holy Virgin Mary"? No, in fact I find it incredibly offensive as a Catholic. Does that mean I want Chris Ofili's to rip the paiting to shreds and make a nice painting? No, because then you've just taken away his right to express his ideas, vile as they may be. It's art, simple as that.
Others who understand this also respond with "Well other people have changed their art before!" This is also true. You have things like Highlander 2: The Renegade Edition, the Broken Steel DLC for Fallout 3, and the alternate endings to The Shining. Does that make it ok for BioWare to change the ending of Mass Effect 3? NO! Just because other people do something doesn't make it the right thing to do! Other people are out cheating on their girlfriends right now, does that make it ok for me to cheat on mine? Not in the least. I witnessed a guy get into a fight over a beer at a basektball game today. Does that make it ok for me to punch someone over a brewsky? Nope! It's the classic "If they jumped off a bridge" moment.
If you didn't like Mass Effect 3's ending, that's your opinion. I have tons of those. For example, I hated the ending to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, I hated the main character in Red Faction: Guerilla, and I hated how (Spoilers) Ned Stark and Khal Drogo died in A Game of Thrones. But I've accepted those events as the art that they are, set in stone, and moved on. You're not going to like everything you buy, and just because you spent money on it doesn't mean you deserve anything for it.
The Hombre