Here’s a good video of what some so-called “journalists” think of the Mass Effect community right about now.
The controversy surrounding what some (myself included) believe to be a “bad ending to a brilliant series” started simply because many fans disliked the ending to Mass Effect 3 to great extremes. Some even hate it so much they want BioWare to add alternate endings that “fix” the problem.
But what about this so-called “gamer entitlement”? A meaning that is synonymous with “self-entitlement” but apparently only gamers express this. Well, that’s what I’m here to discuss today.
So what do the words mean?”
“Self-entitlement” is a word that encompasses both the meanings of “self” and “entitlement”, as seen by the word itself.
“Self” is “a person’s essential being that distinguishes them from others; considered as the object of introspection or reflexive action”.
“Entitlement” is “the fact of having a right to something” or “the amount to which a person has a right”.
“Self-entitlement” is when a person believes that their opinion is law. There are generally no logical or “fair” reasons for this, they just sincerely believe that their opinion is the true definition of “right” and anything else is below that. Self-entitled people tend to have a great disrespect for anyone that does not agree with them, going so far as to attack that person in an argument instead of the persons opinions (also known as an ad hominem). They tend to be extremely bigoted (they believe that their opinion is right and express prejudice against anyone who doesn’t) and ignorant.
Do the research!
There have been some people who call themselves “journalists”, such as the guy in the video above, that are claiming that these disappointed gamers are nothing more than self-entitled, whinging, bitching babies. They say we should be happy with what we got and that BioWare have the creative freedom to do what they like as it’s their game.
What these so-called “journalists” don’t seem to comprehend is why people are angry at Mass Effect 3′s ending. Most of them have clearly not even done basic searches to find out why people don’t like the ending. It’s not that hard, a less-than-5-second search on Google (not kidding) will score you with this video explaining why this guy hates the Mass Effect 3 ending (really well-done and many of the opinions expressed are shared with lots of fans). Here’s another video on the same search that also explains why many people hate the ending.
Not counting the time spent watching the videos (which I’m sure an average video game journalist could spend time on doing), the search literally took less than 5 seconds. The longest part of the search was actually typing out the search itself.
If the media started doing a little more research — something I thought they were supposed to do anyway —?then they may come to realise that people just hate the Mass Effect 3 ending “because it’s the cool thing to do”.
Gamers aren’t self-entitled.
It’s my belief that calling gamers “self-entitled” because they express disappointment over a games ending is extremely ignorant.
Those few people who are screaming and raging on internet forums saying how much they hate BioWare, the entire Mass Effect series, or even it’s writer, are a vocal minority. That means there’s not a lot of them but their voices are much louder than the majority, largely because the majority either don’t speak up or aren’t spamming incessantly on any blog/forum they can find (fair enough, too).
But even the raging bafoons aren’t self-entitled. They are perfectly entitled to their opinion, not just because they have an in-born right to have one (you can blame human rights for that one) but also because they are consumers. If these people stole the game then sure, their opinion could be considered less valid, but it’s more than likely that many people didn’t do this and they did pay for the game.
What that means is, as a consumer, they have the right to complain about the product they paid money for. The backs of food products even come with phone numbers and mail addresses to write to if you want to express your disappointment with the product. Complaining about something you paid for isn’t a “privilege”, it’s one of the many rights you get for actually buying the thing in the first place.
We understand that companies have the creative freedom to do what they want with their game. The intellectuals among us do not argue that, but we are still disappointed, none the less. Many of the things we were told would be included in Mass Effect 3 simply weren’t. We felt let down so we vented our frustration on the internet, as many do (look at this article!), and many of us did so in a fair and responsible manner. Some didn’t do it so eloquently but as consumers, their points are valid, none-the-less.
But everyone else is.
A little clarification: When I say “everyone else”, I mean the people who are calling gamers “self-entitled”. That means anyone, whether you’re another gamer or the employee of a company like IGN. I don’t really care who you work for, if you’re going to sit there and bitch about people bitching then you are nothing more than a hypocrite. Can’t you see the irony in that? You can’t complain about someone complaining without being a hypocrite, the whole ideal is oxymoronic.
The large majority of gamers who dislike the Mass Effect 3 ending have rational reasons for why they do, and I’ve already linked to two videos that describe some of these, but you could find hundreds of articles that state just as many reasons in a logical and rational format.
But the hatred towards these disappointed gamers, however? That’s not rational and it’s certainly not fair. In fact, it’s self-entitled. How ironic.
Look back to the video posted at the start of this article. You only have to listen to the first 30 or so seconds to realise how self-entitled the author is. His entire presence and his words give off the idea that his opinions is alright, it’s correct and right and infallible. He doesn’t even understand why people hate the ending, he merely thinks people hate it because “they hate it”. We have already established the falseness of such a claim, but what makes him self-entitled is that he expresses no respect for the opinions of his opponents, he doesn’t care for their opinion, he thinks nothing of them except that they’re wrong.
I have nothing against the guy personally, he can think and do what he wants. My problem is that he clearly did not do any research to find out why people are angry, and he expresses all the characteristics of a self-entitled person, all-the-while calling others self-entitled.
I don’t care if you like the game or if you hate it. What matters to me is that you listen to what people are saying and try to understand why they feel the way they do. If more people did this then perhaps they’d understand the massive outcry against endings like Mass Effect 3′s. I also ask that people research what the word “self-entitled” actually means, because if you actually knew what it meant before you started complaining you may realise that you, yourself, will look self-entitled if you proceed to post bigoted dribble.