Mass Effect Transmedia
As mediums in transmedia storytelling continue to grow and diversify, users/readers/viewers/prosumers are treated to not only the benefit of deeper and richer universes, but also, unfortunately, to the reality of jarring continuity issues. Bioware’s media franchise Mass Effect, which has taken form in multi-platform video games, comics, books, animated films, soundtracks, and even a theatrical amusement park ride, provides users with examples of both successes and failures. Such successes fit into Jenkins’ definition of transmedia quite well. They are integrated specifically to help create a unified and coordinated entertainment experience in each medium, which makes its own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story, thus exposing new populations to the story through the varying mediums. The failures do not.
Since Mass Effect is founded within an open-world roleplaying game (RPG) franchise, continuity is both extremely important to the users and exceedingly challenging to accomplish. Each of the three games, for example, feature multiple endings, romantic interests, party member deaths, and the choice of main character appearance and gender. Each subsequent game loads prior saved data from the previous game, thus ensuring continuity within each individual's storyline. Although each player follows the same large story arc, each game has multiple sparklines, which can thereafter branch off into two or more opposite plans that constantly intertwine. Because of these aforementioned hazards to continuity, when Bioware initially branched out into other mediums, like comic books, they focused on backstories for secondary characters that did not interrupt or interact with the main storyline within the games. This is also true for its animated film, Mass Effect: Paragon Lost. These additions worked to attract a new audience and deepen the universe for existing fans. Unfortunately for these fans, Bioware’s success did not carry over to traditional print. The 2012 novel, published by Del Rey and entitled Mass Effect Deception, was filled with so many continuity errors that they were ultimately organized into a Google doc, published, and reported on by gaming journalists. The backlash was so strong that both Bioware and Del Rey issued public apologies and made assurances that they would correct these issues going forward (Plunkett, 2012). To date, no new novels have been published.
Given the examples previously discussed, it is apparent that the use of transmedia has and will continue to increase at an exponential rate. The creation of entirely new mediums and technologies give creators further powers to deepen their stories and enlighten their audiences. This explosion of transmedia also represents new and unexplored models of storytelling which can transcend the entertainment industry, thus connecting new users to the past. From AR apps that turn an entire city into a street art museum, to government-funded projects tasked with exploring transmedia, it is evident that modern story is powerful, diverse, and infinitely useful for cultural historians.
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