I want to talk to you about a very dangerous individual whose word is, even now, spreading to your very living rooms. This individual has formed a small cadre of loyal followers and true believers on little more than force of personality. This cult is threatens to draw all of you into it if you aren’t careful.
Tappers, I want to talk to you about Commander Shepard.
By now you are probably thinking, hey, this guy is just riffing on…well, something, I guess, because Mass Effect 3 just came out, and maybe this article is just going to be all about that game and fandom and such because, like, sometimes we call that stuff a cult, right?
Wrong.
For one, I haven’t played Mass Effect 3 yet. That said, this is a bit topical, because, as I will go on to explain, Commander Shepard is essentially a cult leader. It would be totally okay with me if ME3 ends with the revelation that the Reaper threat was basically the result of Shepard’s mad ravings, resulting in the death of the crew of the Normandy, suicide-pact-like, because they believed. In fact, I’d probably think better of the series for it.
But anyway, to the meat of the issue.
The Charismatic Authority
A “cult”, in the sense of, say, the Peoples’ Temple, as opposed to Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans, refers generally to a new religious movement or organization, often one which appears to use some suspect tactics to gain and keep members. Americans, especially, have certain loaded ideas of what a cult entails, with the anti-cult movement of the 1970s having burned this into our brains – not to mention events like the Manson Family murders or the Waco siege in 1995.
A cult also tends to be characterized by being led by a charismatic authority. This also shouldn’t be anything new to you because pop culture has convinced you of this several times over by now. As defined by sociologist Max Weber, a charismatic authority is built on the devotion of followers to an individual’s exceptional characteristics. This following will generally respect whatever decrees the authority passes down to them.
Sound like anyone we know?
To be fair, charismatic authorities arise lots of places that aren’t cults, and not all cults have one. I posit, however, that it is safe to say that Shepard is clearly a charismatic authority, especially given that many of the characters that make up the crew of the Normandy are under no particular compulsion to join Shepard. Consistently, they join the party because of some belief in or loyalty to Shepard in particular.
Besides, to be a cult leader, Shepard would need a cult to lead. Which reminds me…
The Normandy Cult
But there’s more, and this is the part wherein I get all academic on you people. Dr. Robert Lifton published a paper on cult formation (ironically titled “Cult Formation”) in 1981, in which he outlines the following three features of a cult:
- a charismatic leader who increasingly becomes an object of worship;
- Coersive persuasion or thought reform;
- Economic, sexual, and other exploitation of group members by the leader and/or ruling coterie
I think I hardly need to detail too much why (1) applies here. You can’t play Mass Effect without eventually hearing every single party member lavish Shepard with praise for one thing or another. Eventually, when their individual plots are done, many characters stick with the party because of their admiration for Shepard.
The second point is more interesting still. “Coersive persuasion” is a process most people would recognize better under the moniker mind control or brainwashing. But we’re not talking about any “God loves you and so does Jacob” stuff. This is a bit more subtle.
Popular Psychology: An Encyclopedia outlines the process. Let’s play along with this list, shall we?
- Application of physical or emotional stress
"Charged with treason? Yeah, we're totally gonna go sort that out. You're not too stressed, right?"
- Repeated attribution of all a member’s problems to one simple cause
"Gee, you people sure do hate the Geth. Remember how you hate the Geth with a single-minded intensity? And live in spaceships because of the Geth? And your immune systems suck because..."
- Unconditional love, attention, and acceptance from the cult leader
"Look, and I'm totally cool with going with you to a derelict ship infested with killer machines on the off-chance we'll find evidence to exonerate you and stuff. No big."
- Creation of a new identity
"So you're going by Tali'Zorah vas Normany now? Guess that means we don't need to hang around this side quest environment anymore!"
- Entrapment
...and possibly more attention and affection from the cult leader.
Mind blown.
One of Us, One of Us…
We probably shouldn’t be too surprised that most any RPG party shares some traits with a cult, in general. It’s exclusive. It’s primary purpose is the accumulation of power and wealth – often through gaining additional levels (albeit often toward some other goal). The implicit inferiority of those outside the group, expressed in the designation NPC and, often, the mechanical fact that any one party character has stats infinitely superior to the generic grunt types that exist throughout the game. Even a level of paranoia, which is not present in all examples, but certainly could be argued exists in Mass Effect.
Leaders of cults often rally their followers around some singular belief, one which the leader is privy to because of some divine revelation or special knowledge. The fact that most of the world refuses to be enlightened to this belief serves to create a sense of “us” vs. “them”. Shepard is no different here. How often, in either Mass Effect, must Shepard struggle to convince those outside the Normandy crew of the threat the Reapers pose? Even after Sovereign’s climactic attack on the Citadel, the galaxy at large, and the authorities in particular, tend to disbelieve the idea that there is a continuing threat – that Sovereign was any more than a one-off thing. Those that join Shepard believe that his concerns are valid, that the Reapers are a genuine threat. They believe that Shepard has special information, special insight.
The Suicides
Mass suicide is another feature of cults that tends to be over-emphasized in popular culture, but it’s not entirely inaccurate. Suicide cults do occur, though not all cults have anything to do with suicide. The most legendary such suicide was the 1978 mass suicide of the Peoples Temple movement in Jonestown, Guyana, in which 918 people died. This is the event from which the idea of drinking poisoned Kool-Aid comes, although technically it was a different drink called Flavor-Aid. This suicide was supposed to be a “revolutionary” act, a chance to send a message in support of the Temple’s Communist ideology.
Others have had religious motivations, like the Heaven’s Gate suicides in 1997, an act which the 39 participants believed would allow them to join the crew of a spaceship traveling in the wake of comet Hale-Bopp.
I guess cults also like spaceships...and SHEPARD HAS A SPACESHIP.
The key to this is that cult members are willing to die for their beliefs – beliefs that they may have little more than faith in. Need I point out that Mass Effect 2 frequently refers to its final mission as “the suicide mission”? None of the party believes they’ll be coming back, not even Shepard. It’s a wild, reckless mission to stop a threat that, really, they still have little real evidence exists. Sure, the Collectors are abducting people, but more than that is largely conjecture.
That whether individuals live or die is based on the outcome of their Loyalty missions is almost a little creepy when you think about it. That is, their survival is largely determined by how much they’ve bought into Shepard’s incredible command abilities. Those characters who have gained Loyalty status would follow Shepard to the ends of the galaxy on a whim. The hero worship is…well, frankly, hard to believe, from a writing standpoint.
Messiah Complex
This is enough to make you think, but then you further consider that Shepard has been brought back from the dead. It’s not out of the question for cult leaders to claim miracles such as this. The fact that it’s true in Shepard’s case hardly matters. The fact alone provokes its share of awe in those the commander meets.
Consider, too, Shepard’s tendency toward absolutism. It is very difficult to play Shepard in the middle of the road between Paragon and Renegade. Shepard’s choices generally are between the populist and the pragmatic – and they often need to be made with the barest real understanding of the situation, sometimes when the situation must be incredibly complex. This sort of judgment is also characteristic of cult leaders.
Seriously, think about it. BioWare’s games have, for a long time, revolved around player characters who have an implicit level of charisma that explains why the party will follow them to the ends of the earth. But Commander Shepard is one of the most manipulative, and one of the only such protagonists who can actually win the hearts and minds of the entire party, more or less. (As opposed to, for instance, the Jedi Exile, who could really only gain serious admiration from those characters with a similar Force alignment.) And the true danger of the Reapers is internally questionable: we know they pose a real threat because of a metafictional sense that BioWare wouldn’t tell this story if they didn’t, they wouldn’t build up three games of stopping the Reapers from annihilating life in the galaxy only to get to the end and discover that, yep, they actually were just some mytho-historical bogeyman.
But if you were an individual in the Mass Effect universe, with the limited knowledge of, well, anyone who isn’t Commander Shepard, what would you think of this strange pseudo-celebrity? Would you think Shepard mad, or would you, too, be drinking his Flavor-Aid?
E-mail the author at dix@tap-repeatedly.com!
Wow. You may be on to something here.
My God, I… I mean, I admit, it had occurred to me to wonder since the very first Mass Effect whether Shepard’s recruits were being paid. Some quit paying jobs to join him.
…
they’re not being paid, are they?
This is disturbing stuff. I hadn’t thought about all this. Mostly I’ve been focused on the staggeringly bad writing and acting in Mass Effect 3, and the exuberantly poor controls. Which, when viewed in light of what Dix just put together here, is classic cult misdirection.
I need some time to digest this.
This actually occurred to me as I played ME2, especially later when the phrase “suicide mission” kept coming up. I seriously would be very very happy if this was what BioWare was doing with Shepard, but…it isn’t, is it?
Also: since the computer on which I have my ME2 save is currently in another country, I won’t be playing ME3 for some time. Spoiler tags, please!
Good stuff, Dix!
The more I think about it, I actually sort of play my Shepard a bit cultish. I am pretty much always a Paragon in terms of dealing with my own crew (“followers”). I am kind, benevolent and caring. But when it comes to outsiders, especially any who could even potentially be a threat to My People, I am quite an ass and lash out with violence. I foster a very Us vs. Them enivornment.
That said, given your theory, I think you’d make a perfect member of the Intergalatic Council or whatever they are called. Neve heeding my warnings, dismissing me time and time again as just some “kook”, fiddling away while the galaxy is burning!
I think calling the writing and acting “staggeringly bad” is a bit of a stretch. However, anyone who has played “Dark Souls” for 100+ hours or so is, without a doubt, a certified expert on “staggeringly bad writing and acting”, so perhaps I will defer. 😉
Every time I think it’s improving, it keeps sliding back into the abyss, trust me. As for Dark Souls, 100 hours is more likely to make one an expert than a few YouTube videos of a single comic-relief character… 🙂
Seriously, though, it’s amazing how much Shepard fits into these roles as described in Dix’s expose. The evidence is nigh-overwhelming. I expect to hear from Bioware’s attorneys at some point, but it’s not libel if it’s true!
Would it even be libel if it weren’t true? Can you slander a fictional character?
We’re mostly on the same page about life, the universe and everything, SP, but I concur that “staggeringly bad” is a bit of an exaggeration! While it certainly could use a few lessons in the writing department, the Mass Effect franchise puts itself into the semi-serious sci-fi popcorn category. That doesn’t shelter it from criticism, but surely it must ask you to adjust your expectations.
Your observations are amusing, and astute, Brandon, but your ending proposal (as tongue-in-cheek as it is 😉 ) is quite far-fetched, and gives BioWare too much credit. From a story perspective Mass Effect 2 definitely has the most cult-like qualities– the loyalty quests, the suicide mission, the undying admiration of Shepard from friend and foe alike– but in Mass Effect 3 things are pretty cut and dry: Shepard is a symbol of hope, and the destruction of the galaxy is being witnessed first-hand by all, so the reapers cease to be a myth of Shepard’s creation.
I’ll be done the game any day now and will share my thoughts with you all when I can muster up something befitting the epic trilogy.
I actually kind of liked that about ME2, how pretty much anyone you met was all like, “Oh… You’re /that/ Shepard. You’re crazy! You’re awesome!” After everything I did in ME1, I felt like I deserved to be respected, feared or revered across the galaxy. I was pretty bad ass. First human Specter ever, yo!
Oh okay, I’ll water it down from staggeringly bad. Stumblingly bad? Lurchingly bad? Wobblingly bad? Teeteringly bad? Swayingly bad?
I’m just comparing it to the previous ME installments, which are definitely good sci-fi popcorn. This one seems like several notches down. In fact, it seems almost like Bioware’s best writers were working on some other project and- oh, wait.
I wouldn’t say Karpyshyn is much better than Walters. Their best writer was the guy who wrote Shadow Broker, and he seemed to have next to no involvement with Mass Effect 3. I still think the first game has the best balance of it all.
I finished the game last night. I can see why 99% of topics on BioWare’s forums are about batshit angry people who are pissed at the ending. It’s interesting for sure. I don’t particularly love the ending, but I give credit to BioWare for not going the highly expected route; not that I would have minded it, because that was fully within my expectations, but the ending that’s there … it’s shocking to say the least.
It’s a much darker game than I expected, and I respect it for that. Even if the ending seems painfully incomplete (and that is the majority of complaints hurled at it). While most of the fanbase is in uproar, I’ve learned to accept incomplete endings and remember the good times(see: BSG 2004). The petition to have new endings made is ridiculous. I agree that the ending they went with delivers little closure, but it’s not terribly surprising. And I still had a hell of a tough time with the final decision, so in that regard I think they did well.
Still, I won’t defend them entirely; I do think some further exposition wouldn’t have hurt. There have apparently been claims (via Twitter) from the devs stating that people need to wait for the DLC, but I agree with the majority again that if they intend to use DLC to wrap up any major plot holes that is unacceptable, those things needed to be on the disc, or in a free day 1 patch. Stay tuned to see how much fury there is over the pricing of the first DLC (excluding From Ashes). Should be interesting.
I agree about the writing of the “Shadow Broker” DLC. It was fantastic. I loved that DLC. Great action, great writing, and it really fit nicely within the story and character arcs.
I am still early in the game, but I think the writing is just inconsistent. There are some great highs and some pretty low, well, lows. A bit all over the map, which given the amount of dialogue in the game isn’t too terribly surprising.
What bothered me was that the “middle” dialogue options were taken out. There’s not one in the entire game. I always used those in the first two, slightly varying every now and again, because the two extremes were sometimes just that: too extreme. I’m all about neutrality, and to see it gone … well it was a bummer. I guess they did it to save money on VA and so that it would also force points into peoples paragon or renegade scores. Some of the best lines were in the middle of the wheel … it was so sober and rational.
Person: “Hello Shepard.”
Top response: “YOU ARE AN ANGEL LET’S MAKE CHILDREN.”
Middle response: “Hello, because that is how to greet someone.”
Bottom response: “HOW DARE YOU SAY HELLO TO ME, I’M COMMANDER SHEPARD AND THIS IS MY FAVOURITE WAY TO TREAT PEOPLE!”
It seems to me that since being bought, BioWare’s been spread really thin – they used to basically work on just one game at a time and that usually went okay, but these days they have two or three major releases in the pipe at once. I suspect EA’s given them more staff, but more doesn’t necessarily equal better, or even able to maintain the same level of quality across greater quantity. And that goes for both design and for writing.
Agreed. Bioware hasn’t been a small company for some time, but since the Pandemic merger and the EA takeover it’s been growing and growing. The huge investment in personnel to develop SWTOR while working on ME2 and both Dragon Ages is substantial. I do think it has had some effect on quality.
ME3’s not a bad game at all, but the writing is spotty and whoever directed the voice actors didn’t do a great job. From a design perspective, I at least have noticed a bunch of small issues that didn’t occur in the first two – position snapping during dialogue branches, mocap problems, control problems. Nothing too serious, but noticeable.
Is it my imagination or do I remember Bioware announcing recently that they’re embarking on a third original IP? With Mass Effect wrapped up, aside from DLC at least, that wouldn’t really add to their workload, but all this parallel development can strain even a well-run studio.
I haven’t heard anything to that effect, but I don’t pay that much attention to BioWare announcements, to be honest – my last excitement for one of their products was for the original ME, and I got a rehash of Babylon 5. And I’m a little partial to Babylon 5.
Agreed on the oddities of 3, Steerpike. I noticed in a lot of conversations characters “snapping” into a new position, as well as a few times where dialogue was delayed because you could see lips moving but no sound coming out. I also noticed textures flickering in and out of place often, which is very odd. To not have control over this engine by the third iteration is disappointing.
One constant however, which has really helped me get through some of the rougher spots of the trilogy: Jennifer Hale’s voice work remains top notch. I say this over and over, but she really is a consummate professional. I hate when interviewers ask her if she’s played Mass Effect or plays video games in general, and she has to go into awkward mode. That’s not her job; her job is to learn her character and embody it, and everything else aside, quirks and the many failures throughout the Mass Effect series, her voice acting was the absolute high point for me. I was engaged thoroughly thanks to her work.
For anyone who has finished the third game, or just doesn’t care to spoil a scene very near the end, look up a bit of dialogue on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDWpd9nCKws (or just search “Shepard Anderson cut dialogue”)
The bulk of that conversation was inexplicably cut from the game, why I don’t know, because it’s a really nice rest and reflection between Shepard and Anderson. Say what you will about the low points, but this conversation really got me swelling up … shame they cut it out. But man… kudos to you, Ms. Hale.
Fine, fine, I take back “staggeringly bad,” provided I’m allowed “staggeringly bad at the beginning.”
I haven’t finished yet but the writing has improved greatly. Hell, the racist joke exchange between Garrus and Joker was, in and of itself, worth the price of admission.
When I actually thought about the Shep’s little pack of nutcase and the power he commanded over them, it always stroke me how alike his influence on anyone he had contact with was to reaper indoctriantion. The only real difference is that it does not cause mental degradation, quite the contrary, in fact. I was half expecting his nature to be revealed in the third game and was mildly surprised that it was only my wild guessing.
You know, I have to say, I’m powering through Mass Effect 3 and Dix’s crushing expose on Commander Shepard is seeming more and more viable by the minute. He backed it up with psychology and research, I’m seeing it first hand.
Shepard help us all. Wait! Shit! I meant GOD help us all! Damn you Shepard!
All of your problems are because you allow yourself to doubt me, Steerpike. Never doubt me.
You’re right, of course, Dix. I see that now.
I really enjoyed Mass Effect 2 and 3 in many ways. The main reason was because you actually care about the characters and what happens. I like how the choices you make early on in the game reflect what happens in sequels and dialogue with other characters. I also think the Multiplayer in ME3 is very exciting and a fantastic way to try out classes you wouldn’t normally touch in singleplayer. It also converted me to the WASD team, so kudos for that!