I try to live by a certain code, a personal ethical standard if you will. A large part of that is that I do not like to make promises I’m not going to able to keep. So when I make the following one, and you can be damn sure that it will come to pass. This Column Will End.

Oh boy, your thinking, big deal. Well, in spite of your sarcastic thoughts, endings are a big deal. They are essential to life itself. All things in nature end, from the day long life span of a mayfly to the very moment when the universe collapses into entropy. Endings provide a context for the events that preceded it. Conclusions bring understanding and that’s why the trend away from endings in modern media is so frustrating.

My mind was racing as I pulled myself up and out of the aged theater seat after seeing the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. My ass was sore, but not as sore as the feeling that I had been had. Seven bucks and 150 minutes (170 with commercials) later all I got from the end was ‘To Be Continued.’ Don’t get me wrong, I liked the movie, Depp: funny, Keira: hot…Keira: hot…there were some other characters, right? Anyway, I’m not naive, I knew there was going to be another movie in the series next year, but that doesn’t mean that this one couldn’t come to a full conclusion, after all this kind of thing has become a disappointing and aggravating trend in all sorts of media lately.

Does Halo 2 ring a bell? I waited through the entire credits sequence of that game just to make sure that was the true “ending.” I am still waiting. Why did it end that way, were they so sure of the games success that they thought they could put off the work until the next one? Were they cheap or just lazy? What about games that don’t bring in the green by the truckload? The ending of PsiOps: The Mindgate Conspiracy, one of this decade’s greatest sleeper hits, was a cliffhanger. With the games only moderate success, there no sequel on the horizon. Is that what the creators wanted? To leave a work half done and hope for the best in regards to sales? They had a story to tell, and what? They never got around to writing the last chapter? Were they so sure of themselves, of their game’s ‘inevitable’ success, that they allowed hubris to interfere with the narrative?

Let’s make a careful delineation here. There is a difference between half hearted non-ending and true continuations. The end of Half-Life 2? Non-ending. The end of LotR: The Two Towers? Continuation. One was a ‘surprise, something weird happened…The End.’ The other is the 2nd part of an announced three part series. Those who witnessed both paid for what they experienced; only one came out satisfied.

I bring this all up as a word of warning to the members of the entertainment industry that I respect the most: the creators. These people have a nearly impossible job: to capture the attention of a public that is either more sophisticated or more distracted then it has ever been. To have the opportunity to share a vision with the world is rare, and it must be treated with absolute care, because it could all go away in an instant (I’m look at you Lost). The media world is littered with half done ideas: TV shows, comics, movies and books all gone before their time. Star Trek’s Five Year Mission lasted just three; we never learned why John Doe knew everything, what the secret was behind the eponymous substance in Pirates of Dark Water, Spiderman/Black Cat…(oh did he get around to finishing that? I don’t even know why he bothered at this point).

Creators must not abuse the power that they have been given by their fans and backers. Patience, like the life of the Mayfly, comes to an end as well.

This is my stop.

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Back of the Bus is © 2006 by Seth “4:10” Robison, used with exclusive permission by gamertransit.com. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.