I was treated to a fascinating surprise when I finally beat BioShock: an actual ending. It's been so long since I've seen one that I almost forgot they existed. Without giving too much away, whether or not the player decides to harvest the Little Sisters, the game will lead up to a final conclusion with no indication that there will be further adventures through Rapture. The story ends without a rogue creature running off to start the cycle again, a teammate tearing off a disguise to reveal that he's Kaiser Soze, or the echoes of maniacal laughter from a beaten but not yet defeated mastermind. Instead, BioShock offers closure, something rare among games these days.

Maybe it's all the time I've spent with unending massively-multiplayer online (MMO) games, competitive shooters and action games composed of scenarios loosely tied together with a thin plot, yet it's shocking when a game like BioShock, an action shooter, actually decides to conclude its story right away instead of stringing players along with promises of a sequel or expansion. Someone will no doubt find a way to revisit Rapture, perhaps with a prequel, so that players can see the underwater city before it became the ruined husk populated by insane splicers. However, the story of a man who happens upon an underwater utopia and uses plasmids to fight his way out is effectively over. With the exception of a couple of well-established franchises (especially platform games) there is little or no direct connection from one to the next, or open-ended stories that let players put off reaching the finale until they're ready, games often let you know that "you've won for now, but the battle isn't over". It was shocking the first few times with Diablo or Icewind Dale, but the gimmick gets annoying. Even Splinter Cell resorts to a "to be continued" message at the end of Double Agent. Ultimately, it undermines all the efforts players put into beating the game by robbing them of any sense of closure. But all the same, fans love to eat it up.

Half-Life 2 left questions unanswered for eight years, and the series is STILL two episodes from reaching any sort of conclusion (assuming they decide to reach one). StarCraft left loose ends lying around for almost a decade, and there's no guarantee that StarCraft II won't simply be a 20-hour promotion for its inevitable expansion, which in turn will set players up for another far and distant sequel. I suppose it shouldn't come as a surprise if that's how things turn out, since the Warcraft storyline grew so big that it needed an MMO to ensure that it would never end. Although there are exceptions, movies and books usually find ways to indicate that a story goes on without having to blatantly shout "I'll be back..." at the end, but maybe gamers need that kind of reassurance. Even though games like Dungeon Siege put off having a fulfilling, finite ending so that it could have a disappointing one in the Broken World expansion, gamers need some kind of promise that if they enjoyed this game, there will be more on the way, and offers a dangling carrot in order to keep interest up.

Perhaps it's because we've reached a point where games never end, like with open-ended role playing games and MMO's, that people expect them to go on for as long as possible through expansions and sequels to match the level of scope. Added gameplay features and improvements don't hurt either. Then again, closing a book is just as worthwhile as one that keeps getting pages added to it.