Xsjadoblayde said:
FirstNameLastName said:
I think that's a rather defeatist attitude. While I'm well aware they aren't going to make a fully reactive story that branches off into hundreds of distinct endings, you make it sound as if they pulled off even a decent effort as far as reactivity goes. Of course the branches would have to converge to some extent in order to make it even possible, but it converged far more than anyone would have expected; far more than acceptable.
Not to contradict that part about not being bitter, but despite my relative apathy over it I'm still aware of how shit the ending was and how little effort they put into making any of the decisions count at all. Expecting them to deliver even a small fraction of what they promised isn't the same as naively drinking the cool-aid.
It's not defeatist, it's "realist"
...and this is the first i've heard anyone claim that
not falling for marketing hype is naively drinking the cool aid. I wish i could live in your dimension. Three large games worth of choices will add up to far too many pathways for even the most talented developer to write and fit onto dvd disc while still keeping some sense of epic scale, without hefty corner cutting. The amount of work involved would have been tremendous. Now, it's far from perfect, or great...but it's what was expected, given the information at the time. I am not going to lose any sleep over it. Just another silly ending in another entertaining, but flawed world.
You seem to be misinterpreting what I've said. I'm not saying it would be reasonable to expect every choice, or even the majority of choices, to alter the ending significantly, but that doesn't mean people should have expected three basically interchangeable endings either.
I have no idea what you mean by this either ...
...and this is the first i've heard anyone claim that not falling for marketing hype is naively drinking the cool aid.
I said the complete opposite.
FirstNameLastName said:
... Expecting them to deliver even a small fraction of what they promised isn't the same as naively drinking the cool-aid.
What I meant was, well, exactly what I said, that there is a big difference between expecting them to deliver some tiny portion of what they promised and falling for the marketing (aka, drinking the cool-aid).
I'm not saying people should trust what the marketers said, but I think it was reasonable for people to expect more than was delivered. As I said, I'm aware that practicality means they'll need to railroad the player into a small selection of endings, but they could still have done far more than give us a different colored particle effect and the assurance that "these endings are different, no, really".