BioWare "Falsely Advertised" Mass Effect 3

[Abedeus]

Jokes on the gamers! Now, we'll get the same exact ending to every fucking game. The safe, happy ending that nobody has grounds to complain about. Thank you, "retakers". Thank you for your entitled douchebaggery.

Oh, you are one of those ignorants that thinks we are angry because the ending isn't happy and full of sunshine.

I thought you died out two weeks ago. You know, when everyone who actually was interested in the case either discovered the major flaws in the endings and shut the hell up about his strawman arguments, or lives in denia... oooh. Okay.

Remember, the government is lying, and you 14 year old anarchists is all standing between them and world domination!

Jokes on the gamers! Now, we'll get the same exact ending to every fucking game. The safe, happy ending that nobody has grounds to complain about. Thank you, "retakers". Thank you for your entitled douchebaggery.

We don't want happy[i/] endings per se, we want meaningful endings that make sense and are affected by choice.

What you WANT is irrelevant. What you'll GET is companies playing it more safe than ever, to avoid getting sued by you whiny *insert derogatory expletive here*s.

Congratulations! You got what you wanted, though. That's all that really matters, right? This company, that you loved so much and created a series we all love, getting hit for false advertising because you all didn't like what happened. Congratulations!

No, they're getting sued for false advertising, not because the ending sucked (even though it did) but because the choices that you had at the ending achieved nothing. Hell, is it even possible to fail mass effect 3? If I rushed through the game and didn't collect war assets, picking the worst choices, I would still beat the reapers.

There wasn't meaningful choices. At all.

Don't forget the "There are 16 different endings" and "It's won't be as simple as making an A, B or C ending and picking one!" promises.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

It's kind of strange to see unhappy gamers getting so much shit from other gamers. I keep reading, over and over again, something like "Yes they were totally dishonest, yes they lied to get you to buy the product. But it's not technically illegal, you entitled douche!" It's just weird.

Honestly I think gamers are entitled to the product they were told they were buying. This is a much larger issue than just ME3. The media is pushing really hard to make it look like a small group of gamers who are mad. Last time I saw the poll on BioWare's forum it had over 50K votes about the ending and only 2% liked the game as is. 98% is totally a minority of the players right?

The 'vocal minority' argument is usually an insulting waste of time. Every issue that has ever existed has been championed by a 'vocal minority'. It's hardly worth pointing this out on a specific case. If they really feel vindicated that their forum users aren't necessarily representative of their entire customer base, then good for them, I guess.

Gamers get lied to so often and so outrageously I'm surprised this is the opportunity people took to get mad about it. I think there are worse examples. But in absolute terms, I think Bioware totally has it coming. If you don't want a shit-storm, try not lying to people.

 

[Carne]

Don't forget the "There are 16 different endings" and "It's won't be as simple as making an A, B or C ending and picking one!" promises.

Well technically there are sixteen different endings. They are just all 99.9% the same.

 

[newdarkcloud]

But... but... but... artistic integrity! Would someone PLEASE think of the artistic integrity?!

Spoiler

That was a joke.

It'll be interesting to see how many people's humor receiver arrays require recalibrating.

 

[Cheeseman Muncher]

i feel really bad for the writers at bioware right now, as an artist myself all i can imagine is them slumped down behind a desk hating their life cause people are practically wishing death upon them for there work. Which is one of the most heart breaking things ive seen out of this whole ending debate.

if i ever meet them im buying them a drink. They don't deserve this crap that the retakers are giving them.

Also this. These guys are human beings as well. Try putting yourself in their shoes, I can guarantee you wouldn't enjoy this one bit.

 

[Epona]

If it were any other product and people felt it didn't live up to the advertising, they would just return it for a refund. Game companies can release shit in a box and you can't do a damn thing about it.

Don't give me that license crap, either. Even if you believe you are buying a license, a license can be refunded easier than a physical product.

 

[Mournblade94]

No, they're getting sued for false advertising, not because the ending sucked (even though it did) but because the choices that you had at the ending achieved nothing. Hell, is it even possible to fail mass effect 3? If I rushed through the game and didn't collect war assets, picking the worst choices, I would still beat the reapers.

There wasn't meaningful choices. At all.

Do you REALLY feel they deserved this? Games marketing ALWAYS promises more than the game could deliver. Why is Bioware being singled out?

If a company makes a product that consumers do nto like they will be less inclined to have those customer's sales in the future. If A company bothches something for a customer do they deserve their future business? If the answer is yes than it is the company with the entitlement.

At this point I probably will not buy the next Bioware game. I no longer care for their art. If they fix the ending and it is what was promised, I will reconsider. If this in the future means that game developers will not push the limit on their stories, I am OK with that considering the mass effect 3 ending was botched. I don't watch M. Night Shalamalan Movies. I certainly don't need his poor attempt at endings in my games. I expected better quality from bioware.

It seems only Bethesda can deliver quality now.

 

[Incomer]

This is getting way out of hand. You don't sue people for making a bad movie sequels why should ME3 be any different. And if you do sue people for a bad film then F you dude, you are the reason why we can't have any nice things.

And honestly I'm wondering how will they talk me into thinking that ending which we were given has any meaning. On the other hand I'd be probably happy with some vlogs about their thought process while they were making it (coke orgy would be crush my dreams so hard ).

Was it bad? Yeah it was pretty god damn terrible but it didn't cause major outbreak of cancer or something, stop freaking out >_<

 

[Carne]

P.S. Quoting I don't remember who, but probably MovieBob: "You want Bioware to make with ME the same thing you hate George Lucas for doing with Star Wars."

MovieBob is quite often wrong, or just whining. He is a film critic. His analysis is usually less than scientific.

I also want to note MovieBob berated the ME fanbase in the same breath as whining about Micheal Bay getting the TMNT franchise.

I don't think you watched that video all the way through bud.

Talking about a quote from his blog actually.

 

[Abedeus]

Don't forget the "There are 16 different endings" and "It's won't be as simple as making an A, B or C ending and picking one!" promises.

Well technically there are sixteen different endings. They are just all 99.9% the same.

There are 9, with 3 colors total.

3 Red (vaporization, bad, good), 2 blue (bad, good) and green (synthesis).

And the only difference between Red Bad and Red Good is 5 second cutscene at end. And between others it's also VERY small difference in cutscene.

This is getting way out of hand. You don't sue people for making a bad movie sequels why should ME3 be any different. And if you do sue people for a bad film then F you dude, you are the reason why we can't have any nice things.

And honestly I'm wondering how will they talk me into thinking that ending which we were given has any meaning. On the other hand I'd be probably happy with some vlogs about their thought process while they were making it (coke orgy would be crash my dreams so hard ).

Was it bad? Yeah it was pretty god damn terrible but it didn't cause major outbreak of cancer or something, stop freaking out >_<

Did you read the article? It's false advertising.

If movie was called Harry Potter and the Wizard's Spitbucket, and the movie was about a vietnam veteran in a nursery home, you'd also get sued for false advertising.

Or a car claimed to be a 2011 model being actually from 2001.

ignore him he's a troll, you just have to see his vastly insulting way of expressing his "OPINION" to see that he is being a troll.

Continually pointing at him and saying "zomgz troll" without contributing to the discussion yourself is just as annoying. Simmer down.

Lots of words

This pretty much sums up my point of view here. Yes Bioware dropped the ball pretty spectacularly on this but there is no way they deserve this level of flak for it. They've already said they'll try and provide some closure, there's little else they can do without totally compromising their vision for the series. Give them a break, let them do their job and see what they come up with. Bioware are good at learning from their mistakes and if the new DA3 brief is anything to go by they've definitely realised they need to take fan input onboard when developing their games.

Give them a chance.

People already gave them a chance with DA2.

And while DA2 had room to make mistakes, ME3 didn't. It's the last game in the series, and making the ending a rushed pile of puke can't be fixed anymore.

 

[Avatar Roku]

Nobody MADE us do it. We WANTED to. Nobody GUARANTEED that our choices would come together in a meaningful way, they just told us that they would and asked us to take it on faith.

We made the conscious decision to play all three games. Buy the ticket, take the ride.

I think this rather helpful user compiles all the times that Bioware did in fact guarantee that our choices would come together in a meaningful way. [http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/10056886/1]

In fact at some point I'm pretty sure that exact terminology was used.

But, meaningful to whom? Meaningful to the writers? Meaningful to me? To you? My point is that "meaningful" is a subjective term.

Meaningful is subjective. But look at that link. There are specific promises that were made that were not upheld in the game itself, like the whole thing with the Rachni.

 

[zinho73]

Jokes on the gamers! Now, we'll get the same exact ending to every fucking game. The safe, happy ending that nobody has grounds to complain about. Thank you, "retakers". Thank you for your entitled douchebaggery.

This is impossible to happen. Anyone paying a minimum of attention will understand that this is not about happy, sad or bold. It is about quality and promises not fulfilled - to the point of being compared to false advertising. And I'm not just talking about the slogan here, Casey Hudson and Mark Walter's statements were at least misleading (if you are feeling generous).

Also, if the press do their jobs right, things will go even smoother. The updated content for the ending did not made things worse. Yeah, some people are still complaining and if the ending turns out to be bad, people will complain a little bit more (with reason), but inaction on the part of Bioware could really hurt the franchise - must fans are now in a wait and see state.

The press is handling the matter trying to validate the points they made with the whole artistic integrity fiasco. If someone are to blame for reading what's happening wrong it is the gaming press, unfortunately.

 

[krellen]

i feel really bad for the writers at bioware right now, as an artist myself all i can imagine is them slumped down behind a desk hating their life cause people are practically wishing death upon them for there work. Which is one of the most heart breaking things ive seen out of this whole ending debate.

if i ever meet them im buying them a drink. They don't deserve this crap that the retakers are giving them.

Also this. These guys are human beings as well. Try putting yourself in their shoes, I can guarantee you wouldn't enjoy this one bit.

The big difference? When I fuck up, I own up to it and refocus discussion on how I (or we, if appropriate) can fix it.

 

[lumenadducere]

Meh, a small moral victory.

Don't promise features you can't or won't deliver. It's that simple.

As for Mass Effect, everyone lost, except EA who's shoveling our money into their pit going directly to satan, who then soaks the bills in the tears of the fans and of those laughing at the fans. Meanwhile EA gets more underhanded deals to acquire more companies to screw up future sequels we all want.

The circle of grief continues.

Gotta say, I agree with this.

Yes, a lot of BioWare's statements leading up to ME3 before its release were a blatant contradiction to what was actually delivered. Yes, it's an incredibly shitty ending. But ultimately there are no winners here. BioWare is going to lose no matter what they do - they either "cave in" to "compromise artistic integrity" or they stick to their guns and do what they're doing now to add "clarification" to the ending (which by all accounts just leads me to think that they've completely missed the point of the complaints), which is a move that.

And the fans aren't going to win here either. Even if they change things, the anger over all of this is going to linger. A new ending that closes the complete WTF logic holes of the current one isn't going to remove the sour taste in the fans' mouth. And of course there are the fans who (wrongly, IMO) argue that this sets precedent, and they certainly wouldn't be happy.

EA of course has our money and they've got ownership of the IP since they own BioWare, so they can just keep pumping out Mass Effect games 'till the end of time. Or they can sit on it for a few years until this blows over and then come out with a new, updated version or sequel that relies on nostalgia and advertising to generate sales. Either way I really don't see any winners here except for them - they've got our money from sales and they still have the IP to use as they wish.

 

[Mournblade94]

i feel really bad for the writers at bioware right now, as an artist myself all i can imagine is them slumped down behind a desk hating their life cause people are practically wishing death upon them for there work. Which is one of the most heart breaking things ive seen out of this whole ending debate.

if i ever meet them im buying them a drink. They don't deserve this crap that the retakers are giving them.

Im with you on this. Buy them all a round and then another. They seriously need something after all this 'hate hate hate' their getting.

they botched their product. They got paid for their work. Perhaps in the future they will do a better job because of it.

Perhaps this will help them become better writers. Like their predecessor Drew Karpyshyn. He managed to write two good games.

 

[songnar]

Mass Effect's story was built around irony.

Nobody got it.