BioWare Mines Data From Mass Effect 2

[Arachon]

They did. Your suggestion is invalid.

IF you're referring to the EULA, I'll just point at my earlier post:

And I maintain that EULAs are and will always be a load of horseshit. What I meant was that they could have presented us with some sort of opt-out, or even better, opt-in alternative.

 

[Vie]

And that's why I unplug my Wifi dongle while playing it.

 

[Snowden's Secret]

i cringed when i saw that pc players tried to secure mirandas "loyalty" more then 360 players.

I cringed when I read that we preferred Grunt. And he isn't even an "option" in the game.

If the data that they gather is made good use of, I don't have a problem with this. Although I'm not surprised at the class revelation, in my case, I just wanted to use the assault rifles, or more specifically, that one awesome machine gun.

 

[Danzaivar]

Wait, let me get this straight.

PC gamers all went for the sexy chick everyones had wet dreams about,
and 360 players went for the frogman that was grown in the same manner as Michel Jackson's son?

Thats sad, and makes me wish i didnt own a 360.

I prefer to look at it from the ever typical "all 360 players are frat boys with twitchy trigger fingers, all pc players are sad lonely nerds" view. It fits better.

 

[SG Xibalba]

I presume that they are able to differentiate between those gamers who skip cutscenes on their 2nd and 3rd playthrus as apposed to their first? Otherwise it makes that particular stream of data invalid for a start.

 

[lacktheknack]

They did. Your suggestion is invalid.

IF you're referring to the EULA, I'll just point at my earlier post:

And I maintain that EULAs are and will always be a load of horseshit. What I meant was that they could have presented us with some sort of opt-out, or even better, opt-in alternative.

To which I'll say "Horseshit or not, they still did, and you did say yes". That's the beauty of the EULA - those who complain still always agree to it.

 

[Arachon]

To which I'll say "Horseshit or not, they still did, and you did say yes". That's the beauty of the EULA - those who complain still always agree to it.

Because we have no other choice, we can not see it before we purchase the game, which I believe makes it invalid legally. And nevertheless, an opt-out program would have been a better alternative.

 

[SageRuffin]

To which I'll say "Horseshit or not, they still did, and you did say yes". That's the beauty of the EULA - those who complain still always agree to it.

Because we have no other choice, we can not see it before we purchase the game, which I believe makes it invalid legally. And nevertheless, an opt-out program would have been a better alternative.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't you turn that off? Or just play offline?

Anyway, on topic: Like some people said, I think most people play Soldier for two main reasons: ease of use, and the fact that you get access to every weapon class at the start, namely assault rifles. Add to that how combat works in ME2 compared to 1, and the Soldier is probably the best class in the game (to use fighting game terms, Soldier jumped from 5th to 1st in the class tier list). So yeah, like others said, playing a Soldier was like playing the game on Easy without manually tweaking the options.

Personally, I want the weapon mods back; I miss my Sledgehammer Rounds and Frictionless Materials. And I want for the romances not to be forced onto the player (FemShep/Jacob anyone? I know I'm not the only one who notices FemShep's overly flirtatious tone towards Jacob whenever they talk).

 

[Traun]

I don't like them getting information such as 80% of players using a male Shepard. I play a female Shepard, and they already shun her as much as possible now.. With that data, they'll have even more reason to.

Those stats would tell Bioware to make a female playthrough more compelling though, not less so. They want to try to balance out the choices as much as possible by offering incentive, not pandering to the popular opinion, as you can see when the developer talks about more people playing Solider.

You're a big fat CEO/CFO. You have to invest 240 mil. $ in a year. You find out that one of your games, one for which you're spending 60 mil. $ allows for players to choose between male and female. This means that all major character lines must be recorded twice, and some NPC line must also be recorded twice. Then you find out that 80% of the public outright ignores one of the options. Wouldn?t you cut some budget off the game to invest that ~200 000$ saved for...a new weapon for the most played class, a few more lines for the top 3 characters or other things most players care about(maybe a new DLC even)? The ignored 20% will be displeased but they will still buy the game.

I'm not saying that there won't be a female Shep in ME3, but I think this will set a precedent for Bioware's future projects.

 

[tlozoot]

I don't like them getting information such as 80% of players using a male Shepard. I play a female Shepard, and they already shun her as much as possible now.. With that data, they'll have even more reason to.

Those stats would tell Bioware to make a female playthrough more compelling though, not less so. They want to try to balance out the choices as much as possible by offering incentive, not pandering to the popular opinion, as you can see when the developer talks about more people playing Solider.

You're a big fat CEO/CFO. You have to invest 240 mil. $ in a year. You find out that one of your games, one for which you're spending 60 mil. $ allows for players to choose between male and female. This means that all major character lines must be recorded twice, and some NPC line must also be recorded twice. Then you find out that 80% of the public outright ignores one of the options. Wouldn?t you cut some budget off the game to invest that ~200 000$ saved for...a new weapon for the most played class, a few more lines for the top 3 characters or other things most players care about(maybe a new DLC even)? The ignored 20% will be displeased but they will still buy the game.

I'm not saying that there won't be a female Shep in ME3, but I think this will set a precedent for Bioware's future projects.

A big fat CEO...yes. I suppose I'm wearing a top hat, smoking a cigar, possibly swilling brandy. There's pin-stripe trousers involved here somewhere no doubt.

Sorry...that's just me going off on a tangent. >,>

No, I don't think this will change anything. Bioware are in the business of making RPGs - customiseable ones at that. The first step in creating a character is choosing the gender. Bioware aren't going to nix this out in any of their future RPGs that allow you any amount of control over the character you make. Even if a small percentage of the playerbase are experiencing what cost $XYZ thousand to include, it's a small price to pay, just to say you have only the most basic and fundamental element of customisation in the game.

 

[Traun]

A big fat CEO...yes. I suppose I'm wearing a top hat, smoking a cigar, possibly swilling brandy. There's pin-stripe trousers involved here somewhere no doubt.

I KNEW IT! We are on to you Kotik, ON TO YOU!

No, I don't think this will change anything. Bioware are in the business of making RPGs - customiseable ones at that. The first step in creating a character is choosing the gender. Bioware aren't going to nix this out in any of their future RPGs that allow you any amount of control over the character you make. Even if a small percentage of the playerbase are experiencing what cost $XYZ thousand to include, it's a small price to pay, just to say you have only the most basic and fundamental element of customisation in the game.

Idialistic, see Dragon Age 2 for future reference.

 

[MrSnugglesworth]

I don't like them getting information such as 80% of players using a male Shepard. I play a female Shepard, and they already shun her as much as possible now.. With that data, they'll have even more reason to.

not really, they could go back and look at why people choose John more than Jane and try to fix it.

OT: I also have a female shepard [have to get a 100% game completion somehow], and I will be VERY dissapointed if a Krogan, Grunt, Wrex, or any new addition for ME3, isnt a romantic choice.

Wha...?

I...


Really?


A Krogan?

why not? I mean we had the lizzard........thing, so why couldnt we get some Grunt loving?

To each his own then.

 

[lacktheknack]

somewhat sinister bros. biowear big brother.

Well, they DID ask permission when you installed it...

when? tell me bro.

When you agreed to the EULA.

Oh, you didn't read it? That's your fault. Consider reading the legal information they give you so <link=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/100015-7500-Gamers-Sell-Their-Souls-to-GameStation>this doesn't happen to you.

 

[Arachon]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't you turn that off? Or just play offline?

I'm not sure if it was possible to play offline without pulling your ethernet cable, and even then, they didn't really give us much information about the data mining, even if it was buried somewhere in the paragraphs of the EULA

Personally, I want the weapon mods back; I miss my Sledgehammer Rounds and Frictionless Materials. And I want for the romances not to be forced onto the player (FemShep/Jacob anyone? I know I'm not the only one who notices FemShep's overly flirtatious tone towards Jacob whenever they talk).

Agreed, I missed the more RPG-ish parts in ME2, ME1 was an all right RPG, whereas ME2 just felt like a shooter with the ever popular "character advancement" and a dumbed down inventory system tacked on. And I was also bothered by the tone between FemShep and Jacob, I wanted to slap her in the face.

 

[Zachinahat]

Personally, I want the weapon mods back; I miss my Sledgehammer Rounds and Frictionless Materials. And I want for the romances not to be forced onto the player (FemShep/Jacob anyone? I know I'm not the only one who notices FemShep's overly flirtatious tone towards Jacob whenever they talk).

I'm a desperate PC gamer there is no possible way for me to discern social nuance from a woman [end sarcasm] yeah that bothered me, but Tali was like that to you too.

Plus yeah Soldier had the revenant and later the mattock in the DLC. Global cooldown meant almost nothing to me as a gunhappy churl (read soldier)- as a biotic/tech it made the game annoying as hell, cos the starting weapons for the adept and sentinel sucked. BioWare needs to pay attention to the other classes. The combat was too geared towards cover-shooter; the infiltrator and engineer were nerfed as a result. but combat was definitely better in ME2 than ME1

 

[SageRuffin]

Personally, I want the weapon mods back; I miss my Sledgehammer Rounds and Frictionless Materials. And I want for the romances not to be forced onto the player (FemShep/Jacob anyone? I know I'm not the only one who notices FemShep's overly flirtatious tone towards Jacob whenever they talk).

I'm a desperate PC gamer there is no possible way for me to discern social nuance from a woman [end sarcasm] yeah that bothered me, but Tali was like that to you too.

Tali was a lot more subtle, especially if your character was female, especially when it got to the point where it seemed like female characters could bag Tali before BioWare decided to axe that particular decision. ¬__¬

Interestingly enough, turns out that Thane was a possible male romance, again before being axed by BioWare at the last second (or so I read).

Plus yeah Soldier had the revenant and later the mattock in the DLC. Global cooldown meant almost nothing to me as a gunhappy churl (read soldier)- as a biotic/tech it made the game annoying as hell, cos the starting weapons for the adept and sentinel sucked. BioWare needs to pay attention to the other classes. The combat was too geared towards cover-shooter; the infiltrator and engineer were nerfed as a result. but combat was definitely better in ME2 than ME1

I'm just pissed that they got rid of Sabotage for the tech classes. Though to be fair, with the way the powers and abilities work in ME2 Sabotage would've made Insanity a complete joke.

As far as the cover mechanics, maybe BioWare will pick up some things from the upcoming Vanquish? ^.^

 

[Jake the Snake]

Yeah, yeah, this is great and all, but...WHERE THE HELL IS ALL THE INFO ON ME3 ALREADY!?!