Child's Play Halts Retake Mass Effect Donation Drive

[Caffiene]

I still think that demanding a new and "better" conclusion to Mass Effect 3 [http://www.amazon.com/Mass-Effect-3-Xbox-360/dp/B004FYEZMQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332516451&sr=8-1] is silly but I'm sure not going to take issue with the results

In a news article about confusion over the donation drive, Im kind of disappointed that this line was included...

It seems misleading to continue to call it a demand when the petition at the core of the donation drive explicitly states as one of its points:

We believe:

* That it is the right of the writers and developers of the Mass Effect series to end that series however they see fit

I respectfully request that the ending of this article be altered

 

[Guardian of Nekops]

This is a very heated topic, and Child's Play believes its cause will be better served by distancing themselves from the rage that surrounds this debate. The complaints of people who... apparently didn't understand what they were doing before they gave their money must have been a huge headache for them, and there's a potential for bad publicity for them here which is not what anyone wanted.

I just hope that this was the right move, executed at the right time, and that none of this will hurt Child's Play in any way. Good people over there, who have been forced into a tough situation.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Ha! Called it! Though, kind of surprised it took this long. Knew it would put Child's Play in a tight spot, since it almost causes an ethical problem of making them biased towards trying to push Bioware to change the ending in response to the donations.

 

[darkbshadow]

I really do hope that they don't Redo the ending for Mass Effect. What I am hoping is for them to add onto the ending. Nothing Major just just something to explain what actually happened at the end. Cause I'm a supporter of the Indoctrination theory. It would explain a lot of the issues I had with the ending.

If they really had that in mind when doing that ending I'd like to have conformation on it and then show what really happened to Shepard. Even if it's just showing that the reapers won and the cycle continues on.

 

[Kashrlyyk]

...
The people who donated that want their money back despite that it's going towards the children,...

I actually think that this is pretty reasonable and it explains why getting a refund is actually justifiable:

We'll just have to disagree on this one. I sit on two non-profit boards. If we were to ask a group to NOT raise funds for us, we would at the same time return anything they had already brought in.

Because the only time we would make such a request would be if the group raising the funds were not in line with our morals/values.

Otherwise, we'd be thankful for the money.

You can accept funds without it being interpreted as support for a cause. The only cause non-profits support is the one in their mission statement.

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/9845819/229#10481951

...As Tycho said in his post on the PA webiste "Child?s Play cannot be a tool to draw attention to a cause. Child?s Play must be the Cause."
....

That is complete bullshit what Tycho says there. If that was true, why did they allow Bioware to use Child's Play to draw attention to a fucking videogame??? Bioware used Child's Play to advertise a game. That is much, much worse than whatever he thinks Retake Mass Effect did. He is lying to you.

 

[lacktheknack]

[Child's Play] has been asked what the goal is, and how much they need to raise in order to get the ending produced. We've also been contacted by PayPal due to a high number of people asking for their donations back. This is in addition to readers who simply couldn't understand how this was connected to Child's Play's mission. We were dealing with a lot of very confused people, more every day, and that told us we had a problem.

That alone is fucking disgusting. I cannot believe I'm a part of a community full of whiny, entitled, and egotistical assholes. For years, we've been struggling with the stigma that gamers, as a whole, are hopeless losers who are prone to violence and childish behavior, and here we are proving them right.

Penny Arcade's Child's Play (and by extension, Desert Bus) has been one of the greatest and most wholesome thing to come out of the gaming community, and has really helped quell the image that we're mindless slaves to "murder simulators", and just because a single AAA game had a sub-par ending, the gaming community managed to turn this into a fucking circus. Donate because you want to help Child's Play, not because your unwarranted self-importance demands that you somehow deserve a better ending simply because you may or may not have actually purchased the product.

I'm sick of this attitude. It needs to fucking stop. No other medium of entertainment stoops so low as to make petitions and campaigns over such trivial bullshit.

You don't see people sending death threats to Michael Bay's personal phones in response to Transformers.

You don't see people making massive online petitions to boycott Eoin Colfer's And Another Thing... or Brian Herbert's Sisterhood of Dune.

You don't see people withdrawing their donations from a food drive because they wanted a different ending to The Sopranos.

We're supposed to show the world that we're much more mature than this, and instead we're turning into another self-indulgent internet mob.

[HEADING=1]Go fuck yourselves[/HEADING]

Thank you for more thoroughly expressing why my back has snapped than I probably could.

I'd elaborate, but I don't like using six hundred profanities per sentence.

 

[samaugsch]

People are fucking idiots and need to read into what they are putting their money in.

Fuck everyone.

I wouldn't even have had to in this case. All I would have to do is look at the name and think, "Hmm, something tells me that this doesn't have anything to do with rated M video games." >_>

 

[RvLeshrac]

...
The people who donated that want their money back despite that it's going towards the children,...

I actually think that this is pretty reasonable and it explains why getting a refund is actually justifiable:

We'll just have to disagree on this one. I sit on two non-profit boards. If we were to ask a group to NOT raise funds for us, we would at the same time return anything they had already brought in.

Because the only time we would make such a request would be if the group raising the funds were not in line with our morals/values.

Otherwise, we'd be thankful for the money.

You can accept funds without it being interpreted as support for a cause. The only cause non-profits support is the one in their mission statement.

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/9845819/229#10481951

...As Tycho said in his post on the PA webiste "Child?s Play cannot be a tool to draw attention to a cause. Child?s Play must be the Cause."
....

That is complete bullshit what Tycho says there. If that was true, why did they allow Bioware to use Child's Play to draw attention to a fucking videogame??? Bioware used Child's Play to advertise a game. That is much, much worse than whatever he thinks Retake Mass Effect did. He is lying to you.

Are you dense? They didn't "allow Bioware to use Child's Play to draw attention to a fucking videogame," they used the Bioware advertising to draw attention to Child's Play. Do you honestly fucking think that anyone who knows what Child's Play is wouldn't already know what *EVERY BIOWARE GAME FOR THE NEXT DECADE* is going to be?

 

[satsugaikaze]

^This post is my Hero for the day.

OT:

Despite the belief among some supporters that the end of the donation drive was somehow engineered by game journalists in support of EA

So since when exactly did all of gaming journalism become the bad guys? Is this a new thing or have I just been not paying attention?

You seem to be a reasonable guy who hangs around the Escapist forums a fair bit. It seems odd that you haven't at least scoped the "paid off by EA" tirade against Susan when she gave Mass Effect 3 four-and-a-half stars out of five in her review.

The internet got all cynical this decade.

 

[The Mirror Man]

The fear of a "Slippery slope" is well justified on Child Plays part. The ability to give a galvanizing shield to your cause simply by attaching it to a charity is terrifying. I can see many in the thread repeatedly mentioning how good it is that they managed to raise $80K. Even when we know the Retake Mass Effect campaign had nothing to do with the charity, it is impossible to turn down that much money for children. This allows the fans behind it to feel completely justified in their actions regardless of any other consequences.

I am glad that Child's Play thought to protect themselves by putting a stop to it.

 

[The Human Torch]

snip

Also, don't compare videogames to movies/books. Apples and oranges and such. Stop being so freaking rude.

 

[Tomo Stryker]

"We've also been contacted by PayPal due to a high number of people asking for their donations back."

What?

I want the ending fixed as much as anyone else, but this kind of shit is not helping our case. To whoever did this: thanks for making us all look like the entitled asshats IGN keeps claiming we are.

Agreed, I gave my fifty dollars in the complete understanding that I was "donating" to Child's Play. I knew what I donating to, I knew why I did it, and I knew that my intentions weren't malicious. I simply donated because it was a way to send a message and to give to an excellent cause. But to hear that it was shut down simply because some asshats didn't read the goddamn memo that was so clearly in front of them?

Yeah, I smell political bias from Penny Arcade and it wreaks. Jesus, all this over a poorly written ending. *Raises glass* This ones for you Bioware, without you who else would we have to blame?

 

[Mr.Squishy]

This makes me just a teeny, tiny bit ashamed to be part of the ME fandom. Even if I didn't have anything to do with this, and haven't been stirring up any shit about the end of ME3. And my general efforts to not be an entitled tit. That's sort of impressive in a very depressing way.

 

[MagicSwordKing]

This is just depressing, I was fine with the ending to ME3, though I've got my problems with it, I'm not going to sign any petitions. That said, some people were finding a productive way of airing their grievances and it sucks for them that they can't do that because of the ignorance of some within their ranks.

The whole conspiracy theory angle is awful as well, I would not be surprised if there's overlap between those who are asking for their donations back and those who think this was shut down by some shadowy cabal of journalists and corporations aligned to destroy them, personally. There's no conspiracy, don't be surprised that IGN writes crappy stories, they're IGN, that is what they do. Threatening to withhold future money from a good cause, as some in this thread have done, because they had to red-light something that was opening a bad door, is cartoonishly petty.

Let me just float my own personal reason for not demanding a new ending to ME3. First of all, Mass Effect has always been strongest when dealing with characters, that is BioWare's strong suit. The character moments in that game were worth the price of admission alone, and if you actually take the time to digest the ending on your own, I think most people will be fine with it, disappointed in some things, but largely okay with the experience.

So we've got a group of people who are saying, effectively (I'm being deliberately reductive because I want to match how it would sound to a writer) "No, you shat the bed, take it back. Don't get to work on a new project, you have to go and clean up your mess. For free, now. Do it, do it, and smile for daddy."

It shouldn't be surprising that the community of professional writers who cover these stories find your argument entitled. To them, this is the the height of entitlement. Its not that you're wrong, and its not that they're wrong, you're just all looking at this from different angles.

Finally, you've seen how fickle the gaming community can be, you know that if they change the ending a significant portion of you are still not going to be satisfied.

If they charge for it (which they will, after all they're not working for free here), a large and very vocal group will up the volume demanding that the price be removed, decrying it as an example of yet more EA/BioWare greed, etc.

Then there are the people who won't be satisfied with whatever BioWare does, because it won't match their very specific demands. They'll yell and complain that BioWare went too far or not far enough in any alterations.

Then there's always the possibility that if they cave and make it free, and if it satisfies everyone within your movement, you know that some BioWare apologists will yell about tyranny of the minority, a new, changed ending that they didn't ask for being foisted upon them because of a few malcontents.

And what if any new ending is worse than what they gave you the first time around? Are you going to ask them to change it again? At what point does this stop? Its entirely possible that this was the best they could do, not laziness just plain lack of ability, and they are fundamentally incapable of satisfying your complaints.

It is a no-win scenario, no matter what they do, and no matter what you do, the outcome is bad for both sides.

 

[Ganath]

You'd figure people knew the money would go to Charity and not to remake the ending. It's just really sad. Didn't support this whole project with remaking ME3's ending. But if I donate money to a charity, while sure, I can do it to make myself noticed with some cause I don't bloody take the money back when the cause fails. I realize that wasn't the case here, but rather a misunderstanding but it's still pretty damn low.

 

[MrFalconfly]

[Child's Play] has been asked what the goal is, and how much they need to raise in order to get the ending produced. We've also been contacted by PayPal due to a high number of people asking for their donations back. This is in addition to readers who simply couldn't understand how this was connected to Child's Play's mission. We were dealing with a lot of very confused people, more every day, and that told us we had a problem.

That alone is fucking disgusting. I cannot believe I'm a part of a community full of whiny, entitled, and egotistical assholes. For years, we've been struggling with the stigma that gamers, as a whole, are hopeless losers who are prone to violence and childish behavior, and here we are proving them right.

Penny Arcade's Child's Play (and by extension, Desert Bus) has been one of the greatest and most wholesome thing to come out of the gaming community, and has really helped quell the image that we're mindless slaves to "murder simulators", and just because a single AAA game had a sub-par ending, the gaming community managed to turn this into a fucking circus. Donate because you want to help Child's Play, not because your unwarranted self-importance demands that you somehow deserve a better ending simply because you may or may not have actually purchased the product.

I'm sick of this attitude. It needs to fucking stop. No other medium of entertainment stoops so low as to make petitions and campaigns over such trivial bullshit.

You don't see people sending death threats to Michael Bay's personal phones in response to Transformers.

You don't see people making massive online petitions to boycott Eoin Colfer's And Another Thing... or Brian Herbert's Sisterhood of Dune.

You don't see people withdrawing their donations from a food drive because they wanted a different ending to The Sopranos.

We're supposed to show the world that we're much more mature than this, and instead we're turning into another self-indulgent internet mob.

[HEADING=1]Go fuck yourselves[/HEADING]

This was what I basically thought when I read the story.

 

[tzimize]

So..some people thought that Childsplay..a CHARITY AIMED TOWARDS CHILDREN...was going to be buying a new ME3 ending, and then demanded their donations back. How thick are some people? Gawd o mighty.

This is what I was thinking too. Mother of god. I really dont know how people can be this beef-headed. Every day I think, now...it'll never surprise me anymore how stupid some people can get...and EVERY day...they break their old records.

*sigh*

Humanity.

[Child's Play]
*snippety*

You don't see people sending death threats to Michael Bay's personal phones in response to Transformers.

Did anyone really expect any of the Transformer sequels to be good though? Especially the third? I found the first one to be good, the second to be good-to-bad, and the third to be more or less the bane of humanity. But I expected it.

Nobody expected one of the best gaming series of ALL times to end that badly. And a lot of people cared about it and wanted it to end in a decent way.

TL;DR
1. Good on you gamers for giving to a charity
2. *facepalm* gamers because you're stupid enough to mistake Childs Play for Kickstarter
3. Transformers 3 is one of the worst movie of ALL time

captcha: call me.

I feel kind of wierd when my PC is putting the moves on me.

 

[RaikuFA]

[Child's Play] has been asked what the goal is, and how much they need to raise in order to get the ending produced. We've also been contacted by PayPal due to a high number of people asking for their donations back. This is in addition to readers who simply couldn't understand how this was connected to Child's Play's mission. We were dealing with a lot of very confused people, more every day, and that told us we had a problem.

That alone is fucking disgusting. I cannot believe I'm a part of a community full of whiny, entitled, and egotistical assholes. For years, we've been struggling with the stigma that gamers, as a whole, are hopeless losers who are prone to violence and childish behavior, and here we are proving them right.

Penny Arcade's Child's Play (and by extension, Desert Bus) has been one of the greatest and most wholesome thing to come out of the gaming community, and has really helped quell the image that we're mindless slaves to "murder simulators", and just because a single AAA game had a sub-par ending, the gaming community managed to turn this into a fucking circus. Donate because you want to help Child's Play, not because your unwarranted self-importance demands that you somehow deserve a better ending simply because you may or may not have actually purchased the product.

I'm sick of this attitude. It needs to fucking stop. No other medium of entertainment stoops so low as to make petitions and campaigns over such trivial bullshit.

You don't see people sending death threats to Michael Bay's personal phones in response to Transformers.

You don't see people making massive online petitions to boycott Eoin Colfer's And Another Thing... or Brian Herbert's Sisterhood of Dune.

You don't see people withdrawing their donations from a food drive because they wanted a different ending to The Sopranos.

We're supposed to show the world that we're much more mature than this, and instead we're turning into another self-indulgent internet mob.

[HEADING=1]Go fuck yourselves[/HEADING]

In all serious though, I agree 100%. This is getting way out of hand.

 

[Nikolaz72]

HA HA! Called it. I knew right there at the beginning, the first time i read about it. I called it. I said "This is one of the worst ideas ever, and its going to be shot down."

People need to get over this. I didnt even think the ending was THAT BAD. I thought it was decent. But everyone these days feels so entitled they need to boycott and do fund raisers to have something change.

This really started to bother me after TB started to become more entitled. Ive been a fan of his for.... flying spaghetti monster knows how long?!? But recently hes been really whiny. "The FoV is slightly to small for me on PC, so no one should buy it" was his stance. Sure, i understand that some people get headaches from small FoV on PC, but that just means, GET IT FOR CONSOLE. Dont like the PC port? Get it for console. -_- Instead of costing them thousands of dollars paying workers to change 1 thing, so some entitled buttholes can be happy, just get it on console. If you have the ability to sink $2k into a PC, you can afford a console. PC wasnt $2000? Great, youve got $1000 more then the guy who put $2k into his PC. Go buy one.

All this whining as of late by the "gaming" community has done nothing but give me headaches.

But back on topic. Im glad it got shut down. Trying to bribe a corporation by saying "were doing it for children ", when really, your doing it because of selfish needs is one of the most amoral things ive ever heard of. Child's Play should refund the money of anyone who wants it returned.

*Goes onto thread about -X- subject that has nothing to do with consoles* / *Start PC/Console flamewar*

Go back beloweth the bridge whence you came thy troll. Before I bring out my spray.

No im serious. Why did you even have to start flaming PC-users or saying they have no right to complain about flaws in a game that can be easily fixed?... Jesus. If anyone is butthurt about this whole ordeal it is surely you sir. You are just hurt in your behind by something else than they are.

I agree with you that using childsplay to achieve a goal to change the ending is wrong. But there is a looooooong stretch from that and calling for a fix of minor issues caused in porting.

 

[chstens]

So..some people thought that Childsplay..a CHARITY AIMED TOWARDS CHILDREN...was going to be buying a new ME3 ending, and then demanded their donations back. How thick are some people? Gawd o mighty.

It validates my point that all the people who've been frothing with rage and crying themselves to sleep over the ME3 ending are complete idiots. Over"Zeel"ous springs to mind as well.