EA Still Confident in BioWare
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Not only is it a total character assassination of Shepard (s/he has spent hundreds of hours over three games fighting in the face of the insurmountable odds, and winning. Shepard's characterisation literally boils down to 'don't you dare give up! Anything is possible if you work hard enough, stick together and keep fighting!', to suddenly lose everything just because a magical sparkly child says it's not possible to understand with literally nothing backing him up) and his crew, who have stuck with him for this long and are willing to die with him on several occasions (Virmire, Omega 4 Relay mission) but suddenly turn tail and flee the earth (which is not even destroyed if you do well enough) for no apparent reason, it also goes in the face of both the lore and laws of the Mass Effect Universe. Also it was objectively terrible (3 differently coloured explosions? WOW, THE CHOICES!), and synthesis made fuck-all sense.El Danny said:
Baulder's Gate 2, KOTOR, Jade Empire, Neverwinter Nights (admittedly that's more for the engine and tool-kit than the campaign)wizzy555 said:
"There was nothing wrong with the games themselves, just their audience."
I'm paraphrasing, but that's about what you just wrote. If there wasn't anything wrong with ME3 and KOTOR and DA2 than Bioware wouldn't have lost 1/2 of its fanbase and the three games I just mentioned wouldn't be some of the most passionately hated things on the internet to this day.
Oh, and if you feel the need to "adapt to your fans" on a regular basis, it says exactly 1 thing:
YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK YOU'RE DOING. IF THERE'S AN INTERMEDIARY STEP BETWEEN RELEASING YOUR PRODUCT AND PLEASING YOUR CUSTOMERS THAN *YOU ARE A GOD DAMNED FAILURE AS A BUSINESSMAN*.
Maybe try picking up a trade. After all, not everyone has a head for this big picture stuff. I'd recommend plumbing, seeing as how you're already completely full of shit.
I'm paraphrasing, but that's about what you just wrote. If there wasn't anything wrong with ME3 and KOTOR and DA2 than Bioware wouldn't have lost 1/2 of its fanbase and the three games I just mentioned wouldn't be some of the most passionately hated things on the internet to this day.
Oh, and if you feel the need to "adapt to your fans" on a regular basis, it says exactly 1 thing:
YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK YOU'RE DOING. IF THERE'S AN INTERMEDIARY STEP BETWEEN RELEASING YOUR PRODUCT AND PLEASING YOUR CUSTOMERS THAN *YOU ARE A GOD DAMNED FAILURE AS A BUSINESSMAN*.
Maybe try picking up a trade. After all, not everyone has a head for this big picture stuff. I'd recommend plumbing, seeing as how you're already completely full of shit.
I strongly disagree with all of the above, but I'm not going to go on because this is a can of worms that has already be opened and let loose 1000 times on this site already. All I'm going to say is this, the idea that people deserve their money back because they didn't like the ending is just bloody insane, if somebody came into my shop demanding their money back because they didn't like the ending to a game they brought there, I'd show 'em the door. If somebody insisted I change the ending track to one of my albums, and refund their money just because they didn't approve of it, I'd tell them to go fuck themselves with a rake.Lexodus said:
Bioware have the nicety to release a free DLC to clear up the confusing issues and you can't even be grateful for that.
EDIT: By 'you', I meant the 'take back Mass Effect' lot, not necessarily actually you.
I didn't play DA2 so I don't know about that, but ME3 grossed $200 million USD. I loved the game, and even though the original ending was crap and very possibly the work of EA I don't think the admittedly giant tornado of negative PR is going to offset the fact that they made $200 million dollars. I think the PR storms has left EA scared and confused because they lack a fundamental understanding of the gaming industry, but their tiny, soulless little corporate brains probably understand the concept of giant wads of cash, and that Bioware is still making them. It's a big studio, it can take a few hits, and EA has to understand that - it's not just a gaming industry thing, that's something that applies to any product. You don't shoot the horse because it takes second or third in a couple of races.
If anything I think it tells us more about EA's mindset than anything else.
If anything I think it tells us more about EA's mindset than anything else.
Yeah. In fact I've got quite a few EA games and I like them all - they are one of the better publishers out there imo. I liked DA2 more than DAO and thought ME3 was great, and when I got to the ending I just thought "huh? people got butthurt over this? ".Vanitas likes Bubbles said:
They also have a another area of responsibility that you glossed over, and possibly the biggest responsibility; budget. Many developers require a large amount of income to be able to continue to employ the people to make the game. This isn't a limitless fountain of cash that the publisher just gives away. They have a budget that they expect the developer to stay in (making of game X with Y number of programers/artist over Z months plus the related software licensing and all other head costs), just to be able to earn a profit. A large team can easily add up to a couple million dollars a month.thebobmaster said:
If the developer starts to go past that and the publisher doesn't think that the game will earn that much in return in sales; they will punt the game out the door and cut their losses.
Also Publishers can also demand that specific timelines be made. If the developer misses to many timelines, the whole development could be cancelled, or key members swapped out or even bonus could be negated. Either way, if timelines are missed, bad things happen. So some features are cut or not fully polished just to keep up on those timelines. If a game is to be pushed by date X, then often the game features or un-found bugs will suffer because of it.
Example: KOTOR II ending was forced to be cut and skimped on just to make the demanded Christmas launch.
Its most likely possible it is Sega's faulut. AP was in development too long, costing too much money and Sega saw the game was "good enough" and demanded the game published in the current state it was in. Minor bugs and all.
Just because game A requires X amount of time, doesn't mean that game B can be completed in that time frame too.
Personally to note, ME2 did feel rushed, but because it wasn't the grand ending of the game, it was able to mask its problem better then how ME3 fared.
The problem with these big publishers, EA, Activision, etc.etc. is not that they are big publishers, is largely the fact that they are hand tied to satisfying shareholders. But to get big to be able to publish all these games, they need shareholders to give them buckets of cash, who expect bigger buckets of cash in return. So its a double edge sword -- which often puts their interest in the value of a game in conflict with the exceptions/demands from the shareholders.
Edit : misread something, nvm bobmaster
On-topic: I'd love to see how long Bioware will still exist, if we can rely on past experiences with EA-owned studios.
On-topic: I'd love to see how long Bioware will still exist, if we can rely on past experiences with EA-owned studios.
i too am confident in bioware, that they will help EA in their goal of running straight into the ground.
With the exception of DA2, Kotor and ME3 are really well loved. Ya, the ending of ME3 sucked big time, but the game as a whole was really well recieved. And there isn't an argument against Kotor. Kotor is literally one of the best RPGs of the last decade. Its hated by very few people.Emiscary said:
Sorry, when was this?maddawg IAJI said:
The last time I checked, it was the laughing stock of the gaming industry - did you miss Blizzard, CDProjekt, Rhiannon Pratchett and many others knocking the game in interviews and trailers?
Any site that gave it a positive review has been accused of either not finishing the game, glossing over its myriad flaws or taking a bribe to pump up their score. Every public spokesperson related to the project has botched their PR so badly that I'd be surprised if their next release gets half the sales of 3 (which was fueled primarily by excitement for the previous game).
The fact that both Ray Muzyka and EA themselves had to come out and publicly reaffirm their commitment to the company shows that something is seriously wrong with their product. DA was a disaster that barely sold half of the original critically-acclaimed game (and a new IP). TOR is still hemorrhaging subscribers. ME3, as many reviewers are now coming to find out, was a mess from a story and plot perspective.
What makes you think anyone besides the most ravenous BW fanboys want anything to do with the company at this point?
Obviously not everyone is going to like the game mate, but come on, developers trash talking a main competitor to their own games (Blizzard had Diablo 3 coming out and CD Projekt had the Witcher 2 come out the previous month.) isn't something new. Dice mocked Call of Duty, EA has knocked Zynga when they were attempting to make a move into the simulation market. Point is, because a handful of devs don't like it, that does not mean it was a laughing stock.crazyrabbits said:
Guess that would mean EVERY single reviewer who reviewed the game got bribed thencrazyrabbits said:
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/mass-effect-3/critic-reviews
http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/mass-effect-3/critic-reviews
http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-3/mass-effect-3/critic-reviews
And the user reviews on metacritic are about as accurate as colonial musket. This is mainly due to the fact that gamers literally bomb the score down by giving games 0,1 or 2 as a score over an actual grade. Grades like that are reserved for games that are non-existent. They're not helpful scores and they reflect poorly on the Metacritic community.[/quote]
You wouldn't? I would, mainly because I expect equal or double the sales just to spite the guys who said "Change the ending 111!1!!!!!11." Trust me, when Mass Effect 3 came out, that group was even more hated then Bioware's ending.crazyrabbits said:
Because its one of those companies that people will buy from regardless of what anyone says.crazyrabbits said:
For example, DA2 sucked, but people still went out and bought Swotor in such large numbers that the servers couldn't keep up and Swotor would go on to become the "fastest growing MMO of all time."
Even when people were complaining about the lack of an end game in Swotor, people still went out and bought ME3 in such large numbers that it shattered franchise predictions.
I.E. People are going to keep buying Bioware games because they're made by Bioware, just like how they'll keep buying Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed games.
I use those examples only because they're a handful of the most notable. There were plenty of other negative reactions - the controversy was covered in many media outlets. Forbes' tech reviewer had a field day bashing Bioware for their terrible customer service/PR. The New Yorker trashed the company and asked how they could botch their release so badly. CNN even covered it. The list goes on and on.maddawg IAJI said:
Even if the mainstream press didn't, the fact that so many developers notably and specifically called out BW after the game's release (CDProjekt, for instance, made a point of specifically noting how their game (the re-release of Witcher 2) would give you more changes than a "simple colour palette swap") shows you how sustained the backlash was, even to this day. Adult Swim brought back a game review program they hadn't aired in years for the sole purpose of criticizing the game. ME3's own writer, Patrick Weekes, wrote how much he disliked the product in a since-deleted forum post. Pratchett (the writer of Mirror's Edge, by the way) trashed it. The BBC commented on it. Members of IGN, Kotaku, Gamasutra, Destructoid and many other gaming blogs came around to trashing it after the fact.
The very fact that various members of the management team had to come out and reaffirm their commitment to the company, and the fact that they had to release a free DLC to mollify the fanbase, shows you that this was much more than just the average run-of-the-mill complaint about the game.
And plenty of people upvote a game due to rampant fanboyism - what's your point? The only difference between the two groups is whether or not one side has more people. I'm not going to touch whether the reviews were paid or not (although there are many who seem to think there are).
The reviews, by and large, don't mention anything about the ending or the noticeable and rampant problems throughout the game. Many people have called out review outlets after the fact for being disingenuous.
You wouldn't have had the Extended Cut DLC if it wasn't for those fans. In fact, judging from what I saw, as I was actually posting on the BSN when the game came out, the people who were complaining about the ending were much more rational and well-reasoned than the diehard fans who were continuously screaming "Shut up already!"
I'm not going to give a breakdown of their PR gaffes, but it was complete nonsense - they were disingenuous (or outright lied) about their game elements, tried to downplay the controversy and outright told people they were wrong on their forums, had to get their CEO to come out and make a public mea culpa for their game, and continually acted as though their entire fanbase was non-existent.
I don't think you understand what you're talking about.
I don't take EA's marketing spin at face value. Judging from all accounts, DAII sold incredibly poorly compared to its predecessor, a new IP which (as I mentioned was critically-acclaimed).
TOR likely sold because of the brand name, and even then, it hemorrhaged subscribers every month. In what world is a game that lost over half its subscribers considered "the fastest growing MMO of all time"? It's still doing so - the whole "free-to-play" change is a last gasp. You go on any TOR server and it's practically empty.
ME3 sold better than the first game, but (last I checked) worse than 2. It was substantially cut in price a month after release, and is likely more remembered now for its controversy and fan outrage than anything to do with its story or characters.
I would have said people would blindly buy Bioware products a year ago, but when the announcement of any of their games comes with a mass reaction of "I won't get fooled again", you know something is seriously wrong.