Escapist Podcast: 091: Sega & Gearbox False Advertisement Suit

[The Escapist Staff]

091: Sega & Gearbox False Advertisement Suit

This week, the Escapist crew weighs in on the class action lawsuit against Gearbox and Sega for false advertisement in Aliens Colonial Marines. We also discuss etiquette for Twitter and some laughable interview tips.

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[Okoi]

Yeay! Janelle! Having you back for the podcat has just made my day.

 

[bdcjacko]

As far as the annoying twitter follower thing goes. I assume I am an annoying twitter follower and podcat posters. I understand that the people I am following looking for attention from don't know me from Adam, and we aren't personal friends. So I let those dictate what I will say to them and then assume I crossed the line no matter what. Then when they do respond, I count it as a win. If they don't respond, I chalk it up to them being busy and me being annoying but in no way taking it personal.

Also I am so vain, I felt guilty during the whole first part of the podcat even though I purposely don't chime in on every tweet, and really try to stretch out when I do chime in.

 

[Eleuthera]

I got rid of my twitter account half a year ago. In the two years I had the account I tweeted "famous" people 2 or 3 times, and even those felt inappropriate.

Over Facebook I do reply to posts occasionally, but that's a bit less personal (or at least it seems so to me).

 

[StriderShinryu]

The watch thing being very notable is perfectly understandable to me considering many interviews start with a handshake. Not everyone wears a watch on their "shaking" arm but enough do that it definitely stands out.

The Twitter thing is kind of hard to tackle. Twitter is a totally open medium with nearly no restrictions. If you use Twitter, particularly if you are a public person who puts their handle out there, you are basically opening up yourself up to pretty much any sort of contact via the service. It's like accepting the EULA before you play a new game. You make not like every one of the tenets outlined in the EULA, but you presumably want to play the game enough that you'll agree to them anyways. All that said, of course, there definitely is some level of responsiblity on behalf of the Twitter follower and that really does come down to social IQ. Thing is, as above, if you're a Twitter user, you're basically agreeing to be in public contact with people who have varying levels of social IQ. You know there are sharks circling in the pool below you; whether you jump in or not isn't the fault of the sharks.

As far as false advertising goes, I think it really is more about clarity than any desire for retribution and, as stated in the podcast, the easiest way to currently fight back is to just stop blindly buying pre-ordering games and/or feeling you have to buy on day 1. This comes up a lot in debates over piracy as well. Complaints about games not being as good as advertised. Complaints about games being buggy or just down right not working Day 1. Complaints about options menus not being as full featured as desired. Etc. Just wait a few days or a week after launch and all of your questions will be answered. Now, I'm not saying that you should never pre-order or buy Day 1, I'm just saying that gamers need to man (and woman) up, and just accept that they are taking a risk when you do so. You know how launches go. You know how titles don't always match up to what the early reviews say. You know early bugs are common, especially on certain platforms. With all of that knowledge, and don't pretend that you don't have it, why is it the developers/publishers fault when you go out and pre-order/buy Day 1 then find yourself disappointed?

 

[AkaDad]

Does Janelle take perky pills, and if so, where can I get some?

Btw, I could barely hear Josh. It seems that every week, whoever sits in the front left seat can barely be heard.

 

[Crazy Zaul]

Grey Carter tweets way to much. I had to unfollow him and rely on Gavin to filter it and re-tweet only the good ones.

 

[Susan Arendt]

Does Janelle take perky pills, and if so, where can I get some?

Btw, I could barely hear Josh. It seems that every week, whoever sits in the front left seat can barely be heard.

Our levels could certainly be better, but in fairness, Josh is very soft spoken. Especially compared to loudmouths like me and Janelle.

 

[Golden Fish]

Holla escapados, first time write to you...

In regards of your discussion of the issue a game and its first hour being really good, and is a "demo". Lets say, at 1:01 it turns shitty , bad ui, bad textures, bad level planing.

When you, the consumer, goes and says "that clearly its false advertisement. and this things would apply, right?" I want may money back -and they wouldn't!

And the reasoning is the 1st hour is part of the game, so the game isn't broken, you enjoy it , not all the way but that happens everywhere, when you're doing something, like playing a videogame (or dancing),its very unlikely you will like it all the way (or all the songs).

It seemed you guys want to bring demos (from the grave) to a mainstream audience, and I'm for it!+free games, +choice, to woune matters the most the players,not the gamejornalists(nothing against you, its my pov).



I would like, if you can, to contradict me.
I Challenge you "the forum".

 

[Vie]

The icecream thing is a case of life semi-imitating art: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0818411/

Which gets worse, when you find out its kinda based on real world icecream Wars from Glasgow: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Ice_Cream_Wars

Yep, we Brits are even more serious about icecream based conflict than you guys apparently.

 

[Almack]

crap now I feel I should apologize to susan because I asked her what breed her dog was.
oh and if you do read this susan sorry

also on the subject of youth unemployment often times employers don't want to hire inexperienced workers and so it's hard for my generation to break into the job market because you have no experience in whatever field your applying to so they wont hire you because they dont want to spend time and money training you soooooo it's a catch 22 situation. and yes because we cant even get in the door you cant practice our interview skills so we make mistakes that are all our own.

 

[Jamane]

you guys rock... that is all

 

[Imp_Emissary]

That first hour gate Janelle talked about sounds like a really good idea. I hope it gets implemented in games soon.

Hope you all have a great Star Wars day!

 

[Imp_Emissary]

crap now I feel I should apologize to susan because I asked her what breed her dog was.
oh and if you do read this susan sorry

:/ It's probably okay. She did say that you could ask about her dog.

But it's good that you care about crossing lines. Well done, but don't be too hard on yourself.

 

[MorganL4]

So, I would sign up for pubclub, but I can't because I already did about two years ago....

Also.... The USA Today article... Are you POSITIVE it wasn't a spoof?

 

[AkaDad]

Does Janelle take perky pills, and if so, where can I get some?

Btw, I could barely hear Josh. It seems that every week, whoever sits in the front left seat can barely be heard.

Our levels could certainly be better, but in fairness, Josh is very soft spoken. Especially compared to loudmouths like me and Janelle.

Hey, you got her name right!

I think "loudmouth" is too negative. Let's go with boisterous.

 

[Imp_Emissary]

Holla escapados, first time write to you...

In regards of your discussion of the issue a game and its first hour being really good, and is a "demo". Lets say, at 1:01 it turns shitty , bad ui, bad textures, bad level planing.

When you, the consumer, goes and says "that clearly its false advertisement. and this things would apply, right?" I want may money back -and they wouldn't!

And the reasoning is the 1st hour is part of the game, so the game isn't broken, you enjoy it , not all the way but that happens everywhere, when you're doing something, like playing a videogame (or dancing),its very unlikely you will like it all the way (or all the songs).

It seemed you guys want to bring demos (from the grave) to a mainstream audience, and I'm for it!+free games, +choice, to woune matters the most the players,not the gamejornalists(nothing against you, its my pov).



I would like, if you can, to contradict me.
I Challenge you "the forum".

Actually, what they were talking about weren't "normal" demos.

It was more like this one part of the game (marked by time, or a specific location) were you have to chose between; A. Keep on playing, and give up the ability to turn in the game for a refund,

Or B. Stop playing, and maybe take the game back for a refund.
That said, more demos would be nice.

As for the whole; "Can't they just make the game very kickass until the player hits the gate?", well as the Podcasters said, that will probably end up with another lawsuit, that may actually win. Maybe.

 

[Murmillos]

It still appears The Escapist purposefully trying to mislead the nature of the backlash to the ending of Mass Effect 3.
Ignoring even basic writing basics that the ending has absolutely no narrative coherence to the rest of the previous 120 hours .. THERE was false advertise on the end of both BioWare and EA. They both clearly stated multiple times during the development that all of your choices would matter at the end, (there are people who will argue that the whole of ME3 is the "ending"..) but the most key of all, that there would be no A B C ending. But that just what we got! Red - Blue - Green; and only if your "score" was high enough to get all 3 options, some people only got two, or perhaps only one ending choice.

While there are always the set of people who wanted blue Shepard babies for the ending, most people were willing and ready to make the ultimate Shepard sacrifice to end the Reaper war... just not in the manner of a magic space child/god in the final 3 minutes of the game.


Edit: Job Interview / Parents. Is The Escapist not aware of the 'helicopter parent' syndrome issue? Its parents who are so afraid of their child failing, they are not letting their child fail to learn. So All thru school (middle/high/college) the parent will make every major decision.

 

[Sosa Star]

Fun to listen to as always, but Susan had my hopes up for a puppy.