Ihniwid said:
Shadowkire said:
Ihniwid said:
This whole thing says more about the fans of the series than the company that made it. We saw this occur earlier in the year when the Mass Effect book was released and there was a petition to change various lore issues that were discovered.
Contributing to fandom does not inherently provide the consumer with creative rights to a given product. This is especially true of "art forms" which, I think, most Mass Effect fans would argue the video game is aspiring towards. Consumerism simply provides the ability to consume the product.
If you don't like the product, the only recourse you have is to ask for a refund.
This basic fact is altogether missing in the hive-mind that encapsulates the Mass Effect fan base.
Or maybe the fans hadn't given up on BioWare just yet and were saying "We don't like what you gave us for the amount we spent on it, we would appreciate it if changes were made to make things better."
One thing you anti-fan whiners always miss is that if most of the fans get refund/stop buying BioWare games BW will go out of business. Then not only will we have a bad game and maybe missed out on a few good games but we would lose one of the few RPG developers in the market. The fans were trying to create a situation where everyone wins, instead of your crap solution of everyone losing.
Well, I think my first question is what you meant by "anti-fan whiners." Do you mean an anti-fan who also whines, or an individual who is against fans who happen to whine?
But I digress... The way consumerism (and the overarching framework of capitalism) works is pretty simple. If the fans stopped purchasing products from Bioware on the basis that the company did not take the story line or plot elements seriously enough, then yes, Bioware "could potentially" go out of business. From what I understand, however, the game sold very well, even by modest estimates of gross sales to date. So... there's that.
Your, umm, conclusion that the fans are trying to save Bioware from some sort of possible corruption or bankruptcy does not make any sense. The fans simply want something they did not get. It's a purely selfish request and has nothing to do with saving Bioware from financial or public ruin.
Interestingly enough, the modern consumer market is changing in a rather intriguing way. Modern social media has become a necessary asset to many consumer products, with feedback coming from across the world and in real-time. The old business model of "if you don't like it, don't buy it" is becoming a less practical, and quite detrimental. Thing is, in the modern day there is absolutely no good reason why a company won't try to appease the customers of it's product-so long as it is "profitable" or at the least cost them less than they would lose. Consumer feedback can be an important tool for a savvy business, as it allows you to adapt your products quickly to what the consumers desire, and change what needs to be changed.
With digital products, it's even easier. The dissemination of your product can happen well within the homes of the consumers themselves. You don't need to convince them to go an actually buy it physically, as they can do that from the comfort of their own ottoman.
Now, what does this mean? Frankly, it's mostly prediction on my end, but a logical prediction. Those companies whose consumers rather loudly proclaim their dislike of the product have a very unique opportunity: Make it better, or more to the point a better fit for their customers. Really, social media criticism should be seen as something of a boon for an intelligent business working primarily in digital media. They have the rather unique position of knowing full-well that people are not happy with their products without having to wait for any real foot work to be done in the physical world.
Further, they can very quickly address these issues in a far faster manner than other products can. They can gather the information more quickly, fix the problems more readily, and provide a "fix" more easily than physical world counterparts ever can. I foresee those business willing to utilize social media fully and effectively to create stronger products, or to fix problems that the consumer have, will be far more successful and both garnering and maintaining consumer goodwill than those that do not.
In short, we've moved well beyond the "if you don't like, don't buy" stage of capitalism, which is really just lazy capitalism at best. Giving feedback, positive or negative, really will do nothing but help those willing approach this issues intelligently and constructively.
And yet, this is different. I have a strong feeling that the product being released will not appease the fanbase. And one doesn't really need to go far to understand why. The major issue that has stoked the flames so hot for so long has very little to do with the product or the plans to fix the product itself. That's rather unimportant in the grand scheme of everything. Really, the major issue comes from the rather huge PR debacle involving it all. By being both insulting and condescending towards their detractors, they have effectively disillusioned a large portion of the people. They have treated the situation rather flipantly, and have heavily implied that the opinions of these people simply do not matter. The industry's media has made this situation even worse for Bioware. What this has created is a group of consumers who have essentially been told (either intentionally or not is of no importance) that their criticism and desires simply do not matter.
This is bad. Very bad. Excessively bad. The reasoning is really quite simple. It has honestly gotten to the point where many will not be satisfied with anything that is provided. Those that feel dissillusioned by this entire situation will likely view any material released with a grain of salt, simply out of anger or dissatisfaction with Bioware. They will view any attempt at "fixing" the situation as a cop-out or a lazily produced product with the obvious purpose of placating the masses, rather than Bioware actually listening and concerning themselves with their arguments. It doesn't really matter at this point what is produced, as the common narrative that has been trumpeted both by Bioware and by the industry at large is "You don't matter". Whether or not this is true matters absolutely none. Perception is all that is important, and they have made many statements which heavily imply this. And whether the implication is true or not simply doesn't matter either, as that is what the consumers have heard.
To put it simply, Bioware through some rather poor PR stunts has painted themselves into a rather bleak corner. The absolute best they can hope for at this point is that the DLC "extended cut" will go mostly unnoticed as the initial fervor will have died down by then.
But this also creates some problems for Bioware as a whole as well. Their only product in development (At least known) is Dragon Age 3, a franchise game with only modest interest at best in the name itself, let alone the rather unimpressive sales of the second game compounding on this. Further, their big labor of recent being The Old Republic, which isn't exactly going so hot these days either. ME3, although not a critical failure, was not a massive success either. It sold moderately well to very well, but did not meet the expecations of the predictions set forth. Couple this with the rather large disillusioned group surrounding ME3, and things are not looking to good for Bioware. Is it dismal or near bankruptcy? Well, no. Not really at all. But it isn't looking good when everything is lumped together.
TL;DR version:
Nothing Bioware does will matter, as they pissed on those critical of ME3 through very bad PR moves. Also, not buying a product isn't a very smart or good thing to do in this day and age.
