Simonoly said:
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So would you say maybe, that Mass Effect 3 is being treated differently to many other games due to a culmination of many reasons that run deeper than it's Deus Ex Machina ending? That many don't just feel cheated, but actively exploited? Or am I just speaking out of my arse? - can/has/does happen.
I am sure there are a few, maybe even
quite a few. :7
At least
I feel a bit of that and I'm as likely as anybody to project my own impressions on everybody else.
I wouldn't say it's different treatment, so much as a culimination.
The industry giants have for a long time moved in several directions that are of questionable advantage to their paying customers, which has garnered them critisism from a few outspoken individuals and a bit of a "record label" reputation among the gaming public at large.
There is a pattern that is common in
all industries:
- A small innovative company strikes gold, by offering great products/services.
- A large concern buys the small company and begins to tamper, not least of all with its core business, in order to maximise profit.
- Customers leave, since the products/services that were so popular are now gone.
- The failing company is shut down, by executives that are either too arrogant to see that it was their own meddling that caused the downfall, or were only looking for an excuse to keep it out of the hands of competitors, in the first place and never had any intention on keeping it running. Either way they now have the trademark and are happy enough with that.
I'm sure each of us associate most of the big publishers with at least one such event. That is part of their bad image.
Bioware has a very loyal fanbase owing to a fine track record.
To somebody like an EA executive the idea of "acquiring" such a group of "evangelist" customers must be very tempting.
What he may not realise, or at least not see as a bad thing, is the "taint" that comes with his own self. It doesn't even need to be true, as long as people at all associate him with destructive business practices.
Market experimentation has been performed by every major publisher, over time and, as mentioned above, there have been a precious few outspoken critics, who have pointed out some of the less customer-friendly aspects of this or that venture -- most of the time talking to deaf ears.
Bioware under EA has not really seen more of underhand market tactics sneaking in, than others, but this is where the expectations of the fanbase comes in.
Since Bioware has earned their marks and their following, producing very formulaic games, odd things like DLC-peddling NPCs and gameplay "streamlining" stands out more, than it might elsewhere, because they break the template.
The Mass Effect series has actually seen a gradual tonal shift over the entire series, in addition to the recent turnabout; e.g. going from cheesy-space-opera-with-trace-amounts-of-hard-scifi in ME1 to cheesier-comic-book-adventure in ME2. This is probably just innocent response to select feedback and a desire to appeal to a larger audience and some pandering here and there, but it all accumulates in the back of your mind.
While a huge swath of fans will defend
anything the developer does and the more libertarian ones will defend anything the
publisher does, some will recognise the pattern mentioned above and begin to worry about the direction the the company they "love" is taking and its life expectancy - they may even start listening to the storm crows.
Little changes compound - it's not just Bioware, it's the industry, but ME3 does have something of a special place, given the vested history that players have with the first two acts of its story and then you have the igniting spark. ...and such a spark it is.
Oh dear, sorry about the novel.
