Poll: So have you sent EA the email yet?

[MercurySteam]

only gmaeplay shows it as an rpg that means character customisation through lots of stats you define your character, the thing ME2 failed at becuase its a tps

That isn't a word in the dictionary, least not in mine. Gameplay is not the only thing that makes a game an RPG. You may as well say that Borderlands can't be an RPG cause it's an FPS (not to mention the fact Borderlands has less RPG elements than ME2). Is Oblivion any more of an RPG cause you can swing swords, cast spells and have an inventory where you can equip multiple types of armor and weapons? (don't forget that Bioshock 1/2 never had an inventory which also happens to be an RPG)

Are you actually saying that the entire game can't be an RPG because combat is in the form of a cover-based TPS? Then you're going to need to argue that Bioshock 1/2 and Borderlands aren't RPGFs either. You're gonna see a lot more RPG's with shooter elements in them from now on so get used to it.

 

[AK47Marine]

I emailed them a long rant about their marketing practices and why they suck

didn't include the vid though

 

[MercurySteam]

Borderlands isnt an rpg imo

See that's the problem. The industry doesn't care about your opinion. If Gearbox registers their game as an RPG, Gamespot list it as an RPG, then the retailers sell as an RPG and it wins RPG of the year then you're gonna have a hard time proving to people (like me) that it's not an RPG.

 

[Woodsey]

only gmaeplay shows it as an rpg that means character customisation through lots of stats you define your character, the thing ME2 failed at becuase its a tps

That isn't a word in the dictionary, least not in mine. Gameplay is not the only thing that makes a game an RPG. You may as well say that Borderlands can't be an RPG cause it's an FPS (not to mention the fact Borderlands has less RPG elements than ME2). Is Oblivion any more of an RPG cause you can swing swords, cast spells and have an inventory where you can equip multiple types of armor and weapons? (don't forget that Bioshock 1/2 never had an inventory which also happens to be an RPG)

I've got no interest in joining this debate, but BioShock isn't an RPG. Whoever told you that is incorrect. Its considered a (loose) spiritual successor to the System Shock games, which were RPGs (amongst other things).

 

[KEM10]

Borderlands isnt an rpg imo

See that's the problem. The industry doesn't care about your opinion. If Gearbox registers their game as an RPG, Gamespot list it as an RPG, then the retailers sell as an RPG and it wins RPG of the year then you're gonna have a hard time proving to people (like me) that it's not an RPG.

COD for rpg of 2011, it has rpg elements and fans will buy itk its an rpg, fuck what you say.

RPG elements are being implemented everywhere as a way for customization. You want to play a shotgunner and don't like pistols, well let's "level up" your shot gun abilities and let your pistol ones stagnate. Or here's a barrel you can use that has -1 spread and +2 damage OR this one that has +2 spread and +5 pellets so you can be a longer range or closer combatant. And before anyone steps in, shotguns are medium range weapons depending on the choke, when hunting the closest I've gotten an animal was 30 yards (10 meters) before I fired (turkey, and that's the tightest choke you will have). It is there to help different play styles and capitalize on them.

If you want an in depth story with your skill points, Borderlands has it. It just has text walls that most people skipped over. Saying that it doesn't matter is also getting rid of ME1 because people can skip through the cut scenes there too.

 

[Spark Ignition]

No. I don't really think games are art, so I think EA can advertise however they want. Plus none of these adverts are shown in the UK, so I have even less of a beef with 'em.

Don't know why I have this viewpoint yet come back to Extra Credits every week...

It's not an issue of if games are art. Ok, that's definitely involved, but as Shamus points out in his article there are still ongoing legal battles to have all violent videogames banned, on the basis that they're marketed to children. And in the face of EA's Dead Space 2 'your mom will hate this' campaign, can we really argue that they're not?

 

[KEM10]

Borderlands isnt an rpg imo

See that's the problem. The industry doesn't care about your opinion. If Gearbox registers their game as an RPG, Gamespot list it as an RPG, then the retailers sell as an RPG and it wins RPG of the year then you're gonna have a hard time proving to people (like me) that it's not an RPG.

COD for rpg of 2011, it has rpg elements and fans will buy itk its an rpg, fuck what you say.

RPG elements are being implemented everywhere as a way for customization. You want to play a shotgunner and don't like pistols, well let's "level up" your shot gun abilities and let your pistol ones stagnate. Or here's a barrel you can use that has -1 spread and +2 damage OR this one that has +2 spread and +5 pellets so you can be a longer range or closer combatant. And before anyone steps in, shotguns are medium range weapons depending on the choke, when hunting the closest I've gotten an animal was 30 yards (10 meters) before I fired (turkey, and that's the tightest choke you will have). It is there to help different play styles and capitalize on them.

If you want an in depth story with your skill points, Borderlands has it. It just has text walls that most people skipped over. Saying that it doesn't matter is also getting rid of ME1 because people can skip through the cut scenes there too.

Cutscenes dont make it an rpg, its an interactive cutsccene,choosing wiehter shepard says "fuck yeah we won" or "wooo" dosent make it an rpg, its a fucking cutscene, a pointless one, the gameplay is still the same damn thing. You judge games on several things, ME2 had fuck all in terms of plot, so its pure gameplay, and its gameplay is that of a shooter, look at jacks mission, sure I can have the option to be an asshole to her, but the fact I must go through the same fighting/gameplay again is laughable, you wouldnt play gears 3 and think "its an awesome rpg" if they gave you an option at the end to celibrate or take the emotionless soldier approach. Sure THE GAME PLAYS OUT THE SAME, but aslong as you get that option its an RPG, and becuase ME2 shameless tries to be gears of war, it can even be considered better because obat is done better. Gears = RPG of 2011.

I said ME1 not 2.

 

[Harlemura]

No. I don't really think games are art, so I think EA can advertise however they want. Plus none of these adverts are shown in the UK, so I have even less of a beef with 'em.

Don't know why I have this viewpoint yet come back to Extra Credits every week...

It's not an issue of if games are art. Ok, that's definitely involved, but as Shamus points out in his article there are still ongoing legal battles to have all violent videogames banned, on the basis that they're marketed to children. And in the face of EA's Dead Space 2 'your mom will hate this' campaign, can we really argue that they're not?

I'll admit, I didn't look at it that way, since all I got was Extra Credits' ideas of arty-farty reasons. But in my defense, I posted before Shamus' article went up.
Think I'll have to change my reason of not sending the e-mail to the more honest "I'm too lazy to be bothered".

 

[0986875533423]

Frankly, though I think what EA did was stupid, irresponsible, and (in the case of the "Your Mom hates this" campaign) UTTERLY INCOMPREHENSIBLE, it won't hurt the medium as much as EC say. That's a hard thing for me to admit, because I love EC, but if half the damages they've speculated over all this time had actually occurred videogames would be fucking illegal, never mind discredited.

But here we look to Indie Developers. Indie devs are fresh, arty and able to pump the credit back into the medium that the big corps lose when they suddenly find they're all big and grown up and "oh no, we have to behave like a business now and be massive dicks!". So send that email (EA don't get off the hook that easily) but then do something for me: Go out and buy a little game you've never heard of before that you think might build your character or teach you something. Play it, see if you like it. Frankly, I think we should be making some effort to fix our own problems as well if we're going to go complaining about them as well.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Borderlands isnt an rpg imo

See that's the problem. The industry doesn't care about your opinion. If Gearbox registers their game as an RPG, Gamespot list it as an RPG, then the retailers sell as an RPG and it wins RPG of the year then you're gonna have a hard time proving to people (like me) that it's not an RPG.

COD for rpg of 2011, it has rpg elements and fans will buy itk its an rpg, fuck what you say.

RPG elements are being implemented everywhere as a way for customization. You want to play a shotgunner and don't like pistols, well let's "level up" your shot gun abilities and let your pistol ones stagnate. Or here's a barrel you can use that has -1 spread and +2 damage OR this one that has +2 spread and +5 pellets so you can be a longer range or closer combatant. And before anyone steps in, shotguns are medium range weapons depending on the choke, when hunting the closest I've gotten an animal was 30 yards (10 meters) before I fired (turkey, and that's the tightest choke you will have). It is there to help different play styles and capitalize on them.

If you want an in depth story with your skill points, Borderlands has it. It just has text walls that most people skipped over. Saying that it doesn't matter is also getting rid of ME1 because people can skip through the cut scenes there too.

Cutscenes dont make it an rpg, its an interactive cutsccene,choosing wiehter shepard says "fuck yeah we won" or "wooo" dosent make it an rpg, its a fucking cutscene, a pointless one, the gameplay is still the same damn thing. You judge games on several things, ME2 had fuck all in terms of plot, so its pure gameplay, and its gameplay is that of a shooter, look at jacks mission, sure I can have the option to be an asshole to her, but the fact I must go through the same fighting/gameplay again is laughable, you wouldnt play gears 3 and think "its an awesome rpg" if they gave you an option at the end to celibrate or take the emotionless soldier approach. Sure THE GAME PLAYS OUT THE SAME, but aslong as you get that option its an RPG, and becuase ME2 shameless tries to be gears of war, it can even be considered better because obat is done better. Gears = RPG of 2011.

I said ME1 not 2.

ME1 is a RPG. You have various classes, customizable equipment, and a skill tree. That allows you to tailor make your team as you see fit. You have level progression that actually matters (at the start, Shepard is a terrible shot and guns overheat quickly). ME1 is a RPG, ME2 is not. When deciding whether something is a RPG you have to go based on common gameplay and mechanics specific to the genre or else anything can be called a RPG.

 

[qazmatoz]

Nope. I don't really have an issue with how EA markets anything. That's actually been my issue with Extra Credits as a whole. They have this grand idea of how games "should be more", and act like anyone who doesn't agree is hurting the industry as a whole. Sometimes a game is just a game. The show in general, and that episode in particular, just comes off as way too preachy for me.

Yes, a game may just be a game sometimes, but when a company makes the decision to bastardize a key work of western literature, there is reason to be at least a little concerned about where their priorities lie. And they could at least bastardize it well.

Nothing wrong with speaking publicly about something you care immensely about. If you didn't care about video games and their future I doubt you'd frequent a gaming forum.

 

[KEM10]

Borderlands isnt an rpg imo

See that's the problem. The industry doesn't care about your opinion. If Gearbox registers their game as an RPG, Gamespot list it as an RPG, then the retailers sell as an RPG and it wins RPG of the year then you're gonna have a hard time proving to people (like me) that it's not an RPG.

COD for rpg of 2011, it has rpg elements and fans will buy itk its an rpg, fuck what you say.

RPG elements are being implemented everywhere as a way for customization. You want to play a shotgunner and don't like pistols, well let's "level up" your shot gun abilities and let your pistol ones stagnate. Or here's a barrel you can use that has -1 spread and +2 damage OR this one that has +2 spread and +5 pellets so you can be a longer range or closer combatant. And before anyone steps in, shotguns are medium range weapons depending on the choke, when hunting the closest I've gotten an animal was 30 yards (10 meters) before I fired (turkey, and that's the tightest choke you will have). It is there to help different play styles and capitalize on them.

If you want an in depth story with your skill points, Borderlands has it. It just has text walls that most people skipped over. Saying that it doesn't matter is also getting rid of ME1 because people can skip through the cut scenes there too.

Cutscenes dont make it an rpg, its an interactive cutsccene,choosing wiehter shepard says "fuck yeah we won" or "wooo" dosent make it an rpg, its a fucking cutscene, a pointless one, the gameplay is still the same damn thing. You judge games on several things, ME2 had fuck all in terms of plot, so its pure gameplay, and its gameplay is that of a shooter, look at jacks mission, sure I can have the option to be an asshole to her, but the fact I must go through the same fighting/gameplay again is laughable, you wouldnt play gears 3 and think "its an awesome rpg" if they gave you an option at the end to celibrate or take the emotionless soldier approach. Sure THE GAME PLAYS OUT THE SAME, but aslong as you get that option its an RPG, and becuase ME2 shameless tries to be gears of war, it can even be considered better because obat is done better. Gears = RPG of 2011.

I said ME1 not 2.

ME1 is a RPG. You have various classes, customizable equipment, and a skill tree. That allows you to tailor make your team as you see fit. You have level progression that actually matters (at the start, Shepard is a terrible shot and guns overheat quickly). ME1 is a RPG, ME2 is not. When deciding whether something is a RPG you have to go based on common gameplay and mechanics specific to the genre or else anything can be called a RPG.

Look at my original post. I am defending Borderlands because it has skill progression, leveling that matters, and story as well as unique weapons that highlight different play styles. The fact most people skipped the plot (TLR syndrome) cannot knock out because people skip the cut scenes in ME1 and miss the plot, but that doesn't remove that from RPG category.

 

[bl4ckh4wk64]

what they do there hurts us

No, it really doesn't. Seriously, I hate EA's advertising. I think it's childish, stupid, and it just turns me away from their games. However, I don't think it's doing damage to the medium as a whole. You know why? I really doubt people are going to remember whatever stupid commercials they push out. Sure, some people will. But these people are the ones who hate games so much they wouldn't give them a chance regardless of what they saw. Their the only ones who are going to fixate on these ads. Everyone else is just going to move on and forget about them. I thought the advertising campaign for Dante's Inferno was horrifyingly dumb, but I already forgot about it.

Point is, both you and Extra Credits are really overblowing the influence these commercials have in the long term. Sure in the short term they cause problems, but in the long term I really don't think they're going to have a significant impact.

So I'm not going to send this email to EA. I don't care that much, and I know EA won't care that much either.

While I agree with you for the most part, there is the good old mothers of America that games have to deal with. They will certainly remember the "your mom hates Dead Space 2" crap. and that can potentially sway others in their favor, even if it is for a small amount of time. Thus, if they have some sort of law that they're passing to ban video games then the "ban them because they're the devil's best friend" side will gain more supporters. Then again, that's just an extremely pessimistic view.

 

[McNinja]

It's not really EA's fault. It those who make up the "mainstream audience" who should be blamed. EA caters to them because that's what the "mainstream" likes. If people stopped being immature morons, them EA would have to step up their (marketing) game.

 

[MasterChief892039]

It would be a million times more effective if everyone e-mailing EA would write their own, well-thought out and respectful letters regarding their thoughts on EA's disrespectful marketing schemes and reenforcement of the stereotype of gaming as an immature medium than it would be to e-mail them this week's Extra Credits segment.

If you all just e-mail them the same video, you're not sending them a message, you're just spamming them.

 

[Sartan0]

nope it,ll probaly be deleted in no-time, the only way too make the message clear is too boycott EA

That is why you send a physical mail in addition to the e-mail and then decide if you want to boycott them. (If you just boycott them they will have no idea why.)

 

[Sartan0]

It would be a million times more effective if everyone e-mailing EA would write their own, well-thought out and respectful letters regarding their thoughts on EA's disrespectful marketing schemes and reenforcement of the stereotype of gaming as an immature medium than it would be to e-mail them this week's Extra Credits segment.

If you all just e-mail them the same video, you're not sending them a message, you're just spamming them.

Yes! You need to take the time to actually write something or it will be ineffective.

 

[Wintermoot]

nope it,ll probaly be deleted in no-time, the only way too make the message clear is too boycott EA

That is why you send a physical mail in addition to the e-mail and then decide if you want to boycott them. (If you just boycott them they will have no idea why.)

I think they probably hookup a paper shredder to the mailbox if allot of people where to do that, the only way your message where to arrive without ANY problems would be to go to the EA HQ and talk to the president yourself

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

No but I plan on doing so, along with the Shamus Young article on the same topic.

 

[PoweD]

Anybody remember "SKATE 3 - Everyone Can Skate"ads? god those were horrible