UK Ad Agency: Mass Effect 3 Advertising "Not Misleading"

[orangeapples]

I know I'm in the minority but I didn't "hate" the ending the same way as the endings people do. For me, the game was more episodic and those subplots are what made up the game. I've played through 2 and 3 twice now and they are very different outcomes. There were many differences although events followed a similar line.

Spoiler

The Salarian/Krogan issue? different outcomes
The Quarian/Geth issue? different outcomes
The Turian/Krogan issue? similar but not the same

What I was disappointed by in the ending was the lack of closure.

Will Wrex unite the Krogan and bring honor back to the Krogan race?
Will Wreav find out about the Genophage and what's his response?

What do the Geth do without their creators?
What will the Quarians do with their planet?
Does peace last between Quarians and Geth?
What happens to Rannoch if I side with the Geth and choose destroy?
What happens to the Quarians if I chose Synthesis?

Are the Krogan pissed about the Turian bomb going off?

What does Shepard do with his control over the reapers?
Will all of my allies I've met with have a huge party in Shepard's honor on the Normandy? Will it be a small party if everyone is dead?

I've done both the:
unite everyone and broker peace across the galaxy game.
fill up that Killed in Action board on the crew deck game.

It just bothered me that the story ended at the Red Blue Green decision as the story isn't done yet. Also, the indoctrination theory would be a nice alternative. So while ME3 doesn't have the "worst ending ever" for me it was still lacking, but a lot of games have had lacking or bad endings so it isn't that new to me. But I can still see where the fans are coming from. I am still bitter about the first game I played through where I was interested in the story to have a bad ending. For me that is the worst game, so ME3 got off easy I suppose.

For this extended cut DLC I'd be happy with either closure on what happens with the rest of the characters or indoctrination theory.

 

[I.Muir]

Funny I thought another watchdog said it was borderline illegal
Assuming this is true we can at least assume that the average anon doesn't have the resources for bribery and are not organized into one cohesive unit so don't really share resources so there can't be motivation of that kind behind that opinion

Regardless the end we were presented with (and it was pretty much only one) didn't make sense, they lost narrative coherency introduced and concluded major plot lines and characters with a paragraph or so of dialog. They also failed to enlighten the audience as to the fates of many of the characters that were emotionally invested in. Bio ware is supposed to be the company with the writing above that of a b movie but this no longer seems the case.

It would have been more conclusive if they had just said everybody and everything is dead.

I had previously held on to the belief that they had the real ending tucked away because they thought it would be worth something as dlc. This apparently is not the case, they stuck to their pile of shit in a way that would be admirable if it was not so sad. Goodbye Bio ware, you will be missed and I pray that EA bursts into flames every day.

 

[viranimus]

This is unequivocally the exact correct call to make because it never was a matter of false advertising. Players were given exactly what was advertised. Were players given what they assumed was advertisement? of course not. But they WERE given exactly what was advertised. Key component, players made the wrong assumption and failed to understand the difference between hype and advertisement, which lo how many times had I said just exactly that.

Kudos

Now heres hoping this can be the nail in the coffin and we hear no more talk about it.

 

[I.Muir]

This is unequivocally the exact correct call to make because it never was a matter of false advertising. Players were given exactly what was advertised. Were players given what they assumed was advertisement? of course not. But they WERE given exactly what was advertised. Key component, players made the wrong assumption and failed to understand the difference between hype and advertisement, which lo how many times had I said just exactly that.

Kudos

Now heres hoping this can be the nail in the coffin and we hear no more talk about it.

Assuming that your decisions will impact the ending was just hype
I guess that makes the word of the company about as good as the promise of a Politician
Good thing I still have not bought that game

 

[OManoghue]

Guess who got bought off.

Guess who's still way too bitter about something that doesn't matter.

 

[viranimus]

Assuming that your decisions will impact the ending was just hype
I guess that makes the word of the company about as good as the promise of a Politician
Good thing I still have not bought that game

No your decisions DO impact the ending, even if its not to the degree gamers are satisfied with. Its not even in question any more. Again no one was made any sort of promises in the form of official advertising that were not actually delivered. The only things people can cite relate to the Casey interview and endless references to posts on the bioware forums and the incredible ability to manage to misinterpret what is on the webpage when there is a youtube video right next to the quote that explains EXACTLY what they mean.

There is no promise there, Only the inferred assumption of a promise and its good that this agency has pointed it out so the wrong interpretation of gamers scorned can be put to rest.

 

[I.Muir]

Assuming that your decisions will impact the ending was just hype
I guess that makes the word of the company about as good as the promise of a Politician
Good thing I still have not bought that game

No your decisions DO impact the ending, even if its not to the degree gamers are satisfied with. Its not even in question any more. Again no one was made any sort of promises in the form of official advertising that were not actually delivered. The only things people can cite relate to the Casey interview and endless references to posts on the bioware forums and the incredible ability to manage to misinterpret what is on the webpage when there is a youtube video right next to the quote that explains EXACTLY what they mean.

There is no promise there, Only the inferred assumption of a promise and its good that this agency has pointed it out so the wrong interpretation of gamers scorned can be put to rest.

What you mean by decisions impacting the end, assuming your not just referring to what color it is id say is debatable>

That said, I'm not saying your wrong

 

[Snotnarok]

I can't believe that people are still whining about the ending.
Go read the story about the guy writing about how nice america is and how he got shot by a random person while he was hitchhiking. What kind of control did he have over that.

And the ending really wasn't that bad, it wasn't great but come on. Let's compare it to this

Right, lets compare a multi million dollar game to a game made on the SNES back in the 1990s or early 2000s to a game made in 2012 from a company that is shown it can make good games and endings.

Sorry, but any defense for the ending that is "Well at least its not X" is not really a defense because every single comparison is not of something of equal merit, yet something that is just worse from 20 years ago.

In essence, anyone who complains about bugs a good defense by the logic above is that "Well at least its not Big Rigs Over the Road racing right?"

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Doesn't stop the endings from being shit.

I'm sorry you lost me at old games can't have good endings, there's plenty of games from that era that have really good endings. ME3s ending was far from abysmal and they're fixing it for free unlike the hundreds games that actually had either no endings or bad ones.

Feel free to disagree but having played through the series the ending didn't scratch the overall fun factor in the total series. Was the ending disappointing? Sure a bit but the whole series was great fun.

I can't believe that people are still whining about the ending.
Go read the story about the guy writing about how nice america is and how he got shot by a random person while he was hitchhiking. What kind of control did he have over that.

And the ending really wasn't that bad, it wasn't great but come on. Let's compare it to this

Okay, lets compare.

ME3 ending = AMGIBUOUS STUFF HAPPENS. GILLIGANS PLANET. YOU WIN. BUY OUR STUFF!

The ME screen you're showing is after the story events that happened. Also..they're giving the expanded ending for free, what are you complaining about agian?

I can't believe that people are still whining about the ending.
Go read the story about the guy writing about how nice america is and how he got shot by a random person while he was hitchhiking. What kind of control did he have over that.

And the ending really wasn't that bad, it wasn't great but come on. Let's compare it to this

Two very weak strawman arguments there.

1. Stories are not real life and don't have to play by real life's rules.

2. Comparing the ME3 ending to games with minimal or no focus on story misses the entire point of why people were upset over it.

I still don't get why people are so upset by it, the series totals in over 60 hours of fun gameplay but 15 minutes makes the series bad is what I've been reading. I'm not saying the ending was great but there's far far worse that has not even gotten close to this much hate.

 

[Joccaren]

As if anyone didn't see this coming.

I'd say the advertising was definitely misleading, but without Dev quotes, or prior knowledge of the series [Which I believe aren't officially counted], I wouldn't say it crossed the line.

The devs themselves crossed the line with statements like the one about the Rachni coming AFTER the game had gone gold, and was being printed onto discs. Its finished. You can't claim you didn't know what's in it. But there is a blatant lie there [Or a gross exaggeration]. Sadly, I don't believe dev comments get officially counted as advertising, even though IMO they should [Especially that late in the dev cycle].

 

[viranimus]

What you mean by decisions impacting the end, assuming your not just referring to what color it is id say is debatable>

That said, I'm not saying your wrong

Its in the main article, but you have to also realize that "the ending" is much more than the last 10 minutes of the game just before the credits. Thats a failure of misunderstanding all too many gamers made and is the primary root of why this whole thing got out of hand. The "ending" is the final approach and includes the final battle, and the lead up to it. Basically Casey lived up to exactly what he said because he knew they were changing the entire scope of what "the ending" is and if you read the ill fated interview with that perspective you can see thats exactly what he is implying.

 

[JesterRaiin]

Although the untempered rage that seized the internet after it finished Mass Effect 3 has (thankfully) simmered down to a low growl,

Wait, wait, what ? Gamers shouldn't complain even if they aren't happy with the game ?

 

[Savryc]

I finished the game a few days ago and, surprise surprise, the ending wasn't even close to being as bad as it was made out to be. But this is the internet after all, the same can be said for 99.99% of all web based outrage.

But yeah, since no advertisement for ME3 ever even mentioned the endings how could there be false advertisement involved?

 

[Simonoly]

I hate the ending just as much as anyone else, but getting the ASA involved is just a whole bag of crazy.

I remember that Halo 2 was advertised as being a great big battle for Earth, when in fact you only stop there for a brief moment and don't really battle for Earth until Halo 3/ODST. If only I had had the common sense to get the ASA involved over such a trivial matter!

 

[SilverBullets000]

I can't believe that people are still whining about the ending.
Go read the story about the guy writing about how nice america is and how he got shot by a random person while he was hitchhiking. What kind of control did he have over that.

And the ending really wasn't that bad, it wasn't great but come on. Let's compare it to this

Okay, lets compare.

ME3 ending = AMGIBUOUS STUFF HAPPENS. GILLIGANS PLANET. YOU WIN. BUY OUR STUFF!

The ME screen you're showing is after the story events that happened. Also..they're giving the expanded ending for free, what are you complaining about agian?

Possibly because this was before they won the golden poo, before the shitstorm hit the internet, and before they told us it would be free? At least Capcom's didn't say: "Thanks, now buy more of our shit."
It's just greedy. I know you're okay with how it ended, but for those who weren't, it was the final part of a horrible ending.
Also, if that's not part of the ending, then how is your example a part of Capcom's?

 

[Aprilgold]

I can't believe that people are still whining about the ending.
Go read the story about the guy writing about how nice america is and how he got shot by a random person while he was hitchhiking. What kind of control did he have over that.

And the ending really wasn't that bad, it wasn't great but come on. Let's compare it to this

Right, lets compare a multi million dollar game to a game made on the SNES back in the 1990s or early 2000s to a game made in 2012 from a company that is shown it can make good games and endings.

Sorry, but any defense for the ending that is "Well at least its not X" is not really a defense because every single comparison is not of something of equal merit, yet something that is just worse from 20 years ago.

In essence, anyone who complains about bugs a good defense by the logic above is that "Well at least its not Big Rigs Over the Road racing right?"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Doesn't stop the endings from being shit.

I'm sorry you lost me at old games can't have good endings, there's plenty of games from that era that have really good endings. ME3s ending was far from abysmal and they're fixing it for free unlike the hundreds games that actually had either no endings or bad ones.

Feel free to disagree but having played through the series the ending didn't scratch the overall fun factor in the total series. Was the ending disappointing? Sure a bit but the whole series was great fun.

The whole series was fun, but saying that the final ending was not a disappointing, un-traceable mess unless you read so far into it that it stopped being fun.

If you want to compare games of now to games of then, you would be aware that for every one decent actual ending cut scene there were truckloads of ones just saying "Thanks for Playing."

I'm sorry, but if someone still calls PONG the single greatest game today versus a critically acclaimed game then I will either slap their scrotum or tits and tell them that they are wrong.

Back when Ninja Gaiden was made cut scenes literally became the shit and was wild back then, now its a lot more developed and as such we have games like Red Dead Redemption and GTA 4 [older examples, yes, but still this gen] paving the game industry with interesting stories weaved through cut scenes and gameplay and all end with some sense of basic understanding.

Dragon Age Origins ended with a ending that made sense, on the ground level. Dragon Age 2 ended with a basic ground level of understanding. Mass Effect one and two ended with a ending that made sense. Mass Effect 3 did not.

To wrap up, my point was against you pulling "Well it ain't one of these again, right guys?" back when the story telling was either done through chat boxes or in the manual, while now in days we have games that feature a disk that essentially comes with a playable movie version of the game then its like comparing the quality of today's games to that of the DoS.

You used a dumb ass analogy instead of simply saying "You know, it could be worse". Just that simple.

 

[Sushewakka]

Frankly I'm more horrifed over the extended cut dlc which is a morally bankrupt concept. It doesn't matter whether the dlc is free or not it doesn't change the fact that the actual epilogue of the game has been withheld from the rest of the game, it's like cutting the last 15 minutes of a movie to show it a few months later. Best stop that rant there.

Actually, the extended cut DLC was planned and prepared as a response to the ending backlash. There were no original plans to make anything like it, and they had to interrupt work on other campaign DLC to produce the extended cut ending.

 

[El Danny]

"the decisions you make completely shape the experience"
"your choices drive powerful outcomes"

The game does this, there's no false advertising about it. Stop getting butt-hurt and move on with your life.

 

[Sis]

Guess who got bought off.

Guess who's still way too bitter about something that doesn't matter.

I'm not bitter since I haven't bought Mass Effect 3. And, since I'm not interested in buying, I took a peek at what the ending is. Matter of fact is that they lied to the world about that our decisions matter.

 

[Frostbyte666]

Actually, the extended cut DLC was planned and prepared as a response to the ending backlash. There were no original plans to make anything it, and they had to interrupt work on other campaign DLC to produce the extended cut ending.

Ahh I see. That case fair enough, but to me that just shows how much they dropped the ball on the ending of a much loved franchise. Thanks for the clarification having not followed this as much as I should have.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Fucking finally. There were difference, and your choices made those differences. In other words, claims fulfilled. It doesn't matter if you didn't like how your changes were taken into account when considering this type of stuff, just if they did or not.