Mass Effect 3 - The Ending Continued

I've just finished the game. I enjoyed it, and liked the ending. But hey ho.

The last thing a creative industry needs though is some business body stripping away all room for imagination.

Originally Posted by kalniel
I've just finished the game. I enjoyed it, and liked the ending. But hey ho.

The last thing a creative industry needs though is some business body stripping away all room for imagination.

False adverting in the industry has nothing to do with stripping away all room for imagination. Developers like Bioware do that to themselves.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
False adverting in the industry has nothing to do with stripping away all room for imagination. Developers like Bioware do that to themselves.

Speaking of advertisements, this was interesting:

Originally Posted by wolfgrimdark
Speaking of advertisements, this was interesting:

At least the quote is right. Not all was a good reaction though. Way to go Bioware. You found a new marketing gimmick to keep people interested.

Originally Posted by jhwisner
You could copy and paste that into a post about the movie industry and with only a few minor tweaks into posts about TV studios and the music industry. Not saying you're any less right, but just that you're really describing the marketing standard operating procedures for the entire entertainment sector - more or less.

not really. movie and tv marketers are careful to address all absolute statements as quotations. they certainly don't do things like claim their show is locked at 24 fps when it only runs at 12, or lie about what genre their film is, or that the HD version releasing next week has high-res textures (when they've obviously been downsampled for consoles). again, none of these worst-case (but common) examples are specific to bioware or mass effect, but… the industry is frickin ridiculous.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Way to go Bioware. You found a new marketing gimmick to keep people interested.

I'm sure this was done through EA's marketing.
At least it leaves this impression to me.

Originally Posted by wolfgrimdark
Speaking of advertisements, this was interesting:

Wolfman…tell me this is a photoshop… Please?
If BioWare are now turning the biggest sh**storm of disappointment and rage in videogame history - into a selling point, then excuse me, but I think my brain has an appointment with this .40 bullet here.

Originally Posted by Gaxkang
Wolfman…tell me this is a photoshop… Please?
If BioWare are now turning the biggest sh**storm of disappointment and rage in videogame history - into a selling point, then excuse me, but I think my brain has an appointment with this .40 bullet here.

According to the BSN forums this, and one other email, was sent out to a variety of people. I thought it was a bit ballsy all things considered. Just seemed to be lacking in good taste towards those who have been upset.

Originally Posted by wolfgrimdark
According to the BSN forums this, and one other email, was sent out to a variety of people. I thought it was a bit ballsy all things considered. Just seemed to be lacking in good taste towards those who have been upset.

I agree. I'm starting to think this was the plan all along. Releases a game cause a frenzy and profit off it while making gaming history.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
I agree. I'm starting to think this was the plan all along. Releases a game cause a frenzy and profit off it while making gaming history.

It may have started as a publicity stunt; but the whole thing went south pretty quickly. No way BioWare is going to profit from this fiasco at this point. Here's a pretty interesting article; Mass Effect 3's True Ending DLC Was Never Supposed To Be Free?, and yet another; 'Mass Effect 3' Ending: DLC Wasn't Meant To Be Free; Did EA Slash Price To Subdue Fans?. I'd agree that BW is still trying to get some sort of good publicity out of this thing, but those efforts are falling more and more into the category of "desperate".

If this whole thing was indeed, planned, the quality of the plan is right down there with the quality of the ME3 ending, as implemented… Hmm, come to think of it, the whole thing probably did start as an oh-so-clever plan.

__

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
I agree. I'm starting to think this was the plan all along. Releases a game cause a frenzy and profit off it while making gaming history.

Plan didn't work because ME3 isn't selling as well as ME2. I'm betting Bioware is actually in big trouble with EA for this stunt.

Originally Posted by Grimlorn
Plan didn't work because ME3 isn't selling as well as ME2. I'm betting Bioware is actually in big trouble with EA for this stunt.

Doubt it. Suits stick with suits and screw ordinary devs (and customers and shareholders).

EA will commend BioWare for an effort to milk $15 additional game price just to see the complete ending to the ending of a trilogy.

The fact that this did not work will be blamed on whiny entitled crybabies, and the fact that the forum mods didn't do a proper job cracking down on dissent.

Shareholders will be told that ME3 outsold ME2 on days 1,3,5 and 14, and that TOR is the slowest sinking MMO in history. Backslapping and bonuses all round!

Originally Posted by Grimlorn
Plan didn't work because ME3 isn't selling as well as ME2. I'm betting Bioware is actually in big trouble with EA for this stunt.

Any figures about that? I read that presales equal 3.5M units. ME2 sold significantly better?

Originally Posted by ChienAboyeur
Any figures about that? I read that presales equal 3.5M units. ME2 sold significantly better?

He won't reply because the figures released show the exact opposite of what he was saying. There was even a news report released specifically to gloat over how many more copies ME3 was selling compared to ME2. Anyway, the figures released show that ME3 sold 1.3 million copies (not including downloaded purchases) in North America in its first month, which was impressive, even more so when you remeber that the video game industry is in a bit of a slump. Worldwide and including digital purchases you're looking at more than 2 million. ME2 sold 500000 copies in NA in its first month.

http://pc.rpgsite.net/news/1584-mass…-mass-effect-2

Concerning the Mass Effect 3 ending I didn't mind it. It's probably one of my favourite games I've ever played and I thought that the writing in Mass Effect is up there with the greatest I've experienced in any video game I played. But I read stories for the characters, not the plot or the world building, and Bioware pays a lot of attention to the characters inhabiting its world.