Mass Effect 3

[SolidSnarf86]

The MASS EFFECT 3: RESURGENCE PACK is now live for free download on both the PSN and the XBOX 360. It included a few patches, including the one for the facial recognition issue. It also adds two new maps to Multiplayer as well as three new weapons and a few new races including Batarians and Geth. It's absolutely free so you may wish to download it if all the recent Bioware trolling hasn't affected your decision.

[hellrasinbrasin]

The Better Business Bureau Says Yes, Mass Effect 3 Was Falsely Advertised

Fans upset with the outcome of Mass Effect 3 have been crying "false advertising" since the get go, arguing that the ability to "completely shape" their experience as promised by EA and BioWare never materialized. According to the Better Business Bureau's Majorie Stephens, they were right.

In a posting on the consumer protection organization's Consumer News and Opinion Blog cloyingly titled "Mass Effect 3 is Having a ‘Mass Effect' on Its Consumers for Better or Worse", Stephens explains that technically yes, BioWare's marketing campaign for Mass Effect 3 does contain false advertising. It's a problem of absolutes, something that should be avoided at all cost in advertising circles.

The issue at stake here is, did Bio Ware falsely advertise? Technically, yes, they did. In the first bullet point, where it states "the decisions you make completely shape your experience", there is no indecision in that statement. It is an absolute.

Let's put this in context. If I were to tell you I make the very best lasagna in the entire world, that's an absolute. Worse, it's an absolute based on opinion, which would open me up even more. Is that false advertising? Yes, my lasagna sucks. It is, however, better a few days later with the addition of liberal amounts of shredded cheese.

Stephens also analyzes the statement "Along the way, your choices drive powerful outcomes, including relationships with key characters, the fate of entire civilizations, and even radically different ending scenarios." It's a statement that could indicate that the previous statement wasn't quite true, but a consumer would have to dig deep to come to that conclusion.

The lesson to be learned here is companies should give careful consideration to how they word their advertisements. Otherwise, there could be detrimental effects, especially in the era of social media and online forums.

If I ever form a game company, we're never saying anything. We'll just quietly slip our games under your door and run away.

Does this mean that BioWare is in some kind of trouble with the BBB? No, but its blogger agrees with the whole false advertising thing, which should make everyone feel a lot better about the whole thing.

Source: http://kotaku.com/5900991/the-better-business-bureau-says-yes-mass-effect-3-was-falsely-advertised

And the Stupid keeps on coming

Thank God this nonsense didn't happen when Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty was released back in 01'.

[Gun Animal]

http://www.youtube.com/v/aIP73xIAPLU


Mass Effect 3 in a nutshell.

[Con-con]

That was pretty funny, but I do disagree with the creator's premise that because it got good reviews from big name gaming media outlets that EA payed them, and that the company is pulling the wool over our eyes and the whole series is actually shitty. That's just kind of conspiracy theory at that point.

And then I found this:

http://www.youtube.com/v/0QLz0CqtMVc


Interesting. Of course I shouldn't have to mention that I don't agree with every point, but interesting nonetheless. I hadn't really looked into the story much, other than knowing that t existed.

EDIT:

http://www.youtube.com/v/aBETU-uOGh8


Yep, damn interesting.

[Gun Animal]

It's not that publishers ever *directly* pay for high review scores, but rather that publishers pay for advertising on review sites like IGN and Gamespot, and that those publishers wouldn't pay for advertising on a site that gives their games poor reviews. For example, when Jeff Gerstmann (of Gamespot) gave Kane & Lynch 2 a scathing review---after the game's publisher had plastered ads for the game all over Gamespot---he was fired. For giving an honest review. EA does pay all of the sites that have given ME3 good review by way of advertising and exclusive stories, trailers and interviews given to those sites. If you don't believe that it works like this then just take a look at any site known for giving negative reviews, like the Escapist.

This doesn't have anything to do with the game's quality; Dark Souls is (in my opinion!) the most amazing game ever made, but I still got the sense that a lot of reviewers felt pressured not to say anything bad about it because of it's huge advertising budget, and that's lame.

[Heyokah]

[SolidSnarf86]

I don't trust IGN's viewpoint on the situation, just like I lost all respect for KOTAKU on the same issue. Both of them were super hardcore supportive of Bioware in the days after the fallout, going so far as to mock people for actually being upset with the situation.

Then suddenly when their own readers turned on them and the amount of upset gamers outnumbered their subscription audience, MYSTERIOUSLY they were suddenly outraged and upset by the situation as well. IGN was the most vocal because of the whole Jessica Chobot thing (you know, where she sucked off Casey Hudson or some shit). But at least they made a DIFFERENT person start authoring the MASS EFFECT 3 posts to make it seem like someone else' opinion.

In KOTAKU's case, they just had the same guy suddenly get a different opinion after three weeks of defending the game.

[Con-con]

[KING_The_Godfather]

http://www.youtube.com/v/crgEIhI3y_o

[Adamant]

http://masseffect.answers.wikia.com/wiki/Is_anyone_else_concerned_that_dozens_if_not_hundreds_or_even_thousands_of_different_species_were_destroyed_for_all_time_during_ME3_Each_time_you_destroy_a_Reaper_an_entire_species_was_wiped_from_the_face_of_the_galaxy.

I've been mulling this over since I read it. What do you guys think?

[Heyokah]

Was it even a species? Its just a bunch of genetic code combined with materials. I couldn't be concerned about that. They weren't going to be a species again anyway.

[Con-con]

It would have been nice if they could have harvested the genetic material from the destroyed Reapers and saved it for study like an Immortality Drive, but whatever.

[Heyokah]

There's alot of things they could have gotten from the reapers. Considering how fast the Reapers made it to the milky way, I think we could get better propulsion. Maybe there's some secrets on the reapers about how the relays worked.

[Adamant]

Or perhaps how to rewrite genetic code as with the Collectors.

[SpaceByrd]

taking shit from the reapers sounds a lot like what the illusive man wanted to do. it would have been pretty controversial since the reapers were dicks.