Well, for those of you that raged against the ending of Mass Effect 3 and even went so far as to file a complaint with a federal agency (specifically the Federal Trade Commission) to not only highlight your anger, but potentially bring some sort of government approved censure against EA and BioWare, today is your lucky day.
Marjorie Stephens, a blogger for the Better Business Bureau posted a reply to the complaints and actually confirmed that the advertising of Mass Effect 3 was misleading.
The issue Stephens focuses on is specifically the way that EA and BioWare marketed the game, and the statements and wording they used in the advertising.
“Along the way, your choices drive powerful outcomes, including relationships with key characters, the fate of entire civilizations, and even radically different ending scenarios,” the marketing for the game claimed–and claimed incorrectly according to hordes of bitter fans, and Stephens as well.
“The issue at stake here is, did Bio Ware falsely advertise?” Stephens asks. “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.”
Stephens continues and points out that the issue is the way that advertising is phrased. She has no opinion on the ending itself, but rather confirms that fans have a reason to be upset based solely on the ads. She also notes that developers and publishers in the future should learn from this and be careful regarding how they phrase their claims in advertising.
“The lesson to be learned here is companies should give careful consideration to how they word their advertisements,” Stephens states. ”Otherwise, there could be detrimental effects, especially in the era of social media and online forums.”
The confirmation that the internet raging is at least somewhat legitimate comes just a few days after EA and BioWare officially offered a partial mea culpa and announced that they would release a new ending for the game this summer.
The new ending won’t change what is already there, but instead add to the existing content and feature a larger epilogue based on the decisions you made during the game. The exact nature of the additional material nad how it will integrate into the game is still unknown.
Its a 24 – 25 hour game GET OVER IT.
I think the anger comes from the time invested. These are three fairly large games, with a ton of content, lots of memorable characters and events, and the whole thing seemed to be building to something grand. I think a lot of us expected a Lord of the Rings-style 30-minute ending that saw the wrapping up of several plot lines. At the very least, seeing all of the characters for a few seconds each, showing their fate, would have been nice. They could have even used still-shots.
So the problem isn’t the too-short ending. A lot of games have those. The problem is a short ending following a very long gaming experience.
The being said, the ending was short, but in many ways I found it satisfying, thanks partially to the music.
Too little too late IMO
It’s official. I have lost all faith in humanity. It was the little faith I retained throughout the course of my life. I thought, people can be trusted to do the right thing. Humans will always do what is right at the end of the day, with a few exceptions. This was the straw that broke the camels back. The BBB weighing in? Really? I understand the nerd rage that is going on with this game’s horrible change of color endings, but really? Some people need to get out of the house. It’s not the end of the world. I get it though, you invested hundreds of hours in a game. But it’s still not reality… It’s just a game.
idk, I have bigger issues to worry about.
While I can certainly agree that the world is full of things to worry about, I don’t think it is fair to downplay a consumers right to voice their disappointment with something they purchased. So in your way of thinking since BioWare/EA are gaming companies they should not be expected to uphold the same fair business standards as other companies? That’s just silly.
What is even sillier, is your saying that you have bigger things to worry about, and yet here you are spending your time leaving a comment on a thread about this issue that is so unimportant to you? No offense, just pointing out that we all have our own ways of wasting our free time and we should be careful when judging others.
Seriously though, I think that all this fan backlash may prove to be a positive thing for the gaming community. More and more gaming companies have become corporate machines solely focused on profit and less interested in the people who are buying their product. When gaming companies and game journalist start taking the stance that gamers are whiny, entitled, children that deserve to be ignored, you know they are out of touch with their own demographic. If BioWare is in the business of making M rated video games they need to keep in mind that the people spending money on their games are not children. Many of the people buying their games are adults with real jobs and real lives. They are people who chose to play video games as a hobby in their spare time. It is true that might have better things they could be spending their time with, and for the sake of the gaming industry we should hope that they don’t all hang up their controllers and turn to other forms on entertainment.
Well, I have no problem with people being outraged with Bioware about the ending. My main point of contention is the fact that a federal government entity is now in the mix. Seriously, is that necessary? no, it’s not. The problem will be resolved by itself. As for why I am posting here if this doesn’t matter to me: Gotta kill time someway. I am one of those people who are upset over the endings of the game, but I am not going “rabble rabble rabble” over it. This is too much of a first world problem for me to really worry about. I gotta feed my kid.
I get the outrage, and I agree with it. The problem was that Bioware got lazy. Change the color of the wave here, and say it’s a different ending. Most likely, it was due to time constraints and deadlines. But is this really a major issue in our lives today? If so, man… People got it way easy. Just voicing an opinion.
I totally respect your opinion regarding the federal gov. having better things to worry about, however the BBB is a company that deals with consumer complaints, so they seem like the proper place for a gaming consumer to voice their concerns. It’s what they were created for and I don’t see the ME3 issue being any less important then some of the other ridiculous issues the BBB had to deal with.
I do understand where you are coming from though, since it could easily be said that people are making a bigger issue out of ME3′s ending then need be. On the other hand I think that the ME3 ending is just a small part of the reason that people are attacking BioWare/EA, I get the feeling that gamers are simply fed up with being let down by the games they buy. It used to be we could at least depend on the professional video gamer reviews to give us an un-bias opinion, but now most of them are unreliable to say the least. If we can’t count on honest reviews and we can’t count on honest advertising, how can we make an educated decision on what games to buy? Well at least that is how I look at this whole mess. ; )
True… we pay upwards of $70, after taxes, a game and we have high expectations. Though, I have learned to remove myself from much of the hype over anything anymore… With the way adverts are these days, it would be fair for me to expect my truck to climb an 80* desert sand dune while towing a skyscraper and doing a barrel roll on the way down… I seriously think it should be illegal to misrepresent what your product can do, even with a disclaimer. But that is a totally different topic.
The way I personally solve the problem that you raised with the honest advertising/reviews and how to know what game to buy: I wait and listen to what the general conscientious is. I have yet to play a Mass Effect game. Not because I don’t want to. Just no time… I bought them, but they are just sitting on my shelf. I have yet to buy the third one, and after hearing everything about the ending, I think I’ll hold off. At least until Bioware comes out with their new ending in a few months. Least, that’s what I do. Never a first adopter! lol
The advertising comment – so very true. The ‘Truth in Advertising’ law is supposed to protect us from deceptive advertising, but it doesn’t seem very useful these days. It would be nice if laws actually did what they were created to do, but as long as sneaky attorneys exist the common man will never really be protected by any law.
I agree 100 percent that the wait and see method of buying games is really the only smart way to go these days. Sure you miss out on any pre-order perks, but I think the trade off is generally worth it, since by waiting you can avoid crappy games, plus you can take advantage of the fact that some games drop in price fairly quickly, so you might end up paying a lot less if you wait.