I think EA/Bioware are blatantly trolling now.

[Something Amyss]

Well, you know what they say. There is no such thing as bad publicity.

If that were true, Ubisoft wouldn't have slashed their dev teams, EA wouldn't have addressed the Retake movement at all, and WWE wouldn't see stocks plummet based on fictional events.

 

[boag]

http://i.imgur.com/Ikg4Q.jpg

That's one way of putting it, I guess. It's like how the Titanic provoked a bigger cruise line passenger reaction than any other ship in maritime history.

(captcha: "Gotham City." Awesome. That's a step up from the car ads, at least.)

Remember people.

LOTS OF SPECULATION FOR EVERYONE!!!!!

 

[Jodah]

And the second part is also completely true. Can you name another game that has provoked a bigger fan reaction? Not positive or negative...

World of Warcraft. Modern Warfare 2. Final Fantasy XIII-2.

Ain't sure there are more, but this sample should be sufficient.

None of those had as big a reaction than the ending to ME3 did.

The real name thing Blizzard tried implementing did, though that wasn't specifically about the game. It's the only other time I can think of with a reaction like the ME3 ending debacle.

 

[burningdragoon]

Guys. Listen to me for second. It's time to let this thing go. It's dumb, yes. All PR and marketing is dumb though. If it was 100% honest, it would fail at doing what it's meant to do.

Now, I'd really like to see where this picture originally came from. (Here's the article [http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/03/22/mass-effect-3-ending-bioware/] the quote is from)

Ah ha. Thank you! I've been minorly stalking this thread in hopes that someone would post the article that the quote came from.

And... I also agree with your point. EA is trying to sell their game, just as anyone else would try to sell their product. So they're not about to put, "A section of our fanbase has been overwhelmed with uncontrollable rage at the ending of this game!" on an ad. Of course they aren't. Somehow, I don't think that'd really accomplish what they wanted. People can believe EA is horrible (and whatever all else people have been angry about) all they want to, but putting forth a PR spin as proof rings a bit hollow, in my opinion.

And the real kicker is that the part of the article the quote is from is actually mostly positive, saying the reaction is so strong because everything else about the series was so special. So really, it's barely spin as it is.

 

[LiberalSquirrel]

Guys. Listen to me for second. It's time to let this thing go. It's dumb, yes. All PR and marketing is dumb though. If it was 100% honest, it would fail at doing what it's meant to do.

Now, I'd really like to see where this picture originally came from. (Here's the article [http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/03/22/mass-effect-3-ending-bioware/] the quote is from)

Ah ha. Thank you! I've been minorly stalking this thread in hopes that someone would post the article that the quote came from.

And... I also agree with your point. EA is trying to sell their game, just as anyone else would try to sell their product. So they're not about to put, "A section of our fanbase has been overwhelmed with uncontrollable rage at the ending of this game!" on an ad. Of course they aren't. Somehow, I don't think that'd really accomplish what they wanted. People can believe EA is horrible (and whatever all else people have been angry about) all they want to, but putting forth a PR spin as proof rings a bit hollow, in my opinion.

And the real kicker is that the part of the article the quote is from is actually mostly positive, saying the reaction is so strong because everything else about the series was so special. So really, it's barely spin as it is.

Exactly. Undoubtedly, you've got people that would say that the article writer is the one putting a spin on things... and there's already a few comments on this very forum acting like EA/Bioware are the ones saying the quote... but as for the actual topic of this thread, I think it's a perfectly valid use. And, even more than that, I found myself being quite happy to read that article, because it's pretty much stating my exact opinion on the whole ending debacle.

 

[Thoric485]

They tout DA2 and SW:TOR as successes too, this is no surprise.

 

[Valeran]

They tout DA2 and SW:TOR as successes too, this is no surprise.

To be fair, DA2 has no major-critic rankings below 3/5, which is fairly average, and sold reasonable well, which could be defined as a success from a developer/publisher point of view. I can't speak for TOR, though.

But really, this kind of thing isn't remotely uncommon in advertising and happens all the time. In fact, I would have been more surprised to not see something like this. Someone gets paid a lot of money simply for doing this kind of thing on a regular basis for a career, so yeah. Advertising. Not seeing the big deal.

 

[PatrickXD]

That's... That's genius!
In all fairness though, the perfect scores came about regardless of the ending. People seem to forget how fantastic the rest of the game was.

 

[Et3rnalLegend64]

Couldn't this go under that one claim about EA "falsely advertising" ME3? The two statements may be true, but they are not necessarily related. Someone without any prior knowledge wouldn't know that.

I am suddenly reminded of Kyubey. ／人 ◕ ‿‿ ◕ 人＼

 

[spartandude]

What a bunch of assholes. If that image is genuine then EA has absolutely no respect for their customers. Which in return means we should boycott everything they make or publish.

An attitude like that is exactly why EA doesn't have any respect for their customers. It's also why their customers shouldn't deserve any respect.

I personally think the Entertainment Weekly quote is hilarious. I love how it takes all the ridiculous controversy surrounding the game and spins it into a nice bit of positive marketing, which the game deserves a bit more of. Whoever made that poster deserves some kind of trophy.

i personnally think their customers dont deserve any respect is because they're complacent and rather short sited

 

[distortedreality]

What a bunch of assholes. If that image is genuine then EA has absolutely no respect for their customers. Which in return means we should boycott everything they make or publish.

An attitude like that is exactly why EA doesn't have any respect for their customers. It's also why their customers shouldn't deserve any respect.

I personally think the Entertainment Weekly quote is hilarious. I love how it takes all the ridiculous controversy surrounding the game and spins it into a nice bit of positive marketing, which the game deserves a bit more of. Whoever made that poster deserves some kind of trophy.

i personnally think their customers dont deserve any respect is because they're complacent and rather short sited

/irony.

 

[MetalMagpie]

Well, it's true!

I think probably the whole ME3 thing has got to the point now when people feel like they should play the game just so they can talk about it. "Being part of it" and all that jazz. So it's a fairly legitimate angle for an ad.

"It's prompted the biggest fan reaction of any game ever. So play it and see what you think."

 

[Sylveria]

That's a typical EA move. It isn't stupid, I'll give them that.

It's a typical marketing move.

Really, why would anyone expect any different? They're not going to come out and say "don't buy our game because the ending isn't great".

I was poking fun at how they are misleading the market. WoW pulled similar stuff and I know it isn't anything new. The "typical EA" part was a dig at the shady marketing practices employed when the game was in post production.

ME3's marketing has been boarderline (or blatantly) fraudulent or misleading since day one. This doesn't even begin to surprise me.

And yeah, they're trolling the fans at this point. Of course, one of their very first reactions to the fan outrage was "Hey look at how many critics are suckin our dicks with all these perfect scores. Why the hell should we care what you dorks think? We already got your money, now on your knees with the rest of them." I'm paraphrasing, of course.

 

[arnoldthebird]

Fantastic adverting department at EA, I'll give them that

 

[getoffmycloud]

That's a typical EA move. It isn't stupid, I'll give them that.

It's a typical marketing move.

Really, why would anyone expect any different? They're not going to come out and say "don't buy our game because the ending isn't great".

I was poking fun at how they are misleading the market. WoW pulled similar stuff and I know it isn't anything new. The "typical EA" part was a dig at the shady marketing practices employed when the game was in post production.

Welcome to the world of marketing its all about twisting the truth to your own benefit.

 

[emmettr3]

It's depressing how angry this ad makes me.

 

[Sanat]

That's hilarious.
It's a shame that it'll successfully pull some poor dullards into buying the game though. I hope and wish that that isn't the case, but I can't deny that it is.