artanis_neravar said:
That doesn't say you won't have to choose between ending A, B, or C just that you won't be trying to figure out which one that you got.
What was said, bold-faced, was that the endings were bucking the two typical kinds of ending: Unchanging and End-Game Decision style. It's true to a degree, by the fact that it's both a straight-up Deus Ex-style End-Game Decision ending, with such little variation as to make the endings almost Unchanging. It honest to God smacks of Poochie from The Simpsons.
irishda said:
This is kind of why Jim Sterling made the point in an earlier article that gamers who aren't considered "hardcore", who don't pay attention to who makes what, are smarter than the more active crowd. How many times have I read promises from devs about "what this game was going to do" or "how blown away gamers would be"? It's all hype from people who truly believe it's not hype because this is their baby, their project.
In the end it's all grand ideals tempered by finite resources, and no game ever lives up to the hype that the pre-gaming communities pile onto it. I can only hope this is a lesson to many Mass Effect fans. Take what people say about anything, not just games but movies, books, shows, anything, with a grain of salt until you experience it for yourself.
I see a lot of people complain about what they were promised, but how many people complain who didn't listen to any promises?
First of all, thank you for insulting my intelligence.
Secondly, I am familiar with the thesis in question, and I'd like to tackle your use of it here:
- The core of the thesis is that the utilitarian nature of Free-to-Play nickel and dime purchases are more money savvy than buying full retail games.
- It was also largely a defense of those who derive enjoyment from these kinds of games in the face of scorn from the "Hardcore" crowd, which has, to my knowledge across 5 significant gaming websites, not been the case in this issue.
- A trait which Jim pointed to as intelligent on the part of "Casual" gamers is that they take more ownership of their experience with the games, as opposed to letting Head Office dictate the course of their fun. You know.
The thing that this whole issue revolves around?
- And while all of this is well and good, his thesis weighed heavily on the aspects of a game's gameplay, not its narrative. He many times used the parable of leveling up on a Facebook game alongside leveling up in Final Fantasy to point out that there is nothing inherently superior in one method of enjoying a game over another.
And now on to the "Grain of Salt" comment. Bioware, until recently, had earned the kind of respect that few developers truly do. They earned their consumers' expectations by meeting them time and time again. It is why it pains so many people to have the mountain of problems with the ending that they do.
In essence, it's a...
...Of both Bioware's fans, and the company themselves. They are better than the ending to Mass Effect 3. They know it. And if you look past the publicity and pundits, you can see that Bioware is being ripped apart by EA.
And if you'd like to discuss the philosophy of "If you think everything is sh*t, you'll never be disappointed", we can do this all day, brother.
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