Mass Effect 3 being 'tweaked' for a larger market - EA.
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I think that a lot of you are reading this the wrong way.
Marketing the ME universe to a wider audience is exactly what the series needs. I love the ME series, but it has been essentially a pendulum for me. Too much RPG in ME1 at the expense of combat, and too much TPS in ME2 at the expense of meaningful character development or story. Both games have had their detractors for this very reason. If in ME3 they end up striking a balance, which the fist hints from Gameinformer seem to have indicated, then this might be the "wider audience" that they are hoping to court- keeping the RPG'ers and shooters happy with a middle ground will be just what the series needs.
If they're 'huge believers' in the franchise, they wouldn't turn it into something its not. Look no further than DA2. Their transformation of the DA series is already starting to hit them in the pocketbook, and you can be damn sure that they won't do ANYTHING to jeapordize ME3, BioWare's most anticipated game EVER. Literally.
Marketing the ME universe to a wider audience is exactly what the series needs. I love the ME series, but it has been essentially a pendulum for me. Too much RPG in ME1 at the expense of combat, and too much TPS in ME2 at the expense of meaningful character development or story. Both games have had their detractors for this very reason. If in ME3 they end up striking a balance, which the fist hints from Gameinformer seem to have indicated, then this might be the "wider audience" that they are hoping to court- keeping the RPG'ers and shooters happy with a middle ground will be just what the series needs.
If they're 'huge believers' in the franchise, they wouldn't turn it into something its not. Look no further than DA2. Their transformation of the DA series is already starting to hit them in the pocketbook, and you can be damn sure that they won't do ANYTHING to jeapordize ME3, BioWare's most anticipated game EVER. Literally.
I'm gonna keep my cool. More time is a good thing, we want a good game afterall. Yes it is a bit concerning but getting kicked off now isn't going to help anything.
But if it does suck I swear to God I will be writing angry letters to every EA exec I can find and probably picket the company. I mean its not like George Lucas looked at Return of the Jedi, (the LAST Star Wars movie made) and said "hmmmm, its good and all, but I think we should forsake our fans to rope a few dopes into the theater" dumb asses.
But if it does suck I swear to God I will be writing angry letters to every EA exec I can find and probably picket the company. I mean its not like George Lucas looked at Return of the Jedi, (the LAST Star Wars movie made) and said "hmmmm, its good and all, but I think we should forsake our fans to rope a few dopes into the theater" dumb asses.
The people that really deserve lynching are the consumers. They are the ones that keep EA afloat. If people had better tastes, and valued quality over quantity, EA, with its massive amount of liquid capital, would be the first to provide quality games. They are not stupid, they are just not in it for the art and the passion for video games. They are in it for milking the herd of sheep that are the consumers, that they have all but an iron grip on. So they have absolutely no reason to change, really, unless either their goals change (i.e. they suddenly want to make less money, or somehow balance profit and passion, instead of going all profit), or the consumers change (i.e. people do, actually, develop some taste). The former won't happen, but I think the latter just might, but over a long term. I mean, think, like, 30+ year olds. They hardly buy games, right? But in 20 years that demographic will be huge. (Seeing how there are tons of sheep in EA's herd now who are 12). And 30-year olds generally have MUCH better taste than the 12-year olds, and since they will constitute a huge part of the target demographic in 20 years, EA will be the first in the line to pitch to them - by making better games.RT-Medic-with-shotgun said:EA. Murder of IP's, slaughterer of franchises, the chopping block of all games, & the bane of quality.Volkov said:Bioware is dead. Bioware IS EA now... Dragon Age 2, and even to some degree (but a lot less so) Mass Effect 2 demonstrated that perfectly. So I mean, after all these blatant demonstrations (EA giving Bioware a year to develop Dragon Age 2 is a thousand red flags right there), only waking up at the sound of Mass Effect 3 being murdered by EA is over a year late.RT-Medic-with-shotgun said:
We need to find out exactly the executive that called his order down so we know who to lynch.
The RPG genre will be all but dead by then, of course, except for smaller developers' efforts (Witcher 2 - I am praying to you). But it can always go through a revival; it's not like once a genre's dead it can't be reborn. I mean, look at point-and-click adventure games!
WHAT?
how can you make a game more appealing than ME2?
people who just liked action could just point and shoot and people who liked numbers crunching could still do that to optimize their character. The only ones missing are people who will not play a game with a proper story.
EA probably knows that people will buy ME3 anyway because after two games they want to see how their decisions will play out.
on the other hand the optimist in me hopes that they will give you the option to play shooter or rpg-heavy, with the shooter mode being more in line with pure-blood shooters and only cosmetic changes to armor while rpg heavy is basically ME2 with more bars to spend points on custom-building armor out of parts
plz bioware?
how can you make a game more appealing than ME2?
people who just liked action could just point and shoot and people who liked numbers crunching could still do that to optimize their character. The only ones missing are people who will not play a game with a proper story.
EA probably knows that people will buy ME3 anyway because after two games they want to see how their decisions will play out.
on the other hand the optimist in me hopes that they will give you the option to play shooter or rpg-heavy, with the shooter mode being more in line with pure-blood shooters and only cosmetic changes to armor while rpg heavy is basically ME2 with more bars to spend points on custom-building armor out of parts
plz bioware?
I mean, I generally agree with you, but, 2 things:kelevra said:
1. "We" don't matter at all. The 12-year old morons matter more, because there are more of them buying games than there are of us.
2. Personally, I DONT'T want "Bioware's signature storyline". Because, and I am in the minority about this, Bioware storylines are awful. They are good for video games, don't get me wrong - but that's like saying "fast for a turtle". Song of Ice and Fire is a good fantasy storyline. Solaris (by Lem) is a good science fiction storyline (OK, best of all time, but you get my point). I want something of similar quality from the medium, I don't want Bioware's cookie-cutter template-based writing to be considered good.
Of course, for that, we'd need writers of the quality of Stanislaw Lem and George Martin going into video game writing instead of book writing. And that just will not happen - because video game writing is rightfully recognized as the refuge of the losers. Because, as state above, the best they can muster in the past 10 years is Bioware's awful attempts.
Other than those 2 points, I agree with you in that it would be great if EA decided to pitch to us instead of to the masses. But they have no reason to. There aren't many of us.
Doesn't take long for you lot to start foaming at the mouth over nothing does it? Last I checked they're bringing back weapon customization, and they're also bringing back a lot of the RPG elements from the first game. If what was said in Game Informer is any indication, they're trying to hit a balance in between the shooter and RPG elements. Why don't we keep our cool and wait to see what is actually being done with the game? You know, instead of flying off the handle over a vague statement.
This fact seems to escape people, regardless of how many times you tell them. You can shout at them until you're blue in the face, and all you'll accomplish is giving yourself a sore throat.MercurySteam said:
Great speculation. Now all you have to do is wait for the game to actually come out so you can be proven right/wrong. I'm going to assume the latter. You do realize that DA and ME are worked on by two different teams, right?PlasmaFrog said:
If anything, the delay was so ME3 wouldn't make some of the mistakes DA2 did, so I'm hopeful.
Well, I did suspect EA would ruin it when they bought Bioware. I'm not really surprised that they're doing it now.
To be fair 'tweaking for a larger audience' doesn't nececcarily mean making it a linear simple shooter with one dimensional characters and making all the women wear space bikinis.
But at the same time there's no denying that Mass Effect 2 did simplify things a lot from the first and one might argue that by this point, what with it being the third part of a GRAND EPIC TRILOGY... Mass Effect has probably attracted about as large a market as it's ever going to.
By this point I think anyone who isn't interested just plain doesn't want to play the games at all.
But still I am a little bit worried as to what that means, I worry about whether or not it means that one of the problems will be that some of my most beloved characters, Ashley, Wrex, Garrus, Legion, Mordin, Anderson etc will all be reduced into simple one dimensional stereotypes that are either infallible perfect heroes with no faults or weaknesses or mean evil people with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
To be honest, I am a little bit hesitant.
But in our darkest hour it pays to be hopeful, have to hold onto hope for that's the only way we ever truly lose.
But at the same time there's no denying that Mass Effect 2 did simplify things a lot from the first and one might argue that by this point, what with it being the third part of a GRAND EPIC TRILOGY... Mass Effect has probably attracted about as large a market as it's ever going to.
By this point I think anyone who isn't interested just plain doesn't want to play the games at all.
But still I am a little bit worried as to what that means, I worry about whether or not it means that one of the problems will be that some of my most beloved characters, Ashley, Wrex, Garrus, Legion, Mordin, Anderson etc will all be reduced into simple one dimensional stereotypes that are either infallible perfect heroes with no faults or weaknesses or mean evil people with no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
To be honest, I am a little bit hesitant.
But in our darkest hour it pays to be hopeful, have to hold onto hope for that's the only way we ever truly lose.
I'm going to hope this is just EA trying to sound good to their investors and remain positive about the future of my favourite game franchise.