Escapists, I am fed up. I am sick to death of all the bullshit surrounding this "debate". While I personally am looking forward to Mass Effect 3, I acknowledge that both sides are just as guilty as one-another when it comes to pettiness, misinterpreting each-others opinions, and just general douchebaggery. Yes, I know, 'internet's gonna internet' and all that, but I don't care. This isn't good debate, this isn't even good trolling, it's just mind-numbing stupidity! So for those who are willing to listen I have some pointers for both sides so that, while they may continue to disagree, they might be able to do so from a more legitimate perspective. This will probably be a long one and I can't help that, so all the TL;DRers should probably just go ahead and deal with it. You're a grown-up, a page of text shouldn't be a challenge for you.
TO PEOPLE BITCHING ABOUT ME3...
1.) Trailers and Marketing Jargon mean jack shit.
God I hate this argument. "All the Trailers are just action set-pieces. They keep saying they want to appeal to a wider audience. That obviously means they're just out to rip off Gears of War and produce just another dumb action game nyeh nyeh nyeh!"
Just stop it, it's rubbish and you know it. Trailers show action sequences because they're the hook that draws people in, not because they are necessarily the be all and end all of the experience. They are exciting without giving anything away about the wider story. Besides, if they'd made extensive trailers about the story they'd be spoiling it, and if they'd made trailers entirely about the RPG elements, most people, including people who enjoy RPG's, would be bored out of their minds. Think of Skyrim, a deeper RPG than any of the Mass Effect games. A lot of the game play time is spent wandering in the wilderness doing very little except gradually grinding various skills, which there is nothing inherently wrong with, especially in a game as good as Skyrim. However, would trailers about that stuff have lit peoples world on fire? Fuck no, that's why the vast majority of what we saw before the game came out was about dragon slaying and Fus Ro-bloody-Dah! Why is Mass Effect not allowed to follow the same principle?
About the marketing jargon. Yes, they are appealing to a larger dynamic of gamers this time around. So? That doesn't necessarily mean that the RPG experience is severely compromised. It just means that they are confident enough in their work to let a bigger proportion of people know that it exists. In fact, that's the very reason why they introduced the different campaign modes. So existing fans could still play the Mass Effect they knew and loved, while people more familiar with game like Gears and CoD could play something which was more attuned to them if they want to, all without having to make compromises. That brings me neatly on to my second point...
2.) Stop being such douche-bags to the new guys.
I know this doesn't apply to everyone, but it's worth putting in anyway because some of this is starting to get really mean for no reason. Every gamer has to start somewhere, and every gamer has the right to play what they want without feeling persecuted. ME1 was the first real RPG that I ever played, and I friggin' loved it. Before then I almost exclusively played FPS's. I loved those games too, but I credit Mass Effect as being the game which broadened my horizons. However, now I see people pissing and moaning about how all the 'dumb CoD-loving rednecks' are coming over to ruin their game. Shut up! You don't own Mass Effect and acting like it's yours and not theirs makes you sound like a petulant child. You don't know anything about these people, and these assumptions all wholly unfair. I hate using the term 'elitist', but yeah, you're being elitist, and not even in a good way. Have your doubts if you must, but find a way to express them that isn't just you being a jerk, and the people I'm talking to know EXACTLY who they are!
3.) Trying to make connections between Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age 2 hold no water.
If you thought Dragon Age 2 sucked, that is a perfectly legitimate opinion. However, it has no bearing, at all, on Mass Effect 3. They may both have the Bioware label on, but they are two very different games. Even if that were not the case, it would still mean fuck all, because the odd bad game does not reflect majorly on the overall quality of an entire studio, and Bioware still have far more good marks on their portfolio than they do bad ones. In fact, most of the changes made between DA: Origins and DA2 were to incorporate things that we already liked about Mass Effect. So if anything DA2 suffered from ME's influence, not the other way around.
4.) ME as a franchise was never very big on 'depth' to being with (in RPG terms).
I put depth in inverted comma's because that word means different things to different people in video-game terms. For my current purposes we're talking about depth in stats and progression. Let us be clear, having to waste time sifting through vast lists of different pieces of equipment, most of which you already have better stuff than anyway, and then having to apply the few useful ones to everyone manually with a very unintuitive inventory system, every 10 minutes or so, more often than not just to get a +3 in biotic resistance, is not 'depth', certainly not the good kind anyway. What it is is pointless, tedious micro-managing that detracts from the overall experience rather than adding to it. Did ME2 go too far when it came to cutting out the excess fat? Maybe they did (luckily, ME3 seems to be aiming for a decent middle ground in between those two states). However, don't mistake ME1's bullshit for depth, even if you liked the bullshit.
5.) Say Bioware is starting to abandon it's old fan base, is there a reason why?
Maybe it's because you never stop bloody complaining!
Great work thrives on criticism, granted. However, such criticism needs to be constructive, not hyperbolic, and people need to feel appreciated before they give you their best work. Maybe (just a suggestion) you should consider being a little nicer to the people at Bioware who work very hard to produce games for you. If you have a problem with one of their games, how about you contact them, and express politely, and coherently, where you felt the game was sub-par, and suggest ways it could have been improved, rather than bitching about how much the game sucks to people who can do nothing about it, offering nothing constructive, and acting like Bioware have personally betrayed you. If you're going to style yourself as the sort of person who will never be satisfied with anything, then why should they even try and impress you, when they can just go and find people who are generally more complimentary and easier to please to sell games to?
TO THE PEOPLE BITCHING ABOUT THE BITCHING (hypocrisy noted)...
1.) Enough with the "Oh look... it's THIS thread again" attitude.
It's just irritating okay? I get it, a lot of people are making ME3 hate threads, and they all make very similar points. It's annoying, I get that. However, you're not helping. All these guys want is to have their specific opinions addressed. So what if they're similar to other threads? They have just as much right to make a thread as anyone else, and all snide posts that add nothing do is antagonise them further.
2.) Stop accusing people of trolling.
Some of them may be trolls. I don't know, but the point is neither do you. People can get irrationally angry about things at times, and the absolute worst way to engage someone like that is to just dismiss them as a troll. If you think someone is trolling you, or you have nothing to add to an argument other than to accuse someone of trolling you, just don't say anything! It's that simple.
3.) Enough with the low-blows about 'spread-sheet' nerds.
This is just as misguided and mean spirited as the jibes about 'CoDtards'. Some people think ME2 cut far to much out of ME1's stat-building. This is a legitimate complaint. It might be annoying to hear it 100 times, but that doesn't make it any the less legitimate. Not everyone who thinks this is a die-hard shut in who can't enjoy anything that doesn't involve copious amounts of sums and management skills. Implying such, makes you sound like a dick, and even the ones that ARE die-hard shut in's still don't deserve those kinds of passive-aggressive responses from you. Cut that shit out!
4.) Why do you care what they think?
So they didn't like ME2/DA2, big fucking deal! You did, and why should what they think spoil your enjoyment? Judging by ME2's sales figures, there are quite clearly more of you than there are of them, so why can't you just live and let live? As annoying as some of the more retarded reasons to prematurely hate on ME3 are, people are entitled to have doubts. So if you can't say your piece in a way that is relevant and fair, what the hell are you doing on a computer unsupervised?
Right, okay. That feels better. I'm sorry if that got a little testy. Understand that I only get angry because I love. I love games and I love gamers, we're an amazing bunch on the whole. When I see pointless bickering when we could be having constructive debates, it make me sad because I know we can do better; and when the fans set a good example, the game industry as a whole is better for it. Who's with me?
TO PEOPLE BITCHING ABOUT ME3...
1.) Trailers and Marketing Jargon mean jack shit.
God I hate this argument. "All the Trailers are just action set-pieces. They keep saying they want to appeal to a wider audience. That obviously means they're just out to rip off Gears of War and produce just another dumb action game nyeh nyeh nyeh!"
Just stop it, it's rubbish and you know it. Trailers show action sequences because they're the hook that draws people in, not because they are necessarily the be all and end all of the experience. They are exciting without giving anything away about the wider story. Besides, if they'd made extensive trailers about the story they'd be spoiling it, and if they'd made trailers entirely about the RPG elements, most people, including people who enjoy RPG's, would be bored out of their minds. Think of Skyrim, a deeper RPG than any of the Mass Effect games. A lot of the game play time is spent wandering in the wilderness doing very little except gradually grinding various skills, which there is nothing inherently wrong with, especially in a game as good as Skyrim. However, would trailers about that stuff have lit peoples world on fire? Fuck no, that's why the vast majority of what we saw before the game came out was about dragon slaying and Fus Ro-bloody-Dah! Why is Mass Effect not allowed to follow the same principle?
About the marketing jargon. Yes, they are appealing to a larger dynamic of gamers this time around. So? That doesn't necessarily mean that the RPG experience is severely compromised. It just means that they are confident enough in their work to let a bigger proportion of people know that it exists. In fact, that's the very reason why they introduced the different campaign modes. So existing fans could still play the Mass Effect they knew and loved, while people more familiar with game like Gears and CoD could play something which was more attuned to them if they want to, all without having to make compromises. That brings me neatly on to my second point...
2.) Stop being such douche-bags to the new guys.
I know this doesn't apply to everyone, but it's worth putting in anyway because some of this is starting to get really mean for no reason. Every gamer has to start somewhere, and every gamer has the right to play what they want without feeling persecuted. ME1 was the first real RPG that I ever played, and I friggin' loved it. Before then I almost exclusively played FPS's. I loved those games too, but I credit Mass Effect as being the game which broadened my horizons. However, now I see people pissing and moaning about how all the 'dumb CoD-loving rednecks' are coming over to ruin their game. Shut up! You don't own Mass Effect and acting like it's yours and not theirs makes you sound like a petulant child. You don't know anything about these people, and these assumptions all wholly unfair. I hate using the term 'elitist', but yeah, you're being elitist, and not even in a good way. Have your doubts if you must, but find a way to express them that isn't just you being a jerk, and the people I'm talking to know EXACTLY who they are!
3.) Trying to make connections between Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age 2 hold no water.
If you thought Dragon Age 2 sucked, that is a perfectly legitimate opinion. However, it has no bearing, at all, on Mass Effect 3. They may both have the Bioware label on, but they are two very different games. Even if that were not the case, it would still mean fuck all, because the odd bad game does not reflect majorly on the overall quality of an entire studio, and Bioware still have far more good marks on their portfolio than they do bad ones. In fact, most of the changes made between DA: Origins and DA2 were to incorporate things that we already liked about Mass Effect. So if anything DA2 suffered from ME's influence, not the other way around.
4.) ME as a franchise was never very big on 'depth' to being with (in RPG terms).
I put depth in inverted comma's because that word means different things to different people in video-game terms. For my current purposes we're talking about depth in stats and progression. Let us be clear, having to waste time sifting through vast lists of different pieces of equipment, most of which you already have better stuff than anyway, and then having to apply the few useful ones to everyone manually with a very unintuitive inventory system, every 10 minutes or so, more often than not just to get a +3 in biotic resistance, is not 'depth', certainly not the good kind anyway. What it is is pointless, tedious micro-managing that detracts from the overall experience rather than adding to it. Did ME2 go too far when it came to cutting out the excess fat? Maybe they did (luckily, ME3 seems to be aiming for a decent middle ground in between those two states). However, don't mistake ME1's bullshit for depth, even if you liked the bullshit.
5.) Say Bioware is starting to abandon it's old fan base, is there a reason why?
Maybe it's because you never stop bloody complaining!
Great work thrives on criticism, granted. However, such criticism needs to be constructive, not hyperbolic, and people need to feel appreciated before they give you their best work. Maybe (just a suggestion) you should consider being a little nicer to the people at Bioware who work very hard to produce games for you. If you have a problem with one of their games, how about you contact them, and express politely, and coherently, where you felt the game was sub-par, and suggest ways it could have been improved, rather than bitching about how much the game sucks to people who can do nothing about it, offering nothing constructive, and acting like Bioware have personally betrayed you. If you're going to style yourself as the sort of person who will never be satisfied with anything, then why should they even try and impress you, when they can just go and find people who are generally more complimentary and easier to please to sell games to?
TO THE PEOPLE BITCHING ABOUT THE BITCHING (hypocrisy noted)...
1.) Enough with the "Oh look... it's THIS thread again" attitude.
It's just irritating okay? I get it, a lot of people are making ME3 hate threads, and they all make very similar points. It's annoying, I get that. However, you're not helping. All these guys want is to have their specific opinions addressed. So what if they're similar to other threads? They have just as much right to make a thread as anyone else, and all snide posts that add nothing do is antagonise them further.
2.) Stop accusing people of trolling.
Some of them may be trolls. I don't know, but the point is neither do you. People can get irrationally angry about things at times, and the absolute worst way to engage someone like that is to just dismiss them as a troll. If you think someone is trolling you, or you have nothing to add to an argument other than to accuse someone of trolling you, just don't say anything! It's that simple.
3.) Enough with the low-blows about 'spread-sheet' nerds.
This is just as misguided and mean spirited as the jibes about 'CoDtards'. Some people think ME2 cut far to much out of ME1's stat-building. This is a legitimate complaint. It might be annoying to hear it 100 times, but that doesn't make it any the less legitimate. Not everyone who thinks this is a die-hard shut in who can't enjoy anything that doesn't involve copious amounts of sums and management skills. Implying such, makes you sound like a dick, and even the ones that ARE die-hard shut in's still don't deserve those kinds of passive-aggressive responses from you. Cut that shit out!
4.) Why do you care what they think?
So they didn't like ME2/DA2, big fucking deal! You did, and why should what they think spoil your enjoyment? Judging by ME2's sales figures, there are quite clearly more of you than there are of them, so why can't you just live and let live? As annoying as some of the more retarded reasons to prematurely hate on ME3 are, people are entitled to have doubts. So if you can't say your piece in a way that is relevant and fair, what the hell are you doing on a computer unsupervised?
Right, okay. That feels better. I'm sorry if that got a little testy. Understand that I only get angry because I love. I love games and I love gamers, we're an amazing bunch on the whole. When I see pointless bickering when we could be having constructive debates, it make me sad because I know we can do better; and when the fans set a good example, the game industry as a whole is better for it. Who's with me?
