Vault101 said:
Therumancer said:
I'm 50/50 on the financial prospects of DA3.....not sure how much of an effect the bad feelings from ME3 will have
but honestly I think it (and ME4) will still sell (weather or not to EA's standard is a different matter)
Well the thing to understand is that it's not just bad feelings from ME3 but also what happened with DA2 itself. That's TWO games that got some rather strong response from fans who bought the game. It doesn't effect the bottom line of those titles since the people who complained already paid the money, but it does raise the question as to whether the people who are angry will continue to support products. ToR's fate also contributes because it simply wasn't what was promised.
One thing you'll notice is that I, and a lot of people, haven't exactly been saying "I'm not going to buy these games". Rather the thing is that I'm going to assume they are dogs until proven otherwise. I'm going to wait until the games are out, initial hype has faded, and then see what kind of lasting impression the games have left. I'm going to ignore the initial fanboys raving about "OMG, it's perfect, I'm glad I bought it" and probably take the haters with a grain of salt, but take them a LOT more seriously than those saying good things simply because of the previous games in the series and they deserve suspician.
The thing is that if people are simply wary and take a conservative response it's going to tank the all important "initial sales" that make or break games. What's more this is a situation where if the game has major flaws, I'm just not going to buy it. To earn my trust back they pretty much have to prove they can release an awesomely high quality product that meets my expectations, before I give them any money. I'm not going to take any more risks on them.
Part of the point of waiting is that ME3 was a good game up until the ending which ruined not only the game, but the series. Dragon Age 2's ending and the sequence leading up to it was pretty much garbage as well when you get down to it. Basically this is one of those cases where the spoilers are going to sell the game, I'm just not going to get invested in something that ends with a major let down.
See, EA had an unprecedented chance to win my support (and that of a lot of people). Most people wouldn't have cared enough about a game series that took a dump on them like ME3 did to bother to demand an ending change on that level. Had EA backed down and did what they should have done, I'd have a lot more respect for them and the committment to quality games and good writing. Instead they released this whole "clarification" thing which doesn't alter the fundemental problems with the ME3 finale. In doing what they did, they showed they care more about their ego than the fans, and simply cannot admit to having made a mistake. As a result when it comes to EA/Bioware products I have to make sure they get it right the first time, because I sure as heck can't expect them to realize when they F@kced up and fix it.
ME4's sales depend on a lot of factors. There are still plenty of bio-drones who stood behind the whole "Starchild" thing and the "ending clarification" pack, enough to make it a moderate success. Really, their best hope with it is to ensure that the beginning set up for ME4 more or less undoes a lot of the specifics of the ME3 ending. I'd imagine from their perspective it would be "meh, look it isn't that bad, and we planned it this way, you just misunderstood, don't you all feel silly" as a face saving gesture, and then people might forgive it as long as the biodrones didn't make themselves insufferable and understood what was behind it. Mass Effect might survive as a moderatly successful franchise, but I doubt it will be the continuous blockbuster it might have been with what they did with 3.
Dragon Age 3 is largely dependant on whether or not Bioware finally "gets it". The first game which met with cricial acclaim and avoided the division of the second one was a spiriual successor to "Baldur's Gate".. a series of games people still play today even with archaic tech. This was a new version with modern technology. It succeded because it wasn't some kind of half arsed action RPG despite what some complainers said. It also succeeded because of the options for the hero and how certain aspects of the story could play out differantly in the details due to choice of race, origin, etc. It also created a number of characters that people liked and cared about, as well as leaving key plot points at a cliffhanger.
For DA3 to succeed they pretty much need to make it more like the first one, include race, gender, and origin choices, and perhaps most importantly start tying up key plot points. What's going on with Morrigan and her child (based around choices in DA:O) is for example one of the biggest things they need to work out in DA3. If they simply change locations, have an entirely new story with an occasional face/voice actor from the previous games showing up to say "hi", that's not going to do it, and not resolve anything from the first two games, there is no real point to it as a sequel. DA2 ended with all kinds of questions that also needed to be answered, but you'll notice people talk less about them because as a story it failed to get many people's attention. Hawke was a one note dork you couldn't determine much about who may or may not have done anything you had him do (for all we know he died from Aids after swimming in the pool at the inn, and our dwarf friend is a giant troll), and to say almost everyone who figured into the ending was a complete moron would be an understatement, but that's still no reason to just let things just kind of stop without any resolution for our "hero".
At any rate given the whole "the hero will be human exclusively" thing combined with few reassuring details on gameplay, the story, or anything else, I don't have high hopes for DA3 to be honest. Truthfully I half expect their big innovations will be to let you change the hero's color palette, and remove all stats and equipment from the game, the guys in platemail jumping off roofs like Ninjas, will now be actual Ninjas but with french accents, and those giant Spiders and stuff that didn't appear until you triggered them will now themselves leap down with backflips to make them more ninja-like. Oh yes and our new hero will be known as "Player 1", his sidekick "Player 2" will only appear if you use the new multiplayer mode.
Well that or they will decide all of that is too creative and go further back in their playbook to pull out something they already used and pass it off as new. The elderly sage giving you all of your quests will turn out to secretly have been Logoth Zanta the entire time... (award yourself a million nerd points if you get that one).
