Game Ranter Banter: Mass Effect 3 DLC, Rushed Games, Online Passes & OMGPOP
by Anthony Mole
(6 of 5)
Game Ranter Banter: Poor Business Practices, March's Bad Releases, OMGPOP
This week's been yet another interesting one for gamers. Once again the Mass Effect 3 ending controversy continues, as BioWare announced new (and free!) DLC to "fix" the ending and adds to the game's multiplayer. And their parent company EA's been through a lot as well, having been branded the worst company in America, while fighting off a bombardment of anti-gay letters. It can be pretty hectic, but at the end of the week there's one source of clarity: the Game Ranter Banter.
This week our writers discuss Mass Effect 3's new ending, anti-consumer practices businesses seem to love, the OMGPOP scenario, crossovers we'd like to see in the vein of MariO and the strange lack of quality in March's video game releases. Let's begin.
This week our writers discuss Mass Effect 3's new ending, anti-consumer practices businesses seem to love, the OMGPOP scenario, crossovers we'd like to see in the vein of MariO and the strange lack of quality in March's video game releases. Let's begin.
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There is that artistic vision card again. The ending weather you liked or hated it was below the standards already set by Bioware. They implied throughout the series that your choices mattered. They should have expected what they got and expected the monetary loss they were/are going to endure. If intentionally torturing their fans was their intent they succeeded. Now they have to live with the consequences. They have/had the right to stick to their artistic guns but they have to pay for that decision, especially when using that decision to cover up poor quality in design. You see the artistic license card used most often when something is controversial or poor quality. I think the fans can see what it really is a rushed mess hidden behind excuses.
I had always been an advocate for artistic vision in video games. I always considered it a very artistic and creative medium, but as of late I’m beginning to wonder if the entire industry hasn’t just collectively “sold out”. Compare games like Operation Raccoon City to some of the older games and you’ll see what I mean. Story, atmosphere, and characters you can relate with have been replaced by board after board of shooting guys, rehashed/repainted/uninspired level design, and faceless antagonists who may as well be floating guns.
When I think of all the effort they put into the Mass Effect series and how lazily they completed it, I cannot help but agree that it feels rushed. While on the subject of artistic vision, how does that factor into creating a full product, then chopping it up into sections you pay for ala carte? These anti-consumer business practices have almost solely accomplished what decades of responsible thinking has failed to do: Make me put down my controller for good.
Here we go again with that artistic integrity line which has been beat to death. I can see video games as a genuine art form but even art when it is being made for consumers has to be done in a way that will please the people who are going to be buying it. Even it wasn’t the ending was no where near the level of quality that the rest of the me3 and the other games had laid out.
It broke many of the main themes of the series as well as some basic literary rules. It is not even just gamers who feel that this ending was of subpar quality in terms of its writing and execution the California Literary Review agreed that the ending was of poor quality. It is not even a matter of how little choic was involved in the ending the problem is that the writing of it was very poor quality.
That is not to say that the lack of choice was not also a problem because it was, Bioware did not deliever what they had promised. As a company because that is what they truly are you cannot make these very specific promises over and over again just to backslide on them at the very end. Mass Effect 3 is art but it was art that was supposed to be tailored to the gamers who played it thus it needed to fit what people wanted. You can’t make everyone happy but you have to at least make a product that delievers what you said it would.
Im getting tired of this “compramising artisic vision” crap. People hardly ever considered games to be art until now they sundenly do. Doesnt matter if its art or not it can still suck and the Mass Effect 3 ending sucked and need revision.
Just hopefully they do it right this time but they thought the first ending was good so no telling what crap they will let out this time.
Fun fact: all four people above me used the word ‘artistic’ in their first sentences. Seriously, does every single person need to whine about people talking about artistic vision. There are five articles here, and you guys apparently think only one is of any interest. Stfu.
On another note, I would love to see a Pokemon/Mass Effect crossover! I think it would be really cool to see/play a first-person or third-person Pokemon game, instead of plain old top-down.
That was the one that the people of above you wanted to talk about just like you want to talk about the crossovers. Frankly I find the idea of those crossovers a little silly but I am not going to tell you to be quiet about it because just like me you have a right to voice your opinion. Just would be nice if people would do it in a mature and civil manner rather than just telling people to shutup. If you dont want to talk about art then ignore those posts or give us a counter argument to them.
Good points. Thank you for making your response more mature and understandable than mike’s response.
Pokémon/Mass Effect crossover….that has to be the stupidest idea ever…. on top of that attacking the defense and or weakness of the enemy is Key in any scenario you twit, and the Art defense is VERY weak.
So next time you want to bash on others and act like a Shill remember this…sometimes the right thing to say….is nothing at all
It keeps saying my comment is spam. Wtf?