Topic title limit prohibits what I wanted to call this thread: (God damn it I just noticed the typo. That cost me an all-important LETTER.)

"BBB Blogger - BioWare techninically falsely advertised ME3 on one point in particular if seen in isolation"

http://www.bbb.org/blog/2012/04/mass-effect-3-is-having-a-mass-effect-on-its-consumers-for-better-or-worse/

Key quote: "Here are some examples below from their website,http://masseffect.com:

• “Experience the beginning, middle, and end of an emotional story unlike any other, where the decisions you make completely shape your experience and outcome”.
• “Along the way, your choices drive powerful outcomes, including relationships with key characters, the fate of entire civilizations, and even radically different ending scenarios.”

...

The issue at stake here is, did Bio Ware falsely advertise? Technically, yes, they did. In the first bullet point, where it states “the decisions you make completely shape your experience”, there is no indecision in that statement. It is an absolute. The next statement is not so absolute. It states “your choices drive powerful outcomes”. A consumer would have to very carefully analyze this statement to come to a conclusion that the game’s outcome is not “wholly” determined by one’s choices. This statement, really though, is very subject to interpretation. Also this is just a small example of their advertising and does not take into account anything that might have been said, as far as their public relations and other advertising campaigns."

It's interesting that this, along with the Capcom BBB complaints, have been aired so publicly. For better or worse this is showing that developers/publishers are engaging with their fanbase and that is having a resonant impact, even within these organisations. I have seen some joking, possibly even from myself that goes along the lines of "Games: SERIOUS BUSINESS." Well, maybe that shouldn't be a joke. Games are serious business to business people. If the outcry from these issues makes them reconsider their strategies then that can only be a good thing right?

@Animasta said:

OH MY GOD SHUT UP

No?

No ending decision of any Mass Effect game has any dependency of your previous choices.

@fusrodah said:

No ending decision of any Mass Effect game has any dependency of your previous choices.

to be fair, they said with 3 you didnt have to play any of the other games :)

@dekkadekkadekka said:

Technically, yes, they did. In the first bullet point, where it states “the decisions you make completely shape your experience”, there is no indecision in that statement. It is an absolute.

It's also really vague. The 'decision' could be anything as simple as what gun to use. In Borderlands I'd never use the 3 shot burst assault riffles. Jeff Gerstmann thinks it's the best way to play the game. It results in very different play styles. Our decisions completely shaped out experiences. See how vague that statement is? @Animasta said:

OH MY GOD SHUT UP

I agree.

STOP TALKING ABOUT MASS EFFECT 3!

honestly at first i thought people were being whinny.

after finishing 3 i was disappointed with the ending, but thought "video games." i accepted it as a fact that video games don't live up to their promises.

the more i heard people complain though, the more i thought good for them. bioware should have some pie thrown in the face for this. they are guilty of my same initial reaction, the acceptance that you dont have to try hard at story in games because they are games.

if this makes people work harder in future titles i'll be happy.

ME3 ending bitchfest topic #112063

Please present your ticket and take a seat.

@dekkadekkadekka said:

@Animasta said:

OH MY GOD SHUT UP

No?

I think what he's trying to say is, that everyone is sick of hearing about this. Most people don't care at all about how Mass Effect 3 ended and it's starting to get a little silly.

Stop kicking a dead horse, everything that people wanted to say has been said already. Wait for the free epilogue before making an ending blahahala thread.

@Jams said:

@dekkadekkadekka said:

@Animasta said:

OH MY GOD SHUT UP

No?

I think what he's trying to say is, that everyone is sick of hearing about this. Most people don't care at all about how Mass Effect 3 ended and it's starting to get a little silly.

That's fair enough, but then why visit the Mass Effect 3 board to see it, or deliberately click into it to render an opinion of "SHUT UP DICKHEAD!" I'm not holding people at gunpoint, and in fact I've not rendered an opinion on the ending of ME3 in this thread.

I thought it was interesting that someone from an organisation that can affect real change in how games can be marketed is taking an interest. That's all. I'm sorry if that point wasn't clear.

@Dylabaloo said:

Stop kicking a dead horse, everything that people wanted to say has been said already. Wait for the free epilogue before making an ending blahahala thread.

you are right. we should cut its head off a la Godfather and put it in someone's bed.

@Jams said:

@dekkadekkadekka said:

@Animasta said:

OH MY GOD SHUT UP

No?

I think what he's trying to say is, that everyone is sick of hearing about this. Most people don't care at all about how Mass Effect 3 ended and it's starting to get a little silly.

It's not just the fact that people are tired of talking about it, but the fact that his point of view is from a stance that most people have always thought was silly and a little loser-ish, that is the BBB filing.

@Animasta said:

OH MY GOD SHUT UP

I agree with this duder

You know how many games I've played that I didn't like? Or thought the box art or the quotes on the box didn't represent? A friggin ton! Not once did I think that I should go after the developers, who poured their hearts into this product, and worked hard in bringing it to us gamers.

So the game wasn't everything you thought it would be...you're not alone in that feeling. But there are more important things to spend your time worrying about and definitely more important things to hire a lawyer for. Nothing good can come of making BBB complaints and making petitions and scoring the game low on Metacritic. You're just going to end up screwing the developers, who worked hard to bring us two great games, and one decent game. Games that I thoroughly enjoyed the shit out of. How many hours of enjoyment did you get out of the Mass Effect franchise? Mine is over 200. I want those developers to be able to move on and create new things for me to enjoy. I don't want to ruin their careers and lives by being a petty, snob-nosed brat about a sub-par video game (that isn't even that sub-par in the grand scheme of things). Let it lie.

More people are up in arms about Mass Effect 3 not being as good as Mass Effect 2 than there are worrying about our country's up-coming election. Fucking sad.

@dekkadekkadekka said:

@Jams said:

@dekkadekkadekka said:

@Animasta said:

OH MY GOD SHUT UP

No?

I think what he's trying to say is, that everyone is sick of hearing about this. Most people don't care at all about how Mass Effect 3 ended and it's starting to get a little silly.

That's fair enough, but then why visit the Mass Effect 3 board to see it, or deliberately click into it to render an opinion of "SHUT UP DICKHEAD!" I'm not holding people at gunpoint, and in fact I've not rendered an opinion on the ending of ME3 in this thread.

I thought it was interesting that someone from an organisation that can affect real change in how games can be marketed is taking an interest. That's all. I'm sorry if that point wasn't clear.

I want you to go count up every single thread about the ME3 ending on these forums alone, and your information is not new information

Wait, wait, wait.

You guys know I only wrote the last 3 lines, starting with "It's interesting that this..." right?

I didn't make a complaint to the BBB. I posted a link to the woman who works there, who wrote that blog, and quoted a bit from it. That's all, aside from the last three lines.

@Animasta said:

OH MY GOD SHUT UP

How I feel whenever I see a Mass Effect 3 thread.

Since when does someone's poor reading comprehension of truthful statements constitute false advertising?

I get where you're coming from - but like you said, "shaping your experience" is a vague description and ambiguity in courts favour the defendant. You can take them to court if you want and argue that different coloured endings is not an experienced that's "shaped" by your experience, but it's a losing battle

@Animasta said:

OH MY GOD SHUT UP

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, MAKE IT STOP!

@Brodehouse said:

Are you people fucking stupid? Seriously. Not even fucking fooling around, are you fucking stupid? Have you ever played a fucking video game before? This doesn't pass the laugh test.

Aww, when I read the first line I thought you were going to do a parody of Jeff :(

Also I pretty much agree with you, this whole Mass Effect 3 thing has been blown way out of proportions.

@dekkadekkadekka: I don't think anyone here actually read your post.

@Animasta said:

OH MY GOD SHUT UP

The BBB has no power over any company other than giving them a bad rating, and almost every large company already has a bad rating because there isn't much you can do about it, the larger you are the more targets are on your back.

Complaining to the BBB about video games does nothing but waste the BBB's time.

@Animasta said:

OH MY GOD SHUT UP

I'm really over and done with this shit with Mass Effect 3.

They said it was gonna be good, but I don't like it.

FALSE ADVERTISING !

The ironic thing is people seem to be invested enough in the forum topics board to reply to this thread, kinda mirrors the agency people have in the ME3 story doesn't it, oh and yea the ending was senseless.

“Mass Effect 3 is Having a ‘Mass Effect’ on Its Consumers for Better or Worse”

Goddammit, that pun was terrible.

And in other news: Peter Molyneux still walks free. Axe deodorant does not lead to an increase in sex appeal. News at 11.

Wow, you guys are incredibly hostile. I agree that there are too many generic threads about the reaction to Mass Effect 3, but this thread isn't like that, and was worth creating. It's interesting to see what the outcome was to those BBB complaints about Mass Effect 3.

Please, calm down.

@Brodehouse said:

Are you people fucking stupid? Seriously. Not even fucking fooling around, are you fucking stupid? Have you ever played a fucking video game before? This doesn't pass the laugh test.

I laughed.

@BisonHero: @TentPole Thanks!

A list of quotes like these (many more than these in fact) was being discussed to exhaustion weeks ago. What's the use of bringing it up again, in less detail than people have done before?

I have tried to avoid these topics as much as possible and have done so fairly successfully, yet, even I am incredibly tired of hearing about Mass Effect 3 and how BioWare is apparently the devil or something.

Ugh.

@BisonHero said:

Wow, you guys are incredibly hostile. I agree that there are too many generic threads about the reaction to Mass Effect 3, but this thread isn't like that, and was worth creating. It's interesting to see what the outcome was to those BBB complaints about Mass Effect 3.

Please, calm down.

04/03/2012

Receive Business Response

I was able to get in touch with Spike to discuss his issues with the ending of Mass Effect 3 as well as the ensured that any of his feedback regarding the ending was recorded and provided to the necessary parties within EA.
As far as a patch is concerned to "change the ending", several executives and members of the PR team have gone on record saying that new content is coming that will hopefully answer several questions that were left unanswered.
Spike seemed to enjoy the time we spent discussing Mass Effect and I feel as though although we did not exactly meet his desired resolution, he was pleased with the efforts made and thanked me for ensuring that his thoughts and feedback were heard and forwarded to the necessary parties.

04/04/2012

Consumer Resolved with Business Response

(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
They have made a public commitment to fixing the ending of the game to reflect their advertising promises.

https://goldengate.app.bbb.org/complaint/view/57218643/c/w9bv8x

Most importantly, note the dates. This is well after the announced by Dr Ray Muzyka of BioWare. You know the statement about adding answers to the questions fans may have? Now, what was the complaint again...

Well. That certainly ended well. For one party involved at least.

The phrase "shape your experience" is completely subjective. From some definitions of the phrase, it is a completely accurate statement. Making claims of false advertising is just plain laughable.

Assuming you could call official pre-release statements from BioWare "advertising" the whole "not an A, B or C type ending" thing is much more damning than some vague "shape your experience" statement.

Does the BBB person even know that happened?

I mean he IS right. Even if you're tired of hearing about it. :/

I normally find taking pleasure in the suffering of others to be a sign of serious mental illness, but in this case I can't help but smile at all the butthurt from BioWare fans about this stupid game.

@Animasta said:

OH MY GOD SHUT UP

No.

@Animasta said:

OH MY GOD SHUT UP

Seriously. I just finished it last night and I'm already tired of hearing people talk about it.

In other news, one-shot center mass with a rifle will neutralize an enemy in Modern Warfare 2.

Hey I'm all Mass Effect fangirling over here so I hear you, but what done is done.
Bioware's falsely advertising, EA's stealing our credit cards, Blizzard has our souls, Capcom can make a normal western game for shit, Sega can't make a sonic game even though they announcee is 'rebirth' every new title...
 
It goes on and on and on.

People need to look up cases where false advertising actually happened. BioWare and EA did nothing near false advertising.

I couldn't stand the fact the way I chose to end Mass Effect 2 had very little bearing on the opening and main thrust of Mass Effect 3's story. I did not find the dream sequences very engaging. But was I left with the impression that there was any "laziness" involved? Hell to the fuck no, because I am intimately aware that Bioware and EA spent MILLIONS of man hours producing Mass Effect 3.

In a world where companies and legislators build billion-dollar cozy relationships, where banks receive loans at interest rates of under 1%, then lend money for far higher rates and your savings account pays an interest rate that is lower than the price of inflation, where auto manufacturers produce cars with ever-faster planned obsolescence, and health insurance companies have favourable regulations leading to captive markets of entire state populations, that an overly-rigid ending in a VIDEO GAME is having complaints filed against its producer.

I love how much peoples' attitudes have changed about ME3 recently. What happened to everyone getting their pitchforks and going after Bioware with all the internet hate you could muster? Oh, it's not "in" anymore? Okay then, carry on.