I originally made this post on the Bombcast comments page, but decided to move it here instead. I wanted to get a few things off my chest, but it was probably a bit too heavy and involved for the comments page.

Anyway, on to the rant: I'm totally with Vinny regarding the ME3 marketing direction, but I think the bigger problem is EA. There's been a lot of talk about why people are so cynical about BioWare these days, and I think the problem is EA. Their services integration (like Origin bullshit) is starting to become really, really ugly. And the hand of EA is becoming increasingly visible in BioWare products, like the gross marketing direction on ME3 or the rushed development cycle of Dragon Age 2. I mean, there's completely unrelated studios owned by EA that they're just calling "BioWare: Something." Even though parts of ME3 will probably be totally fine, I think people are hesitant to give it praise because of how EA is spreading its evil corporate fingerprints over games we used to love without qualification.

Another thing, about the discussion about the fighting game community. I normally side with (or at least can understand) Jeff's position on stuff, but I thought some of his comments here were kind of gross. He was definitely giving Aris's boneheaded argument way too much credit, and was more or less siding with him on some points. Brad was pretty vocal about this too, and I think he was spot on. Aris is an arrogant fucker, but I think the problem runs deeper. Kids these days need to be taught how to be respectable people. The fact that they could even consider that being a disrespectful asshole is an acceptable way to behave is a serious problem. Kids are impressionable, and they need to be taught how to be good people from an early age. You would think that this would just be common sense, but the attitude of kids is a glowing example of how they're being raised incorrectly. I think this also ties into Dave's comments about how the juvenile attitude of the internet will never change. Yes, young men are absolutely terrible people. But I don't think it needs to be that way - the problem isn't developing technology to effectively censor loudmouthed kids, the problem is that they genuinely don't understand that being disrespectful is a bad thing. Anyway, sorry for getting a little carried away with this rant, but I just wanted to get these things off my chest.