The debacle over the Mass Effect 3 ending continues, as yesterday a player stated he has now filed an official FTC complaint against EA over the ending. The player, known as “el spiko” on the BioWare forums, stated he was lied to by EA and BioWare about how the game would finally end; which constitutes as false-advertising.
To be clear, this is not a lawsuit, merely a complaint to the FTC; which deals with protecting consumers against unfair or false advertising practices, as well as other consumer issues.
At the core of the complaint was that EA had promised, in multiple inteviews and press releases, that the Mass Effect 3 ending would answer all players questions, and tie-off the franchise. In one interview with Venturebeat, executive producer of ME3 Casey Hudson stated,
“Mass Effect 3 is all about answering all the biggest questions in the lore, learning about the mysteries and the Protheans and the Reapers, being able to decide for yourself how all of these things come to an end.”
The second major complaint was that players were told their choices would have a direct impact on the stories ending, another promise that did not live up to expectations.
The player who filed the complaint stated the following, hoping that it might finally put enough pressure on the gaming titans that they might react more quickly to address the players concerns over the ending.
This is not somethign I was happy to do, but after the terrible ending that was in no way the product that had been advertised to me and the lack of any kind of response from Bioware/EA to address this, I felt it was one of my only recourses. I’ll be returning my copy of the game before the end of my 30 day return policy if the ending still hasn’t been addressed by then.
From the perspective of someone that has never played a Mass Effect game, this seems completely ridiculous to me. We’ve all been disappointed at one time or another with a game’s ending, but to start filing official government complaints because you didn’t like it is way over the top. What’s next, lawsuits against games that suck? ”Well according to their advertisement, this game was supposed to be awesome“. Give me a break.
Like any art form, it’s all in the eye of the beholder. I thought the ending to the Sopranos, and really the whole last season, was a steaming pile of dog crap. I felt cheated that the ending provide zero information about anything, and so did millions of other fans. Should I have filed an FTC complaint against HBO?
Get over it; it’s a video game. You had fun, the ending wasn’t want you wanted, so chill-out, and wait for the DLC update, or the next game in the franchise. Sure, BioWare stated Mass Effect 3 was going to be the end; but we all know it’s not the last game for the franchise.
There its a key difference here between the Sopranos and a video game such as Mass Effect which renders your comparison invalid. You didn’t pay for the show. Gamers paid for the game. We were sold a product with certain promises which turned out to not be true.
Had the same thing happened with any other physical product a lawsuit would not only be reasonable but expected by the public at large. Gamers are just as entitled to truth in advertising as the rest of the population, we are not second class citizens.
March 17th, 2012 at 5:04 pmQuote
Mate, go play the mass effect series from start to finish. The story is something unbelievable. Great story, plot twists, your personal decisions and all spinning around the reapers and how you try to save everyone alive and in the end you get, well, absolutely nothing. Just s..t on a plate and a note “here you go. this is all youll get” Youd understand, youre a smart person
March 17th, 2012 at 5:04 pmQuote
I want a pony!
March 17th, 2012 at 8:02 pmQuote
Excuse me, yes, yes you do pay for the show. You pay for HBO as part of whatever cable package you get. If you don’t watch it, you’re getting a product you can’t use.
Your argument is invalid, good day sir.
March 17th, 2012 at 11:48 pmQuote
You are correct in that you pay for a service, but you are incorrect in who you pay and what is promised in return for that payment. Firstly, you do not pay HBO directly, you pay a third party company such as comcast for access to whatever programming HBO happens to provide.
The fact that the sopranos was one of the shows that HBO was airing during a certain period may have swayed your desire to subscribe, but in no legal way were they obligated to you to continue airing the show, no matter how strongly you feel that they should.
What they sold you, again, was nothing more than anything HBO wants to slap their name on and produce for airing via third parties.
HBO wouldn’t even be responsible if you were unable to view their shows unless they were grossly neglegent in transmitting those shows to the third party providers.
It is a fundamentally different business model from a packaged (non-mmo) video game which is a tangible product, not a service.
ps – please forgive typos, sent from my phone which apparently hates this text input field.
March 18th, 2012 at 5:35 pmQuote
[...] get the ending that they wanted, and now think they have the right to DEMAND a new ending. One player even went so far as to file an FTC complaint. Hopefully, Bioware is smart enough to see past the “unsilent minority” and keep the [...]
March 19th, 2012 at 3:51 amQuote
[...] MMORPG and Free MMO Game List – Lore Hound Posted in Games News Tags: against, Complaint, Effect, Ending, files, Mass, Over, player « Top 5 Reasons Mass Effect 3 Sucks! You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. [...]
March 19th, 2012 at 7:59 amQuote