BBB blogger says that Mass Effect 3 was falsely advertised
By: Jeff Rivera
In a fight that seems like it may never die down, the folks at BioWare and EA just took a haymaker to the face when Marjorie Stephens, a blogger for the Better Business Bureau (BBB) posted a blog yesterday stating that Mass Effect 3 has been falsely advertised. Stephens shares a few examples in her blog post that she uses as evidence that BioWare and EA knowingly presented information that was contrary to what the actual game delivered.
In her blog post, Marjorie Stephens said:
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.
Essentially, Stephens is saying that the messaging used by BioWare uses absolutes in their statements but that those absolutes are not met. You can't say that your choices "completely shape your experience" if many of those choices have actual little to no bearing on things, which is the core complaint by the Retake Mass Effect campaigners.
The rest of the blog post is essentially a summary of things as they've played out thus far, including a mention of the charity money raised as part of the online protest against BioWare and EA.
Personally, I do think that BioWare misrepresented the gravity of your actions as far as they impact the conclusion of the game. Renegade or Paragon, nothing changes at the conclusion of the story. Many other things are left unaffected as well. I do not, however, believe that BioWare should be forced to provide a new ending to the game. They did their fans wrong with a bad ending, but given the time they had to work on the title, it's what they honestly felt was the best way to conclude the series. If we're going to argue that games are art, we have to accept an artist's right to present their vision.
