Rules of Acquisition
Mar. 15th, 2012 06:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
4thofelevenFile under ‘Most Surreal Aspect of the Whole Mass Effect Ending Fiasco’:
Forbes Magazine – yes, that Forbes Magazine - has not one, but three articles on their website discussing the ending and its fallout.
How BioWare Could Find Redemption Using Mass Effect 3
Why Fan Service is Good Business
Mass Effect 3 And The Pernicious Myth Of Gamer 'Entitlement'
Unlike most gaming ‘journalists’, Forbes actually seems to have realised that alienating your customers isn’t a good policy, and that it’s not whining to expect quality from a product. Honestly, it’s the bad business sense of the ending that baffles me more than anything: Mass Effect was clearly BioWare’s attempt to create a new franchise where, unlike Knights of the Old Republic or Baldur’s Gate, they owned every aspect of it. It was, I think, a gamble – their previous original setting, Jade Empire, wasn’t particularly successful, but this time, they got it right. With Mass Effect, they managed to create an intellectual property that rivalled Star Wars in scope and popularity; I do not understand why they would then so cavalierly burn the setting to the ground at the height of its popularity.
If the fan backlash doesn’t get through to BioWare, maybe Forbes’s analysis of just how bad this was for their business and brand identity might.
Less seriously, I can't shake the image that Steve Forbes is sitting in a mansion somewhere, still staring blankly at a monitor, muttering to himself in shock “But… but Garrus and Tali will starve…”
Forbes Magazine – yes, that Forbes Magazine - has not one, but three articles on their website discussing the ending and its fallout.
How BioWare Could Find Redemption Using Mass Effect 3
Why Fan Service is Good Business
Mass Effect 3 And The Pernicious Myth Of Gamer 'Entitlement'
Unlike most gaming ‘journalists’, Forbes actually seems to have realised that alienating your customers isn’t a good policy, and that it’s not whining to expect quality from a product. Honestly, it’s the bad business sense of the ending that baffles me more than anything: Mass Effect was clearly BioWare’s attempt to create a new franchise where, unlike Knights of the Old Republic or Baldur’s Gate, they owned every aspect of it. It was, I think, a gamble – their previous original setting, Jade Empire, wasn’t particularly successful, but this time, they got it right. With Mass Effect, they managed to create an intellectual property that rivalled Star Wars in scope and popularity; I do not understand why they would then so cavalierly burn the setting to the ground at the height of its popularity.
If the fan backlash doesn’t get through to BioWare, maybe Forbes’s analysis of just how bad this was for their business and brand identity might.
Less seriously, I can't shake the image that Steve Forbes is sitting in a mansion somewhere, still staring blankly at a monitor, muttering to himself in shock “But… but Garrus and Tali will starve…”