Game
developer Bioware has been known for their amazing writing and storytelling
they inject into their already superb games. However, they have come under fire
in the past month. The Better Business Bureau has recently accused the company
of false advertising for their newest offering Mass Effect 3. In a recent
statement, they claim that the advertising slogan “Take Back Earth” is entirely
too misleading.
I didn’t
say something along the lines of “spoiler warning” or “do not read if you don’t
want to hear the ending” because the ending to Mass Effect 3 has been spread
around like crazy thanks to the magic of the internet. In it, the protagonist Commander
Sheppard (gender dependant) was unable to save Earth from the malevolent alien
race known as the Reapers. BBB considers this to be somewhat of a fraud; the
game allows you to make moral choices that highly affect the story…up until the
ending, that is. Not only does the company claim that Bioware has betrayed
their past format of moral choice driven gameplay, but they have abandoned
their advertising strategy as well.
A lot
of this issue goes back to my previous entry on moral choices in videogames,
and I can agree with BBB to a very limited extent. It really is disappointing
to see Bioware not fall back on what they’re good at (that is, making moral
choice options that matter). However, this is an offense on a national level.
Bioware ended Mass Effect 3 the way they wanted to. What company, or for that
matter, person has the right to say someone ended their original work wrongly?
Sure, the ending went against the opening trailers, but how many gamers would
buy a game promising you to “Watch Earth Get Probed Viciously by Aliens?”
The
bottom line: Bioware shouldn’t listen to
busybody cooperations telling them they made their game wrong. It’s very
similar to saying what is and isn’t art, and it's quite ignorant. This is that one nerdy kid signing
out.
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