Games Thirst – Amazing Life
It’s a stance many gamers have held concerning the highly controversial ending of Mass Effect 3, one in which Bioware promised multiple endings but performed a one-fits-all conclusion, and now the Better Business Bureau (BBB) has thrown its weight into the ring, stating that Bioware and EA might have participated in false advertising when promoting the game’s ending as something else.
“Consider this,” the blog began, “if you had purchased a game for $59.99 or $79.99 for the digital download version and were told that you had complete control over the game’s outcome by the choices your character made and then actually had no control over the game’s outcome, wouldn’t you be disappointed?! Many gamers have spoken out in online forums, via Facebook and Twitter, leading to the creation of Facebook fanpages in favor of and against the game’s outcome. What caused all of this hype had to do with the marketing of this product.”
BBB then went to list some of the false advertising made by EA and Bioware, including the ability to “experience the beginning, middle, and end of an emotional story unlike any other, where the decisions you make completely shape your experience and outcome”, and “along the way, your choices drive powerful outcomes, including relationships with key characters, the fate of entire civilizations, and even radically different ending scenarios.”
The firm continued: “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.
The lesson to be learned here is companies should give careful consideration to how they word their advertisements. Otherwise, there could be detrimental effects, especially in the era of social media and online forums.”
Hopefully, EA will learn a lesson here, because they did the same thing with Battlefield 3 when they pushed the PC version of the game in ads for consoles, knowing full well it’d be a different experience.
