EA: Mass Effect Was Unfairly Criticized, Franchise Could Return

Imagine a new Final Fantasy game launching with all ugly as sin characters in full definition glory?
That is what happened here. We had a history of the people looking better and better game to game and suddenly thud. It didn't matter if gameplay and story was good or bad as all the people in it looked like they were smashed with the ugly stick even after the patches.
 
No, no, of course not. That would be ridiculous. It's not like they hired a cosplayer, in the name of diversity, to work on facial animations.

DIsclaimer: I pre-ordered this game and even recorded 10 hours of video pre-release in the trial. I beat it and mostly enjoyed it. I just think it's naive to believe that a SJW/pro-diversity mindset wasn't a significant factor in this title's failure.
To be fair these are examples of the unfair coverage of the game. And that is what contributed mostly to the "failure" as the game wasn't a failure sales wise. And most people who actually purchased the game and shared their opinion on it were in agreement that the game wasn't bad, and it deserved a follow up to the story.
So no, I don't think the SJW mindset was even apparent in the game to most. You want sjw diversity writing? Look at the prequel novel, if the game were only one tenth of that, the internet would've blown up and bioware HQ would've been demolished by angry mobs. The novel was actually co-written by a self proclaimed "SJW-writer" I only gotten about 10% trough it, and wanted to burn it. Each time I started reading it I wanted to rage quit after one page tops.
 
To be fair these are examples of the unfair coverage of the game. And that is what contributed mostly to the "failure" as the game wasn't a failure sales wise. And most people who actually purchased the game and shared their opinion on it were in agreement that the game wasn't bad, and it deserved a follow up to the story.
So no, I don't think the SJW mindset was even apparent in the game to most. You want sjw diversity writing? Look at the prequel novel, if the game were only one tenth of that, the internet would've blown up and bioware HQ would've been demolished by angry mobs. The novel was actually co-written by a self proclaimed "SJW-writer" I only gotten about 10% trough it, and wanted to burn it. Each time I started reading it I wanted to rage quit after one page tops.

I enjoyed the game. Before the game was even out my intent was to model my character after Zheng He (I believe the game even has a ship of that name in it) as I modeled Richard Winters for the first trilogy. Yet I had to discard my first trial video of making my character (I never did post the character-making process) because I was confused as to why I couldn't really make a "white" character. Now, again, not a big deal for my plans, but when my first instinct when playing a game is questioning that, I'm pretty sure that has nothing to do with "unfairness." (especially since, again, this was a pre-release trial, and I hadn't seen any coverage at that point)
 
I don't have anything against ugly people or fat people, but I don't necessarily want to see that in a fantasy / scifi movie or game or TV show that I have to pay out of my own pocket for.

It became obvious from just the character generation screens that passing a SJW political message was more important to them than just making a good game ... which they easily could have done by just releasing "more of the same" as was in good old Mass Effect 1 & 2 (except maybe pretty up the graphics a little bit more).

As others have stated, I too hope that Casey Hudson's return indicates an overall change in attitude and renaissance for them as well.
 
I never even gave it a shot. I saw those pics of that ugly protagonist chick and was like, no animated ass can look good enough to make me want to sit through cut-scenes with that face.
 
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To be fair these are examples of the unfair coverage of the game. And that is what contributed mostly to the "failure" as the game wasn't a failure sales wise. And most people who actually purchased the game and shared their opinion on it were in agreement that the game wasn't bad, and it deserved a follow up to the story.
So no, I don't think the SJW mindset was even apparent in the game to most.

The SJW was mostly limited to the Nexus, especially the background characters. So yeah, most people likely didn't notice it.

My main issue with this entire fiasco is that the game itself was not bad, it was a 6-7/10 depending on perspective. The game had glitches that it should not have, mainly in my experience with quest and dialogue triggers, I had so much dialogue cut off because I hit some invisible trigger.

The biggest issue outside of bugs to me was the pacing, it was awful, so much so that most of my friends quit after the first two planets. Size of game world and length of game are fine when there is good pacing, MEA didn't even pick up until over half way through.

The problem with EA's response is it ignores the valid criticisms that would make a better product (Q&A and pacing for example) and just throws the baby out with the bathwater.
 
I enjoyed the game. Before the game was even out my intent was to model my character after Zheng He (I believe the game even has a ship of that name in it) as I modeled Richard Winters for the first trilogy. Yet I had to discard my first trial video of making my character (I never did post the character-making process) because I was confused as to why I couldn't really make a "white" character. Now, again, not a big deal for my plans, but when my first instinct when playing a game is questioning that, I'm pretty sure that has nothing to do with "unfairness." (especially since, again, this was a pre-release trial, and I hadn't seen any coverage at that point)
I started playing the game right at the release and I could certainly create a white character (at least she certainly looked white to me), and a character that looked better than any character I could squeeze out from ME1-3 on my first try.
 
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I made a white character that straight up looks just like my doppelganger in about 10 minutes. Some of the facial animations are still a little wonky (especially if things get romantic with Cora) but they're pretty normal 75% of the time. Flowing hair seems to be something that this game (and many others) don't do well, though. Luckily I don't have much. My wife's character looks accurate, but the hair looks stringy and with too much space between strands no matter what you do. All that said, it still looks better than most other create-a-character modes.
 
I started playing the game right at the release and I could certainly create a white character (at least she certainly looked white to me)

You do realize Bioware themselves said they would fix it in an update (and indeed, the CC was updated)...I'm not making shit up here.
 
You do realize Bioware themselves said they would fix it in an update (and indeed, the CC was updated)...I'm not making shit up here.
So if it was fixed even before release, who cares? How is it an agenda then? Would they have fixed it if it was intentional?
 
Because despite all that has happened since EA acquired them the Bioware name still generates buzz and sells games.

That is fading fast.

SWTOR is dying on their watch and its because they now have terrible writing and always do the opposite of the feedback they solicit...
 
The game sucked. I honestly didn't care about the bad animations and weird graphics. The gameplay was flat out boring, and the story sucked.

Even though the female characters looked like ass, the game just wasn't very good. I bought it and it was boring. Not sure why these companies think moving away from what made the franchise great will work. They spent way too much time on shit that didn't matter. And having that producer hate on white people isn't healthy either, I am sure plenty of people were turned off by that as well. Seems strange they are crying unfair, it isn't like the press has fuck all to do with what we buy.
 
To be fair these are examples of the unfair coverage of the game. And that is what contributed mostly to the "failure" as the game wasn't a failure sales wise. And most people who actually purchased the game and shared their opinion on it were in agreement that the game wasn't bad, and it deserved a follow up to the story.
So no, I don't think the SJW mindset was even apparent in the game to most. You want sjw diversity writing? Look at the prequel novel, if the game were only one tenth of that, the internet would've blown up and bioware HQ would've been demolished by angry mobs. The novel was actually co-written by a self proclaimed "SJW-writer" I only gotten about 10% trough it, and wanted to burn it. Each time I started reading it I wanted to rage quit after one page tops.

I purchased the game and it was just "ok" it wasn't "terrible" or "that bad" Hardly a glowing review though and paramount to the underlying cause of why it didn't do all that well. The characters looking like aliens was not the only problem, it was not good enough in my view. Wasn't terrible but wasn't amazing either. I think people are just sad it is gone and now are wishing they let the smell bother them less so it wouldn't be gone forever. Just a shit publisher now being vengeful I think.
 
I purchased the game and it was just "ok" it wasn't "terrible" or "that bad" Hardly a glowing review though and paramount to the underlying cause of why it didn't do all that well. The characters looking like aliens was not the only problem, it was not good enough in my view. Wasn't terrible but wasn't amazing either. I think people are just sad it is gone and now are wishing they let the smell bother them less so it wouldn't be gone forever. Just a shit publisher now being vengeful I think.

Why is it "gone"?

I wasn't under the understanding that they killed the game and shut off the servers. I was under the impression that they have stopped continued support for the single-player part of the game. I also thought there was a multiplayer part of the game, so what I take from this is that you cane continue to play single-player as it is now, for better or worse, and multiplayer is still alive a supported.

Do I have this wrong?

I never bought the game but I never ruled out buying it someday.
 
"unfairly criticized" is right. the game was definately good. not amazing, but good and worth every second i put into it.
 
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All you have to do is put passion into developing the game while respecting the foundation that made the franchise great. That's all I ask for. Kicking the ball down the field and giving the game to plan B never inspired confidence and the results speak for themselves. It may be a decent or even good game, but it wasn't a good Mass Effect game.

And you will never get that passion when you treat your developers like slaves working long hours for low pay.
 
And you will never get that passion when you treat your developers like slaves working long hours for low pay.

I totally agree and even more depressing for me since I liked EA back in the 8bit days. They were a good part of the 80's along with Activision and I still can't believe what its all become.
 
Honestly, I think there was unfair criticism on both sides, some of them are really good people.








*Disclaimer: I know nothing about this game outside of 2 news articles on the [H] forums.
 
I think that it was fairly critcised, and that criticism should go straight to the management team.

AAA game production is a herculean effort that eclipses big-budget movies, requiring great management and direction from top-down, and the people EA put in charge of Andromeda halfassed it.


[and it's still a good game, if not a great one, but the cut corners including the release schedule show]
 
Didn't even give it a chance, no Shepard no buy.

Initial game reviews really didn't sway me either.

Seeing how they abandoned the single player development/story kinda makes it a $5 buy.
 
The Andromeda drama continues: in an interview with GameReactor, EA's Executive Vice President Patrick Soderlund suggests that the latest Mass Effect game was treated unfairly. While some things could have gone better, he believes that it is a great game and sees no reason why the franchise shouldn’t get another shot.

"What we need to be careful though of is, whenever we bring Mass Effect back again, we have to make sure that we bring it back in a really [relevant] way, and in a fresh, exciting place. That' my job, and that's Casey's [Hudson] job, and BioWare and the Mass Effect team's job, to figure out what that looks like, and that we don't know yet, but we will."

"No game, in the history of mankind, has ever been treated so unfairly by the gaming press…"

I have to agree. I honestly did not give two shits or even notice the facial animations until people started pointing it out. I was too focused on what was being said. I honestly loved the game and I really do feel it was treated unfairly. It was so wonderful returning to the Mass Effect universe again. I might play it again at some point, but I am honestly really worried that because of peoples' reactions to it's release that they won't make another for a very long time if ever. I honestly think people are a lot more cynical nowadays and with the abundance we have it's easy to forget or not notice what is good and focus on the bad.

Didn't even give it a chance, no Shepard no buy.

Initial game reviews really didn't sway me either.

Seeing how they abandoned the single player development/story kinda makes it a $5 buy.

I honestly think that is a very closed-minded and cynical way to look at things. I mean, if you liked the Mass Effect universe in any respect then I don't understand how people can be so incredibly easily swayed by others' opinions in this case. It deserves a chance.
 
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Love how EA is TELLING everyone that we should have loved the game and accepted it as gold because it was made and had the ME name attached to it. They just need to accept the fact that they rolled out a POS and that they will either have to end the misery there and move on or come back with a new Mass Effect and redeem the name.
Getting on the loud speaker and yelling at everyone that they are wrong about it is not a good business model. The masses spoke and told them they F-ed up and EA has to learn to accept it.....that's pretty much it.
 
Well, OK. I admit there is one way they can win me back. If they announce a sequel to ME3 that picks up the story right after the battle and establishes the IT as canon.

I too wish I lived in the reality where Half-Life 3 existed and micro-transactions weren't a thing.
 
In my humble opinion: Andromeda surpassed Mass Effect 1-3 in almost every way. The characters were not stupidly over the top like in me2 (ust compare what the companions did in their introduction missions with their actual use in gameplay), the storytelling was finally above porn movies and the exploration was awesome.

I spend 200 hours in this game. The last time i was so engaged into a story was Baldurs Gate 2.

Andromeda was awesome just for a different audience. It was clearly aimed at adults and not at kids.
 
I honestly think that is a very closed-minded and cynical way to look at things. I mean, if you liked the Mass Effect universe in any respect then I don't understand how people can be so incredibly easily swayed by others' opinions in this case. It deserves a chance.

I don't disagree with you, I really enjoyed the first 3 Mass Effects and was waiting for Andromeda like a kid waits for Christmas. Between the reviews, watching co-worker play (combat looked like it was the best thing going for the game), bugs, animation issues, model issues... This is me speaking for me, I would not spend full retail price on a game that felt like it was partially finished or rushed.

Granted the game has undergone a few updates and from what I read has improved a lot of the earlier issues and well at this point, nothing else is going to further fix single player since it was abandoned.
 
In my humble opinion: Andromeda surpassed Mass Effect 1-3 in almost every way. The characters were not stupidly over the top like in me2 (ust compare what the companions did in their introduction missions with their actual use in gameplay), the storytelling was finally above porn movies and the exploration was awesome.

I spend 200 hours in this game. The last time i was so engaged into a story was Baldurs Gate 2.

Andromeda was awesome just for a different audience. It was clearly aimed at adults and not at kids.
Cutscenes and actual gameplay have very different rules, to keep the gameplay challenging and balanced. I thought it was a common understanding until now. This is present in almost every game I played that had cutscenes in them.

Exploration was awesome until after 50 hours of doing it in vain it dawns on you that there really is nothing to find, only the same three types of shit, that offers no actual reward only xp or raw material. Exploration is only worth something if you can find unexpected gems, of which there is no more than a handful in the entire game. Scouring a galaxy for 100 hours for a few brief moments of satisfaction? Not that great.

I agree that on a fundamental level the story was better in ME:A more grounded, more believable, and I'd hazard to say more interesting. But the execution was lacking, and most characters are one sided and dull for the most part. I didn't care about any of them until the loyalty missions that didn't come until 50 hours in. Like the whole cast of characters is made up of Kaidans. They failed to exact any kind of emotional attachment, except blind hate and annoyance in a few cases.
And hate could be good, a good writer could work with that. But the game never allowed to express your hate towards any of those annoying characters, so in the end that's worse than having no emotion at all.
 
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I don't disagree with you, I really enjoyed the first 3 Mass Effects and was waiting for Andromeda like a kid waits for Christmas. Between the reviews, watching co-worker play (combat looked like it was the best thing going for the game), bugs, animation issues, model issues... This is me speaking for me, I would not spend full retail price on a game that felt like it was partially finished or rushed.

Granted the game has undergone a few updates and from what I read has improved a lot of the earlier issues and well at this point, nothing else is going to further fix single player since it was abandoned.
And we're telling you that the reviews that are telling you that those are significant issues in the game are biased, or outright wrong. When you actually play the game, these issues that were blown out of proportion are barely noticeable unless you get fixated on them.
The only real issue of the game is the pacing, that means that there are a lot of dullness in the first 50 hours of the game until the story starts picking up, and more interesting side quests start to pop up (the loyalty missions). But contrary to ME1 for example the gameplay is good enough to keep you engaged, it's not just a tool to move the story forward it is enjoyable on it's own merits.

When I first started playing the game even before any of the patches it didn't feel unfinished, or rushed, on the contrary it felt extremely polished. I also was ready to dismiss the game based on the reviews, but I already pre-ordered it at that point, so there was no going back. But when I got my hands on it I realized how terribly wrong those reviews were, and the game is actually very good, not great, but very good.
In the few first hours of play I was actively looking at facial animations like a hawk, and thought to myself, what was all the fuss about? There is barely anything there apart from a few weird expressions, that were not uncommon in the first three games either. The videos depicting the so called "animation debacle" were supercut from cherry picked moments that are absolutely not representative of the overall experience.
I realized It would've been a huge mistake to not buy the game. And I feel that my money was well spent on it. I played about 80 hours with it, so I spent about 50c / hours. I also purchased prey and dropped it in 2 hours because it was uninteresting, the graphics was shit and it was derivative. And mind you this is a game that got glowing reviews and all out praise.
 
That is fading fast.

SWTOR is dying on their watch and its because they now have terrible writing and always do the opposite of the feedback they solicit...

That's not entirely true. BioWare has a habit of listening to the vocal minority and not the people who actually have suggestions for making the game better. They finally got Drew Karpyshyn back at BioWare and are wasting him on SWTOR. He's having to pick up the pieces after some badly written expansions. BioWare is also clearly investing less and less into the game and it's dying a slow death as a result.
 
All that being said...

I've said this before in another thread, but, I disagree with the developer that the game was unfairly criticized in the early days. I still can't watch the eye movements to this day.

However, I completely agree with the developers assertion that the game today, is a fine game and worthy of your dollars.

I took a chance on it at $25 and I was NOT disappointed. The amount of content, the exploration, the combat... all top notch in my opinion.

Now, then there is the argument, what about the people who paid 50 or even 60???

imho, this game should become the poster child for NEVER pre-ordering and for NEVER buying until you know what you are getting.
In todays day and age, you are never in danger of going to the game store and they are sold out.
 
In my humble opinion: Andromeda surpassed Mass Effect 1-3 in almost every way. The characters were not stupidly over the top like in me2 (ust compare what the companions did in their introduction missions with their actual use in gameplay), the storytelling was finally above porn movies and the exploration was awesome.

I spend 200 hours in this game. The last time i was so engaged into a story was Baldurs Gate 2.

Andromeda was awesome just for a different audience. It was clearly aimed at adults and not at kids.

Wow I didn't enjoy the game as much as you did, I did get my monies worth in my view but I am glad to hear about people really having a good time with it.
 
Why is it "gone"?

I wasn't under the understanding that they killed the game and shut off the servers. I was under the impression that they have stopped continued support for the single-player part of the game. I also thought there was a multiplayer part of the game, so what I take from this is that you cane continue to play single-player as it is now, for better or worse, and multiplayer is still alive a supported.

Do I have this wrong?

I never bought the game but I never ruled out buying it someday.

Well they are basically not developing it further and the franchise appears dead.
 
I think the game deserved to be criticized at launch (animation bugs, ugly character models with bugged out eyes etc, incomplete features such as the Character Creator etc...but once most of the major bugs were ironed out it was too late, people had given up and moved on...I think EA is trying to say that people should have been more patient...another example of a game rushed out 3 months too early...
 
Just tried replaying for a few on my SLI rig yesterday. Memory leaks like watching the titanic sink. Ram usage actually went upwards of 26GB by the time windows was trying to give me an out of memory error. During animations Vram was essentially red lined at full 8GB non stop. What a mess! Between this and no-man's I doubt I'll be dropping any $$$ for space exploration games for a long time.
 
Just tried replaying for a few on my SLI rig yesterday. Memory leaks like watching the titanic sink. Ram usage actually went upwards of 26GB by the time windows was trying to give me an out of memory error. During animations Vram was essentially red lined at full 8GB non stop. What a mess! Between this and no-man's I doubt I'll be dropping any $$$ for space exploration games for a long time.

Uh, that's on your rig bro, not the game.
 
Just tried replaying for a few on my SLI rig yesterday. Memory leaks like watching the titanic sink. Ram usage actually went upwards of 26GB by the time windows was trying to give me an out of memory error. During animations Vram was essentially red lined at full 8GB non stop. What a mess! Between this and no-man's I doubt I'll be dropping any $$$ for space exploration games for a long time.

I don't have this issue.
 
I don't have this issue.
I'll have go to back and see if I can replicate it. Running 378.92 drivers w/ latest 10 updates. I use that driver because anything post and it disables the HDR when I try to game on a 4k t.v.-plus it does really weird things to the color type(rgb/4:4:0,4:2:0) and depth combo's. Since I often switch between the 4k monitor and TV I usually leave the in game color setting to half instead of compressed.

Ironically enough, it was on the cinema 4k(4096x2160) resolution monitor with all in-game settings maxed. It was while on the pathfinder ship and I was meandering around talking to various characters. After about the 3rd or 4th it happened. First time actually but the cut scenes are generally where I see the Vram peak. It seems like once it hits 7GB the levy breaks and its all downhill from there. During gameplay it usually averages 5-7GB and everything's fine(60fps). Once the leaks start happening the fps dropped to the teens.

I forgot to mention that along with the windows out of memory errors, there was a complicated looking DX error stating out of GPU memory.
 
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