'Mass Effect 3' Fans May Get Steamed All Over Again

By Erika Morphy
TechNewsWorld
06/25/12 2:56 PM PT

Bioware may just be asking for it. Instead of giving unhappy "Mass Effect 3" fans the new ending options they demanded or simply ignoring them until their wrath subsided, the company is giving them more of what they hated -- but this time with additional explanations. "Gamers can be fanatical," noted Strategic Vision principal David Johnson. Bioware may need to brace for another onslaught.

Bowing to fan outrage over the controversial ending of "Mass Effect 3" earlier this year, BioWare is releasing an "extended cut" version of the last game in the space epic trilogy.

The game, expected to be made available Tuesday, will answer many of the complaints users had about the original ending, BioWare said.

The Extended Cuts adds "cinematic sequences" and "epilogue scenes" providing deeper insight to Commander Shepard's journey based on player choices.

Whether that will be enough to appease fans, though, is unclear.

In March, when "Mass Effect 3" was first released, some gamers were chagrined to find that it ended with the Earth's destruction no matter how they played their characters.

The crux of their ire was not so much the Earth's destruction, but the fact that gamers did not have the autonomy or control over the ending that the BioWare implied that they would have in its marketing.

Indeed, some gamers filed complaints with the Federal Trade Commission over the alleged false advertising because they were provided with no "meaningful player choice" or "multiple significantly different endings" or "closure for the characters and series" as BioWare promised during the lead up to the release.

The Extended Cut may not be enough to satisfy these players. BioWare describes the new release as expanding the original endings.

"It does not fundamentally change the endings, but rather it expands on the meaning of the original endings, and reveals greater detail on the impact of player decisions," it said.

A petition that circulated on Change.com at the time of the game's release, though, demanded exactly that -- the chance to change the original endings.

"We demand for EA and Bioware to deliver us an ending DLC that adds what we want and that is for our choices to affect the games ending, so if we want to destroy the universe the cycle of destruction continues and if we get everything perfect we can (just for example ) see Liara and Shepard get their little blue children and get old," it said.

BioWare would be wise not to anger its fan base twice, David Johnson, principal of Strategic Vision, told TechNewsWorld.

"Gamers are dead serious about their hobby, and they will not hesitate to call you out -- or even call for a boycott -- if they think something is not right," he said.

One or two episodes like that, and a game publisher will find it impossible to recover -- especially considering the competition in the space, Johnson added.

"Gamers can be fanatical," he stressed. "This is, after all, their main source of entertainment -- their life even, in some cases."

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