The Impact of Returning Mass Effect 3
Written by Erik Kubik, kube00 Wednesday, 21 March 2012 08:20
It appears the hate mail and outrage over the ending to Bioware’s legendary series has reached a fevered pitch. As more and more gamers tweet, write emails, and grumble, a few retailers have decided to lend a sympathetic ear and let gamers return their opened copies.
It appears that both EA's Origin and Amazon will let gamers return their opened copies of Mass Effect 3. As a gamer, if you truly dislike the game that much and you bought it from either of these places, the stars have aligned in your favor; your jaw should have hit the floor when you first heard this news. Something like this is unheard of in the gaming world. Once you open a game it's yours. Places like Gamestop will let you exchange an opened game for another copy but they will not let you return it. After the game has been opened the only way to get rid of it is to trade it on a site like Goozex or sell it via Craigslist or eBay. According to Bioware’s forums several people have returned their open copies of Mass Effect 3 to Amazon and to Origin for a full refund. All you have to do is contact customer service.
There is only one good thing that can come out of this: the price of Mass Effect 3 will drop fast. It won't be long before there are used copies going for $30 or less in a month or so. Amazon’s Warehouse is going to be pretty busy in a few weeks, used copies
In the end, some gamers are going to expect companies to let gamers return their opened games if they raise a big enough stink. Hopefully this doesn't become a common trend as something of this magnitude could hurt the entire gaming industry. Who knows, this debacle may usher in "project $20," where all used copes require a $20 fee to access online content.
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Comments
However, could it also be that developers are at fault for making games that are too emotionally engaging? After all, they are creating a medium that begs for deep involvement, and then when they get it, are they prepared for the unintended backlash?
On the other hand, if you go to a movie that's so bad you have to walk out, sometimes you can get a refund. But not if you stay through the whole thing.
Refunding opened copies of ME3 sets a very bad precedent.
I'm not sure whether you've actually finished Mass Effect 3 and how much time you've invested in the whole series, but most fans who did so agree that the ending almost completely invalidates the decisions players have painstakingly made over the course of the saga, not to mention all the plot holes.
Every apologist so far has included the “defense of artistic integrity” in their arguments. That argument is much firmer with traditional media, but videogames have changed the equation. Yes, artistic integrity is still as important as ever, but it’s time for the industry to ask itself the following question: are players just audience?
Ahh, but who is to decide what the "correct" ending should be? That's up to the developers.
And yes, the players are still the audience. You did not hire Bioware to make this game, you paid Bioware for the opportunity to play a game they made.
I read the article you linked to and I have a major issue with this quote, "Here's the bottom line: we, the players, participate in the creative process and our participation is crucial because it's the final step. The players complete the creative process."
The players do not complete the creative process, they are participating in a creative environment that is already finished, and in the instance of video games, you are playing code, you are not helping write the story line, you do not have the ability to write unique aspects of the game. You are navigating a trail with finite endings.
The real argument here is that Bioware created an ending that negates the choices the players chose. That is the failure. That gives you the right to complain. It does not give you the right to a refund. You paid for the experience. You got the experience. It's just unfortunate you didn't like the experience. You don't retaliate by asking for a refund, you retaliate by not buying more games from Bioware.
Wait, so just because the arena of expression is limited there's no creativity involved? In other words, writing a sonnet in English is not an act of creativity, because the form is rigidly defined and English language has a finite number of ways you can arrange words in a syntactically correct and semantically coherent order?
When you play a game, you make choices that are provided for you, in return, you get an ending based on your choices. That is not creativity, that is picking from multiple choice.
Quoting Michael Rohde:
That's nothing to do with whether we participate in the creative process. That's just the business model that replaced the traditional patronage.
I agree with you in that this allows us to influence the future by "voting with our wallets".
If you want to write for GN, please send me a sample of your writing!
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