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Alan Wake Humble Bundle launches
Weekend Confirmed 104 - Mass Effect 3, Diablo 3, GDC remainders
by Garnett Lee, Mar 16, 2012 11:00am PDTMass Effect 3 tops everyone's list. There's no way the Weekend Confirmed crew couldn't talk about it, but there are no spoilers... hell, Cannata's not even finished with it yet and we wouldn't want to do that to him. It's no secret, though, that the game's ending has rubbed a lot of fans the wrong way. What we want from game endings and the difficulties faced in putting a conclusion on a story we've invested so many hours offers a lot to consider. We also take a first look at some of our impressions from the game being careful to not give anything story-related away. Other things are happening as well. There's the Diablo 3 release date announcement, finally, and we've got a bunch of stuff left over from GDC last week as well. It's a non-stop ride to Finishing Moves.
Weekend Confirmed Ep. 104: 03/16/2012
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Weekend Confirmed comes in four segments to make it easy to listen to in segments or all at once. Here's the timing for this week's episode:
Show Breakdown:
Round 1 00:00:30 – 00:27:07
Whatcha Been Playing Part 1 00:27:42 – 00:57:22
Whatcha Been Playing Part 2 00:58:15 – 01:26:09
Listener Feedback/Front Page News 01:27:08 – 02:00:11
Jeff Cannata can also be seen on The Totally Rad Show. They've gone daily so there's a new segment to watch every day of the week!
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Weekend Confirmed @WeekendConfirmd
Garnett Lee @GarnettLee
Jeff Cannata @jeffcannata
Jeff Mattas @JeffMattas
For our listeners in or near Los Angeles - Double Jump (The show Christian Spicer and Jeff Cannata are putting on) is at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre on Saturday, March 24th. Check our show notes for more info and the link where you can purchase tickets. People can get tickets online at:
http://losangeles.ucbtheatre.com/shows/view/3042
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Original music in the show by Del Rio. Get his latest Album, The Wait is Over on iTunes. Check out more, including the Super Mega Worm mix and other mash-ups on his ReverbNation page or Facebook page, and follow him on twitter delriomusic.
Comments
That said, for all the reasons discussed thus far I still find his argument to be massively flawed.
But the thing is even ignoring those flaws the most puzzling part for me was at the end when Garnett said he disagreed with EA’s business model on artistic grounds, and Jeff responded "Oh, you're talking artistically? In that case we have no argument."
So on the one hand he makes the case for publishers siphoning off content to be purchased later as DLC because they planned the project with all these different revenue streams, and it had to add up to a particular bottom line in order to make commercial sense. Fine. And then on the other he accepts the practice as being artistically bankrupt and detrimental, as Garnett argued. Also fine.
But surely the conclusion of these competing strains of thought should be some compromise taking into account both considerations? The problem with Jeff's standpoint isn't that he's the only gamer out there with a hint of commercial awareness. It's that when it comes to critiquing commercial practice in his mind this is the only relevant consideration and any artistic concerns should be left at the door entirely.
I just wonder how for he's willing to take this logic. If the board of directors at EA had decided that the launch day on-disc DLC for Mass Effect 3 would not be limited just to some peripheral extra character, but actually to, say, the final third of the game itself, what would Jeff's reaction be? What if when he was playing Madden he took his team to the Superbowl only to find that he had to pay $10 extra to unlock the game itself from the disc?
I'd like to think that as a journalist he'd be outraged, recognise this was a step too far, and kick up a fuss against such a cynical practice. But by his own logic it's the publisher that has the right to call the shots, and if they end up making more money as a result then more power to them, right?
So if you’re reading this Jeff I’d be interested to know from your perspective what would be an example of a publisher going too far with DLC. And secondly, given your apparent belief that the debate begins and ends with the Publishers owning the content and having the right to distribute it via whatever revenue streams they deem most financially beneficial to themselves, in that scenario on what grounds you would object to it?
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 20 replies.
Well both Jeff and Garnett seemed to be in agreement that the Janik content was cut out of the game to make an extra buck, but chosen from the outset as content that would be developed in parallel with the intent of being additive to the experience for those who wanted it.
I don't think either Jeff or Garnett would agree that taking a full game, chopping a piece of it out, and holding it hostage for $15 would be an acceptable business practice.
As for the artistic argument, I don't think either of them were steadfast in the notion that DLC (even launch day DLC) is inherently detrimental to the artistic vision of a game. I think that Garnett's point was that, from an artistic standpoint, this optional character added more to the thematic resonance and poignancy of the game than many of the core characters. So Bioware could have improved their artistic vision for EVERYBODY had they made Janik a default character and instead made Ashley or Vega an extra.
As for the notion of cutting out the entire ending, again, the modern practice for DLC is not to remove content and sell it for extra money, but to develop it alongside the game, based on the revenue projections for the number of downloads at $15 with the current DLC adoption rate, internet penetration, user base, yada yada. As far as a publisher pushing the envelope to such an extreme, obviously there would be outrage. As I stated in a long, circular argument with another member of this forum, there needs to be a game industry version of the 'reasonable person test'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_person
Such a test would not only help establish some sensible standards for publishers to build and sell their games by, but also give some of the more... irrational gamers a point of reference for just how outraged they should be over a publisher's decision.
That said, I want to assure you that the chances of Mass Effect 4 shipping without a final act and consumers having to pay for it is HIGHLY unlikely, from BOTH ends of the equation. Not only would it be such a creative afront that the developer would probably not stand for it, but it would be such a marketing and PR disaster once they game hit metacritic and gamers hands.
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