End of an Gaming Era
I got to thinking about this today as a pit in my stomach was forming thinking of how bad EA is messing up the ME3 release by putting Origin in the way, coupling with the talk of how I've lost all faith in Square-Enix.
Growing up I played many video games, but some of the ones I enjoyed most were made by Activision. Pitfall, River Raid, etc. They kinda disappeared but I had good memories of them, until their feud with Rock Band after they picked up the Guitar Hero license. I didn't like it and lost a lot of respect for them, so much so that I haven't picked up any Activision games since.
Then there's SE. I've been a big supporter of theirs since FF1 back in the 80s. I played some of the FF games on ROMs at college because they weren't brought over here. I even imported some of their games early just because I couldn't wait. And I was one of those people that supported and played 7 years of their MMO, FFXI. I couldn't stand FFXIII, I gave FFXIV a good chance and supported it for many months. But you have to admit that FFXIV failed to deliver and was a game in forever beta. The shining part of their stuff was their silly little facebook game. And then they announced at the end of February they were cancelling that. I guess that felt like the last straw for me, and in my mind I've canceled them. They aren't putting out games that draw me in.
And now there's EA. I remember the days of Madden. Or SSX Tricky or other EA properties that were just 'fun'. EA was known as the 'sports' game maker. They had their niche and were really good at it. I really tried to get into Dragon Age, and I really liked the story, just the system and gameplay brought it down for me in the end. But I will say I still love the Mass Effect franchise, and am really excited about the new game. But there are two things which give me pause.
The first being the setting up of Origin. This is EA's version of Steam. Except instead of something for all companies to use, it's only EA. Right now the interface is clunky and still buggy. To entice people to use it they've put the best pre-order items only available through Game Stop or Origins. And all sorts of great goodies are in the Collectors Edition.
I attempted to pre-order the collectors edition through Game Stop, but they were all sold out. Amazon is also all sold out. So I went to Origin to pre-order, and I got a message saying they took my order and gave me an order number, but the anticipated ship date is 'null'. Which makes me think they are also sold out and just didn't update their website to say so. And of course I haven't been able to search for any helpful information as the links they tell me to follow all don't work. So I'm starting to wonder if I'm either going to be charged and get nothing, or if they'll drop my pre-order at the last minute.
That leads to my other gripe. Mass Effect was on the Xbox 360/PC. They put the feature in where you could import your save and it would affect things in Mass Effect 2. That was awesome! Then after Mass Effect 2 came out they released ME1 and ME2 for the PS3. So now with ME3 it will be on all three, 360/PC/PS3. Here's the issue in my mind. Most people who started playing the game played it on 360. I don't know the ratios of collectors editions between the three platforms, but even if it was 10/5/1 I think that would not be enough on the Xbox 360 as that is the #1 platform people used to play the game. Also, by now adding multiplayer element to the game it forces friends to all get it on the same system. Meaning more people will pick up 360 version than any other version! So EA made a major blunder when they underestimated how many people loved this series/game and on what platform they played it on. And it's not like people can change platforms due to the fact the save files won't move over and you can't play online with your friends that way.
And it's this type of oversight that bugs me. I'm fully expecting to play ME3 and enjoy it to death, but the way EA has managed this could be a black eye on the company in my mind. And if so then that really will be an end of an era of all the game companies that were 'the' game companies when I was growing up. And if so...viva Indy Gamers!
Growing up I played many video games, but some of the ones I enjoyed most were made by Activision. Pitfall, River Raid, etc. They kinda disappeared but I had good memories of them, until their feud with Rock Band after they picked up the Guitar Hero license. I didn't like it and lost a lot of respect for them, so much so that I haven't picked up any Activision games since.
Then there's SE. I've been a big supporter of theirs since FF1 back in the 80s. I played some of the FF games on ROMs at college because they weren't brought over here. I even imported some of their games early just because I couldn't wait. And I was one of those people that supported and played 7 years of their MMO, FFXI. I couldn't stand FFXIII, I gave FFXIV a good chance and supported it for many months. But you have to admit that FFXIV failed to deliver and was a game in forever beta. The shining part of their stuff was their silly little facebook game. And then they announced at the end of February they were cancelling that. I guess that felt like the last straw for me, and in my mind I've canceled them. They aren't putting out games that draw me in.
And now there's EA. I remember the days of Madden. Or SSX Tricky or other EA properties that were just 'fun'. EA was known as the 'sports' game maker. They had their niche and were really good at it. I really tried to get into Dragon Age, and I really liked the story, just the system and gameplay brought it down for me in the end. But I will say I still love the Mass Effect franchise, and am really excited about the new game. But there are two things which give me pause.
The first being the setting up of Origin. This is EA's version of Steam. Except instead of something for all companies to use, it's only EA. Right now the interface is clunky and still buggy. To entice people to use it they've put the best pre-order items only available through Game Stop or Origins. And all sorts of great goodies are in the Collectors Edition.
I attempted to pre-order the collectors edition through Game Stop, but they were all sold out. Amazon is also all sold out. So I went to Origin to pre-order, and I got a message saying they took my order and gave me an order number, but the anticipated ship date is 'null'. Which makes me think they are also sold out and just didn't update their website to say so. And of course I haven't been able to search for any helpful information as the links they tell me to follow all don't work. So I'm starting to wonder if I'm either going to be charged and get nothing, or if they'll drop my pre-order at the last minute.
That leads to my other gripe. Mass Effect was on the Xbox 360/PC. They put the feature in where you could import your save and it would affect things in Mass Effect 2. That was awesome! Then after Mass Effect 2 came out they released ME1 and ME2 for the PS3. So now with ME3 it will be on all three, 360/PC/PS3. Here's the issue in my mind. Most people who started playing the game played it on 360. I don't know the ratios of collectors editions between the three platforms, but even if it was 10/5/1 I think that would not be enough on the Xbox 360 as that is the #1 platform people used to play the game. Also, by now adding multiplayer element to the game it forces friends to all get it on the same system. Meaning more people will pick up 360 version than any other version! So EA made a major blunder when they underestimated how many people loved this series/game and on what platform they played it on. And it's not like people can change platforms due to the fact the save files won't move over and you can't play online with your friends that way.
And it's this type of oversight that bugs me. I'm fully expecting to play ME3 and enjoy it to death, but the way EA has managed this could be a black eye on the company in my mind. And if so then that really will be an end of an era of all the game companies that were 'the' game companies when I was growing up. And if so...viva Indy Gamers!