User blog comment:The Milkman/Everybody Shut Up./@comment-1763991-20120423080644/@comment-1726879-20120424205613

Like I said, Gamer Entitlement is an illusion, as much as Artistic Integrity is. BUT, and a big one here, in this case, it will have the same effect (were it to exist). Gamers are not entitled to complain about an ending officially, but they are entitled to show disdain towards it, advise others on the game negatively or positively, sell their copy of the game and never buy a product from the developer and publisher again. This causes the same thing: if you don't listen to the demands of "Gamer Entitlement" you would be reprimanded, much as if you're fanbase buggers off, you are reprimanded.

This response is not the most severe. I'm suprised that anyone who is idiotic enough to think that the people against the ending are a mere 60,000 people hasn't ran in front of a road thinking that only three or four cars couldn't knock them off their feet. I know over 30 different people who severely dislike the ending and are on the verge of not buying another Bioware product again. I am the only one of all of these who has actually went on the internet to complain about the ending. Just because 60,000 people have complained doesn't mean that's the entirety of the people against it. If a single complaint is filed against a business for any aspect, industrial doctrine is to immediately assume that over 20 people are unsatisfied for the same reason. Now remember that it has been over a month since Bioware released their sub-par ending into the world. People have already sold their discs and moved away from the franchise. If this was intention of Bioware, then they are idiots. If their plan is what it currently seems to be, then they are idiots. If their plan is to actually announce something to please the unsatisfied in the near future, then they are idiots, only slightly lesser ones. They've already lost a lot other people because of their idiotic move, any move they make now will only save a lesser amount of the fanbase. You actually think people will re-buy the game just to see if Bioware can live up to their promises on their second attempt? No, they won't they'll just see the news, say "Oh, it'll be just as bad as the current one" and then start playing the other game that they are into now.

Regardless of what they do, the franchise has taken a catastrophic hit to the hull. If they save it, people still lost their faith in the franchise. You say the analogy I used is wrong? Tell me, did we spend over 100 hours of our lives, spend over a hundred pounds on games, downloadable content and other media, just to get a terrible, nonsensical, paradoxical ending that I was promised I wouldn't recieve? I spent time and money, only to be betrayed by someone I trusted. If I wanted to get betrayed, I would have put £50 in my back pocket and walked down a dark alleyway in Liverpool with a person I just met whom I think is my new best friend, and I would have saved myself hours of my time and saved a fair bit of money.

Either way, Bioware's income has gone completely down the pot. Any budget they now recieve from EA to actually do anything good will be more than significantly lower. That's not theory, that is fact. The error they have made has cost them a lot of their income, and as such, less will be put in to gain from it, they'll just find another franchise to bleed dry. Time has proven this fact. They've lost a fair bit of their budget because of this, and that means future products will be of lower quality, as will then lack the resources to do all their work good. Therefore, the cycle continues until EA pulls the plug on them and splits all the remaining resources into other franchises owned by Bioware. Again, this is the way it works, that's business. EA will not put more money into them for failing them, they'll pay them less, and as such lower the risk to them.

Bioware can try like hell to pull off a miracle, but they won't get all of their fanbase back or gain new members. They've been branded for their actions, and now they have to live with that. If they'd have assured the unsatisfied fans within the week, they'd probably have saved a the majority of the fanbase that has now gone. The longer it takes to assure the angry fanbase, the greater the number of people who leave, tell everyone they know to never buy another one of their products. If they don't do it at all, then they lose majority of those dis-satisfied fans. Then they will have to go to hell and back to get those people back, and even that's not a certainty. They've lost a lot of people, no denying it, and now their chances of getting new fans is down the potter too.