User blog comment:Kaloneous/Mass Effect 3 Ending DLC Denied and PAX/@comment-1341687-20120407202848/@comment-1341687-20120408084443

The business is what is killing the industry. It has become stagnation where change is frowned upon and sequels and copies are pushed. We the fans are just as much to blame as the publishers (not the developers).

And as I said in relation to the endings, we can't know exactly what happened. Until we get an official statement it is all rumor or conjecture. We want to believe that Patrick Weekes said its Casey Hudson and Mac Walters fault. We want to believe that there is someone, anyone to blame. But we are aimless until we are told who. I'm not trying to say there isn't someone to blame or that we shouldn't, it's just that we need to stop fixating on it.

If it had been executed better we would have seen a radically different reaction from the fan base. Somewhere along the line it isn't the fault or just the fault of the developers. It is the fault of the publisher. The one who paid for the development. For the production. For the shipping. EA doesn't have gamers on its controlling board. That's the issue. They look at quarterly results and the bottom dollar. The unfortunate tie-in to this is that the reasons many developers use EA is because EA will give the money to produce a title. But EA is terrible to its employees and has no idea how much they are contributing to the atrophying of the industry and the business. It is a bitter irony when you don't understand that the reason you aren't making tons of money is because you are trying to make tons of money.

That said, we want to blame BioWare. As fans we want to believe it is their fault. It will always be in part. Because somewhere along the line bad writing, bad editing and/or bad production broke our conclusion. That's not saying it is Starchild that broke it, but how Starchild was handled. In essence the Godchild was only a vehicle to explain our possible endings. Just imagine if you were shown the three levers, barely/no explanation and just pulled one and saw what happened. Shepard's accepting of the choices after being informed is the oddity. The reversal of TIM and Anderson were the oddity. But really without the closure of the galaxy around us, does the ending choice matter? No. That was the true mistake. The abandonment of closure to the 3-Act story.

As well as despite BioWares' fault, EA is more to blame. They set the schedule. You have to put the game out when they say so. You have to have X amount of DLC. You have to charge X amount. If not, you don't get to put it out. Even if it is a AAA anticipated title. I can nigh guarantee that if BioWare had missed the March release for Q2, it wouldn't have been released til Q4. Maybe we would have been better off, but EA wouldn't want the buzz to fizzle. So for the sake of the people working, BioWare cuts corners to hit release.

I've written a lot there, some of it repetitious just to echo your statement. Business will always limit creativity. It has become a bigger and bigger price to pay if you want your game made. If you can't hold your development costs at or above your sales, then your studio is shut down by the publisher. Just look at how many have closed down in the past 5 years. It's more than the previous 15 years before that. But since the average fan doesn't understand that, they contribute to the death of the industry. It's a hell of a thing to be on the cusp of achieving your dream and praying to God it doesn't crumble before or during your achievement.

Think about all the acquisitions, not just studio shut downs. Publishers are gobbling up every developer as soon as they have a AAA hit. Just so no one else has a chance to make money from it. The supreme goal in this sort of (most likely doomed) business model is create an IP have sole rights and turn it into a AAA. Then sell it off.

I went on quite a big rant there, but I'm sure you get the point.