Well for PC games, EA should definitely make a small patch that unlocks it for community dedicated servers. That way people can still play online through community servers, just not EA ones that EA has to pay for. Counter-Strike always worked like this and its community is still alive and well. Unfortunately, I don't think there is anything that can be done for console games. Microsoft will not allow the community to create a server for the games. Either the publisher maintains the servers or Microsoft does. They don't leave any room for the community to take over with an old game. This is what's going to happen with the next consoles. After the Xbox 720 is out a few years, all the Xbox 360 games will lose online functionality including achievements. You might even lose all your arcade games or have to rebuy them on the 720.

@DrunkMonkeyFist Individuals can definitely decide not to buy goods whose companies are anti-consumer, but the vast majority still do. The only way to change things would be if all consumers rose up to protest and boycott these bad practices, but it will never happen. The average player doesn't seem bothered by it. The other thing is that the big companies in the industry are very careful to make these changes slowly over the years. One little thing here and there won't cause an uproar. Extreme changes can cause people to go up in arms, but big companies never let that happen. They slowly pull more and more away. Players are too divided on these smaller issues to unit against them.

I don't think we can do much about this. In movies, there is also the mainstream that pays for all the Adam Sandler comedy's while the critics and other viewers with higher tastes can't imagine who watches them. I've enjoyed some of his movies, but most of them are the same old thing. And yet, they consistently have good ticket sales. The game industry is just the same. There will always be a large number of people who buy the same game. They have a lot of disposable income and really don't care about innovation or pushing the boundaries. You can try to show these people more innovative games. They may eve have a lot of fun with them, but they will always come back to their favorite sequels.

This has sorta been done already in Fallout 3. The original ending was abrupt and felt awkward. Most players agreed on this. Then, Bethesda listened to this feedback and improved the ending with one of the DLC packs. I think it is perfectly fine for a developer to change the ending of their game as long as it is still their expression. Like with Fallout 3, Bethesda could have used a fan's idea for an ending, but they created their own ending. With Mass Effect 3 that would mean adding on to the existing ending. The old ending is still there. You just get to play longer now and get a little bit more satisfying ending now. *I have not played Mass Effect 3, so maybe this is not possible with how they have written the ending.*

The DLCs were not bad, just way overpriced. I watched all the Mass Effect 2 DLCs on Youtube, a great way to get the story without giving in to overpriced DLC. That's the only reason I knew about the Shadow Broker and the 300,000 killed. It doesn't help that PC users have to deal with "Bioware points" to buy DLC and these points rarely go on sale. I actually do buy DLC for other games on Steam where the publishers actually do sales for DLC, and you can buy it at a reasonable price.

I agree that there should be both CGI/cutscene trailers and gameplay trailers. CGI trailers are really good for the game's initial announcement when the game engine is not finished and ready to be shown publicly. If done right, that same CGI trailer can server as the intro to the final game. Gameplay trailers should definitely be provided when the game is getting closer to release though. Players want to see what they will be actually doing in the game, not just the story or background. I think Blizzard is guilty of this in a way. Almost all of their pre-release trailers are CGI, so it's hard to tell what the actual game plays like. Just see the epic Starcraft 2 trailer, which doesn't have any actual gameplay, just CGI and in-game cutscenes.

EA also cut short the free Battlefield 3 with Mass Effect 3 preorder deal. There was no end date on this sale, so people thought they had a lot of time. It turned out EA shut it down after only a few days, because they sold too many for cheap. EA only cares about the money. They are not consumer friendly and pretty blatant about it.

The problem is the game industry is split between the Video Game Awards, Interactive Achievement Awards, and GDC Awards. Movies have the Oscars, but games have three that are very different. There needs to be some sort of unification, but I have read the people behind the IAAs and GDC Awards are not interested in working together. I don't like the VGAs, but they have their place much like the MTV Movie Awards. What we need is a show on TV more about the arts instead of the advertising and marketing of the VGAs. By the way, some comparisons between games and movies don't really work. Game sequels are generally better than their predecessors. I think it's because developers have a chance to remove all the bad of the original and replace it with good, so the game becomes good all around. The second or third title in a series is usually the breakout that makes it a hit and highly regarded. Movies are exactly the opposite. The original is almost always the best. It is perfectly normal for game sequels to be getting most of the awards while original movies get the most Oscars.

I've long known this about video games. Many times while sick playing video games seemed to make me feel better than if I just watched TV. It distracted my brain so much it couldn't worry about my symptoms.

I don't think this Prototype 2 collector's edition is that bad compared to others I have seen. $80 isn't all that much more than $60. I know if those things were sold separately they would definitely be marked up to total much higher than $80. I've seen collector's editions cost $150 for a $60 game. That's far worse.