"... muddled political messages and rampant misogyny". Who cares? I certainly don't. Stick your American political correctness where the sun doesn't shine!
Putting art and products on the same footing doesn't quite cut it. Salman Rushdie may not denounce his "Satanic Verses" because the Ayatollah didn't like it, but Microsoft does release patches for Windows when problems are found, doesn't it? So the folks at EAWare have to decide whether they are "artists" who defend their "freedom" until they go bankrupt or they are a company that wants to keep its customers. Me, I'd like to have one of the developers stand in front of me and claim the endings of "Mass Effect 3" are a deliberate expression of his artistic viewpoint, so I can laugh to his face.
MuffintopX, tdavies1159: the problem with social games, as I see it, is not that they 'take gamers away from the mainstream games', but actually the other way around - the social trend is taking DEVELOPERS away from making decent games. It's just like with PC and console games - with money to be made elsewhere, the big companies are shifting their focus. And yes, some social gamers may be attracted to regular gaming, but it sure won't be 'Baldur's gate' they'll start playing, but rather some Wii family title ... Making games more accessible just accelerates the whole dumbing-down process going on in the industry. 'Casual' is already a swear word in my vocabulary :(.
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