The Continued Failure Of Video Game Journalists, Pt. Grrr: False Equivalency

Read the article about us in the new issue of Game Informer. Pretty typical stuff. Nothing we haven't heard before. Still, it made me want to facepalm. Their views as a whole have evolved a bit since the first week of coverage but they're still finding new and interesting ways of condescending to and marginalizing us. The most glaring this time was the false equivalency between us and the people who like/are fine with/don't care about the ending and the supposition that we're somehow equal or a minority.

As of this writing, the Demand A Better Endings Facebook page is at 61,701 likes... the Support BioWare's Mass Effect Facebook page has 693 members. Yes, counter-protests are traditionally much, much smaller than the group they're protesting, but that's still only 1/100th of the people who are actively defending the ending vs. the people who are actively protesting it.

The big poll on the BioWare message boards that got everything started is, as of this writing, listing 91% (65334 votes) wanting a "brighter" ending versus the 2% (1533 votes) who are fine with it. Even giving up fifteen or twenty percent for potential ballot stuffing or other shenanigans, that still equals at least 3 out of 4 people unhappy with the ending.

We are just the people who are willing to try and do something about the ending... a small section of the people who are angry or disappointed with it. We are all willing to stand up and be counted. The burden of proof here is on the people saying that we're a minority. Anyone who claims to speak for the silent majority better have some hard stats to back them up.