According to "MMORPG Italy", the Italian branch of Blizzard Entertainment have just revealed the Release Date and Price of the game. (Thanks for the heads up Anonymous.)

The game will be releasing on Tuesday, April 17 and the prices are €54.90 for the Standard Edition and €89.90 for the CE.

Interestingly, this wasn't the usual retailer estimation, but rather it allegedly came from Blizzard directly and it was sent to several large retailers prematurely. It also came along with their price structure which was something that never accompanied any of the other retailer Release Date "leaks", but it's something that has always accompanied a game's Release Date announcement. (That's the part I found most interesting.)

The release of this new information seems awfully close to the predicted (by Incgamers and some other whispers) March 5th release date announcement, but the release would be only 1 month away which would be quite unusual for Blizzard given their past minimum 2 months. It's something I've discussed in the past (a compressed timeline), so I'll have more to say on the subject if this Release Date ends up being true.

* UPDATE: If nothing is announced by March 12th, I don't think MMORPG Italia's "inside source" on this release date is correct.

If you're a Mass Effect fan, you've probably noticed that Bioware has been under fire for the past little while because of the apparent lack of creativity in their stories, how they use the same derivative works and recycled material from other sources, and that they're slapping their fans in the face (especially with the new ME3 ending leak, which was actually leaked back in November too).

I never really liked Mass Effect myself. I played through ME1 a couple times to see the different endings, but I had only played through ME2 about 50% of the way before I got completely bored of it. I still remember every inch of the Chrono Trigger story and all of the endings, but all I could remember about ME1 (even though I put a good 100 hours into it) were the long elevator rides.. that's pretty much it. It's kind of sad to think that yesterday the elevator rides were the only thing I could clearly remember about the game.

I can understand why so many other people really like the Mass Effect series and story though (it's obviously a very successful franchise). But, it's just not for me personally.

I think that Mass Effect didn't leave much of an impression with me because I already knew what was going to happen, and I was just going through the same predictable motions. Unfortunately, stealing ideas or stories from old comics or scifi novels have been inevitable these past few decades, but some theft is more blatant than others. I can accept video games taking ideas from 19th or 20th century novels.. but, it's hard to play a video game when you've already played the exact same thing with the same story and characters only a few years earlier. That's one thing I remembered while playing the game at the time.

I'm referring to Anachronox, and it has some remarkable similarities to the Mass Effect series.

• Anachronox was developed by Ion Storm in 2001. Ion Storm might sound familiar to you as this was the same team that created Deus Ex. Coincidentally, Bioware has also been accused of stealing ideas and plots from Deus Ex for Mass Effect.

• Mac Walters (Lead Writer of the Mass Effect franchise, and principal writer of Mass Effect 1 and 2) discussed in 2008 the importance of stories in video games and how the video game industry might imitate these older games. He referenced that games now take shape from older titles like "Anachronox" and that they "paved the way for today's Golden Age." An interesting connection from Bioware. :)

• Both are a scifi 3D RPG consisting of a 3 party squad, and as you progress through the story you gain new and interesting companions. Both games have very similar main characters; a ruggedly handsome male human hero (in a universe of aliens), an archeologist who just happens to be an expert on the ancient alien artifacts, a robot, a scientist, an assassin, a love interest, etc. This can be said of many RPGs though, just like how they are both a tale of Order vs Chaos. This gets far more interesting though, so read on.

• This 3 party squad would have many funny interactions or conversations with each other during downtime or cut-scenes.

• As part of your mission, you visit multiple unique and stereotypical planets (secret/scientific, idyllic agrarian, religious, etc.) each with their own unique quests and populations. You are visiting these planets as part of your investigation into strange and mysterious activities taking place within the galaxy.

• In Anachronox, they had the "Sender Station" (or "Sender One"). In Mass Effect, they had the "Citadel Station". These massive "space stations" were a hub for all commerce and diplomacy for the multiple species in the galaxy.

• Both were ancient but advanced alien space stations, with the center of the stations being the main traffic control system. They are inhabited by many alien species who discovered the "abandoned" alien construction, and the station is divided into several districts. The same kind of districts are found in both games which range from upper-class zones to red light districts, slums, casinos, and bars. There were also homeless occupants (eg Duct Rats) on both Stations.

• The governing bodies of the galaxy or "Citadel space" in both games were made up of other alien species, with humans not included in the organization and treated more like a second class citizen. Both games involve a certain level of diplomacy and reporting to a High Council.

• The "new" alien species (including humans) who took over ownership of Sender/Citadel believe that it was built by an ancient, but now extinct, civilization and they believe they know the purpose of the Station although it still harbors many inaccessible areas. In fact, there is a secret sinister purpose of the Station which is revealed later in the story (identical in both Anachronox and Mass Effect universes.)

• It was believed that this long-dead alien race also left behind other strange mysterious devices and artifacts all over the galaxy. In Anachronox, this believed-dead alien race created "Spike Relays" which allowed ships to be sent across the galaxy to other relays (or "Senders"). In Mass Effect, the believed-dead alien race (Protheans) created "Mass Relays" which did the exact same thing.

• In fact, the Sender/Citadel Station and Spike/Mass Relays were actually created by another unknown evil alien race. They were created with the purpose of harvesting the galaxy every hundreds of thousands of years. It's the same race that destroyed the last advanced alien race (who everyone believed left behind these artifacts). These constructions were created to facilitate the destruction of the galaxy which continuously happens in a cycle. In Anachronox they were called "The Chatagra" and in Mass Effect they were called "The Reapers".

• The galaxy was basically a food source and the advanced evil aliens would repeatedly cull it based on a cycle. The relay system and hub station were used as an elaborate trap, and when the relay is activated the Chatagra/Reapers come through. The heroes were trying to break the cycle that has been going on for millions of years, just like what the previous aliens in the galaxy were trying to do.

• The advanced believed-to-be-dead alien races who previously occupied Sender Station and Citadel Station were altruistic and unsuspecting until it was too late. They were mostly wiped out by the Chatagra/Reapers during the last culling of the galaxy. (That's why the Sender/Citadel Station were both abandoned when the new/younger alien races found it.)

• In Mass Effect, ships have Faster-Than-Light drives however even at FTL speeds, it would take centuries to traverse distances without the Relays. The Mass relays create a "corridor" of space-time between each other to vastly boost their speed. In Anachronox, ships also have FTL drives and the Spike Relays create the same hyperspace corridors to boost their speed. Both are alien transporation systems that vastly boost FTL travel.

• Mass Relays (Mass Effect) and Spike Relays (Anachronox) are mass transit devices scattered throughout the galaxy, usually located within star systems. They form an enormous network allowing interstellar travel. Hailed as one of the greatest achievements of an extinct (previous) race, a mass relay can transport starships instantaneously to another relay within the network, allowing for journeys that would otherwise take years or even decades with only FTL drives. (Description largely borrowed from the ME Wiki.)

• Mass Effect: In the year 2148 AD, humans made the startling discovery of alien artifacts on Mars. These new discoveries advanced their technology and enabled them to travel to distant star systems.
  
  Anachronox: In the year 2229 AD, humans made the startling discovery of alien artifacts on Pluto. These new discoveries advanced their technology and enabled them to travel to distant star systems.

• Other alien races were encountered as new Spike Relays were discovered. Early exploration using the Spike Relay was dangerous and the human species was largely ignorant of travel, leading to wars and conflicts with other dangerous alien species. The same as in Mass Effect.

• The Sender/Citadel station is actually a disguised Relay system, and it acts as the central portal to the Repear/Chatagra's "dark space" or "Chaos universe". It's basically an elaborate trap so that they can invade and destroy the new alien civilizations quickly and keep doing it over and over.

• Both "The Reapers" and "The Chatagra" also left behind servants on the Sender/Citadel station to ensure that occupying races didn't discover the true nature of the Citadel among other reasons. In Anachronox, they were called "The Dark Servants" and in Mass Effect they were "Keepers". Both hid in plain sight, pretended to be helpful, but were actually evil maintenance personnel.

• The Reapers/Chatagra also had other alien species working for them to help usher in the destruction of the galaxy. In Anachronox, they were "Agents of Chaos" and in Mass Effect there were "The Geth". Alternatively, you could also look at the "The Dark Servants" as "The Geth" too.

• The Chatagra are spaceborn creatures (billions of years old) with glowing eyes and several tentacles as arms. They look like Reaper Cuttlefish (just like The Reapers), except they're smaller in size. Like the Reapers, they are also worshipped as "gods" by some in the Anachronox universe. The last ancient alien race were getting close to finding a way to stop them but they were too late and were harvested like the others. However, they were able to leave behind artifacts, an outpost, and messages to warn and prepare the next young alien races.
  
  

• The new alien species (including humans) also discovered technology left behind by the previous extinct alien race (Protheans) which they dubbed "Element Zero" in Mass Effect and "Mysterium" in Anachronox. This rare material allowed people and ships to basically twist physics and cast magic. MysTech/Biotics could also be used in combat, healing, or for other supporting roles.

• In the Anachronox universe, a new cult has popped up based on MysTech who have a large following of MysTech Cultists. In Mass Effect, a new cult has popped up based on Biotics who have a large following of Biotic Cultists. Not a major part of either game, though.

• The term "Mass Effect" was also explained by Project Director Casey Hudson as related to "dark energy" (which physicists are calling) which is also "an explanation for the accelerating expansion of the universe - which has only recently been discovered and flies in the face of the previous notion that the universe's expansion should be slowing down because of gravity." Interestingly, this was also described as a major plot point in Anachronox. In Anachronox, the universe's expansion was being accelerated due to the injection of "dark energy" and matter/mass from a previous universe. This additional mass was having a "mass effect" on the universe and hastening it's big crunch. A "Mass Effect" in many senses of the word in fact; it was a mass effect on the universe, the Effect was due to injection of Mass, and Mass had an Effect on the universe. :)

• Both Mass Effect and Anachronox had the exact same ending. The final battle takes place back on Sender Station/Citadel Station, where the heroes are trying to stop the prime "Dark Servant" from signalling the invasion to begin (using the true purpose of the Station). Grumpos/Saren (who were both believed to be good at one point, but were in fact evil servants) both change forms in the final battle too.. revealing themselves to be Reaper/Chatagra-like and shedding their outside husks. The hero and his party fight a big boss, realize the true nature of the artifacts and station, stopped the threat to the galaxy, and united they were going to drive them back into "dark space" and take the fight to them.

• Anachronox had unavoidable and lengthy elevator-riding scenes which annoyed players. Sound familiar?

• Both Anachronox and Mass Effect had level scaling and both games had lockpicking/hacking minigames (remember this was 2001). Anachronox had Mystech powered ammo (or "Ammo Powers" as in Mass Effect) and Mystech/Biotic powered personal shielding.

I can see a couple story elements from different sources borrowed, but there were just too many similarities between Mass Effect and this one single source to just be a coincidence in my opinion. I think that Anachronox had a mass effect on Mass Effect.

So, if you don't like the story (or ending) to Mass Effect 3, you shouldn't be surprised if you find it uncreative or derivative. It's always the same and they'll never change. Besides, ME3 is just a prelude to ME4 where they'll suddenly find a mysterious and coincidental way out of their new predicament.

And, don't blame them if the story seems bland or boring. Ion Storm never released Anachronox 2, so Bioware didn't really have a lot of new material to work from. :)

* UPDATE: A reader alerted me to this link which also discusses similarities between the two games.

* UPDATE: Some other amazing coincidences regarding Mass Effect and other media. (This contains some ME3 Spoilers.)

Blizzard has finally announced their mass layoff plans for 2012. It was done through both an official News Release and as a message on the Battle.net forums.

According to their release, Blizzard's savings from the layoffs were identified in their Feb 9, 2012 (Q4 2011) financial outlook, but the exact details of the workforce reduction were not considered material or important for the shareholders call. :)

Blizzard did not identify when the business review was conducted, only that it would benefit their 2012 financials and that they are currently involved in the global reduction of their workforce which will eventually result in a total of approximately 600 employees being laid off.

90% of the 600 are those in support function, finance, maintenance, recruiting, training, and other non-development related positions. The other 10% are gaming development related and we already know the names of some of those employees.

If you weren't already aware, I do still continuously update older posts and I was monitoring those Mass Layoff "rumors" up until late January.

Many of the employees from my original suspicion list were eventually confirmed and in the end, there were probably about 40-50 layoffs in late 2011 to early 2012. Most of them were Customer Support staff from both in and outside of their call centers.

I guess we finally have an answer as to why Blizzard was so ambiguous, but not exactly denying, those mass lay off rumors a few months ago.

Zarhym: The vast majority named in that article are at work today. FB profiles can't be used to confirm anything, especially a mass trend!

Bashiok: Hey guys, out of respect for their privacy, we don’t discuss individual employees, but the speculation circulating about ‘massive layoffs at Blizzard’ is just a rumor.

Layoffs of this magnitude have happened with Activision Blizzard many times in the past, and they typically happen around January/February (announced before the shareholders call.)

So, it shouldn't be much of a shock if you see this happen again next February (probably a smaller size though, and more on the Activision side.) The staff they're cutting are just redundant positions (mostly customer support), so these changes won't effect the development times of their games and it just means more savings for the company and happier investors.

A couple weeks ago, users were celebrating an awesome win for getting Blizzard to finally implement public chat in the game. (Though many believe Bashiok's claim that it was just a mistake.) Whatever the case may be, it's considered a win.

"Blizzard listened to us! We get public chat! Now I can trade items with other players and I don't have to worry about using the RMAH!"

Is this really the case though? What if it's just simple Public Chat, but not intended for Trade Chat? What if trading between players will actually be discouraged or difficult?

If I were Blizzard and I wanted to encourage as much use of the RMAH as possible, I would restrict loot linking, eliminate ways to communicate effectively for trade-specific purposes, or make trading as challenging as possible (for example, poor trading security.) Using a "Trade Chat" system outside of the game (ie, in the lobby room), without the ability to link items, is a great way to do it. Or, one could also make it so that players can't create public games with customized titles (like how trading could be done in D2).

You only need one of these options. If you have secure trading methods, then eliminate trade related communication methods. If you have proper Trade Chat, make secure trading more difficult. You don't need to do all of them otherwise their intentions become too elaborate or obvious. When players question why, Blizzard can confidently tell them that they DO have methods in place to allow trading.

The average player will always travel the soft path. If there are two services available, but one has accessibility or functional issues, they'll go with the easier one. If character-to-character trading is available (and secure), but public chat is limited so that it doesn't support loot linking or gear sharing, it's not a very good service. If public chat has loot linking, but item trading is insecure, it's not a very good service. In both cases it's "bad service" planned in advanced to encourage customers to use a better service.

So, which is the better service.. player-to-player trading or the Auction House?

We really don't know anything about the future Trade Chat features, though. It could go either way. Bashiok had promised details in the near future, so it remains to be seen what Blizzard has in mind. If the chat or trading features are still limited by retail, then we have our answer. If not, then Blizzard will act accordingly to their customer's needs.

Nothing is set in stone at this point. In it's current disappointing state, it requires more forum outrage and complaining, and hopefully Blizzard will eventually implement chat the way players want. If they, however, are looking for every little way to squeeze as much use out of the RMAH as possible, then don't expect loot linking or any other kind of trading mechanisms (like customized public games) in the initial retail version. Besides, if Blizzard won't implement these changes, someone else will always find a way, like that alternative "trade chat" website.

Just as an added note, too, Bashiok happened to make a comment about the Chat system recently as well. Basically, it's not to expect any changes before release. So, this is something I might re-examine 6 months after release (as well how or if players can even engage in some form of public trading without an external website service). But atleast you can understand some of the motivations behind keeping the chat system the way it is. And judging by the SC2 Chat System, I'm not really expecting Blizzard to make any significant changes.

I hope that D3XCHANGE.COM webpage was still being worked on though. :)

* UPDATE (03/01/2012):

Just an interesting note. Recent data mining of Diablo 3 revealed that Blizzard did, in fact, create a UI within D3 for users who wanted to create a custom named public game. So this feature was once in the game, but has been removed. Guess we'll see if Blizzard puts it back in for retail.