Play Arts Kai Mass Effect 3 Figures!

[Snadinator]

I'm genuinely surprised, as I don't know hardly anyone who used a default on most of the gaming forums I frequent.

Also according to bioware themselves, only 13% of players use the default male shepard. Hence my (not particularly odd) assumptions.

Of the remaining 87%, 18% used a femShepard of some kind, and all the rest used a customized male Shepard.

There is no way Bioware can collect that data in any accurate way.

 

[Ex-Parrot]

Of course they can, most (if not all) major games these days send stat packets back to microsoft/Sony and/or the game devs/studios, containing all kinds of what they commonly refer to as "Non Personal Information", which they can use as part of development for future games or potential sequels. In fact many games, such as EA titles like the Mass Effect games have their own seperate 'privacy agreement' type popup that you agree to before you can first play the game. If you read through it this gives them specific permission to collect such 'Non Personal Information'. It usually goes along the lines of:

III. What Is Personal Information And When Does EA Collect It?

EA collects both personal and non-personal consumer information. Personal information collected by EA is discussed below in this section. Non-personal information is discussed below in Section IV.

IV. What Is Non-Personal Information And When Does EA Collect It?

Non-personal information, alone, cannot be used to identify or contact you. EA collects non-personal information about your use of our online and mobile products and services both on our website and in the course of game play and software usage (on PC, mobile and game system platforms).

The only way to avoid this happening is either opting out and declining your console's (and/or game's) privacy policy - which then means you can't actually use the machine/game at all until you do click 'agree', or by not being connected to the net at all, so the data packets can't be sent. Otherwise, they know what you are playing, how you are playing it, and how often.

Welcome to the information age, eh?

 

[Snadinator]

Of course they can, most (if not all) major games these days send stat packets back to microsoft/Sony and/or the game devs/studios, containing all kinds of what they commonly refer to as "Non Personal Information", which they can use as part of development for future games or potential sequels. In fact many games, such as EA titles like the Mass Effect games have their own seperate 'privacy agreement' type popup that you agree to before you can first play the game. If you read through it this gives them specific permission to collect such 'Non Personal Information'. It usually goes along the lines of:



The only way to avoid this happening is either opting out and declining your console's (and/or game's) privacy policy - which then means you can't actually use the machine/game at all until you do click 'agree', or by not being connected to the net at all, so the data packets can't be sent. Otherwise, they know what you are playing, how you are playing it, and how often.

Welcome to the information age, eh?

This only works if the user is playing with an active connection, hence why it's not accurate.

 

[Ex-Parrot]

Yeah the small percentage of people who are never connected to the net via their systems aren't tracked, as I already said. Though those logs, at least in the case of the xbox (I don't know about Sony to be honest), can be retained in-system for the next time the console is connected to the net, so the packet gets sent out regardless eventually, even when you aren't actively playing, if you connect to live at any time afterwards. And the packet logs are so small anyway that they can be sent in an instant.

Unless you aren't connected to the net at all then they gather and know more about you and your specific gaming habits than you may think, or want to believe. Still, no point arguing either way. Think as you wish.

EDIT - Oh, and according to the last stats on the subject I saw (from last year I believe), approximately 15% of American consoles weren't connected to the internet. And expanded to worldwide, the percentage is slightly lower than that. And the majority of these non net connected consoles are apparently primarily used by younger children or very casual gamers. Of course who knows the crossover between specific games and their sales rates in regards to online and offline players...

Even so, the stats that are being collected from the online 85% are well above the amount required to be considered statistically accurate within a very low margin of error regardless. Hell, they'd be considered that even at a much smaller percentage rate. And besides, nothing is ever quite 100% accurate, statistically speaking. Sorry, I'm a boring person who finds this kind of thing interesting.


Aaaanyway, Mass Effect figures eh? Can't wait.

 

[Snadinator]

Though those logs, at least in the case of the xbox (I don't know about Sony to be honest), can be retained in-system for the next time the console is connected to the net, so the packet gets sent out regardless eventually, even when you aren't actively playing,

Do you have proof of this?

 

[Njits]

Overall most ME players don't use the default Shepard, pick male, and choose the soldier class. So yeah I agree that they HAVE to include a helmet version. I'm not going to look at a Shepard figure with some generic monkey dude bro face on top of it. If they don't include a helmet I'll just put a miniature paper back over his face with two holes poked into it for his eyes.

 

[Ex-Parrot]

Do you have proof of this?

There was an article on this a couple years back on one of the major tech sites, though of course as everything is considered propriety information the likes of Microsoft and Sony won't confirm or deny. Various devs basically confirmed it though. However I suppose you can call it conspiracy theory if you like, given that it is unlikely to ever be officially confirmed, but then they do get these stats from somewhere, and a lot of devs have admitted to doing so and using said stats for futue gaming design and the like, some more publically than others, so...

If you think about it, it's really no more complex a system than something like an email or text message being stored until a connection is established, and then being forwarded, rather than being lost because a connection couldn't be established immediately. I mean Hell, you can see that Microsoft themself gathers certain information just by logging on to your account online and looking at your own gaming stats (or the ones that that they choose to share with you). Of course this can blow up in their face as well, as I seem to recall that there was a bit of controversy last year over Battlefield 3 stat gathering, and just how much 'spying' EA was or wasn't doing...but for that to even be an issue the capability for them to do so must first be there. Either way, EA seems to be one of the biggest, or at least most public, users of said stat gathering methods.

As I said, it's been a while but I'll see if I can find a link (or maybe someone else here remembers reading the same and can remind me what site it was on)...

 

[Uncanny Web-Slinger]

https://forbiddenplanet.com/86801-mass-effects-3-play-arts-kai-action-figures-garrus/

https://forbiddenplanet.com/86799-mass-effect-3-play-arts-kai-action-figures-commander-shepard/

https://forbiddenplanet.com/86800-mass-effect-3-play-arts-kai-action-figures-ashley-williams/


Sadly Shephard doesn't come with a helmet

 

[VALVOLINER]

Garrus Valkarian:

Ashley Williams:

 

[VALVOLINER]

Comander Sheppard:

 

[Platty]

Each one looks awesome. I love everything about the Shepard apart from the headsculpt.

 

[dominishin]

Garrus looks best... the other two sculpts look a bit weird.

 

[Gipetto0812]

Each one looks awesome. I love everything about the Shepard apart from the headsculpt.

Love how the armor looks on Shepard and Garrus. Weapons look good too!

 

[Platty]

Yeah the weapons look brill, though the rifle with Ashley is the one my Shepard used all the way through, think its the avenger, not sure so a little swapping will be going on!

 

[Ex-Parrot]

They all look well sculpted to me overall.

Personally Garrus is a definite buy. Shepard I won't buy because of the lack of helmet, and Ashley I won't buy because it doesn't look like Ashley to me (again the option of a helmeted head would have changed my mind there).

I'd be very surprised if we don't see some variants in this line anyhow, a helmeted Shepard, perhaps a ME2 'battle damaged' Garrus, and so on, so hopefully these sell well enough that a bit more choice in those regards comes to pass.

 

[meanstreak]

Shepard looks enough like default to me so I will probably pick him up. He's certainly a better offering than the DC Direct one, IMO.

Will be tempted by Garrus also. No need for Ashley.

 

[krec9]

garrus looks insane will be buying this .

 

[Gipetto0812]

Yeah the weapons look brill, though the rifle with Ashley is the one my Shepard used all the way through, think its the avenger, not sure so a little swapping will be going on!

yea looks like they gave him the weapons he had on the Take Earth Back cinematic trailer. It would've been cool if they also included the compact versions of their weapons that could attach to their backs.

But yea, Garrus and Shepard are a definite buy

 

[Hellion]

Im on the PS3 so I didnt get to play ME1, therefore due to choices I made in the narrative begining of ME2 I wound up never even meeting Ashley at all so thats a figure I wont be getting. So long as they keep putting these out I will try and assemble my entire crew.
Id love to see what they could do with Legion!

 

[Hellion]

Any hint at a price point for these?