Bioware vs. their Fans

[JediMB]

Looks like the ending is still going to be bullshit. They'll just fill it out with "new" content, which probably means cut content.

And that's the sound of my last thread of hope for BioWare snapping. I can't trust them to craft a satisfying story anymore.

 

[Krantos]

They never recovered from forcing unnecessary hardware updates to play nvn2, maybe that's why they moved to the casual market.

Um, you do know that Neverwinter Nights 2 was made by Obsidian, not BioWare, right?

Do you mean the first Neverwinter?

 

[Paladin2905]

Once again proving that EA is still the evil empire. They were ok for about 2 years at the start of this gen where everyone hated them but now they are worse.

RIP Bullfrog, Looking Glass Studios, Pandemic etc etc The list goes on.

Fuck you EA.

Go ahead and add Westwood & Will Wright to the list.
"Challege Everything" is misleading. "Swallow everything" seems more appropriate.

When you purchase EA, you are NOT supporting the developer. Every single talented, promising developer EA has bought out gets wrung out, displaced or eventually closed down entirely. And it is ALWAYS due to EA's meddling and mandates.
EA has been on the receiving end of class action lawsuits from their own employees for labor violations.

I want to make this perfectly clear: That is the vicious cycle of developer consumption you support when you buy an EA game. I want everyone who reads this to keep that in mind.

Do with that information what you will. I can't make you to care, but I can say you have been warned.

Some of us don't hate EA just because "It's cool or fun to hate". We hate EA because they are a plague upon gaming, and have been for over a decade now.

I have no idea how I forgot about those 2, Westwood and (old) Maxis were a huge part of my childhood. I bought The Sims 3 last summer, I couldn't believe how much EA had ruined it, it truly shocked me.

I agree with all the points you have made, it's the reason I'm on a genuine EA boycott at the moment. It's going to take all my energy to avoid buying Sim City 5 though, in some ways I hope it's shit.

Let's not forget Origin (by which i mean the old Ultima / Wing Commander /etc. company. Not the Online service they slapped its name on).

Back when Bioware announced their buyout by EA we all knew what would happen- every one of those companies was killed by their acquisition. We tried a private capitalization drive to get them funding back then and keep them afloat, but I got the feeling the takeover was just too strong an incentive for the brass at Bioware. Mass Effect was finished at the time they were bought so it wasn't affected as much (until the PC DRM scandal- which EA had them add in the few months between the PC and XBOX releases).

You know, I used to respect EA. Back when their logo was a square, circle and triangle that changed colors slightly as games loaded. You know. Back in 1982 or so...

 

[Whitbane]

Mass Effect 2 was just so perfect is so many ways that it allowed me to ignore its flaws. I'm glad that I waited a week to get Mass Effect 3 because thanks to the internet, I found out the ending was total shit. I did prepare myself for it though, and when I did finish the game, it wasn't as bad as I initially thought. The lack of closure and the "press button, receive ending" conclusion is annoying. The plot holes in their own lore is also a bit much to simply ignore. I still love the game, but its flaws show at points.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

I really liked the vast majority of Mass Effect 3. As with most folks, the ending killed it for me, but up until that point it was "mostly" bliss.

Of course, a few things bothered me and after experiencing the ending all the faults are starting to come to the forefront.

Auto-dialogue, lack of actual conversation with squad mates (I really disliked what they did with Kasumi and Zaeed in ME2 and they just copy pasted that approach for EVERYONE in 3), and overall diminished player agency are, frankly, irritating but bearable.

The developer as a whole seems to be dropping the ball in the endings department. DA2's ending was abysmal too. I've pre-ordered everything (except MDK) from Bioware since KotOR and played their games since BG. The Old Republic is a surprisingly well done MMO and I'm currently playing a trial, just to check out the stories for each class. I may even sub.

That said, they've lost me as a "pre-order level" fan. I'll probably still pick up their games, but it'll be after a great deal of scrutiny. I'm in the unfortunate position of caring about the DA story line, so DA3 may sway me back in their favor, but I'm not exactly thrilled by the prospect.

Consumers are a fickle bunch.

 

[boag]

I liked ME3 up until the ending.

What the ending did was prevent me from replaying the games from the beginning.

The whole way the entire fiasco has been handled by Bioware has completely soured me to the company.

 

[paislyabmj]

You forgot dragon age origins im pretty sure that happened somewhere in there.

OT:I personally thought that the first time bioware and there fans had a big hissy fit was dragon age 2 was released. having never play the game I can not pass comment on its quality or lack of it but the fan reaction seemed much more pissed of than anything else I have ever seen happen to bioware.

Edit:completely of topic but from what i have read i heard that the ending reduces replay value to people interested in the story ,so if I get into the mass effect franchise should i bother whith ME3 or just save my money.

 

[Joseph Harrison]

I still like 'em
Sure, Mass Effect 3's ending sucked, and Dragon Age 2 wasn't as good as the first, but I'd rather play a Bioware game over many other games being release nowadays.

I agree with this guy. Dragon Age 2 wasn't great and Mass Effect 3's ending was pretty bad but all around I still love Bioware and I'd say that the reason the whole Bioware vs. Fans thing has erupted is because Bioware has such a huge fanbase that as it gets bigger the minority of people who are the hatedom grow as well and they get louder,

 

[Folji]

Snip

This is sort of where I am right now. Sure, Bioware has screwed up in a few cases, but ultimately they're still one of the best producers of quality games out there. I love Bioware games on a level only really shared by Bethesda Studios...and Bungie.

Odd...come to think of it...I may just like them for the first letters in their names...

I believe I have some soul searching to do...

Spoiler

Okay, that was too easy. But you got a point. There's really been a lot of great developers over the years starting on the letter B. Like BioWare, and Bungie, and Bethesda, and Blizzard, and Bullfrog, and Blue Byte, and... Binary Games? Brownie Brown? Something something? Lots of them, anyway.

Snip

Yes it is really silly, considering the massive player base Steam has. That and with with the ever present Steam sales and the resulting impulse buys that inevitably accompany them (I just bought the Deus Ex DLC that way) why wouldn't they want their DLC on the front of the store page?

REcaptcha: know your rights (I know them, thats why I DON'T have Origin installed on my PC thank you very much.)

Oh hey, was contemplating making the same purchase. Didn't do it in the end, but it's still something when a service can get someone who never ever buys DLC to consider doing it. A game published by EA can be expected to at least do well enough on the market, they're good enough at marketing for that, but I'm still curious how many sales on average they've lost by passing up on Steam. Even failing MMOs have seen welcome boosts in player count and activity after going Steam.

 

[trooper6]

Oh hey, was contemplating making the same purchase. Didn't do it in the end, but it's still something when a service can get someone who never ever buys DLC to consider doing it. A game published by EA can be expected to at least do well enough on the market, they're good enough at marketing for that, but I'm still curious how many sales on average they've lost by passing up on Steam. Even failing MMOs have seen welcome boosts in player count and activity after going Steam.

I am very skeptical of Steam ever since I heard that you don't actually own the games you buy from them and if they decide to ban your account you can no longer access the games you bought. I don't like that at all.

 

[kasperbbs]

Whatever their faults might be i still like their games the most, except for that starwars mmo, because its starwars themed and an mmo, two things i'm not interested in. I just hope that they will stop going downhill, one of their last two SP games dropped in quality drastically and another one is plagued with problems that i don't even need to mention.

 

[SpaceBat]

I liked KotOR, but I felt that KotOR 2 was better...the writing was better, more gray and less black and white.

Ummmmm

He's right, you know .
I mean, it's obsidian.

 

[Angry_squirrel]

I never bought any Mass Effect game, I planned on waiting for a price drop on this one then completing all three in one sitting. The fact that none of your choices make a difference to the ending has really put me off though. Personally, I hope Bioware add new endings that I can have a chance of achieving when I do play them.
If not, I think I wont bother with any of these games.

 

[Folji]

I am very skeptical of Steam ever since I heard that you don't actually own the games you buy from them and if they decide to ban your account you can no longer access the games you bought. I don't like that at all.

True, they can. Just like that, and bam, no more access to any of those games.

Rarely happens, though. A lot of bans on Steam are just VAC bans for purposefully cheating in games and don't result in more than not being able to play on some online servers in that game (sometimes other games as well). One of the few stories I know of where someone got their whole account banned, it was for trying to sell the account and it ended with head honcho Gabe deciding that "this is wrong" and giving them their $1800 worth account back.

They don't ban entire accounts without a reason that's written black on white in the subscriber agreement (which is pretty much all the typical stuff; selling, hacking, reverse-engineering with a sinister goal of building an army of miniature robots, etc.) and even when they do have a reason they probably wish they didn't. That's more than what can be said about services like Origin and their "people got banned for forum profanity" fiasco.

I've been on Steam for over five years, and still got my account in one piece with no warnings or anything.

 

[Kevlar Eater]

You do realise that the ending of Mass Effect 3 is perfectly in line with the theme of the games up to this point? And, you also do realise that not everything has to end well to be considered complete? Hamlet doesn't end well, but it's still considered rather good. King Lear doesn't end well, either. A Tale of Two Cities ends in a very similar way to Mass Effect 3 in many ways.

Perhaps it's time people got used to an ending in which people make actual sacrifices rather than getting their way all the time. Like the Rolling Stones say, "You can't always get what you want."

Oh dear gods, why do you (as well as the misinformed press that enjoy using the word 'entitled')assume that people wanted a happy ending where Shepard and co. fly off into the sunset and live happily ever after, a la Disney? No! We don't care if a story ends in a tragic way, as long as it:

1. Fills massive plot holes
2. Has closure of some kind
3. Makes sense.

Bioware/ME3 failed all criteria, and that is why this debacle has gone on for this long, and their PR is continuously pissing off dissatisfied customers with double speak, which would make even the most loyal Bio-tards (with a few exceptions) reconsider buying their future titles.

 

[ckriley]

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned, but the OP left out an obvious $200 million behemoth: Star Wars.

Also, the OP left out the myriad of DLC that was not well received with fans. Particularly Arrival. And let's not forget the equally panned DA expansion: Awakening.

To top it all off, the OP left out the entire Jennifer Hepler incident. All of that has contributed to what we are seeing today in terms of fan attitude toward Bioware.

 

[ckriley]

I liked KotOR, but I felt that KotOR 2 was better...the writing was better, more gray and less black and white.

Ummmmm

He's right, you know .
I mean, it's obsidian.

Everyone is absolutely entitled to their own opinion, but the reviews of KOTOR2 today are 110% revisionist history. In 2004 when that game came out, you can't IMAGINE the amount of scorn heaped on it.

I feel like the same exact thing will happen with DA2 about ten years from now. Fans will point to it as being so awesome. Watch.

 

[Hyper-space]

snip

The story of Dragon Age 2 vastly succeeds its predecessor, DA:O was basically just average cookie-cutter power-fantasy, where everything revolves around your dick. The characters were flat and typical of Bioware, while in DA2 you got ACTUAL CHARACTERS WITH THEIR OWN IDEAS AND OPINIONS. They could independently develop without your interference, you were no longer the only catalyst in their lives, you were not the center of their universe.

Frankly, I think the stories and characters of Bioware have matured past their usual audience, they no longer go by what you'd expect in a typical video-game. Maybe they've brought the maturity of literature to video-games with new writers, dunno.

EDIT:

To top it all off, the OP left out the entire Jennifer Hepler incident.

What did Mrs. Hepler do to enrage the fans? Talk back when people called her a "fat *****" and a "obese ****" on twitter? What is it exactly that shes has done that is so wrong?

The Jennifer Hepler "incident" shows more how fucking immature as shit most gamers are than any wrong-doing on her part.

 

[Something Amyss]

The funny part is how even "bad" BioWare games can still be considered a lot better than a lot of what else there is on the gaming market

Especially amazing considering the story's supposed to be the major part and they've been come of the most hackneyed, cliché stuff on the market.