What is it about Bioware that makes people insane?

[Pegghead]

I think the current insane backlash amongst such a large portion of Bioware's fanbase is due to the fact that before it was insane amounts of praise and love from the same fans.

While I'm not trying to say that games like Mass Effect and DA:O weren't worthy of the praise they were getting a few years back, it just seemed like those games (being as intricate and..well, fairly unique as they were) breeded a special kind of extremely devoted following amongst quite a sizable portion of the Bioware fanbase. You take a following like that and give to it a game that might just be ever so slightly below the (perceived) godliness of previous titles and the dissapointment is going to over-shadow everything else (never mind that the perceived drop in quality occured at roughly the same time as the takeover of Bioware by a company who isn't exactly winning any awards at the moment...at least not any desirable ones).

You see it happen all the time among fanbases (which in most cases, including this one, really just means the crazy portion of the fanbase) who think that their preferred company/franchise/cooking-show is, well, perfect to the point where their following becomes so devoted and intense that it blurs their perceptions and upsets their cultural diet. We've seen it with hardcore Star Wars fans, we've seen it with hardcore Twilight fans, and in the realm of videogames hardcore Bioware fans are becoming almost as entitled, holier-than-thou and just downright batty as the hardcore Sonic fans of today (they key-word being hardcore).

 

[putowtin]

[b/] why does Bioware get us all riled up? [/b]

I think "they" (shady, Bison type, wanna be over lords) put something in the water just before a Bioware game comes out that makes us all happy, then when it wears off we blame Bioware, but infact it's some else entirely!


But you didn't hear it from me!

 

[lRookiel]

I love Bioware for one reason only, Baldurs gate!

I HATE mass effect, I thought DA was good/ok.... but Baldurs gate, that was their best game ever released IMO.

 

[endtherapture]

Bethesda games, whilst buggy, are eventually fixed by mods.

Um... I'm not sure about the rest of you, but having to get fan-made mods to fix a game sounds like a point against the game in any sane world.

OT: BioWare releases 2 lackluster games (or rather 1 lackluster game and a dissapointing ending to another) and people are acting like it's the end of the world.

I said this in another thread, but the way people are acting about BioWare lately seems to be like they're making funeral plans when someone sprains their ankle. Baldur's Gate 2 was the greatest game ever made. Did I expect BioWare to continue making games of this quality or better? No, and I'd be a complete idiot if I thought otherwise.

Do you know how many game developers would love to say that Dragon Age 2 was the worst game they ever made? All of them.

At least Bethesda let fans fix the game. There's no mod materials to fix the game for ME2, ME3, and DA2 because they're just broken.

ME3 in general was a very rushed game...look at the lack of side missions, the lack of explanation of story points (eg Udina).

Bioware were good up until 2009. After DA:O there was a noticeable drop in quality as games which had been in development entirely under EA began to be released.

KoTOR, BG2 and DA:O were all great games, among my favourites ever, but since 2010 Bioware has been a changed company with rushed games and dumbing down to the lowest common denominator.

 

[Margarita]

I think Bioware has not only created original games in terms of storyline and character development but also did they do a gread job on graphics (most of the time), fighting system, sound.
Other companies did, too. The difference (for me) is: Bioware like no other company has created games that drag you along the way emotionally so long and so deeply and passionatley that you just can't forget about those experiences. It sometimes seems to me like participating in a hollywood blockbuster. I haven't felt that in any other game to that degree. Played wow for several years and it was nice with funny quests and exciting raids. But wow lives more from your greed (to obtain best gear, weapons and so on) and from socializing with others (guilds and so forth). It never really touched so many emotional strings.

This is the reason why BW games inspire so many ppl but it's also the reason why the same ppl go nuts when something isn't developping the way they had presumed. Reason is much easier to deal with than emotion on a rational level. I think that is why the discussions about most recent BW-game-developments sometimes seem to be so irrational.

 

[MLionheart]

For me it's a case of Bioware not putting enough thought into something important.
By making the Save transfer as indeph as they did, they made Mass effect a game where every choice you played was important. And the ending should, and could, have shown that.
Thanks to the Save transfer, fans obviously got more invested in the world because to each of tyhem it felt unique. 3 specific, mostly simlar endings that answer nothing of what happened is obviously a big slap in the face to them. On top of that it was filled with plot holes.
It felt like Bioware made no effort.
Some people don't have much else besides there gaming, so when one gets screwed over like that it hits closer to home. If Mass Effect was a singular title, people wouldn't have cared thatm uch, but we got invested over the course of three games.
As for me, though I disliked the ending, I'm on the bench on what should be done about it.
On a side not, alot of sources assumed the fans just wanted a happy ending and couldn't handle anything else, which probably fanned the flames alot.
As for Dragon Age II, I liked it. A bit too streamlined sure, but the story and characters more than make up for it.
also worth noting is, other than KOTOR, Mass Effect and Dragon Age (and the first 30 minutes of Jade Empire), I'd never played a bioware Game.

 

[wooty]

The games are good, simple as. Its very easy for some people to become completely invested in a game that they feel it becomes part of their real life. (see Call of Duty K/D ratios.....TAKE IT OUT OF THE GAME!!!!!)

Its the same as when people jump up to defend WoW, or CoD, or PC gaming or those stupid "nerdsole wars" every time another release rolls around. People like to be petty, and arguing over games is about as petty as it becomes.

 

[lunavixen]

I think a part of it is because Bioware actually treat storyline as integral to the game and not an optional piece, i think it is also because that their games are usually bigger (sorry best word i could find), and more individual; rather than episodic or only releasing games on a very slow timeline.

But that's just my two cents

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Because they make amazing games with amazing stories and people don't want to lose that.

 

[Something Amyss]

Bioware's never particularly done it for me. I don't love or hate them. Mass Effect (the first) was about the only game I really liked. They've been quite beloved for their trite, generic stories, though.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Bethkesda games, whilst buggy, are eventually fixed by mods.

Um... I'm not sure about the rest of you, but having to get fan-made mods to fix a game sounds like a point against the game in any sane world.

Certainly not a big one. Bugs, unlike bad writing and fundamentally misguided design decisions, can be fixed.

 

[AbstractStream]

Because Bioware used to be awesome and the fans knew/know it. Bioware has had some amazing games in the past. The fans see that the quality of their work keeps declining and they freak out.

...I'm kind of freaking out >> <<

 

[Thatrocketeer]

- Snip -

Loghain's thing was far too convenient to me. He lost the duel, and tries to find a scapegoat so that he won't be killed. If he made a speech in the middle of the game, explaining his actions before the landsmeet itself, it would make a better morally gray situation. Hell, it would make you question your decisions on forgiving Loghain or not more memorable since you have alot of time to think about it, instead of suddenly making an extremely convenient choice on the spot.

Obsidian does this kind of writing right actually. I always wonder why people praise Bioware instead of them in terms of writing.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

- Snip -

Loghain's thing was far too convenient to me. He lost the duel, and tries to find a scapegoat so that he won't be killed. If he made a speech in the middle of the game, explaining his actions before the landsmeet itself, it would make a better morally gray situation. Hell, it would make you question your decisions on forgiving Loghain or not more memorable since you have alot of time to think about it, instead of suddenly making an extremely convenient choice on the spot.

Obsidian does this kind of writing right actually. I always wonder why people praise Bioware instead of them in terms of writing.

That probably would have been a better way to do it. But it's still one of my favorite moments in the game, because it was one of the few choices I cared about beyond achievement purposes or whatever. I wasn't sure going in what choice I wanted to make. Sadly, that moment didn't come until the end of the game.

I always wondered if people weren't looking at the massive, lifeless, intrusive exposition dumps Bioware crams in all over the place and confusing lots of words with quality writing. I would say that in a nicer way if I knew how.

 

[Kahunaburger]

I always wondered if people weren't looking at the massive, lifeless, intrusive exposition dumps Bioware crams in all over the place and confusing lots of words with quality writing. I would say that in a nicer way if I knew how.

I think that's exactly what happens. See also: confusing the kind of dialogue that loudly announces that it is written by someone who loves TVTropes and Joss Whedon* shows at every opportunity with good dialogue.

*Not that there's anything wrong with liking Joss Whedon shows. But the sooner David Gaider realizes that he isn't the Joss Whedon of the RPG, the better for everyone.

 

[SajuukKhar]

One of the things I have always hated about Bioware games is the, as mentioned in posts above me, the dialog dumps.

People end up being walking encyclopedias when explaining tings, and its so annoying.

The realism dies the second people start acting like encyclopedias.