Poll: When do you think Bioware started going downhill?

[Riff Moonraker]

For me it was the first Mass Effect that made me step back and question weather Bioware was making games I wanted to play any more.

The plot and setting was good but there did not seem to be anything other than the main quest and anything other than that was usually a lot of talking which is ok but you need to have something worth talking about, running around talking to team members to see which one you are going to sleep with is lame, you would think it would make the game more mature but in a lot of ways it seemed to make it way less. Also the speech options seemed to be pretty limited to the Good, evil, neutral paths without options that I felt Shepard would actually say in that situation. Then again I may be remembering it wrong by now.

Dragon Age:O was better with dialog in general but right off the bat it was the same three choice option with nothing creative, side quests seemed better but the main story was boring and it had the same layout as mass effect, go to set piece locale, do mission, go to camp and progress dating simm, rinse and repeat.

I may also be spoiled by baldurs gate where the chat options could lead to anything from a new ally to being attacked, Life and death first hand, not the fapping about and dating simm chat options in the newer games.

So its Mass Effect for me, used Dragon Age to confirm.

I have to disagree. I think Mass Effect was their pinnacle. I think Bioware started going downhill when EA took over. To me, its painfully obvious, as the focus began to shift to buying outfits for your characters, etc. etc. and thats when the quality began to decline.

 

[shrekfan246]

I think they're still doing pretty good, regardless of the EA thumb they're under.

People seem to forget that the first 149/150 of Mass Effect 3 was still pretty dang good.

I like the people who refute that by going "NUH UH! I HATED ALL OF MASS EFFECT 3 BUT I PLAYED IT ANYWAY."

[sub]Hell, I never even disliked the endings, anyway.[/sub]

 

[AbstractStream]

This is one of those times where I want to defend Bioware and put all the blame on EA, but I rather not go there. Perhaps Bioware was already in decline when ME2 came out, but it took Dragon Age 2 for me to notice.

Let's just hope that EA/Bioware stops funneling all their energy into SW:TOR and aims it toward Dragon Age 3 or something.

 

[Siege_TF]

* When EA decided it wanted to see how much it could tighten the noose around Bioware's gonads.

What do you mean that's not an option?!

 

[dementis]

After they became part of EA. It didn't happen straight away, mass effect and Dragon Age: Origins were fantastic. Mass effect 2 was good, but everything else they've made after becoming part of EA just doesn't live up to Bioware's older work.

 

[Spearmaster]

I'm noticing a few things.

It seems like many believe that EA it purely to blame for most, if not all Bioware's problems.

Another is that there seems to be a huge difference in opinion between people who started playing around MA or DA:O and people like me who were big fans of baldurs gate.

There are also a few people that believe this poll is unwarranted, because Bioware has completely changed in the type of games its making from their beginning and that viewing it as a downhill move is just whining, but some see it as a dumbing down of their games which is clear pandering to gamers in other geners and the TPS and Hotkey hack and slash gameplay styles are nothing more than a cop-out when it comes to coming up with a gameplay style for these grand stories they write, all of which is just a quick cash in.

Honestly if I had to guess I would say anymore EA makes the game and Bioware just seems to be writing the story and dialog and does not really care as much as they used to, With the nice, mean, I don't care, dialog system as an example.

I would say that a lot of people do view it as "downhill" when a company decides to start alienating chunks of their fan base for a quicker lazier cash-in.

 

[Mike Richards]

They aren't making worse games, they're just making different games. You can't say ME3 is entirely worse or better then Baulder's Gate because they are far, far too different to compare on the same terms.

Maybe you like one style more, but that doesn't mean the other is instantly worse because it doesn't conform to your expectations of what Bioware "should" be making.

 

[Allthingsspectacular]

The moment they were acquired by EA.

What I especially love is all the people criticizing others for blaming EA. What? The fact that this exact same thing happened to many other talented studios when they were acquired by EA isn't a big enough clue?

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

I was never of the impression that Bioware was a decent company to begin with. Then again, I don't have any experience with them before Knight of the Old Republic.

No, I'm not going to play what you personally think was the height of the company from whenever ago, so please don't ask.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

They havnt gone down hill, just made a game you didnt like. So what if you didnt like ME? Bioware isnt there to make games just for you. As for DA:O - most boring game ever in my opinion. Regardless of this, i know people love it. But look at it as Bioware experimenting, trying new stuff, cutting stuff and seeing what works. Yes fans will hate it, but fans are irrational anyway. If fans had the way there would only be PacMan and thats it.

Franchises have to change. Cant give the same experience as people would ***** that they are like COD. yes they may fail but with good input from fans they can make the sequels a more satisfying game.

 

[penguindude42]

When Electronic Arses scooped them up.

 

[pilouuuu]

Short answer: When EA bought them.

Captcha: let's roll

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

I still like them. I haven't played Dragon age 2, nor do i really want to, and I LIKED the mass effect 3 ending. Was it too bleak for you all? Was the message that whatever you do, sometimes it doesn't matter, it doesn't make a difference in the end to bleak? Meh. I liked it. But prehaps I'm just a depressing ol' freak.

For the original ending, my problems were the plot holes, the mass relays getting destroyed, and the lack of closure. It felt like nothing I did in the past three games mattered. Solved the krogan-turian-salarian problems, curing the genophage? Doesn't matter! None of those three races will see each other again! Solve the quarian-geth conflict? Doesn't matter!

The EC fixed a lot of that, and I was satisfied with it. I didn't mind the bleakness of the original ending. After all, the entire theme of Mass Effect 3 is "victory at any cost". It was the lack of closure and feeling like all I had done was of no consequence at all, something the new ending fixed.