The Final Showdown Has Begun - BioWare versus Mojang

[Chamale]

I think it's clear that Minecraft fans have been flocking to the Escapist to make this underdog story possible. Valve fans didn't feel threatened by Mojang, so they voted in much smaller proportions.

Apathy costs votes. Mojang's sudden zero-to-hero popularity spike has definitely pushed it farther than most of the community expected. I wonder what percentage of brackets predicted Mojang would win?

 

[ryai458]

Go bioware definitely deserves it.

 

[Aeshi]

I definitely think that Mojang deserves it more than Bioware.

I'd rather Blizzard had won but as that isn't an option the least I can do is try and make sure that Bioware doesn't win either.

 

[Viking Incognito]

Okay I'll be honest, Minecraft is really really really fun. I LOVE Minecraft.

BUT

It just IS NOT AS GOOD as KOTOR and Mass Effects 1 and 2.

My point is that, even is Minecraft was the best game in history, Bioware just deserves to win more than Mojang because they took years making 3 of the best RPGs ever and so they deserve to win more than a newbie one-hit-wonder.

 

[Yureina]

The amount of rage this year over Mojang is making me think that, like Zynga this year, Mojang is going to get assaulted next year and knocked out in the first round, regardless of how they end up doing against Bioware.

 

[RA92]

Everybody loves basalt!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/SvartifossWinter.jpg

 

[valleyshrew]

Funny people complain about Mojang but think valve should win. Valve have made portal and half-life, those are their only good contributions to gaming. Left 4 dead is an interesting AI demo, but it's barely more than a cool counter-strike mod. They have a platform equal to microsoft or sony, but they release less than a game every 2 years. Sony have about 2 dozen first and second party developers. Valve just like to sit on all their money while fans ignorantly praise them as if they've contributed a lot to the industry. I don't like nintendo games myself, but they've made hundreds of them, some of them hugely influential, and to have valve over them as the winner would be even more insulting than mojang over valve.

 

[The.Bard]

You're completely right you know. How could I forget the "bored me to tears space-wankery" that was Mass Effect? And Dragon Age, yes Dragon Age, that game they made instead of making a good sequel to Baldur's Gate. How did the whole DA2 thing go again? Absolutely fantastic, right?

Jade Empire was totally stellar and not an obscure piece that gets a rare pity mention for good effort. Knight's of the Old Republic was not completely ruined by a sub-par sequel and an increasingly desperate looking MMO cash-in. The fact that both of these games are more than five years old is completely irrelevant and says nothing about the studio's intellectual bankruptcy.

But hey, they still totally deserved to beat Blizzard. It's not like Blizzard IS the MMO market right now and everyone who hates WoW just desperately wishes that they're favorite victim that Blizz destroyed without even batting an eye had actually succeeded. It's not like the re-created the Modern RTS to the point that it's been turned into a sport. It's not like they are the reason the Hack n' Slash, randomized dungeon crawl genre even exists. Pfft, it's not like they did any of that and more. We'll just quietly forget the fact that if it wasn't for Blizzard and Valve, PC gaming would have died a slow, painful death (that Bioware is perfectly happy to help usher in, mind you)by now.

Valve, yea, I'll agree with you that they are awesome. They are Gods and deserve to be one of the last devs standing in any competition like this. And though it's not relevant, Bioware had nothing to do with the sequel to Knights of the Old Republic. They were too busy making Neverwinter Nights (can't believe I forgot about that one!!)

But for the love of all that's holy, how can you talk about intellectual bankruptcy and then point to Blizzard as an example of not-it? WoW has a lot more in common with Farmville than most people care to believe, and that's not necessarily a good thing...

I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I'll mention it again. Since late 2007, Bioware has released 4 (ME 1/2, DA 1/2) extremely well reviewed games (DA2 is lowest of them on metacritic with a "paltry" 82) across 3 platforms, and is about to release a fully-voiced MMO with a number of highly ambitious elements. (it may suck; I'm merely pointing out that what they are doing is HUGE)

In that same exact timeframe, Blizzard has released a few (two? I don't care enough to look it up) WoW expansions, and 1/3 of Starcraft II.

As much as you want to disregard Bioware's efforts due to your own subjective tastes, I can dismiss all of Blizzard's efforts with my own equally subjective tastes. So if our opinions cancel each other out, what are we left with? The facts:

In the amount of time it took Blizzard to make 1/3 of a well-reviewed game and a few upgrades to another on PC, Bioware put out FOUR equally well-reviewed games on not just PC, but 360 and PS3, too.

Thus, Bioware wins. 8) It's ok, though. Next year Blizzard will have over half of Starcraft 2 out, and Rainbow Brite III or whatever that Diablo-esque happy game for children is. That's something.

 

[TheEvilCheese]

I love Minecraft, but in my bracket Mojang lost in round one. Since that It's been pretty obvious they were going to win. Oh well, if anyone has gained popularity recently it's certainly Mojang.

Side note: I noticed that Bioware was winning, until the moment Notch hit twitter...

 

[Dango]

I can see that just like last year, people get too worked up about this contest. I mean, it's just for fun.

The points messed up the "fun" part a bit.

OT: As a huge fanboy of the original Mass Effect, I'm pretty displeased with the current voting results. I find it odd that a majority of Escapists are Bioware fanboys yet Majong is still managing to hold on to their lead.

Edit: Incorporating twitter isn't the best idea either, keeping this Escapist exclusive would've lessened the rage coming from most of the forum-goers (like myself).

 

[Owlslayer]

I can see that just like last year, people get too worked up about this contest. I mean, it's just for fun.

The points messed up the "fun" part a bit.

OT: As a huge fanboy of the original Mass Effect, I'm pretty displeased with the current voting results. I find it odd that a majority of Escapists are Bioware fanboys yet Majong is still managing to hold on to their lead.

Edit: Incorporating twitter isn't the best idea either, keeping this Escapist exclusive would've lessened the rage coming from most of the forum-goers (like myself).

Yeah, i guess most people, including me, want as much points as possible. It's not that bad wanting to be special, right ? But i didn't actually vote for all of my "chosen" ones from my bracket. I guess i figured that 1 vote won't really change much.
But yeah, it's a bummer that Bioware has fewer votes than Mojang. Hope that changes.

 

[Worgen]

this is beyond retarded, well mojang is gonna win since no one else could be valve, Im fairly sure that shenanigans are involved since last year the farmville people zynegata or whatever somehow made it to the end also, it really doesnt make sense

 

[Drop_D-Bombshell]

Am I only one in awe that Majong have a huge fanbase on the Escpaist? I still can't believe how far it's gotten.

 

[Daveman]

This is ridiculous, these guys make one simple fad game that gamers love and now they're somehow the best. Frankly I find them indistinguishable from Zynga in terms of the quality of the game. I hope Bioware wins, though they obviously won't. Frankly I owned lego so I'm not that enthused by Minecraft.

But seriously, it should never have even got through round one when it was against the company that made almost all of the best-selling games of all time.

 

[thirion1850]

Yees, lets compare a company that has made epics with gorgeous writing, enticing stories and solid gameplay to a fellow that has a game about breaking blocks, which is also somehow not out yet. -.- The people of this world never stop surprising me.

 

[Shycte]

Mad. Mad everywhere. Sure, BioWare maybe deserves the title more, but one got to hand it to Notch, he has created one of the biggest indie games of our time. Don't tell me that's nothing.

 

[DocBalance]

Valve, yea, I'll agree with you that they are awesome. They are Gods and deserve to be one of the last devs standing in any competition like this. And though it's not relevant, Bioware had nothing to do with the sequel to Knights of the Old Republic. They were too busy making Neverwinter Nights (can't believe I forgot about that one!!)

But for the love of all that's holy, how can you talk about intellectual bankruptcy and then point to Blizzard as an example of not-it? WoW has a lot more in common with Farmville than most people care to believe, and that's not necessarily a good thing...

I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I'll mention it again. Since late 2007, Bioware has released 4 (ME 1/2, DA 1/2) extremely well reviewed games (DA2 is lowest of them on metacritic with a "paltry" 82) across 3 platforms, and is about to release a fully-voiced MMO with a number of highly ambitious elements. (it may suck; I'm merely pointing out that what they are doing is HUGE)

In that same exact timeframe, Blizzard has released a few (two? I don't care enough to look it up) WoW expansions, and 1/3 of Starcraft II.

As much as you want to disregard Bioware's efforts due to your own subjective tastes, I can dismiss all of Blizzard's efforts with my own equally subjective tastes. So if our opinions cancel each other out, what are we left with? The facts:

In the amount of time it took Blizzard to make 1/3 of a well-reviewed game and a few upgrades to another on PC, Bioware put out FOUR equally well-reviewed games on not just PC, but 360 and PS3, too.

Thus, Bioware wins. 8) It's ok, though. Next year Blizzard will have over half of Starcraft 2 out, and Rainbow Brite III or whatever that Diablo-esque happy game for children is. That's something.

You've never actually played a Blizzard game, have you? You're just spewing the Cliffnotes version of every reason anyone has ever disagreed with Blizzard. World of Warcraft has nothing, I repeat, nothing in common with Farmville. I've played it since it came out, and while I've taken breaks from it just like any game, it's still fairly engaging. Out of all the MMO's I've played or beta'd, it's by far the best.

1/3 of a game? No, one third of a story perhaps, but not one third of a game. If we're going to play that card, I suppose that Mass Effect 1 and 2 are both also only 1/3rd of a game, and so was Neverwinter Nights, and Knights of the Old Republic, and literally EVERY OTHER TRILOGY IN EXISTENCE. Seriously, that "1/3rd" of a game argument hasn't held water since the day SC2 released.

Rainbowbrite III? Now that's just sad, really. You're playing your hand too quickly, good sir, and showing the fact that you really know nothing about Diablo 3 but heard an emo kid bitching about it this one time, so you're just going to go with his talking points.

Neverwinter Nights is way old news, and Neverwinter Nights 2 had nothing to do with Bioware either. See, that's the problem with Bioware. They pass off their good franchises to Obsidian half the time and they end up sucking horribly. If you actually care about your franchises, you don't pawn them off.

Yes, every game Bioware has released in the last few years has reviewed well, just like every game Blizzard has ever released has reviewed well. Honestly though? There's nothing groundbreaking about what Bioware does. The only quasi-new concept they've got going for them is letting you have a homosexual relationship in a couple of their games, which is really less an up-mark for them and more a reflection of how little the rest of the industry cares about becoming a dating sim. Their games are buggy, their writing is decent, their game-play is a re-tread, and PR, frankly, sucks. I would love to hear genre that Bioware redefined in it's history, to counter the three that Blizzard has re-built in it's.

I'd like to really focus on that for a moment: What has Bioware done except make a dirty dozen RPGs? I can't recall them ever working in another genre. They've pretty much been updating the same game over, and over, and over again for their entire history, putting it in different settings with different faces and with different menus, but underneath it all they're a bunch of one-trick ponies. There's nothing wrong with that, they make a decent RPG. But they aren't Blizzard, they aren't even Bethesda, and they aren't the best in the industry, even at their specialization.

 

[Someone Depressing]

C'mon! Mojang only has 1 GAME! And even then it's "Decent" at best. The amount of MC Fanboys is just stupid, I mean, that's Mojang's Debut, and only title, they were lucky to pass Nintendo.

 

[Hatchet90]

I don't think Mojang deserves it. He's made ONE game, a damn good game at that, but still. Bioware deserves to win because they're most consistently awesome. I don't even agree that Mojang should have gotten THIS far.