We should forgive Bioware.

[spartan231490]

snip
I'm rambling a bit now, so to summarize here:
Maybe Bioware is just moving in a direction that you don't care for anymore. Maybe something amplified how angry you got at those two games, like their reception on the internet or something. Maybe you just think Bioware is stupid for not catering to your wants and sticking rigidly to their formulaic RPG structure. Whatever it is, can't you let it go, though? Can't you take a deep breath, relax, and either say "Yeah, okay Bioware, you do what you want, but I think I've moved on from the style you're trying to reach" without spewing hatred and anger their way, or hell, be excited to see what they do when they aren't trying to confine themselves to the RPG structure? They were the people who made MDK2 and Jade Empire, after all.

If bioware is moving in a direction that you don't care for anymore, the only reasonable approach is to no longer buy their games since they will no longer be games that interest you. Also Bioware did not stick to their rigid RPG structure, they abandoned it, that's what made people so pissed off.

And of course people can't, it's in our nature(though I don't know why). Are you really going to sit there and claim you've never spewed a little bit of hatred on the internet? Not at twilight, or Justin Beiber, or country music, or rap music, or at xbox, or PS3, or consoles in general, or the wii U, or the 3ds, or the new pokemon games, or computer gaming, or anything? I find that hard to believe.

 

[Atmos Duality]

See that's just it, if it's working for them, then why has thier stock value been droping dramatically? I think you're confusing cause with effect.

Allow me to rephrase. They THINK it works for them, because it worked for them before.
Obviously, based on their tumbling stock price and desperate attempts to appeal to, well, anyone who will listen (including issuing statements and then contradicting them a day later), they aren't doing so well.

That seems to strike pretty close to home for what I've seen. There are a lot of people who like to complain about things like DRM, but when push comes to shove they don't actually do anything about it. I think a fair amount of it is probably a mentality of "Oh, I'm only one person, what impact would it have if I bought the game or not?" too though.

Yeah, it's a poisonous way of thinking really.
And some people wonder why voter turnouts are so low...

I don't know if I could write off every game that a publisher releases just because of their practices, but their practices have certainly prevented me from buying certain games before. I think maybe I'm just not as entrenched in the gaming community as some other people are. I've been gaming my entire life, but it's only been the last two years or so that I've actually started following things like this website.

Fair enough.

As a final comment, it's kind of a nasty place to end up in when you do start caring about an issue that works across entire demographics. It becomes increasingly difficult to not blame the masses for allowing a problem (no matter how objectively correct you might be) to persist or intensify.

If you distance yourself too far from the subject, you become apathetic or cynical.
If you become too close, your passion makes you more prone to not seeing reason.

(I'm guilty of both)

Case in point: If enough of the market didn't accept cruel DRM systems, price-gouging DLC, or advertising that treated them like idiots, it wouldn't last.

 

[shrekfan246]

If bioware is moving in a direction that you don't care for anymore, the only reasonable approach is to no longer buy their games since they will no longer be games that interest you. Also Bioware did not stick to their rigid RPG structure, they abandoned it, that's what made people so pissed off.

And of course people can't, it's in our nature(though I don't know why). Are you really going to sit there and claim you've never spewed a little bit of hatred on the internet? Not at twilight, or Justin Beiber, or country music, or rap music, or at xbox, or PS3, or consoles in general, or the wii U, or the 3ds, or the new pokemon games, or computer gaming, or anything? I find that hard to believe.

You could probably find a few of my older posts that ridicule the Wii-U, possibly Twilight and country music, and I've certainly made it known that the newer Pokemon games don't interest me; But as an owner of a gaming laptop, an Xbox 360, and a PS3, no I've never been interested in "console wars", I'm mostly indifferent to Justin Bieber and things like Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey because -
1) I'm not going to hate something that I don't care enough to experience first-hand.
and
2) They have no impact on my life in any manner, so why should I care?

Number 2 extends much further for me, as well. The cancellation of Firefly didn't impact my life, so while I love the show I didn't get outraged over it. I've bought pretty much every Sonic game released, and had fun with every single one of them (with the slight exception of '06) so I've never been bothered by the problems that everyone else seems to think have been plaguing the franchise since it went 3D.

I'm apathetic toward most things. I'll readily admit that, because I don't understand what the use is in getting so worked up over something so minute. Voice your concerns, sure, but why do people always need to voice their concerns in such a violent manner?

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

I forgave Bioware after the EC. To me, that showed that they are at least willing to listen to the fans. From what I hear, they've been totally dismissive and rude to fans, turning their backs to the fanbase, but I've seen no evidence of that.

All I ask for from a game company is to make good games, and to be willing to learn from their mistakes. And to me, Bioware has succeeded on both levels. Even their worst game, Dragon Age 2, was still enjoyable. It just had other issues as well, something Bioware has admitted.

 

[Mausthemighty]

These three games made me lose faith in Bioware:
- Dragon Age 2. The story was boring, the choices you had to make were sometimes forced upon you (especially when you don't want to take sides), enemies spawn out of thin air so strategy or tactics don't matter, the blatant reuse of the same dungeons/area's over and over and the ending was bad.
- Mass Effect 3. This game was supposed to restore my faith in Bioware. I was smiling a lot when playing it and loved everything the game had to offer. Until the final mission. I will not go into depth here, because it has been rehashed the last few months on these forums, but I found the ending not logical, contradicting the entire mythology until that moment and very lazy. It ruined the game for me. Even the explanation from the DLC, didn't entice me to play anymore. I'm through.
- The Old Republic. I never wanted an MMO based on one of the best Star Wars games I have ever played. I wanted KotOR 3! Why should I play another WoW-clone in a Star Wars skin? There's a reason I stopped playing WoW. I don't want to spend ?12 a month on a game anymore, and I don't want to play my RPG surrounded by rude infantile idiots.

I'll always love Bioware for Baldur's Gate and KotOR, but I won't pre-order anything from them anymore. That blind trust in them, the trust that they always deliver good games and I won't be disappointed by them, is gone.

 

[Paragon Fury]

I can't forgive Bioware.

I was ready to try after the Extended Cut and maybe give them another chance....but then I got Jade Empire for $4 off of Steam, and now that I remember how good they used to be compared to the shit they're peddling now, I don't think it is possible to forgive anymore.

 

[MadHatter1993]

ha, the only reason why i played the old republic was because it reminded me of KotoR. the first 10 levels "were" Kotor experience. but after that i stop playing after a month. trying to relive the dream. moving on, i did love Dragon Age 2, for the Combat system, and it had Depth. it would have been a better game if it weren't for the fact the "whole" bloody game was kept in a single town while reusing the same skins for all the missions. i thought the reason they did that was so that they can add more content to the game....not really. but the DLC for it was awesome. and mass effect 3's ending was choose 1, 2 or 3....i expected a little more from you bioware, but i have to respect that it's your story you are telling us....EVEN THOUGH WE PAID FOR IT, it's their product to us.

 

[JamesStone]

I don't irrationally hate them, but I'll be damned if I do what I did with ME3 and DA2 again, that is, buying them on the first day and getting ultra excited. From now on, I'll treat them not like one of my favourite developers, but just as a developer, no different from the rest.

 

[Ziggy]

I guess I can compare it to how I feel about Ubisoft. They made some good smoked salmon, and I liked it a lot. But then they started smearing poo on it. No matter how hard you try to enjoy the salmon after that, you just can't get around that smell and taste...

...

I'm hungry!

I think it's less smearing poo on it, and more like dropping in into poo. It was not what they wanted (crappy DRM for the pc) but they served it anyway.

 

[Zealous]

I vote with my dollars. They destroyed all interest I had in two series of their's, have displayed disastrous results in their attempt to make a WoW clone (in outer spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace), EA's influence can be seen in every product or statement they release and I will no longer be supporting them ever again. Unless of course they actually create something of worth. Cause, you know,that's definitely going to happen...
Plus there's the fact that Bioware isn't actually Bioware any more. The majority of the original devs have been reassigned to other EA projects or have quit. Bioware has just become a shell of it's former self, a way for EA to earn a bit of money off of idiots that have "dev loyalty".
That's just my opinion though. Everyone else can continue to throw money at them to keep them afloat until EA gets tired of their performances and kills the company for good.

 

[Zhukov]

Can you tell me what Mass Effect 3 did right? Like anything it did that was good, Because I've played it through 6 times now and have found maybe 3 minutes of "acceptable" or "good" things in this 50 hour game.

You played a 50 hour game six times over despite only liking 3 minutes of it.

Or, to put it another way, you knowingly spent roughly 249 hours and 45 minutes (not counting the first playthrough) playing a game that you do not consider to be of acceptable quality.

...

Seriously?

 

[malestrithe]

I never liked bioware to begin with, so I'm not in a position to forgive them. All of their games have a samey aspect to me, even the supposed good ones.

However, you are right. I've played through the game and I have to admit the ending was okay. It was not great, but hey limitations of the medium and all that.

 

[Nimzabaat]

I didn't mind Dragon Age 2, don't care about Old Republic and never played Mass Effect 3.

They need to get back to decent stories. I don't care if the gameplay is like Resident Evil 1.

SWTOR has some excellent story telling. The gameplay is a wash, but the light/dark side is done really well.

 

[Vhite]

With Ultima MMORPG they dont seem to want forgiveness. Also I never really liked them so with their later games they didn't have any trust to lose with me.

 

[Lord Quirk]

I forgive Bioware. Da2 was actually alright, with the extended cut, Mass Effect 3 was brilliant (I'm one of those people who didn't care that they'd stripped down on RPG elements in the Mass Effect games) and I can't speak for The Old Republic. I've forgiven Bioware, but I haven't forgiven George Lucas. I'm gunna be pretty cautious next time they release a game, but I still love them.

 

[putowtin]

Don't need to forgive them, I like DA2 and Love ME3.

Sure they dropped the ball with the whole ending debacle (not the ending, but how they initially dealt with the backlash) and EA has not done them any favours, with their stupid marketing ideas.

But the people who gave us Garrus, Alistair, Mordin, Wrex, Tali and so many more don't need forgivness for a few fumbles.

 

[Your Fearless Captain]

Bioware was bought by EA. They suck now. End of story.

 

[Artemicion]

they were a stranger wearing their still bleeding face, recently peeled off of their spasming corpse, staring deep into your soul and letting out a eerie creak of a voice.

Dude.

Dude.

OT: I'll trust Bioware when they stop trying to prove the "games are art" debate and get back to actually making decent storylines. The ME3 story was artful crap. I haven't played DAII but the consensus is that it was crap.

This is still the most accurate argument against Bioware and, specifically, Casey Hudson. When decides to stop being a pompous ass, I'll forgive Bioware.

 

[johnnnny guitar]

No three strikes and you're out I don't want to play their games because they disinterest me and I find them quite frankly boring, rushed and average games which is a shame because DA:O,ME 1/2 and KOTOR are some of my favourite games of all time and it sucks because I now have zero interests in all of these series.

 

[USSR]

I wanted Battlefront 3

LucasArts pulled the plug on Bafflefront 3, not Bioware.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117088-LucasArts-Run-by-Psychopaths>LucasArts