Anybody else worried about Bioware?

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brad12d3

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#1 brad12d3
Member since 2004 • 1040 Posts

I was all excited about this new game by Bioware that was going to be announced at the VGAs. Being a huge RPG fan, when I hear the name Bioware.. I of course think "great story driven RPGs"... Then I see a very mediocre and short looking teaser trailer for,... Command and Conquer?

Now I know there are a lot of RTS fans that are excited about this, and that's cool. I am glad you are getting a new C&C game... But from Bioware?

I was really expecting some new RPG IP, or maybe even a Jade Empie 2 or something... Not Command and Conquer..

Maybe it's just me but I feel that there is a major void in the RPG market.. Great RPGs seems so rare and there are just a couple of developers who really know how to do them well. Bioware was one of those... However, after DA2 and seeing them being spread out to other genres.. is Bioware losing it's RPG magic?

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foxhound_fox

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#2 foxhound_fox
Member since 2005 • 98532 Posts
Worried? I've long since given up on them. EA is a horrible company that corrupts absolutely.
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Legendaryscmt

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#3 Legendaryscmt
Member since 2005 • 12532 Posts

I'm just worried that they're spreading themselves out too much. I mean, TOR, Mass Effect 3, Generals 2, DA3. I wouldn't want to see any of those games suffer because they didn't have enough talent working on them.

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Maroxad

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#4 Maroxad
Member since 2007 • 23926 Posts

Worried? I've long since given up on them. EA is a horrible company that corrupts absolutely.foxhound_fox

While I abandoned Bioware after Dragon Age Origins and its mmo combat, mmo quests, copy paste encounter design, cliche as **** setting, characters cloned from previous Bioware games, weaksauce structure and pretty much everything else that game did wrong (read: everything). I do worry about Bioware, why? Because unfortunately, the industry seems to view them as the golden standard, and the crappier they go, the crappier the genre gets.

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Canvas_Of_Flesh

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#5 Canvas_Of_Flesh
Member since 2007 • 4052 Posts
The last Bioware game that I really, really enjoyed was Dragon Age: Origins. I loved Mass Effect 1, but didn't quite enjoy Mass Effect 2 near as much. After that and Dragon Age 2 I'll be waiting a good while before I take the Day One Plunge on another Bioware game.
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brad12d3

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#6 brad12d3
Member since 2004 • 1040 Posts

It's sad really... Such a talented company. Yet lately they just haven't been themselves.. To bad they couldn't have hooked up with a better publisher.. or found a way to stay independent.

EA really is good at sucking the life out things. :(

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wiouds

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#7 wiouds
Member since 2004 • 6233 Posts

I lost a faith in Bioware after they took everything that made Mass Effect 1 a good RPG out of Mass Effect 2, and then filled Mass Effect 2 with the worse cast of characters I have seen in any game. Dragon Age 2 did give me a little hope in Bioware.

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Kelayr

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#8 Kelayr
Member since 2005 • 61857 Posts
I must be one of the very few who enjoyed both Dragon Age and both Mass Effect games so far. Personally, I'm fine with whatever BioWare does as long as they keep making quality RPGs for our enjoyment.
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Ish_basic

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#9 Ish_basic
Member since 2002 • 5051 Posts

[QUOTE="foxhound_fox"]Worried? I've long since given up on them. EA is a horrible company that corrupts absolutely.Maroxad

While I abandoned Bioware after Dragon Age Origins and its mmo combat, mmo quests, copy paste encounter design, cliche as **** setting, characters cloned from previous Bioware games, weaksauce structure and pretty much everything else that game did wrong (read: everything). I do worry about Bioware, why? Because unfortunately, the industry seems to view them as the golden standard, and the crappier they go, the crappier the genre gets.

they're the gold standard by default. As far as consoles go, they're pretty much the only company making sci-fi and fantasy RPGs, and as far as mass media goes, opinions are largely shaped by what you do on consoles. So they get credit because there's very few companies around even making an attempt to do these kinds of games. If there were more companies doing sci-fi and fantasy rpgs, I think we'd quickly see just how good BioWare really is, which is to say, "not very." So I don't see it as BioWare's influence bringing the genre down so much as the lack of competing influences allowing BioWare to get away with shoveling its garbage onto the masses.

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wis3boi

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#10 wis3boi
Member since 2005 • 32507 Posts

I'm just worried that they're spreading themselves out too much. I mean, TOR, Mass Effect 3, Generals 2, DA3. I wouldn't want to see any of those games suffer because they didn't have enough talent working on them.

Legendaryscmt
It's not like the people that make mass effect made dragon age, or the people making Generals 2 made any of bioware's past games. They are all separate studios under the same name. In fact those making Generals 2 are veterans of the C&C series and have just been brought in under the bioware logo
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Ilovegames1992

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#11 Ilovegames1992
Member since 2010 • 14221 Posts

I still like Bioware, i enjoyed DA and DA 2 for what they were.

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Archangel3371

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#12 Archangel3371  Online
Member since 2004 • 44216 Posts
No I'm not worried at all. I think they're a fantastic studio and I loved both Mass Effect and Dragon Age games. I'm very interested in seeing how Command & Conquer Generals 2 turns out.
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BlackDevil99

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#13 BlackDevil99
Member since 2003 • 2329 Posts

i'm probably the only one thats not worried, love bioware and love RTS's, so i'll be looking forward to what they do with it. I'm sure their main team is going to be working on Dragon Age 3 though

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Smokescreened84

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#14 Smokescreened84
Member since 2005 • 2565 Posts
I'm worried that Bioware might go the way Rare did, if anyone old enough remembers them. Rare is a shadow of it's former self and Rioware is looking like it might be heading the same way due to EA's interference with Dragon Age 2, and their clear interference with Mass Effect 3 due to the multiplayer being tacked on to cater to the Military FPS/TPS fanatics. I'm dreading that ME3 and any future games will be an example of EA's sticking their nose where they don't belong.
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Vangaurdius

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#15 Vangaurdius
Member since 2007 • 671 Posts
I've given up on them. Mass Effect was alright for an action adventure but they botched that with ME2. Origins was okay, but needed a lot of work to get it to the quality of Baulders Gate and Neverwinter Nights. Then they ruined that with DA2. Now they've released a cartoony KOTOR MMO botching any chance of a Kotor 3 or a Star Wars MMO like pre-NGE galaxies. Now they're probably going to wind up ruining C&C generals. The trailer was not promising and had me scratching my head like why AA was taking out tanks and helicopters took out the AA while they just sat there twiddling their thumbs. Honestly, anything EA get's it's filthy hands on is ruined.
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deactivated-57e5de5e137a4

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#16 deactivated-57e5de5e137a4
Member since 2004 • 12929 Posts
Bioware is already producing mass market games so I'm not sure I still have any hope for them. Dragon Age Origin was the last of their games that I liked and that includes SWTOR, which I played for a while in early beta. That aside, even if you are a Bioware fan, there's nothing here that should scare you too much. It's a semi-new development studio that is just going to be under the umbrella name "Bioware" probably because they thought this might be a way to save the C&C franchise after the poop stew that was C&C4. If people think "Oh, maybe EA actually does care about the C&C universe" then they can strengthen that brand; at least until it's released. Despite what I think about them, Bioware is known as a good storytelling company.
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megadeth1117

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#17 megadeth1117
Member since 2010 • 1830 Posts

I must be one of the very few who enjoyed both Dragon Age and both Mass Effect games so far. Personally, I'm fine with whatever BioWare does as long as they keep making quality RPGs for our enjoyment.silentexistence

Same for me. People just love to complain about stupid ****.

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Elann2008

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#18 Elann2008
Member since 2007 • 33028 Posts
[QUOTE="foxhound_fox"]Worried? I've long since given up on them. EA is a horrible company that corrupts absolutely.

They've produced some amazing games. Not all of them are perfect, but they are good to great games throughout. How are they corrupt? Is it because they're a multi-billion dollar company? Omg Capitalists! America doesn't deserve thousands of jobs....
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Elann2008

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#19 Elann2008
Member since 2007 • 33028 Posts

[QUOTE="silentexistence"]I must be one of the very few who enjoyed both Dragon Age and both Mass Effect games so far. Personally, I'm fine with whatever BioWare does as long as they keep making quality RPGs for our enjoyment.megadeth1117

Same for me. People just love to complain about stupid ****.

Exactly. They should go make their own games and play them. I'd like to see them try and be successful at it, without people complaining about the stupidest things.
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Vangaurdius

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#20 Vangaurdius
Member since 2007 • 671 Posts
Next person to say "well then why don't you do it" is waking up with their furniture nailed to the ceiling. We're complaining because now everyone is trying to get at the CoD crowd (people who suck at video games but insist on playing them) and as such our favorite franchises like Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, Neverwinter Nights, Baulders gate, etc. get dumbed down or forgotten and they remove what made it challenging and enjoyable. Instead they make it so that anyone with at least 1 operable brain cell can play them. It would be like making NFL touch only so scrawny people can play. It opens it to the masses but would infuriate the original players at having no choice but to played this less intense and dumbed down game or abandon their hobby because some undedicated scrawny little ****** want to play. Find your own hobby and let us enjoy ours. And don't bother saying "well that's selfish" because it works both ways.
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Jabby250

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#21 Jabby250
Member since 2011 • 524 Posts

[QUOTE="megadeth1117"]

[QUOTE="silentexistence"]I must be one of the very few who enjoyed both Dragon Age and both Mass Effect games so far. Personally, I'm fine with whatever BioWare does as long as they keep making quality RPGs for our enjoyment.Elann2008

Same for me. People just love to complain about stupid ****.

Exactly. They should go make their own games and play them. I'd like to see them try and be successful at it, without people complaining about the stupidest things.

Ha, good one! Most 'critics' here (or anywhere) couldn't even create a Tic-tac-toe flash game. One of the bad things about capitalism is that it can make everyone spoiled as far as markets and industries go.

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Jabby250

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#22 Jabby250
Member since 2011 • 524 Posts

Next person to say "well then why don't you do it" is waking up with their furniture nailed to the ceiling. We're complaining because now everyone is trying to get at the CoD crowdVangaurdius

People are still using this tired rhetoric/mantra? Give it a rest already... it's old.

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190586385885857957282413308806

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#23 190586385885857957282413308806
Member since 2002 • 13084 Posts
I couldn't care less about them. There are plenty of other developers out there that aren't in it strictly for the cash and won't stoop to making entry level RPG's.
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keech

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#24 keech
Member since 2003 • 1451 Posts

90% of this thread is the worst kind of gamer IMO. No not fanboys that will defend games to the death no matter what. No not the casual players who want their hand held through the entire length of a game. No not the band wagon jumpers that don't know what KOTOR stands for.

All of the above are pretty bad. But they don't come close to being as bad as the "This game isn't exactly what I wanted and expected it to be so it sucks and is garbage and anyone who likes it is stupid!" kind of gamer. It really is just an immature mind set that the gaming community needs to collectively get over. It's one thing to state you didn't personally like a game. It's a whole other monster to totally rip apart a developer because they made 1 or 2 games you didn't care for but were by no means broken.

I can't help but wonder if the same people hating are the same people who blindly buy games by certain developers without doing ANY research on the game before they buy it.

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190586385885857957282413308806

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#25 190586385885857957282413308806
Member since 2002 • 13084 Posts
"This game isn't exactly what I wanted and expected it to be so it sucks and is garbage and anyone who likes it is stupid!"keech
Actually under bEAware's own admission they admit to making RPGs for the COD crowd and even said they'll make basic RPGs to gain money and then make deeper RPGs further down the road (I don't believe the 2nd half of that statement) So it's mostly the crowd who has seen bEAware go from Baldur's Gate II to Dragon Age II that is against the company.
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Black_Knight_00

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#26 Black_Knight_00
Member since 2007 • 77 Posts
[QUOTE="foxhound_fox"]Worried? I've long since given up on them. EA is a horrible company that corrupts absolutely.

This. They already bastardized Bioware, Crytek, Westwood, Criterion and DICE
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CrimsonpugTwo

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#27 CrimsonpugTwo
Member since 2004 • 2220 Posts

C&C Generals 2 being developed by BioWare is extremely misleading - because its really not being developed by BioWare at all.

After EA bought BioWare and had a successful game or two under their belts, EA decided to re-name a couple of their existing studios "Bioware". Among those studios renamed? The studio behind the last few of the Command and Conquer games. So now the studio that created all the C&C games are once again making a new C&C game "Generals 2", but since EA renamed their studio "Bioware", EA can now - without losing a single beat - claim that Command and Conquer Generals 2 is being developed by Bioware. But the actual developers at the original BioWare - the studio responsible for Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age and Mass Effect - have NOTHING to do with the new Comman and Conquer game at all.

Sneaky isn't it????

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Planeforger

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#28 Planeforger
Member since 2004 • 19574 Posts

All of the above are pretty bad. But they don't come close to being as bad as the "This game isn't exactly what I wanted and expected it to be so it sucks and is garbage and anyone who likes it is stupid!" kind of gamer. It really is just an immature mind set that the gaming community needs to collectively get over. It's one thing to state you didn't personally like a game. It's a whole other monster to totally rip apart a developer because they made 1 or 2 games you didn't care for but were by no means broken.keech

Personally, I think that if a developer used to make really deep and interesting games, and over time they have progressively stripped away features (and ignored their fans) in an attempt to appeal to a completely different audience, then they deserve any flack that results from that.

For example, I used to have a lot of faith in Bioware. Baldurs Gate 2 was a fantastic game, and I spent heaps of time in NWN (even if that was kind of bland).
Then...at some point they jumped ship and started making console-focused, less deep, more streamlined RPGs. I enjoyed them for what they were (KOTOR was great), but I was hoping they were just kind of filler while they were working on their next Baldurs Gate-esque game.

After that, they headed even further away from their earlier fanbase, making the console-exclusive action-RPG Jade Empire. This seemed troubling, but hey, the PC-exclusive Dragon Age was in the works, combining the depth of BG2 with NWN's awesome multiplayer features - surely that made up for these console side-games they kept making.

Well...no, it didn't. Dragon Age went dark for years, and instead Bioware kept producing these timed console-exclusive, shallow (but cinematically-interesting) RPGs.
I guess Mass Effect was the point where I completely lost faith in them ever making great RPGs again - not that it was a bad game, but comparing it to the standards of the genre that Bioware themselves played a good part in setting (through BG2)...it was missing so much of what made their older RPGs great. This was especially weird since the console gamers were praising it as the single best RPG of all time back when it came out, with the most impressive story and so on...so when I finally got a hold of the PC version six months later, it really made me wonder what all of the fuss had been about.

Then when Dragon Age (Bioware's 'last great hope') came out as a multiplayer-less multiplat, without half of the depth, charm or artistry that BG2 had (despite them claiming that it was a spiritual successor to that game), it was blatantly obvious that Bioware wasn't coming back.

So forget about not liking their most recent games (I actually enjoyed Mass Effect 2 - it was a fun little shooter), or even their affiliation with EA (which may or may not have affected them then - although it does pretty much ensure that they'll never stop catering to the casual market) - I dislike Bioware for turning their back on the people who used to support them, and the genre that they used to actually try to revolutionise.

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wiouds

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#29 wiouds
Member since 2004 • 6233 Posts

I find it immature to say that other compaining about something is be childish even if they give good reason.

Mass Effect 2 was a good game but as far as RPG goes it does not meet what I define as a RPG. I found Mass Effect 2 cast to be one of the worse in any game I played.

Lets face it many of Bioware's stories since NotOR has not been that good. They can have good sub story but their main story is normal just a group going to get a number of items to stop a evil.

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Ballroompirate

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#30 Ballroompirate
Member since 2005 • 26695 Posts

Why am I not worried about Bioware?, since I don't know maybe cause the only made one "meh' game since 1998 thats why. Thats a damn good track record in my book.