People need to stop blaming fans for this mess

I don't think there's any way to convince someone otherwise who would actually believe that the audience is responsible for the actions of a developer.

I pre-ordered the most expensive version and love the franchise to death. I'd count on that being the case for most people (with the exception of buying the most expensive version). I can go on YT and find BIG fans of the franchise disappointed or not even able to finish the game from AJ to gamerMD, to imediaz rez to some of the rooster teeth guys. This hate train is just something for people to blame. I mean, there's a thread saying 85% of the fanbase is hating for no reason lol. I think time is all that's needed for people to lose their hot head over the matter.

I fall into a category of people who waited a few months to buy the game.

When I bought it, it had come down in price to a point where I felt I would get my money's worth based on the reviews and comments I had seen. I've discussed it with a few friends who used a similar approach. Some waited a bit longer, some less, but most felt they'd made a reasonable decision based on the information, and it seems we came away with a fairly accurate idea of what we'd get. Granted, I'm only referring to about 4 people, so we hardly make for a valid sample size.

Still, I kinda feel like there's a fairly sizable crowd out there like us who took a similar approach. Somehow, we managed to glean fairly useful and accurate information from all of that criticism, and perhaps the issue is especially specific, in that it really comes down to being selective as to what one pays attention to.

I tended to pay attention to reviews that praised the game with clear caveats about technical issues on the one end, and those that heavily criticized the game's writing and glitches on the other. Much outside of either of those seemed to reflect outliers or fans with extreme opinions, so I tended not to focus on them. The overall critical picture painted the game accurately for me, when taken that way.

I think the ones blaming the audience for the game's problems probably ignored the bulk of the criticism that I focused on, and seemed to only recognize the existence of those that saw the game's perfection, and those that wanted it to fail. Anyone who looked like they might fall in the middle was lumped in with the "other" and blamed for the game's problems and holy shit I just realized I said this exact same thing like two days ago about something completely different but that was still somehow related to extreme opinions about BioWare and I think maybe I need to go watch a Tom and Jerry cartoon or something.

I think they lost a lot of credit with their traditional audience. Scepticism for the next release will be higher than it was before. Less because of the lackluster quality MEA displayed, more because they jumped ship after a pretty short time of supporting the franchise.

Now I believe that they are in need of a new audience for Anthem anyway, but the DA franchise will be in need of the old fanbase to keep afloat. If that isn't turned into an MMO also, that is.

Did you believe them, just because they said? The release at the end of the fiscal year speaks louder than words.

And that's management at Bioware's fault more than anything, probably. 

EA "When can the game come out?" 
BW "We can hit Q3 2016 for sure."
...
EA "How's it coming along?"
BW "We wasted 6 months of time and money and stuff taht we had to cut entirely and rewrite. All the staff and time spent on the procedural planets we wanted to do isn't going to work. Sunk cost. We need a delay."
EA "Fine, you have until the end of the fiscal year"

It's still a business. You can't blame EA for giving them the independence to do what they wanted by copying something that most companies wouldn't touch after No Mans Sky, and then BW saying "Well we fucked up and wasted million and millions of your money and have nothing to show for it all." and then EA getting hard with a deadline considering they probably have shareholders up their ass and any of those board members is one to two bad or even average quarters away from losing their seat and job.

EA is run by business people. Bioware is run by the games people. The games people have a lot more influence on the development of a game. If they don't then they're spineless and should find other jobs.

So, we should lie on their surveys from now on? I was asked if I'd recommend the game, and I said I would not. They shouldn't ask questions they don't want to know the answer to.

It's like blaming the Atlanta fans because the Falcons lost the super bowl. It's idiotic.

Considering that the vast majority of EA's other franchises are multiplayer-focused first person shooters, sports games, and mobile games? Yes.

Yeah the game could have been better. But its flaws were exaggerated by the attention seeking meme culture that breeds like a fungus on the internet. And these days the loudest, most exaggerated, and simplistic, opinion is the one that gets to be "controversial" and gets to be bombarded everywhere in memes. It's also easier to make people laugh by shitting on something than complimenting it

Fans are the last people to blame for Andromeda's criticism. If Andromeda didn't meet the standards Bioware wanted it to, then it's actually on them for pushing this project on their B-Team and expecting them to churn out greatness within a shot timeframe.