EA 'Mass Effect Andromeda Advocate' Executive Patrick Söderlund has been promoted.

Have you ever heard of this word called "quality"? It's associated with the MET.

If Andromeda had sold gangbusters and everyone loved it, I think it would've been strange if they didn't capitalize on that by making DLC for it. that said, they were pretty vague and dodgy with what they intended with DLC around launch. Most likely it was in the plans throughout the final stretch of development but I think already by December 2016 they knew they were going to ship the game in a nearly unfinished state. You can tell, just in those GI interviews with Mac Walters or some of the tweets from various Montreal staff around the time it was close to releasing that gives off a sense of hopelessness. Mac sounded nervous about being able to pump out the content around October and GameInformer also noted that what they saw when visiting BioWare at that point looked "super early".

Have you ever heard of this word called "quality"? It's associated with the MET.

Did you play the same games I did? There were plenty of problems in the first three games.  Just because for some reason you can overlook those and not the ones in Andromeda doesn't mean those issues didn't hurt those games.

It doesn't necessarily render the choices moot... It makes it not visually obvious what choices the player made.  The underlying relevance of the choices could still be brought to light within the context of a new story in other ways... ways that aren't so vastly disruptive to the flow of wherever that new story might be going with its plot.  For example, regardless of whether the player's Shepard lived or died, Shepard would be dead more than 600 years later (potentially 1200 years later if the journey going back takes as long as the journey getting to Andromeda).  Still, a dialogue could be entered somewhere that tells us whether or not Shepard's body was ever found or that he/she died years later somewhere else without disrupting a new story plot.  Dialogue could be entered that acknowledges the Reapers either being destroyed outright or them helping to rebuild... but the Scourge (something unanticipated by anyone at the time) ultimately destroys everything that was rebuilt.  The populace could be changed by the Scourge itself or the Jaardan - making them visually different than before (regardless of whether or not they acquired the green glowing eyes of the synthesis ending).  The Milky Way Galaxy could be effectively "a new place."  If the mere action of firing the Crucible triggers a chain reaction that brings about the Scourge itself, that becomes evident in Andromeda 600 years later but that is also ravaging the Milky Way during that same time frame, we have a relevant connection between the the two galaxies and stories.

Regardless, it's Bioware writing it - not me, not you, not anyone here (unless there are Bioware writers lurking).  I'm just saying that when Soderland mentions "a new place", he could even be referring to the Milky Way.

The thing is I am not taking about most people, I get that people will see problems with the games and enjoy one more then the other.  It is when a broad statement being that Andromeda overall is a lower quality of a game then the original trilogy seems to be ignoring the inherent flaws of the first three games instead of talking about how a key element let the other areas down.

I think most people recognize the inherent flaws in the OT, but the reason it gets a pass and MEA does not is the overall quality of storytelling.  One of the most important aspects to pulling an audience in and maintaining their interest is rising tension.  All three games from the OT do this brilliantly.  MEA really lacks that.  I never really felt anxious or that sense of pressure because thousands would die if I didn't deliver, or even have that much emotional investment in the story (the open world of MEA is part of the issue).  Drack was about the only thing I found memorable as far as story goes.  I do think it's a pretty good game despite the story.  Combat is great, and pretty much the reason I still play MEA.  There are some really good missions (saving the Moshae and Asari/Salarian arks).  Most of the companions I find boring, childish, or just plain annoying...and as a result mostly ignore my shipmates unless its required for progression.  I am a bit disappointed with the story but maybe the problem lies with my own expectations of what Bioware is capable of producing anymore.

Its not just the storytelling, but the characters and dialog. I am replaying the game now for the first time in months and I just cringe dialog lines like "No! *We* did it! Go team" or "Resilience is not just a name, its our responsibility...". Its like I am attending a political rally where the leader is giving a long speech but not really saying anything. And the entire game is like that. The OT had flaws but I never found myself annoyed at the dialog the way I am in MEA

With regards to this promotion, I am not going to read too much into it. Companies the size of EA are complicated animals and its hard for me to see this person's promotion as an indication ME is coming back.

More like the story needed at least one ally within the galaxy because the numbers of Initiative people is so small that they would not have had any chance at all had they started the story with an early conflict with the Angara in addition to the early conflict that was started with the Kett.  The Initiative is shown to have some armed vessels during the last fight of the game  (Kandros was firing from his ship, as was Reyes).  There were indeed no guns on the Tempest... a ship specifically designed for the Pathfinder (whose job it was to make friendly first contact) not start a conflict.  Even with a ton of guns on it, the Nexus would have been a sitting duck if ever discovered and attacked by any fleet from Andromeda... remember, it hit the scourge and could not maneuver after that. 

I'm sure there was a gameplay choice involved as well since lots of people complained about Firewalker being a really boring DLC in part because they could just hover around at a distance (easily avoiding anything that was fire at them) while taking pot-shots at the enemies.  It wasn't a whole lot better in ME1 with the mako where you could just cheese pretty much any battle by sticking the mako's nose in cover and taking pot-shots at the enemies at your leisure as they consistently hit the cover instead of the mako.  The only fights in the mako that were the least bit stimulating was with thresher maws where the terrain offered next to nothing for cover... and they were only that way because the mako was so lacking in maneuverability.