I can't play Andromeda

Nope. PC only.

I'm not sure dead Shepards are necessarily the problem. Bio's already had an expansion which doesn't suit all PCs -- DAA. Some Wardens are dead, others simply wouldn't go. DAA was criticized for this, but I don't think it's a big problem. I just don't play DAA with those Wardens. (Easier in DAA since you can sub in an Orlesian Warden.)

ME3's problem comes before the endings. What's being proposed to handle the divergent worldstates for surviving Destroy Shepards?

The impression that only YOU are a fan and that nobody else is, because they like different things, is a fallacy. You criteria for being a fan is unwavering consumption, without criticism or respect to standards. By your account, by this stance that you so choose to exhibit, the fans were wrong to criticize DICE for the greedy monetization of Star Wars: Battlefront 2, exactly because they dared to criticize the game and its content. That is illogical and misguided.


Bioware is not a person with feelings. Bioware is no less a company, because you seem to personify it, not to mention idealize it. Bioware is a group of people, working together to make a product, that generates revenue so that its staff gets paid and the better it does, financially, the more people it will be able to employ and the longer the studio will stay in business. In a capitalist society, the market dictates what gets made, according to demand. If Andromeda meant the dissolve of Montreal, means that, as a share of the market, Andromeda was not a product that could stand on its own legs. From there you have two options: gamble it all a second time and, considering all factors involved, most likely face failure, or don't.

You know who are the only people that do what they want in the gaming industry and everybody obeys their every whim? Chris Roberts (Star Citizen), Hideo Kojima and Neil Drukman (Last of us). And rest assured, outside of these 3 specifically, nobody, including everyone that works under them, does not do what they want. Is Mark Darrah doing what he wants, by making Dragon Age 4 a GaaS? Definitely not. When fans told Bioware they wanted "ME4" to be a sequel, did Bioware make what they wanted, which according to them was a Milky Way prequel? No, they did not as well. Nobody does what they want, it's all business, the entertainment business, in this case.


A perfect jumping point for the next game. Casey, fund it!

The fans wanted an ME sequel not prequel, Bioware wanted a prequel. Did I write that the other way round? They had something like a community poll. I'd look into it right now, but I'm at work.

Andromeda is a sequel, as well.

You're probably on to something there. This is only a 60Hz monitor.

Your impression, again, is misguided. For example, I am a fan of a football team. My football team goes on to win many championships. My interest in engagement with the team is high and have a high opinion of it. Eventually, some players leave, others retire, the coach changes and the team gets sold to a new owner. The team, regardless of these changes, is still the same team, even if only by name. The team, in its current state, starts losing games and goes from being a champion at the regular to last place strugglers. Now, my opinion of the team is low, I may go online and post some critical comments or offer my opinions in podcasts or whatever and I may not be as engaged as I used to be. I am disappointed. Does that mean I am no longer a fan of that team? I am still invested in said team and all the bad news about it hurt me as much as any other fan. The fact that I deal with my disappointment differently than you, does not mean I am not a fan.


No doubt. But that has nothing to do with market performance, critical reception or project concept. Nobody here is saying they are bad people. Nobody here is saying that they didn't work hard. Nobody here is even saying they are bad at their jobs. However, there are a few higher up in management at Bioware that continue to mishandle Bioware's workforce and, at least according to reviewers and critics, their IPs. As a result, Mass Effect had been put on ice, after Andromeda's reception and Anthem was panned by almost everyone. The point of criticism is to help and urge someone to become better, in order to be more competitive, especially in the over saturated GaaS powered AAA gaming market.

What you are asking is for people to review and accept Bioware games as they are, despite performing under EA's projected sales, in hopes of what? Improving? Without criticism, how is that possible? By perpetuating an already fetid practice of constant crunch and "stress casualties"? When employees of Bioware themselves wish that Inquisition was a flop, so that the whole practice of crunch had not taken root inside the studio? With each new title drawing them closer to becoming defunct and unemployed? How are YOU helping those people?

Direct or indirect, it is still a sequel. I mean, you said it yourself.

Potentially, for some, that is true. But the ones requesting that the team returns to where it came from, which seems to be a good analogy, imo, would they not count as fans? Sounds to me like at least a part of them is still invested in the team to even bother to protest or make a demand. Sounds like a fan to me, no?


Football is mad creative. Ask Pele, Diego, Marko Van Basten etc. and while individual talent can influence your support, it can be very difficult to turn your back on a team. I think my analogy is a very good analogy. Some times, fans of a team might turn on a talent for leaving a team, sometimes they can become more friendly towards a team that has a talent they like and sometimes they are so devoted to that talent that they will follow him everywhere, where their allegiance was never to the team, then in the first place. That last one, however, is also not the type of reaction we are seeing here.


I don't know. I think it's working well so far and I have not seen a convincing enough counter argument to my points, that I have not managed to include as a minor subset or a not relevant party to the case at hand. But thanks for calling me pathetic, I will strive to do better, in the future. Without your criticism, valid or not, to take heart, I would not be able to improve.


I am, among other things. And the problem isn't the feelings per se, at least as those of the fanbase go, but the reactions erupting due to those feelings and, since they've proven to be this effective and that ignoring them for seven years also hasn't helped you, what do you do next to ensure that your studio has a future and your employees have a job to return to?


Are ... are we going to bring in the conversation the millionaire shareholders of EA that want Andrew Wilson to push further with FIFA Ultimate Team like microtransactions and GaaS practices into every game? The same people that ensured project Joplin, as it were, never sees the light of day, in order to become another GaaS? The same ones that have every intent to jump ship to the next cash cow that will offer them maximum profits at the next community's expense? Um, yeah, sure, they are people with feelings too, I wish them well and all the profits in the world. Just that I hope they don't need to pick them from our pocket. I mean, I am financially comfortable and I hope as are you, but I wish they don't squeeze us dry, so that we can get some enjoyment out of our favourite medium.


Oh, I sorely doubt that. Andrew Wilson has made sure they have more power to dictate what Bioware makes, than Casey himself.


Like the ones that have been complaining about Bioware's games the past seven years?


I do understand that a CEO has to sometimes make hard decisions to ensure the viability of their company, some that he/she doesn't always like and that could go back to that compromise talk I was making the other day, but I am sure that the ~$30 million bonus Andrew Wilson gave himself around this Christmas will compensate for all those sleepless nights. Not to mention that, many at Bioware according to the Schreier article, wonder if EA, as in the higher management, including the CEO, even cares about Bioware's narrative driven games.

Like I think I said earlier, I'm not sure how much of that theoretical support would translate into support for a real product. It's like Brexit; when someone voted for Brexit, was he voting for a hard Brexit crashout? The May plan? That fantasy plan where the U.K. would have its cake and eat it too? Except for people who preferred any of those to the status quo,  the simple yes/no vote didn't tell us much.