Everything Wrong With Mass Effect 3 Redux by GCN

Of all the characters since DA2 it's BLACKWALL you consider NOT boring?! LOL! The man is as fun as watching paint dry. I keep forgetting he was in DAI all the time. Even while playing I'd sometimes forget to check on him for new lines in Skyhold... Now granted, he had hilarious banter with a few of the companions and he did have an interesting backstory. And I was told his romance is really good. But his personality and all his cutscenes was soooo boring. If I had to ditch one companion in DAI, I'd happily pick Blackwall and not miss him for a second.
Sure I'd pick him over any of the MEA crew but that's a low bar, man!

Personally, I liked the DAI companions best of all DA games. There wasn't a single one that aggravated me. Half of the cast in DAO and DA2 I wanted to push down a volcano...

So yeah no, I do not agree with your disappointment with BioWare since ME2. I was happy with their games until MEA. Trespasser was awesome. So 2015 was their last good content output. That's the number I would put on their gravestone.

You're welcome, lol!

It shows that you're a dude because if you can't remember Dorian, the most glorious tease in BioWare history, I feel sorry for you. *g*

I would push every single companion of all their games into a volcano for Dorian. OK, maybe not Liara. But even Kaidan, my biggest college pixel crush.

See, Solas was a total condescending ass and I hated his romance, I wanted to slap his mopey face, but he was well written. And I love him as a villain. Vivienne was the most FUN bitch ever. I LOVED hating her. Well written too, so was Sera. Sera came close to being aggravating, which was by design, no doubt, but her character is super well written imo.

What other characters do YOU like?

I get Ambien flashbacks thinking about Blackwall. The completionist in me forced me to get every ounce of content out of his character, and if it wasn’t for that little twist at Val Royeaux, I think my best description of the overall experience of his companionship would be quasi-comatose. Funny thing is that I don’t particularly dislike the character, but he offers so little on any given mission in terms of input that he gets benched throughout most of the game and sits around the stable, where he belongs. I agree that if I had to pick one companion to put on the chopping block, it’d have to be Blackwall. Considering how he’s just a fraud, he only adds a little intrigue to his own personal narrative, but robs his potential to add to the larger one with our dealings with the Wardens. 

Other than that, I liked most everyone quite a bit, though Cole was a character I could never quite gel with. Maybe it was the stupid hat. 

What kind of response is this to what I said ? Assuming they were even producing bad videogames, does that mean they should be insulted or mistreated ? Does this mean they should be disrespected for the work they've made ?

Use whatever little names and petty insults you want. It's your issue of if you can't tell the difference between insulting the developers by calling them fools, burger flippers or bad writers and saying "Hey, I didn't like Mass Effect 3, I think this this and this wasn't very good".

They just gotten by with Inqusition, but it doesnt change the fact that Frostbite Engine has given devs problems, when they're using the engine was only meant for FPS games. 

I didn't like Inquisition as much as the other games.

There's no denying the truth however, that it's probably among the best-selling Bioware videogames. I can only hope they improve on what parts didn't serve the story and gameplay as well as they should've but... as Squeaky Ben says, facts don't care about feelings.

I think it did about as well as ME2, which is also among Bioware's best selling video games.

Bioware truly was never the same after Chris left. DAI was fine, in terms of plot, but that was before David and Mike left, so who knows what DA will be like now that both of them are now gone as well.

See for yourself.  www.tweaktown.com/news/68870/frostbite-big-roadblock-bioware-very-hard-manage/index.html

Not to put a downer on L'Etoile here, but he only wrote for the first two Mass Effects, then did story lead for Outer Worlds...which is not the strongest story Obsidian has ever done IMO.  I'm not sure how him departing the company 'exposed' anything, really. 

Interesting stuff here though, look at the credits of Mass Effect 1


Drew Karpyshyn  (Lead)

Lukas Kristjanson 
Chris L'Etoile
Mike Laidlaw
Mac Walters
Patrick Weekes

To Mass Effect 2:

Chris Hepler 
Drew Karpyshyn
Brian Kindregan 
Lukas Kristjanson
Chris L'Etoile 
Cathleen Rootsaert 
Jay Turner 
Mac Walters  (Lead)
Patrick Weekes 

To Mass Effect 3:

John Dombrow (senior)
Sylvia Feketekuty 
Chris Hepler 
Ann Lemay 
Neil Pollner (senior)
Cathleen Rootsaert 
Jay Turner
Mac Walters  (lead)
Jay Watamaniuk
Patrick Weekes (senior)

The only consistent writers were Walters and Weeks through all three games, and Hepler, Rootsaert, Turner, Walters as lead, and Weeks between 2 and 3. I also looked up the other names outside of Drew K, Laidlaw and L'Etoile to see what else they did around that time. 

From what I can find:

Brian Kindregan's also wrote for Jade Empire, but that's it for BioWare. He later did writing on Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3. 

Lukas Kristjanson is all over BioWare, all the way back from Baldur's Gate in 1998 to Anthem. I am guessing during production between 2-3 he was on Dragon Age II and Inquisition.

Sylvia Feketekuky's only other credit is for Inquisition.

John Dombrow came back to BioWare for Andromeda and Anthem, but worked on the Telltale GoT Series and BioShock: Infinite and their DLC Burial at Sea.

Ann Lemay did additional writing for Andromeda and Inquisition, and script writing for Assassin's Creed: Origins. Before that she worked on the video game script for the Open Season licensed game.

Neil Pollner wrote for Andromeda and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Jay Watamaniuk was Anthem's lead writer and wrote for Andromeda as well. 

I think it's a but unfair to judge the decline of the writing solely on L'Etoile leaving. We know from Andromeda at least the issue was a mix of the technical hiccups combined with some 'rushed' sections of the narrative that kind of dragged the narrative into a very risk-averse territory. You can arguably lay blame of the writing team that replaced the original trilogy team being subpar in comparison maybe? But the teams between the trilogy were inconsistent outside of two individuals. 

If anything, the mistake is they switched up or added writers in between games. 

Plus, we still have a few veterans such as Krstjanson, Weekes, and Rootseart still at BioWare, last I checked at least. 

Interesting stuff to research, honestly. 

ETA: Outside of Weekes who is the lead, do we know who is confirmed to be writing for the next Dragon Age?  I know they threw out the stuff from Alexis Kennedy already. Were any other writers confirmed? 

You should of clarified opinion in your first post then.

Plus honestly, E'toile is like Drew K to me by this logic, where their contributions are more... overblown than anything else.

Especially if you take into account the Outer Worlds.