Panic at BioWare Montreal?

The game's poor animations are a serious issue, but the way I see it, some fans are punishing BioWare for a few reasons.

First, for the company having reacted poorly to the criticism to ME3's endings, as people have already pointed out.

Second, for BW having shut down the old official forum prior to the release of Andromeda (this REALLY pissed people off; and although I agree with Bioware this measure was necessary - because the forum had become downright toxic -, the way it was done, without players having another official forum to migrate to, wasn't very wise).

Third, for some of the new devs having a personal ideology which is in stark contrast to that of part of the fanbase. A part which has played ME because it appeals mostly to a male demographic. But what really caused the fandom rage was the racist remark uttered by one the devs. That was just unprofessional and morally questionable by any standard. And it appals me how Bioware never issued a formal statement on this (or at least I believe they never did).



There's a lot of alarmism concerning the flaws in Andromeda. And most of it is motivated not by an impartial analysis of the many flaws the game has, but by personal reasons. By many fans being butthurt over Bioware's recent decisions and actions, particularly those targeted at the fanbase. This is what fuelled the criticism and saying it wasn't would be a lie.

However, it would be wrong to say the game is ok. Bioware made a brilliant job with some of its past games. Players expected to find at least the same quality in their new release. To see something which falls short of meeting that standard and even takes steps back in visual, story writing and gameplay quality is a major issue, a thorn that won't go away by simply bribing youtube channels to make positive reviews.

So Bioware has to work in two fronts from now on if it wishes to end this looming "curse" over them: work to improve the current quality of their games - hire better animators, better writers, whatever it takes - and restablish the lost trust of a large portion of the fanbase. If they manage to achieve the first, they'll automatically give the first step to achieve the second.

And most importantly, as part of the second measure: go back to making democratic games. Give straight people their LIs, gay people their LIs, don't force players into a particular view of how sexuality should be. You wish to place a big-assed Miranda type of LI? Go for it. Want to place the sexy lesbian that men hate? Go for it. Just don't make the games only for one demographic or another. Remember the LI options in DA: Origins? You were going in the right direction there. Maybe you should look at what worked so well in the past to remind yourself where your strenghts are. It never hurts to take a step back so as to take two steps forward in the right direction.

You would think that they would take those steps but they didn't and it seems to me that they don't want to do put forth an effort to be better. That is pure laziness and incompetent of them.

Wow...i wasn't aware of this. Who gave the green light for Sara on the right?....Pre patch Sara looks way better!..... .....

Well, imho "Fans" don't punish, they constructive criticise the parts that need to be criticised in there opinion, but real fans don't punish the company that gave them a lot if great games. If they do there are not real "Fans" in the first place.
Or in other words, the overblown hatred this game gets from some folks is not coming from the Bioware fan base.
(constructive criticism is btw. also the part of criticism people will listen too, at least much more willingly than to hate comments.)

It was pointed out that this is a Bioware forum and that the mostly positive polls here are not a fair assessment of the game, but I think it is fair to say that they prove my point here.




They gave us a free DLC, I personally consider that a great reaction.



I read this kind of criticism several times, but I still fail to see the reasoning behind it. Only because there is no "big-assed Miranda"in this game (yet) Bioware is pushing a "view of how sexuality should be" or making a game only for one demography?
Sorry, but I think that only people who are biased in the first place could see it that way.

Edit: typo

You know what has worn me out pretty much completely?

People saying that Bioware did the right thing in closing down their "toxic" forums.

There was a reason for the god-damned toxicity. It came from their poor products, and then when the Biower Drones came out to defend them they decided to get extra butt-hurt about sucking at their jobs and blamed it on us. So, they doubled down, themselves, with toxicity, and blamed it on us.

And the Biower drones praised them, as they still do.

Oh btw, I also think that Bioware did the right thing in closing down the forum.

On the internet, we use this device called "hyperbole" to make a point.

You approve censorship, is what your post says. Because a lot of the "toxicity" at the old BSN started as legitimate observations and feedback to the devs, which was met with hostility by mostly a bunch of toxic bitch fanboys on the forums complaining about the complaint.

But I am done arguing with you. You applaud them for their decision to shut down the forum, which means I am talking to something indescribable and not worth my time.

they do.  they have to realise criticism is actually a good thing.  it means people have seen something that is not right and then identify it.  for devs it's a great tool because gamers are doing their job for them identifying faults and such.  Bioware fanboys seem so stuck up their own asses that they refuse blindly to see fault where fault is.

On the original BSN, people couldn't raise any objection without the Bioware fanboy police dropping on them.  It even got to the stage where these so called fanboys were in effect running the forums for their own ends - with moderator approval (sort of).  That stinks and I for one am fucking glad it's gone.  Jabba Priestly can kiss my fkin arse.

Because that is not how she looks in real life once you remove the makeup, lighting and photoshop.

I don't know, it is as "democratic" as it gets now a days = minorities rule!!!!!!

From a business perspective, I think shutting down the forums *was* the right thing for Bioware to do. No matter how justified the criticism was, providing a forum for attacks on their product would probably have been a bad plan.

Now, I might have suggested improving the quality of their work instead of scattering the discussion, but even that may not have worked. I agree that the forums became a "toxic place", but I don't think that happened in a vacuum. Bioware went out of their way to create the very climate they later decided was victimizing them.

I can't say I didn't find that development entertaining, which is more than I can say for their games, at this point.

ME3 had bad animations and was buggy.
So did ME2 and ME1.

It's not like this is a sudden new occurrence.