VG247 Article - How Bioware is losing its heart

Boom! A well-timed fireball.

I still have more hours in that game than probably any other, in hindsight it probably wasn't as amazing as I thought it was and I remember all the stuff i disliked about it more but it's still a great game and I still play occasionally. I do agree with you tho, Skyrim still did what Bethesda is known for quite well.  Bioware is known for story and characters but Inquisition had issues there and Andromeda has even more of them, maybe that's why their other flaws seem less forgivable. 

Yeah, all women use Geralt, you're so totally right. It just so ha-ppens that the 2nd installment of the game has Philippa kissing a dragon lady and a dwarf in the audience says "Lesbomancy, my favorite type of magic".


Totally not pandering. Only Bioware panders in this fantasy land of yours where SJW's are carrying out genocide on straight white men and taking what's rightfully theirs.

Triss doesn't just move on. Throughout the entire Novingrad story and during the masquerade she makes googley eyes and this pained expression of waiting for you to confess your love for her. In the end, if you do not take her because you're gonna go with Yennefer, Djikstra calls you an idiot. And then the same shit happens with Shani, where the game guilt trips you by having Gaunter O'Dimm comment about how little you understand of women when you choose not to follow the romance path with Shani. Every single fucking time  despite already being locked in with Yennefer, the game throws you some woman and then makes them act all hurt to guilt trip you when you turn them down, with some male character making a comment about it.

The only time you are punished for sleeping with someone is IF you tell both Triss and Yennefer that you love them. You can have sex with both of them but as long as you break up with one of them you don't get the scene where you're handcuffed at the inn. And then there's Shani and Keira. Keira is also a member of the Lodge and Yennefer does find out that you've slept with her because she tells her herself. And what happens? Nothing.

Hell you can also fuck Syanna and NOTHING happens there either.

The game is titty fest simulator and there's no widespread campaign screaming "GENDER/SEXUALITY/RACE QUOTAS OVER QUALITY OMG". Because it's all about them. So fucking tired that every technical or game design error Bioware makes gets lost in the distraction over whether the game has the temerity to cater to anyone who's not a straight white guy.

Hell even with something as minor as Hainly Abrahams, which is some throwaway NPC you don't ever talk to again besides an outpost, somebody in youtube will make a video bitching about why she had to mention the fact she used to be a man. It's like everyone has to keep quiet about their different life experiences to not inconvenience your vanilla worldview because people are only supposed to talk about the things you personally care about.

I don't want some lousy MMO. I can't believe what they are doing

I cry a million tears

There is a new IP and one that Edmonton has been working on for 5 or 6 years (due 2018), which is why Montreal got Andromeda (with help from Edmonton and Austin).

If you mean start a totally new IP, it would take too long to start something from scratch. Plus BioWare had another IP going and dropped it. Even while DA 2 had  a very short development time, it had a good base from DA O, which took over 5 years. Andromeda does have a good base in itself and from the trilogy for DLC and Andromeda 2 or some variation. A decent continuation of Andromeda would be dependent on BioWare already having a long-range plan and story arc already waiting (they are hiring a lot more in Montreal). The original ME trilogy didn't have a fully story arc in place when ME 1 was conceived and written. But there's other things going on in corporate life that happen, such as when BioWare was bought out - corporate policy shifts, management changes, employees leaving, etc. These types of things can happen to all corporations and companies and the public is rarely aware of what goes on behind closed doors.

BOOM! Goes the Reaper main gun. I was talking about that IP too! 

Boom! Goes the Salarian re-formulated Cryo grenade. 100% chance of shrinkage.

I don't disagree, but in the end I think it comes down to the fact that BioWare used to "pander" to players by giving Shepard romances and they needed to account for having a female option too (let's be honest, Manshep was clearly their biggest focus in ME1) and romances were playing to conventions and movie cliches because the game wanted to be like a movie (a BioWare game too but still) but nowadays the "pandering" is done for the sake of hitting with a certain audience and because BioWare is infested with people who care more about promoting representation than the game they're working on and this rabbit hole started back in ME2 when Patrick, shortly after Drew left was allowed to write post-Loyalty romance arcs for several characters. Suddenly it started to feel like a feature and people felt represented by the amount of options leading to whining about no gay, or lesbian support, leading to Cortez and Traynor in ME3 leading to people complaining Transgendered characters are never properly shown as human beings in Dragon Age or Mass Effect at all leading to Krem being a highlighted character, it's pandering all the way from start to finish. Like I said a "rabbit hole".

Now fast forward to MEA and most people feel like their options are garbage because BW tried to play both sides. Straight men don't seem all that happy with Cora, Lesbians wanted Cora, Gay men have no alien or squad mate romances...seems like only straight female players won this time (maybe??). I think BW does have a pandering problem, they're trying to pander to everyone, that's their problem. Because of this, the content is being stretched so thin it's transparent at this point. 

And by pander to everyone, I also mean newcomers, FPS players, multiplayer fans, open world lovers et al.  MEA tried to be everything to everyone. 

Depending on the player that might be Sara Ryder's dream come true.  :amirite:

"Optional content"I love the euphemism here. It's basically a buffet for specific tastes but because it isn't a buffet of different races and sexualities it doesn't merit the same criticism Bioware receives. Which is that romances mean nothing when you can just bang anybody

- The idea that women use Geralt, a grown ass man is being "used" by women despite his often astute political perceptions is a load of shit. Spare me. He's used just as much by the men who hire him for contracts. He helps women, and then he fucks them. Hardly what I'd call being used and more of a transaction. He seems pretty happy with the arrangement (and happens to benefit geratly from his relationship with the sorceresses throughout the game).

- You can sleep with Yen but not tell her you love her, and it won't affect your romance with Triss. It's even documented in the fucking IGN walkthrough. They key point is not telling both you love them. Then you can sleep with both. Do your own fucking google searches in the future.

- Yen and Triss both find out about Keira. Triss even questions you about your tryist with Keira and you get the option to lie to her, to which she replies "Hmm" in disbelief. The sorceresses pretty much all communicate at one point.

- I keep getting tired of your stupid deflections of "optional content" overlooking the point that the game well knows you've locked into a romance already long before any DLC and yet it still presents you countless opportunities to be unfaithful without consequence. The romances with Triss and Yennefer aren't even remotely implied to be open relationships, as the Lone Wolf achievement shows. But somehow you gloss over this with "optional content" in order to avoid the point that the game is fileld with just as much fanservice as any Bioware game yet there is no coordinated campaign of harassment against CDPR or its employees over such fanservice.

- Read for once in your life before hitting the reply button. I don't criticize the existence of a womanizing protagonist in The Witcher. I rant about the fact that few people dedicate their time blaming any bugs or shortcomings the witcher got on its romance content. Nobody makes entire youtube videos about how ugly Geralt is or how ugly the men in general are in that game (because other than Geralt, Olgierd, and Dandelion you find very few men who don't look like they crawled out of a garbage can). Meanwhile there's a deluge of youtube videos about Cassandra Penteghast  and Cora being feminist boogeymen for having short hair and not being feminine or pretty enough, and everyone has something to say about Sara Ryder's looks.

- No, most complaints about Hainly wasn't deadnaming. Do a youtube search on Hainly and deadnaming vs Bioware and "SJW" and "Hainly". Far more youtube videos comment about how Hainly is a forced character like Krem.

The idea that you think a community that at most hovers around 10% of the population can comprise most of the complaints over a character is laughable to begin with.

Not that it matters much because you seem unable to read what people actually said, such as the fact I stated Witcher 3 was still better than any recent Bioware games but somehow you turned this into the "you hate/rant about Witcher 3" when what I actually hate is the fucking double standards for romance in games depending on who is catered to.

Even Tal Peleng, the animator from Naughty Dog who then joined Bioware and who did Cora's romance scene pointed out a malicious campaign to foment hysteria against Bioware.n It's so obvious some people are cheering for the failure of the company as some vindication for their political opinions.

Geralt does get used and taken advantage of by women. Comparing it to a Witcher contract is short sighted. And point out where it's stated that it's only women? The emphasizes on the women is because of your focus on how Geralt runs around the world banging all the ladies and cheating on them. 

Yes, you can sleep with Yen before locking in the romance regardless of whether you locked in with Triss. I was wrong about that detail. But once again, player optional.  You still cannot sleep with Triss without locking her in first.  You have to end it with Yen to avoid the handcuff scene. And it really isn't a dump scene, considering the fact that Geralt is single or with Triss and is simply telling Yen he doesn't want to get back together with her.  Still, where are all the women just throwing themselves at him?  Yen and Geralt had a 20+ year relationship. She's not just some random woman giving him sex cause he's such a stud. You're confusing the option to sleep with them as the women being desperate for Geralt when that is hardly the truth. Only Yen and Triss really want him.  The rest sleep with him to manipulate him (if the player gives in).

Really? I never got that scene of lying about Keria. I see no reason why Yen or Triss would ever mention her since it can happen way back in Velen, long before the romances are locked.  Unless this is an update I'm not aware of.  (the game did update when I started it up days ago) I'm currently playing TW3 as we speak and my Geralt slept with Keira and romancing Yen.  I'm near the end of the main story with everyone in Novigrad after Keria aids with the battle and leaves with Lambert.  I'll see if Yen ever says anything when I play again later. If she does, that would be so strange as my Geralt was a single man. The only person Yen calls Geralt out for sleeping with is Triss in TW2.

So what if the game presents the player with ways to cheat.  There are also players who did not romance either Yen or Triss.  It's called having choices, something all RPGs should strive to give players. If you think CDPR doesn't get harassed by their fanbase then you've obviously never visited their official forum.  

Also, CDPR does have a dedicated group of haters. There were cries of sexism and racism directed at the game and employees.  CDPR even had to address the accusations of racism. 

Except not many people blame MEA's bugs on romance content and the ones who do think it's the sole cause are wrong. And people did complain when CDPR announced that they would fix the romance content in their game, even while they announced fixing other bugs. Some players (The Anti romance brigade) blamed it for the lackluster portrayal of the Wild Hunt. Like I said, visit the official forums. Though I think most of the complaints have died down by now.

Yet the Witcher fanbase bitched about Geralt being "Too pretty" in TW2 after CDPR showed just one freaking picture of him in a promo shot. This caused CDPR to downgrade his appearance in the game. Then the fans who liked Geralt's more handsome appearance complained (I among them).  Now Geralt is made better looking in TW3 and CDPR even had to address why they decided to make him better looking.  So yeah, people really do care about the attractiveness or lack thereof of the main character. This is not a problem that only Bioware is facing. 

The problem with Bioware, is that they are way too focused on subverting stereotypes, the male gaze, and whatever other buzzword they've latched onto. So they create a butch looking female, but they want to avoid lesbian stereotypes so they make her straight, but not a lot of straight guys think she's hot, which works to "subvert the male gaze" blah blah two birds in one stone. But lesbians who think she's hot can't even have her.  Whoever told Bioware it's a smart business plan to make the LIs not very appealing to the target audiences the LIs are made for is stupid. 

And yet Bioware specifically addressed the dead naming and not these other youtube vids. So which voice do you think was the one heard? Why do you care so much about what some random Youtuber thinks when they can't even sway the company? CDPR also had gay npcs and drag queens, but no one is blurting out their status at Geralt.  The player has to really press the matter which is why most players don't have anything to really complain about, but I'm sure some thought the sky was falling.  I liked Krem, but I think he could have been done better. 

You stated misinformation and embellishments in your earlier post and I corrected you about it. It doesn't matter if you like the game, you still said plenty of things about the story that were wrong and just nitpicking to nitpick to lend weight to your complaint.  

There is no malicious campaign, just angry fans who paid money for a game they are unhappy with. Granted giving the game a 0 or 1 is excessive (unless the game can't be finished because of the bugs, something that has happened to some players).

The massive amount of complaints are about the animations, character designs, and tech issues. And I'm laughing at how BW felt it was important to hire an animator from Naughty Dog just for ONE sex scene, showing their lack of prioritizes and incompetence. In this case, yeah, the complaints about the existence of the romances are valid when the one good animated scene in the game is a sex scene. And you can't even cry homophobia as the reason for the whining, since it's a straight sex scene. 

Maybe BW should have just sold the franchise to Naughty Dog so the entire game can be done properly.