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Do you have faith BioWare can ever recapture its old magic, or are the glory days gone for good?

DragoonKain

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
I was thinking today about how much I miss the Mass Effect series and how much I'm craving a new quality entry into the series. And then there's all the craziness going on with the development of the new Dragon Age. I know a lot of people think the glory days of BioWare are long gone and the hope for them ever producing a great game again are slim.

Have you lost complete faith in BioWare or are you still holding out hope they re-emerge and produce great games?
 
-Minsc-

-Minsc-

Member
I never really followed them. Other than the name, is it reasonable to call them the same company from the days gone past?
 
DGrayson

DGrayson

Mod Team and Bat Team
Staff Member
The Lord Of The Rings Mueller Report GIF by reactionseditor




Would be great but I dont see it happening.
 
ButchCat

ButchCat

Member
Bioware was founded as a passion project by a bunch of doctors and Casey Hudson and that's why gamers resonated with their output but the founders have all left the company since then and so the culture over there is no longer the same, the world has changed and with it the gaming industry. They are making a new Mass Effect and I would like to be proven wrong that they'll be able to recapture the magic of the original trilogy.
 
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Fbh

Fbh

Member
I'll gladly be proven wrong when the next DA or Mass Effect come out.

But to me right now Bioware is pretty much dead and I have zero hype or hope for any of their upcoming games. Many of the people that made the games which made me like the studio have long since left it, and the few that remain seem to have been completely indoctrinated by woke Twitter by now.

I'm personally crossing my fingers that someone invests money in Spiders. GreedFall felt closer to what I want from a Bioware game than anything Bioware made last gen. All they seem to be lacking is more funding.
 
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Bartski

Bartski

Gold Member
General Manager made a promise to unfuck them today.

blog.bioware.com

State of BioWare and Looking Ahead.

Hello, It’s been just over a year since I took over as General Manager of BioWare. As we start the new year, I wanted to take the opportunity to look back on 2021, talk about where we are as …
blog.bioware.com blog.bioware.com
When I took on the GM role, I talked about rebuilding our reputation, and that remains a huge priority. We are laser-focused on building back the trust of our fans and community, and we plan to do that by delivering the types of games that we are best known for and ensuring they are of the highest quality. Our mission is to “Create worlds of adventure, conflict, and companionship that inspire you to become the hero of your story.” We want the launch of our games to be seminal moments in the industry. We want each game to earn the kind of reaction we’ve seen with Mass Effect Legendary Edition. We feel that we have the right people, the right creative focus, and the support from EA to deliver on the promise.
Click to expand...
 
iorek21

iorek21

Member
No, the good old Bioware died after Mass Effect 2’s release, there’s no going back.

Hopefully other studios can take up their place. Disco Elysium, Guardians of the Galaxy, and some others seem to at least get what people really want.

Bioware unfortunately seems to be more preoccupied with *the message* than anything else. Besides, they can’t seem to develop a genuinely good game, with a nice loop and RPG mechanics.

Say what you will about Naughty Dog, even though they are followers of *the message*, they still know how to make a good gaming experience.
 
GreenAlien

GreenAlien

Member
DA is in development hell and what little we have heard of it sounds like woke shit. (""For the game we're working on now, we want to tell the story of, 'What happens when you don't have power?' What happens when the people in charge aren't willing to address the issues?"")


They should forget about DA2/DA3/(DA4) and all the bad story decisions and gameplay simplification.
Instead focus on recapturing the magic of DA1 and refocus the story on Wardens and the Blight. But they won't. There is no hope.
 
A

ANDS

King of Gaslighting
Any developer can rebound. DA3 was fun, and while MAA was a wild departure, is wasn't this horrific game. ANTHEM. . .yeah. Good idea, wrong developer.

. . . honestly though, are people clamoring for the kinds of games they used to make? Like I feel like they make good small games that sell enough to cover costs - forcing them to do blockbusters seems out of their element (even if they had some).
 
Bragr

Bragr

Banned
ANDS said:
Any developer can rebound. DA3 was fun, and while MAA was a wild departure, is wasn't this horrific game. ANTHEM. . .yeah. Good idea, wrong developer.

. . . honestly though, are people clamoring for the kinds of games they used to make? Like I feel like they make good small games that sell enough to cover costs - forcing them to do blockbusters seems out of their element (even if they had some).
Click to expand...
Huh? look at their catalog man, it's legendary.
 
Haggard

Haggard

Banned
Bioware has the same issue as Blizzard.

The constellation of people that made the company what it once was is long gone. Only the name is left.
Not saying that new creative teams can`t reach the heights of their predecessors, but if it was as easy as just hiring talent we`d not have so many studios which outright suck.
 
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levyjl1988

levyjl1988

Banned
Dragon Age: Origins was the best.
I played Dragon Age 2 but was disappointed.
I played a couple of hours of Dragon Age Inquisition before I called quits.

Yes Bioware has lost its magic.
They went woke and went broke.
The open world nature ruined the pacing that Origins perfected.

After Anthem, Mass Effect Andromeda and Inquisition Bioware is dead. The only good game recently was Mass Effect Trilogy Remastered and that’s touching up an old game.

They should remaster Origins. They made Inquisition a fucking convoluted mess in story that requires you to read all the novels and shit.

To me Bioware is dead like Activision Blizzard.
 
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NickFire

Member
I bet the people who worked there from the 360 era could recapture their old magic if they were all working together. No faith in those still working there though.
 
Ammogeddon

Ammogeddon

Member
No, all studios are only as good as the staff. Once you lose the talent you’ll never recreate the original magic. They may recruit new talent but it’s not the same.
 
Spaceman292

Spaceman292

Banned
DragoonKain said:
I was thinking today about how much I miss the Mass Effect series and how much I'm craving a new quality entry into the series. And then there's all the craziness going on with the development of the new Dragon Age. I know a lot of people think the glory days of BioWare are long gone and the hope for them ever producing a great game again are slim.

Have you lost complete faith in BioWare or are you still holding out hope they re-emerge and produce great games?
Click to expand...
All the people who made the good games are gone. The studio just has the same name.
 
Spaceman292

Spaceman292

Banned
ANDS said:
. . . honestly though, are people clamoring for the kinds of games they used to make? Like I feel like they make good small games that sell enough to cover costs - forcing them to do blockbusters seems out of their element (even if they had some).
Click to expand...
Mass Effect Remakes just came out and everyone went crazy for them
 
Punished Miku

Punished Miku

Gold Member
Gone for good. But I'll go a step further and suggest that they never were actually as great as people suspected, and were overrated the entire time. Don't get me wrong, they have fun games and stuff I enjoy but they basically built their entire studio off of just copying Dungeons and Dragons into the digital realm with poor graphics, poor animation, and above average writing for gaming at the time (which had extremely primitive writing mostly). They never excelled in game design, graphics, or animation.

They had a good run being one of the only devs in early game history with decent writing and sidequests. They peaked when they first transitioned to consoles, and had a real golden era for a short period when they felt inspired (KOTOR, Jade Empire, Dragon Age, Mass Effect).

Even then, they basically made the same game over and over again.

71LCzljwaBL._SL1000_.jpg


Overrated for sure, and the staff their for their best run are long gone.
 
iHaunter

iHaunter

Member
They've been dismantled no? Aren't most of the main people gone? I don't know much about them, but I don't feel like they're at the top or even middle of their game.
 
M

Mess

Member
Punished Miku said:
Gone for good. But I'll go a step further and suggest that they never were actually as great as people suspected, and were overrated the entire time. Don't get me wrong, they have fun games and stuff I enjoy but they basically built their entire studio off of just copying Dungeons and Dragons into the digital realm with poor graphics, poor animation, and above average writing for gaming at the time (which had extremely primitive writing mostly). They never excelled in game design, graphics, or animation.

They had a good run being one of the only devs in early game history with decent writing and sidequests. They peaked when they first transitioned to consoles, and had a real golden era for a short period when they felt inspired (KOTOR, Jade Empire, Dragon Age, Mass Effect).

Even then, they basically made the same game over and over again.

71LCzljwaBL._SL1000_.jpg


Overrated for sure, and the staff their for their best run are long gone.
Click to expand...

It's almost like a game is more than the sum of its parts. Writing in Shadows of Amn was very good for the time and while that's not a huge feat not many games since did better.
 
SSfox

SSfox

Member
Bruh they censored the trilogy remaster, i think this already says all. Bioware of today is just Bioware by its name, the Soul is long gone when some super talented members gone.
 
Punished Miku

Punished Miku

Gold Member
Mess said:
It's almost like a game is more than the sum of its parts. Writing in Shadows of Amn was very good for the time and while that's not a huge feat not many games since did better.
Click to expand...
That's true. They've made some classics. But I'm just pointing out that they never actually were diverse masters of game design in multiple genres, and I think that's part of their decline. They had a few very narrow specializations that worked well during a specific time.
 
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winjer

winjer

Gold Member
The creative minds that made Bioware games so great are mostly gone.
What's left is a shell, a corpse puppeteered by EA.
The only thing that's left is the nostalgia for those great games. And EA will try to sell us crap based on that.
 
SF Kosmo

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
I'm pretty pessimistic. They're still well funded and have access to good talent and IP though, so stranger things have happened. But it would likely take a real shake up and some strong leadership.
 
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C

Corndog

Banned
Nope. Woke politics and just incompetence has destroyed them.
Edit: I know he gets a lot of hate but losing Casey Hudson as a game director hurt them. And then losing the dragon age director as well. I don’t think Casey did much for them running the studio though.
 
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Holammer

Holammer

Member
I believe it when I see it.
We all know female characters will be designed to avert the male gaze by giving them potato faces and pronouns. Nothing is allowed to be sexy anymore in their games and the industry in general tbh.
 
Fools idol

Fools idol

Banned
Larian is probably the only true RPG developer I have any faith in. They listen to fan feedback, have long and worthwhile early access for their games and their last few outputs have been incredible.

I'm yet to play BG3 but I've heard nothing but good things after the latest build and roadmap they blogged about.
 
Kacho

Kacho

Member
Nah. The people making the games matter and Bioware is a husk. Just a name now. Have you seen the hype video for Dragon Age with the people working on it? Kinda says it all…
 
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