If that is what they'll do, I'm not sure it'll work the way they want. ME:A is still the fourth entry in a series, no matter how you slice it. That means a large chunk of sales are going to be generated by old fans. I just don't understand why rebooting the forums would suddenly mean:
 
1. Many/most of The old fans wouldn't return.
 
2. They wouldn't talk about or compare ME:A to previous games.
 
I think even newbies will have the ME3 ending in their minds. It was all over the internet back in the day, regardless of if you'd played. Just thinking outloud.

It may prove a futile effort, but I think Bioware has grown very tired of that subsection of fans here that constantly groans about their new games in favor of the ones they made years ago.

Don't fret, I'm sure DA4 is coming.

But don't expect much news. Either EA wants Bioware to keep a lid on their games for the sake of other EA products or their going for the announce-it-several-months-before-release style Fallout 4 introduced.

Do we really know that there were no human mages before? I thought it was just dreamers who were new and emerged in that time.

This all makes sense from a business perspective, at least in the short term. I'm sure Bio is expecting that the majority of fans here will moan for a while but still suck it up and preorder or buy on day one. Could be, no way of knowing until that day. But they're steadily losing goodwill and that could hurt in the long run. I really don't think that the new audiences they're going after will be dedicated fans. At best they'll play MP a lot and rack up some microtransactions that way.

If I were one of the creative types working at Bioware, I would be pretty heartbroken at the direction the company is headed. I spend way too much time and stress creating this game, and now the only feedback or discussion I can expect is a 140 character Twitter response? Even the asinine "bring back the Warden" threads showed that a stubborn group of fans really connected with that PC and enjoyed DAO.

I don't think they're losing as much goodwill as you think. This perspective is easily lost here, but we on these forums represent only a fraction of the consumer base. We may represent some of the most passionate and dedicated members of the fanbase, but that isn't always a plus. Sure, those posters might be dedicated to DAO, but that means they're constantly agitating for the recreation of a game over half a decade old and not open to new ideas. Some of those people don't even buy new Bioware games anymore, they just stay around to complain about how the company is supposedly on its last legs even after a successful release. It's people like this that led to the creatives at Bioware not visiting the forums anymore (They haven't been here aside from a handful for some time), because they always encountered those who raged without end that Bioware hasn't been remaking the same game for ten years, and not enough of the more open minded. Besides, it's not like they can't more verbose reviews than 140 characters around the net if they go looking.

Bull also betrays you if you don't do his quest.

Heimdall,You missed the point-that company listen to their customers about that crappy motor..BW should learn from that lesson and listen to their customer's concerns and improve their games--unless wanted improvements is to far fetch..

They should listen, but customer concerns in this case are far more subjective than the case of the motor and Bioware has many often contradictory voices telling them things all at once. Not every concern will be addressed, not every concern can be addressed.

I've also wondered if they would recreate forums for MEA, but then what was really the point of this? The DA forums are really inconsequential during this between-release lull. Wouldn't it have been easier to split the DA/ME forums into two websites, or something? And surely they know that the ME forums are worse than the DA forums in more ways than one, unfortunately.

I think the point would be to emphasize what MEA seems to be about, a fresh start rather than a real continuation. I think they hope the forum would be found by new fans hoping to discuss MEA for itself rather than constantly comparing it to the trilogy. They want people talking about Bioware now rather than Bioware in "ye olden days".

And I think they hope the forum less gap will lead some of the more "toxic" personalities to drop off rather than simply transfer to the new forum.

All assuming they would even want a new forum.

EDIT: And the more I think about it, the more I sympathize with this desire for a less backward looking audience, I can't count the number of times I've groaned at the sight of yet another thread clamoring to bring the Warden back...

Heimdall,Maybe they're like other companies to concern about the bottom line and pleasing their investors more then customers?

I'm on a R/C forum and was among those that raise a racket about one company's crappy motor and the company responded that they will look into the matter. The last two releases has a new and improve motor so, maybe there is a lesson there that BW can used?

A motor that doesn't function properly isn't the same as a game that has design elements you don't like.

Yeah that's my assumption. And I'm sure they consider me as one of those perpetual naysayers who won't die.

I really don't understand their PR strategy, though. In this and most other things. They really don't seem too concerned with burning bridges, and eventually their goodwill with fans runs out.

Well, I can't remember a time when Bioware had good marketing judgement.

One theory is that Bioware knows that a vocal contingent of fans on these boards are the perpetual "Bioware is dead to me because they changed things in their new game" folks that never seem to go away.

Thus, they want to wipe the slate clean as they launch the next wave of products, maybe quietly creating new forums for new fans to discover after the release of MEA.

It probably was successful , but David Gaider also said DA2 was also successful despite the overall disapointment.
The issue is we don't know how successful DAI was supposed to be.What was the goal?

If Youtube playthrough are any indication , and I believe they can show a trend , well DAI isn't all that trendy compared to this other RPG I shall not name.

Well, In the earnings call for the quarter it was released in, the EA CFO said DAI beat expectations. Granted, companies tend to low ball expectations specifically so they can tell shareholders they beat expectations. Either way, even if the game that shall not be named did better, the indication seems to be that DAI did well.

Successful launch it means nothing one has to see how it sold afterwards no numbers no facts it is simple.

Sure, but there's indications it was highly successful to start with and no indication it performed terribly subsequently. That they persisted in making high production value DLC for the better part of a year certainly can be taken as indicative of continued profitability.

Heimdall,BW didn't run with it like most companies would have..If they ran with it we would be playing DA4 by November instead of cue the sound of crickets chirping and not even a hint of DA4.

 

More the pity.DA could have been a strong competitor of Final Fantasy.

...You know it takes years to make a game right?  And Bioware was spending their resources on DLC until last september?  What you're suggesting is that they should have been able to develop a full fledged sequel in under a year.  Even DA2, a widely acknowledged rush job, took 18 months if I recall.

 

No company runs like that, not unless they have multiple teams working simultaneously on the next project, and only much larger studios than Bioware run like that.

 

Also, western RPGs like Bioware's and JRPGs like Final Fantasy aren't really in direct competition with one another, they're substantially different genres.

What Heimdall said. They told people that it was BioWare's most successful launch in a forum where they're not allowed to lie.

That's not to say they won't try to put a positive spin on the truth, but statements like "best launch" and "beat expectations" are pretty black and white.

Heimdall,If BW ran with DA like Square Enix did with their Final Fantasy we would have seen more DA games by now. IMHO BW had a gold mine and didn't capitalize on it. DA:I became the GOTY and BW decided not to follow up.

I watched that video..That explains the WTH moments in DA:O and DA:I.. Lack of skill.

They did capitalize on it, that's what all the DLC to Trespasser was, that's what the team did after DAI was released. When they were done with that, it takes awhile to write and build a whole new game.

As for Final Fantasy, Square takes half a decade or more between main installments sometimes, they just compensate by churning out an endless supply of spinoff products with multiple teams and slapping the Final Fantasy label on it. Bioware and Square are so different that comparison isn't worth much.

Did they released numbers of sales?No
So why you apply this degree of certainty in your statements?

Because EA attested in its earnings call that it was one of their best performing games of the period alongside their major sports franchises, with the most successful launch of any Bioware game before it. Legally, they can't lie to shareholders like that, so it's unlikely that Dragon Age Inquisition was a financial failure.

Really, we shouldn't read anything into the closure of the forum except that Bioware doesn't put much value in the forum.

 

It really doesn't reflect much about the company as a whole especially given how little interaction the devs have offered, to them it probably seems inconsequential.  As much as that annoys us, I don't think it indicates much if anything about the status of the company or any specific project.

That's kinda what I'm hoping for. I'm hoping the community team gets bombarded with so much respectful and constructive feedback about needing this type of setting that a new forum is launched later. IDK, I'm probably hoping for something that may never happen, but I can't really do much else.

it could happen. I could see them trying for a clean slate, wiping away the previous threads and starting entirely fresh after a few months, everyone starting with new profiles. Maybe they'd make separate forums for each franchise? Keep the fanbase more segregated? Whatever that would accomplish...

Well, I think I'm going off for the night. I feel gutted...

I'll be clinging to the coattails of people who are smarter and more adept at this than me. I just want somewhere that's even a fraction of what the BSN has been, warts and all.

Me too...

This all has me realizing just how much of a rock the BSN has been in my life, in its peculiar way, these past seven years I've been following Bioware. None of my irl friends or family share my passion for their games or gaming in general and it's been my most consistent avenue for associating with people who share my interests.

If I can hold onto at least a piece of that...

I think I'm going to write them a respectful but impassioned letter about this, anyone else?

However, many of our players and staff now use other sites and networks outside of these boards, and we want to foster these interactions and support the great fan communities our players have built.

Except for this one? I really don't see how fostering community is aided by shutting down one.

Taking their explanation at face value, they're doing this purely because they don't directly engage with the forums much and thus it doesn't benefit them?

That's incredibly shortsighted. Do they not understand the benefit of the active and enthusiastic fanbase on these boards at all? Of having this space to congregate and discuss? Do they even understand what a forum is for?

Hopefully if this thread keeps growing they might reconsider? I'm not hopeful.

Bioware, I don't come here to see the devs, I come here to discuss your games with likeminded fans. Its the only forum I use. I love the community here, batsh*t as it can be, and that isn't something that I can find just anywhere.

Please reverse this decision.