I'm just going to repost something I wrote a few days ago, since it's easier than just pretty much repeating it in a slightly different manner:-
BioWare are trying too hard to appeal to a more mainstream audience and have this stupid obsession with streamlining to appeal to them lately and going too far in the process, overcompensating for the faults the prior game may have had or simply trying to make it more accessible to those who don't normally touch RPGs and/or who were put off by these factors in the original game(s). It happened with Mass Effect, and now it's happened with Dragon Age as well.
Rather than concentrating on what's best for the game and what is true to the original vision, they're too concerned about making it appeal to as many as possible. They want to have their cake and eat it too, and try and create these "perfect" hybrid half-cast affairs that attempt to appeal to the mainstream gamer while also trying to keep their old audience as well. And the problem is that it doesn't really work, at least not fully, because the very things they have to take away and mainstreamline from the game(s) to appeal to the mainstream gamer are often the very same things that much of their old audience love about the games in the first place. BioWare should be focusing on making the games as best as they can to suit what they are, not just making these methodical golems that lack heart because they're so clearly engineered to make money rather than crafted to be the best at what they are and should be.
This whole obsession BioWare has with "streamlining" has to stop, because they're not streamlining in the end, they're dumbing things down. They're taking away choice, complexity and variation in all these attempts to make it more accessible to players, and thus alienating much of their original, hardcore RPG fanbase in the process. It's not that streamlining is bad as such, but that they're defeating the purpose in what they're doing and simply oversimplifying to the point of making their games shallow, lacking and even insultingly juvenile and simple. The whole point of streamlining is to take away unnecessary complexity of an element while maintaining its functionality. BioWare aren't doing that, they're just taking awy all complexity and functionality and leaving us with these shallow, weaksauce and often overly automated games that don't really let the player play the game as much as they should be. Both ME2 and DA2 are filled with examples of this.
On top of it all the entire style and tone of their games seem to be shifting away from mature, adult stories with some dignity and class and into the realms of Modern Hollywood action flicks and the like. Everything has to be faster paced and more action-packed, and they try too hard to be mature to the point of being somewhat immature and seeming to suit the action-starved teenager more than the intelligent adult. It's all style over substance lately, with the rule of cool coming in in full force and pushing logic and sensibility aside. So not only are BioWare products seeming to change in gameplay, but also overall presentation and style, and quite often now they seem far more willing to throw lore, logic and consistency aside for just being "badass!" and "awesome!" in the most shallow and visceral of ways. It also seems to me that they're listening more to "non-fans" who didn't really like the original games than they are to those who did, just so they can bring them into the fold.
On a final note I was watching an old episode of Top Gear the other day and Jeremy on there actually said something I felt I could relate to regarding BioWare's more modern products like ME2 and DA2 and part of the reason why they're just not as good. Beyond what I've said above (though somewhat related to it), when Jeremy was comparing some new supercars to ones from 10-15 years ago he found himself preferring the older ones, and the simpler reasoning was because despite the newer ones being faster and flashier the older ones made you feel more in control, more like you were actually driving the car yourself and more personal as a result. The newer cars were all computerised and filled with modern technology that would adjust half a dozen things just from him deciding to turn the wheel or break at a certain time, and he felt the car was thus doing most of the work for him rather than letting him truly experience the sensation of actually driving himself.
And that's how BioWare's latest offerings feel now: by overly streamlining, oversimplifying and automating the games too much, they're taking away too much control and choice away from the player. RPGs are supposed to be about choice and letting me play the game, but ME2 and DA2 are too restrictive and do half the work for me with little to no input automatically, or simply no longer give me the option. In trying to become more user-friendly for the player who might be somewhat intimidated by the elements that constitute and RPG they've taken away many of the factors that make an RPG satisfying and fun for me personally. It doesn't really feel like I'm playing the game, it just feels like I'm being taken along for a ride and I just don't have the choice and freedom I once did and look for in an RPG.
Modifié par Terror_K, 21 mars 2011 - 01:01 .
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