I honestly feel that the lack of interaction from Bioware representatives(except for official announcement, which is so rare) is very discouraging to say the least. It's giving me this thought that Bioware is intentionally avoiding us like a plague 
Do others feel the way I'm feeling or am I an alien in this community? 
It's what happens when a publisher like EA has control of things, 99% of the feedback and suggestions on here go unanswered by Bioware.
It's a tricky situation I think.
On occasion, I think the forum can get a little heated. I would guess that if you were someone whose work was the subject of those discussions, it might not be a very comfortable experience. I'm not referring to the constructive criticism when I say that, because every dev should be able to handle it to a degree, but I mean some people can be extremely passionate and occasionally lose their heads when decrying a feature (and I think we all do/have done this). So, on that end, I can understand why some devs might prefer to have other people sift through the threads and report back to them (I would guess that there's nothing in the contracts of the employees that say they have to interact on the forums. It's their personal choice)
That's not even touching the issue of PR related things. How much is an employee allowed to share? What if an employee says something, it gets misinterpreted for whatever reason, and people on both sides get annoyed? Not a fun occasion, I'll bet.
I too, would greatly like to see them return to making more regular posts and engaging with the community, but at the same time I can empathize with why they might not want to. I do think that they are observing, even if we're not seeing some of the more well known names pop up as often. After all, it's a bit of a waste of money if they don't utilize these forums for something, no? Perhaps I am being optimistic, but seeing as its something I don't have control over, I'm content to assume that someone is seeing what we're writing, and maybe even taking some of it into account.
It's not really that surprising.
Question should be "Is this the usual amount of dev interaction post release?" I'm not sure myself, you should probably check the archived forums.
I honestly feel that the lack of interaction from Bioware representatives(except for official announcement, which is so rare) is very discouraging to say the least. It's giving me this thought that Bioware is intentionally avoiding us like a plague
Do others feel the way I'm feeling or am I an alien in this community?
They used to comment a lot and it bit them right in the ass.
They used to comment a lot and it bit them right in the ass.
Pretty much yeah.
Skimming through most of the posts in this section of the forum, I am not surprised there is a lack of interaction from Bioware.
The precious little flowers are too sensitive to engage criticism from their fans. It's curious: They had no problem being here when they were trying to sell us the game. 
They used to comment a lot and it bit them right in the ass.
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Probably because marketing sold us a Ferrari and what was delivered was a Volkswagen Beetle.. Hard for them to defend. Yes? (From a PC gaming contols PoV, from mage spell restrivtions PoV, from an drunkard combat AI PoV...etc)..
I see where you're coming from, but Bioware's priority is to make games, not necessarily interact with the forum 24/7. They are probably busy and working on the DLC and patches now, which wouldn't make interacting with the fan base a priority.
Seems like devs are more active in DAMP forum, maybe it has something to do with bioware trying to get MP people to buy more platinums from in-game microtransaction?
I see where you're coming from, but Bioware's priority is to make games, not necessarily interact with the forum 24/7. They are probably busy and working on the DLC and patches now, which wouldn't make interacting with the fan base a priority.
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True. But when you have poo in your hands, one normally cleans them....
Ofc they are not here anymore. No need to. For them this is an old game already. For you it might be the sole reason for your existence, they have moved on. Being "active" in forums is just PR. No need to PR anymore. People should not be so gullible when it comes to game companies. And they should not think that there is some friendship based on loyalty going on between "fans" and developers. There might have been a time when such deluded thinking had some ground, now there definitely is no reason for it. Old BioWare is gone. We are just walking £, € and $. DAI is a calculated game, in the degree it has zero creativity left. It is like marketing made an exel-sheet of what there should be in game and what should be avoided in all costs, after they spend a year and half of games budget in researching other (well-selling) games. Then they gave it to developement (who had some landscapes figured out) and told what kind of game they have to make. And then developement delivered. Here you are, DA:I.
Sorry for my harshness but people should wake up and stop thinking some corporate actually cares about them.
yes but this should not be an "old game" to them yet because of the dlc that has not yet been released and the multiplayer. but I will bet that this game will go like DA2 did and they will stop the DLC prematurely when it does not sell well.
and as for the devs not showing up anymore. it is a mistake on there part, showing a little interest in what there loyal customers have to say might help them smooth things over. it wont totally fix things but they might retain more customers if they acknowledge that they produced a less the satisfactory game and they will pay attention to what the fans want and do a better job in the next game.
they wont be getting me back but it may help others.
For feedback they use the game intern data feedback, focus group testing and so forth. The forums are largely here to keep some of the "fans" busy, to give the "folk some bread crumbs". In the end everyone of us is just a sale number.
There isn't something to market/sale to us now, so it's silent here.
Mix that with the toxicity that can be found here more or less often, especially after release and you have your current situation.
yes but this should not be an "old game" to them yet because of the dlc that has not yet been released and the multiplayer. but I will bet that this game will go like DA2 did and they will stop the DLC prematurely when it does not sell well.
and as for the devs not showing up anymore. it is a mistake on there part, showing a little interest in what there loyal customers have to say might help them smooth things over. it wont totally fix things but they might retain more customers if they acknowledge that they produced a less the satisfactory game and they will pay attention to what the fans want and do a better job in the next game.
they wont be getting me back but it may help others.
They don't care about "loyal customers". None of the major developers does. In the end sale numbers is it what counts. If they lose one "loyal customer/since BG Bioware fan/what have you done Bioware - fan" and sell the game to two new customers instead, they've done everything correctly. Players have to understand this is business, a very harsh business, not some romantic relationship where one side does things out of niceness for the other.
Sure, they don't have to interact and this forum can get really heated. But from observation I can say that when the devs interact, things actually tend to get more civil. If they interacted a lot, it might be able to create a healthier environment overall. It's easy to curse into a void, but things tend to be phrased more constructively if the target is interacting with you.
The other reason it bothers me is I find it somewhat insulting that they avoid their own forum so much, but post on Reddit, twitter etc. This is the official forum, but you'd never know it.
Edit: Also, thinking your feedback has a slight chance of being considered because a dev acknowledged it would do wonders to pacify complaints in a lot of areas. That applies whether they intend to fix it or not.
Players have to understand this is business, a very harsh business, not some romantic relationship where one side does things out of niceness for the other.
I guess I'm an idealist; a dreamer. They should always try to out-do themselves.
Shevy they should care about loyal customers. because lose one or two and that's not a problem, lose 1 or 2 thousand and that is a trend that could have a domino effect. because for every loyal customer that buys a game and likes it. they go and tell some friends and convince them to buy it, then those people play the game and if they like it they go tell more friends and so on and so forth.
but the inverse can also be true. buy a game and don't like it, they tell their friends to not waste their money, those friends then either don't convince others to buy it or they tell their friends that its a waste of money, and so on. in the end word of mouth is just as important as commercials when it comes to marketing things.
Shevy they should care about loyal customers. because lose one or two and that's not a problem, lose 1 or 2 thousand and that is a trend that could have a domino effect. because for every loyal customer that buys a game and likes it. they go and tell some friends and convince them to buy it, then those people play the game and if they like it they go tell more friends and so on and so forth.
but the inverse can also be true. buy a game and don't like it, they tell their friends to not waste their money, those friends then either don't convince others to buy it or they tell their friends that its a waste of money, and so on. in the end word of mouth is just as important as commercials when it comes to marketing things.
That's the funny thing about loyal customers, they can be relied upon to be exactly that, loyal. Sure they complain how every new game is worse than the last, but yet here they are, launch after launch goes by and the same people are buying their games and then finding themselves disappointed. If everyone who stated that this will be their final Bioware purchase actually followed through with it then Bioware might have cause to be concerned. Luckily for them, when these "threats" come from loyal fans it's usually just hot air.
It's the casual market Bioware (and every other games company) are after. That's where the big bucks are, those are the purchases Bioware actually care about, because those purchases are the difference between being the next Skyrim and the next Bound by Flame. Why do you think Bioware were "aggressively" scouting Skyrim? It was an RPG that totally broke into the mainstream and as a result sold like hot cakes. Why is it do you think that RPG elements are constantly being scaled back with every new release? To make it more accessible to those who generally don't play RPGs and aren't used to those kinds of things.
As for the devs no longer being active on the boards, I can't believe people still actually think that the "toxicity" is what drove them away. These boards have always been toxic, whether the devs are posting regularly or not, it didn't drive them away then, it hasn't driven them away now.
The thing that has changed between then and now is the game has shipped, and generally speaking if you're posting on these boards then You've already bought the game. No reason to continue marketing and selling the game to those who have already purchased it. The devs will be back once the next project hits pre production, you can be sure of that.
Yes early on Bioware was active even with the heated arguments and consider the rinse, wash and repeat issue. Bioware still has not fixed all the bugs and glitches from those first days, it was a very long list of dirty laundry. The easiest way to check is read patch notes and play once in a while to check on progress and if the patch is correct.
They still counting the money from sales or working on new content. 
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