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I'll state the obvious first. I hope the team finds and reads any praise they receive for a work they completed, just as much as I hope they read the criticisms and respond to some of the concerns. This thread is not a criticism. On the contrary, I felt absolutely compelled to share my experiences with your works.
Ever since the release of the original Neverwinter Nights, I have been a huge bioware fan. In a world of video game companies, you have always stood out as a company that never, EVER, lost my respect for the products you created. I have always enjoyed and been absolutely amazed by the work you do: the story you put in, the amount of detail present, the amount of depth the game carries. I hope you continue this trend, as video game culture becomes something more and more accepted. As video games become more and more of a medium for addressing political, social, and cultural concerns, your team has stood at the forefront of this general movement. Many other companies have as well, to be sure, but I address you here because this is, after all, a tribute to you guys for having created such a masterpiece.
More importantly, and more significantly, is the appreciation I have for the amount of complexities you choose to convey in your video games. The important word for scholars these days seems to be 'complexity.' In a world filled with oversimplified or overgeneralized concepts and solutions, your team has taken it upon yourself to complicate this world. In very basic terms, I have never had the impression that your games have oversimplified a solution, or that the worlds you create are black and white. A perfect example of the issue I am addressing is the movie Avatar. Without digressing too much on this, the movie Avatar clearly had 'good' and 'evil.' While I am not dismissing the movie entirely, as it was entertaining and thought-provoking, there were almost no complex issues addressed. It was very obvious and easy for the audience to sympathize with the main hero, and be completely upset with figures such as the military and greedy corporations. Your team, on the other hand, has always created a story rife with complex issues, complex characters, and complex solutions. I am not trying to compare movies with video games, as both are different mediums. Video games have the potential, however, to really illuminate these complexities, and the consequences that follow from certain courses of action. This is where bioware for me has really shined. You guys aren't quick to dismiss, you're not quick to define who is 'evil,' and who is 'good,' you're not quick to define which path the character has to take. This was an immense undertaking on your part, and a huge accomplishment because you pulled it off.
I can tell from the way the story is structured, from the issues addressed, and the choices we make, that you are a well-educated team, motivated more than just making a profit or a 'fun' video game. You want to say something in the game. You want people to think about certain issues. For decades, movies, like video games today, were seen as nothing more than mere entertainment. People frowned upon individuals who watched or even studied movies. Nowadays, you can easily go to a university which focuses entirely on the movie industry, and how it has affected culture, politics, and society. I am absolutely convinced the same will be true for video games, and that Bioware will stand out as one of the leading companies for this trend. It is absolutely phenomenal what you guys do.
As a student at the University of Minnesota with a political science, history, and German degree, I fully appreciate the work you guys do. A professor and I once joked that the intellectual development one undergoes through college is rather ironic. You go to college to learn, but in reality you go to college to (hopefully and eventually) realize how much you DON'T know. You go to graduate school to learn even MORE about the things you do not know. Many might say that this is a sign of intellectualism - the admittance to knowing nothing. This is, after all, the only way we learn anything. I get the impression that you, the bioware team, are a group of intellectuals with very high expectations of the games you choose to create, and that you guys try not to make false assumptions or generalizations that are so prevalent throughout our society today.
I have met many people who dismiss video games as nothing more than mere entertainment. While entertainment surely is a huge factor in making a video game, you guys have countless times disproved that gross stereotype of video games. I originally had a lot more to say, but I think I'll end it here to save everyone some time and make it much more bearable to those who do read my comments. Like anyone on the internet, I'm just another dude with an opinion. It doesn't really matter. I just felt a need to let the bioware team know just how much I, and I'm certainly sure many others, appreciate the work they do.
Thank you so much!
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