6255 réponses à ce sujet

[FKA_Servo]

On the other hand, if all the 'old guard' are gradually leaving and people like totallynot!PatrickWeekes are taking more control over decisions, is it so bad?

 

I mean, even if MEA kinda sucks, if Mac Walters is 'part of the problem', then it'll likely be his last trip and if Mass Effect continues (with or without our patronage) we can see what's next!

 

Honestly I liked DAO and didn't much like DA2 and only kinda liked DAI, but I see a path forward for that franchise at least.

 

Am I a Biodrone for that?

 

I think that's just common sense. And I think the post you're quoting is probably a little alarmist. I also think the pros and cons of inevitable developer turnover is also a separate issue.

 

I'd love to know the real real reason why they're closing the forums, but I don't believe for a moment that it's because a majority of the developers and writers who have used this platform to communicate with us over the years are on board with it, even if they don't come around here as often as they used to. As many have speculated, it seems like a directive from higher up.

[mrs_anomaly]

 

Also, these are words so I just don't get deleted, but I probably will anyway. 

[Kantr]

The site rules say that you can't discuss the moderator's actions, which is open to interpretation. There is no way you can spin it into "remove any posts with the word 'mod' in them" though I did sort of point that out to them (by asking for clarification) in a PM, but they don't respond or even usually read PMs. Because that will certainly help people follow the rules

That's some dystopian level of stuff there. 

 

I always find it interesting how no other Game Developers say that Bioware is one of their favourite studios. 

[vbibbi]

Well, that was interesting. One week before they announced the forum closure, there was a stockbroker's meeting. EA's stocks had slumped a bit during July. It wasn't the big fall they had in January, but it was still a decent sized dip. For July, the stocks were at about $68 and change. After the forum closure announcement, stocks had risen back up to ~$76 a share. That's where it is as of about ten minutes before I made this post.

I think I can figure out the real reason for the forum deletion. Money talks, after all. I don't think the money is worth the mistrust that many fans are going to have. <shrug> It's not my dime though. I still think that this is going to hurt BioWare in the long run. At least I see the proof of my suspicions; it is to please stock holders.

I might have to see if I can buy into EA's stock so I can be considered a shareholder. It seems like those are the only people that EA cares about. I can't speak for the men and women at BioWare, but they are subject to EA's whims.

Short term profits in exchange for long term ill-will from the fans. I feel bad for any BW employee that tried to speak out against taking the forums completely offline. Between people like Gaider that still feel the need to talk crap to this day (and tells BW fans asking about the Fenris book 'I forgot. Sue me,') other devs who I won't call out, and the investors crying that their stock was worth only $68 a share, they didn't stand a chance.

My fear that BioWare is on it's way to becoming a corporate shell just increased. Yeah, they just opened BW-Montreal. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the Edmonton branch either closed, or both became EA-Montreal and EA-Edmonton. I know that BW needs to turn a profit, but this smells wrong to me. I've seen other companies "merge" before, and usually the smaller company (in this case BW,) becomes a shell for the bigger company (EA.) It takes time, sometimes years, but it always happens. Hopefully folks at BW will be able to keep their jobs.

Edit: I think they dropped the money for https for their new private beta forums. I'm betting this has been in the works since January, when EA stock was around $35-$40 per share.

Maybe I should take up origami. I need practice with my tin foil hats and I know how nutty my post sounded. Eh, I'm just venting anyways. All I can do is hope and wait.

 

New Bio plan:

 

Step 1: Alienate fans by shutting down the forums

Step 2: ???

Step 3: Profit!

[SnakeCode]

On the other hand, if all the 'old guard' are gradually leaving and people like totallynot!PatrickWeekes are taking more control over decisions, is it so bad?

 

I mean, even if MEA kinda sucks, if Mac Walters is 'part of the problem', then it'll likely be his last trip and if Mass Effect continues (with or without our patronage) we can see what's next!

 

Honestly I liked DAO and didn't much like DA2 and only kinda liked DAI, but I see a path forward for that franchise at least.

 

Am I a Biodrone for that?

 

Patrick "we live in a rape culture" Weekes? I'm sure it will be fine.

 

 

In all seriousness though, I've greatly enjoyed his stuff in Mass Effect, whilst I think his contributions to Dragon Age (of which he was just made the lead writer for after Gaider's departure) have been bad bordering on abysmal. That's just me though.

[Silcron]

You know, when the BSN was turned into the Bioware Forums after a bit I felt like an old man. "Back when this was the BSN..." Now I will sound even more old. "Back when there was a BSN I used to..."

 

I'm 23 and in the last months eveything has gone so greatly that I feel so old talking about the good old days. Back when Spain didn't spend 9 months without being able to elect a new goverment, back when UK was part of the EU, back when I didn't feel betrayed by Bioware and there was a BSN.

 

On other news a shot limoncello after dinner is pretty nice.

 

Also, if someone unravels this nonsense please let me know about the nonlogic. I gave up trying to make sense of this decision, my brain was starting to hurt.

[Silcron]

Yeah, Weekes is either decent-to-good, or just awful, he never quite reaches that high peak. Between him and Sam "GTA5 is virtual rape" Maggs, there's no way Andromeda won't be an ideologically charged s**tfest of idiocy.

 

It could still be good, after all, all writers have ideologies and it's pretty hard for that not to show in one way or another. The problem starts when it is put there just to make a point outside of the story, when it takes you out. For example, the transgender merchant in the Baldur's Gate expansion (the last one that Gaider worked on). It's there just to have a trans character in. It tells you his situation in a way that doesn't make sense, you don't just greet someone talking about sexuality unless, idk, you're in a bar looking for a one nighter.

 

That's what I'd call a bad example. Now, say, if that same merchant told you that and then asked you for help in either acquiring a belt that changes your gender (it's a D&D thing, maybe even from 1st Edition, probably 2nd or 3rd, would have to check. But to give you an idea of how powerful the belt is, the gender change cannot be reversed with spells that restore you or lift curses, you have to use a wish spell to literally bend reality into swapping your gender again.) or enough money to buy one. With that it would be a new sidequest, a new small story arch not a character saying "Hi! I'm transgender. The box has been ticked."

[Nefla]

Screw reddit, tumblr, facebook, and twitter, if I end up playing more BioWare games in the future (assuming BioWare is staying intact as a company and not being redistributed by EA after MEA) I'm writing a 100+ page novel of my observations, suggestions, and critiques complete with illustrations and diagrams, having that print and bound and snail mailing it to them. It will be so outlandish and beautiful that someone will have to read it! That someone may be the mail room clerk but still!

[SnakeCode]

iirc Gaider didn't work on Siege of Dragonspear. He joined Beamdog before the game was released but wasn't involved in it's production at all.

[LPPrince]

Screw reddit, tumblr, facebook, and twitter, if I end up playing more BioWare games in the future (assuming BioWare is staying intact as a company and not being redistributed by EA after MEA) I'm writing a 100+ page novel of my observations, suggestions, and critiques complete with illustrations and diagrams, having that print and bound and snail mailing it to them. It will be so outlandish and beautiful that someone will have to read it! That someone may be the mail room clerk but still!

 

 

LPPrince approves +15

[BansheeOwnage]

I just noticed the French thread on this:

 

https://forum.biowar.../#entry20409830

 

Translated the comments using Chrome. Your fans really are NOT happy, BioWare.

Just skimming the first page, they've already brought up basically all of the salient points against closure and deletion that we have here. Maybe that should tell Bioware something. It also makes me realize how much it sucks for the non-english sections    Not only will they have a hard time finding a replacement site with a good number of users, but it truly brings up something pathetically-funny, that took me too long to realize:

 

The devs probably never talked to them there at all! They're basically being told they're being shut down for a reason that doesn't even come close to sounding legitimate. I mean, it's not legitimate here, either, but just laughable there

 

Its likely because with the place closing soon people have outright stated they're going to go out and cause trouble/troll/spam/do whatever thats against the rules, so the biomods are on edge and checking all the time to keep things in line.

 

I just hope posters like me who aren't planning on breaking any rules aren't caught in the crossfire.

I already have been. I don't try to break rules, and haven't changed my posting style at all, but I went from 0 warning points to 3 and a temp-ban since the announcement, and I'm by no means the only one. Like... what?

 

 

So again, where most of those on this forum have found flaws, I did not.  And I have recently come to realize that this forum's "consensus" is not matching the reaction of almost anyone I know that has played the game.  This forum had simply become an echo chamber where differing opinions were not very welcome and many people either stopped posting or never started.  That was the major problem the past few years... this forum went to one of the most open and friendly places to one that is frustrating, cynical, cliquish, and generally so uninviting that as much as I wish it could be rehabilitated and stay around, I just don't think it is possible. 

 

As a serious reply, though, I basically disagree entirely. I don't think this place has become less inviting or friendly. I see loads of friendly people here. Naturally, the place will become a bit more insular between games like this, when not as many people are active, but it hasn't happened to the point you describe in my experience.

 

And I still see people with differing opinions all the time, about everything. Not what I'd call an "echo-chamber". Still, it's another reason not to shut these forums down. Any replacement site, though great, will have a lower population than here, and will be more insular.

 

I do see that in section 7, but I think that to apply that to any broad discussion of moderation in general requires a pretty liberal reading. Fair enough though - I guess that would apply narrowly.

 

I'm not seeing anyone addressing specific actions or parties here, though.  Just generally discussing the phenomenon.

Oh, I agree, it requires a very liberal reading and from my own reading, wouldn't apply to generally discussing the phenomenon. But it seems like They Who Must Not Be Named read it differently, at least recently. They also won't clarify it for us.

[ModernAcademic]

ME3 spoilers warning:

Spoiler

The BSN is being harvested by the rEApers since several years ago (we took a heavy hit when the old BSN went down), and now the catalyst finally proposes us 4 choices:

• Destroy: let the forums burn and never buy Bioware games (at least not pre-order or day one).
• Control: create (or join) a new fan forum to control a new community.
• Synthesis: join the social media sites to merge with Bioware.
• Refusal: go away and never look back.

 

Control. Always. We'll live to see another day.

 

Synthesis is merely letting the enemy assimilate you. 

[BigEvil]

WTF? This thread made it past page 231? Is it the mods day off or something?

 

The prophecy is broken! The end times approach! The power of Mordor cannot be undone by some vagabond ranger from the wilds!

 

Abandon your posts and your threads.

 

 

Flee to your Social Media! Warn them that the prophecy is broken! Until the mods start deleting things again...

[N7M]

So many possible causes If only there was a way...

 

Suppose if we drew out the majority of ideas here it would look like...

 

BioWare    EA

    \               \

     \               \

-------------------------------Closure

      /               /

     /               /

  EA      BioWare

The users would have nothing to do with it, of course. Especially in the minds of the most outspoken.

 

Maybe it's more like an eel, huh.

 

 

EA --- BioWare ---- Closure

 

Yeah, that's KIS.

[Liamv2]

Yeah, Weekes is either decent-to-good, or just awful, he never quite reaches that high peak. Between him and Sam "GTA5 is virtual rape" Maggs, there's no way Andromeda won't be an ideologically charged s**tfest of idiocy.

 

While I disagree with Weeks he's never tried to push his politics in his writing or at least not enough to ****** me off so I don't have a problem with him, Sam Maggs however I don't trust at all. I would love for her to prove me wrong though.

[SnakeCode]

Isn't Sam Maggs working on the new IP? I don't think she has anything to do with Andromeda. Makes me dubious about whatever the new IP is going to be though.

[Nefla]

Spoiler

Just skimming the first page, they've already brought up basically all of the salient points against closure and deletion that we have here. Maybe that should tell Bioware something. It also makes me realize how much it sucks for the non-english sections    Not only will they have a hard time finding a replacement site with a good number of users, but it truly brings up something pathetically-funny, that took me too long to realize:

 

The devs probably never talked to them there at all! They're basically being told they're being shut down for a reason that doesn't even come close to sounding legitimate. I mean, it's not legitimate here, either, but just laughable there

 

I already have been. I don't try to break rules, and haven't changed my posting style at all, but I went from 0 warning points to 3 and a temp-ban since the announcement, and I'm by no means the only one. Like... what?

 

 

As a serious reply, though, I basically disagree entirely. I don't think this place has become less inviting or friendly. I see loads of friendly people here. Naturally, the place will become a bit more insular between games like this, when not as many people are active, but it hasn't happened to the point you describe in my experience.

 

And I still see people with differing opinions all the time, about everything. Not what I'd call an "echo-chamber". Still, it's another reason not to shut these forums down. Any replacement site, though great, will have a lower population than here, and will be more insular.

 

Oh, I agree, it requires a very liberal reading and from my own reading, wouldn't apply to generally discussing the phenomenon. But it seems like They Who Must Not Be Named read it differently, at least recently. They also won't clarify it for us.

 

Gurl I'm gonna miss you and your extensive rolodex of your inquisitor's reactions and expressions

[o Ventus]

Isn't Sam Maggs working on the new IP? I don't think she has anything to do with Andromeda. Makes me dubious about whatever the new IP is going to be though.

 

I thought she was on the ME team.

[Kantr]

Just skimming the first page, they've already brought up basically all of the salient points against closure and deletion that we have here. Maybe that should tell Bioware something. It also makes me realize how much it sucks for the non-english sections    Not only will they have a hard time finding a replacement site with a good number of users, but it truly brings up something pathetically-funny, that took me too long to realize:

-snip-

I'm sad that it took the forum closure to see your awesome screenshot-gifs.

[skuid]

As usual, destroy remains the best option. Although oddly, we can do destroy and control at the same time On that note, I'm reminded of some of Hackett's words of wisdom:

 

"There's only one way to defeat the Reapers: No more Reapers!"

We can even do destroy, control and synthesis at the same time . Right now I'm more inclined to destroy just like in most of my playthroughs but I will probably consider control as well.

 

Like Harbinger said: "We are your salvation through destruction" that must be what EA/Bioware are thinking about this community .

[SmilesJA]

Man we're really "off-topic".

[o Ventus]

I expect this to get deleted, and I don't even disagree with the deletion of it as I'm doing what I'm not supposed to be doing.

 

Granted, the "rule" being broken here is several kinds of retarded.

[Boomshakalakalakaboom]

Man we're really "off-topic".

I dislike the forums closing. But this place...http://bsn.boards.ne...off-topic....is pretty amazing so I'm going to spam the **** out of it.

[N7M]

Off topic.How about off the rocker? There was a post awhile back -possibly deleted by BioWare to save face- saying the Volus and Typhoon were useless on Plat.

madness.

 

Spoiler

[o Ventus]

I dislike the forums closing. But this place...http://bsn.boards.ne...off-topic....is pretty amazing so I'm going to spam the **** out of it.

 

Not shilling nearly hard enough.