So the BSN is closing.
I signed up on the old Bioware forums, before the BSN existed. If I recall, my first post was to thank the devs for the unexpectedly great Jade Empire which surprised me for being pretty great when I had been sceptical of the game. I bought it solely on the strength of Bioware's name after loving everything else they had made. It was a wise move 
I watched the development of DAO and ME. I participated in the DRM backlash beginning with ME1 PC that still infuriates me to this day. DRM aside, I continued to adore Bioware's work right up until DA2.
And yeah, well, since then it has been crystal clear that Bioware's devs are taking their games in a direction that I just don't care for. Don't get wrong, Bioware games are still good games. They're just not the kind of game that has me super excited as I once was. Quite honestly, ME has evolved from an action RPG into a third person shooter. DA2 was the most disappointing game I've ever played, and DAI (while better) was 90% filler IMO.
That's ok though. Bioware wants to go that route and, so, good luck to them. I'll still keep an eye on their games in case they change direction again. If they persist with Origin exclusivity then I'll continue to buy secondhand for console if the game looks interesting. If they launch sans DRM I'll buy new as I used to: but again, only if the game itself looks interesting.
Looking back I guess I feel that the official forums served a fairly under-appreciated role for the company: when fans were incensed about issues like DRM the control over the official forum meant that the CM was able to marginalize and reduce the visibility of those threads by moving them to less frequented sub-forums. The flimsiest of facades were all the justification needed at the time. The forums were a controllable safety valve that Bioware has used over the years to limit the PR damage of angry customers and fans. I think that the first real failure of that strategy was the ME3 ending debacle. But I think the fact that so much of the anger was offsite was the reason the strategy failed.
The timing of this closure coming just prior to the public outing of ME Andromeda tells my inner cynic that they're anticipating a real storm of negative buzz from long time fans when they make more of it public. I hope I'm wrong. Time will tell if that's the correct interpretation or not, and how well the strategy of closing the forums will work to limit the visibility of the fallout if so. I suspect, however, that losing control of their safety valve could end up being a fairly big mistake in the long run.
For me the end of the BSN is pretty much a chance to reflect and move on. I stopped visiting some months back. Quite honestly, I've just lost enough interest in Bioware's games to where I just can't be bothered with them anymore. Other games now exist that I care about much more. And no, the political/social themes are not a reason for my disinterest. I support Bioware on those fronts. But I do feel that the discussion around the games has become far too dominated by them.
I do want to shout-out to Allan Schumacher who has always impressed me on the forums for his willingness to discuss and communicate with fans even when it was clear his superiors were intent on employing 'the silence'. He's one of the good guys, period. And although he likely doesn't know me from Adam, another shout-out to Brockololly. I always admired his postings and agreed with him on most everything of his I read.
So farewell BSN. Bioware, I hope you have a better fate than other EA-subsidiaries. I also hope you return to your cRPG roots someday. I strongly suspect that for one hope to be realized, both need to be realized. I'm not overly optimistic but for all the great games in your history, I will always keep hoping for your success.
Good luck.
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Hope that made sense 
