My reaction as I just heard the news by pure chance.
Seems like yesterday when I was talking about BG2 solo builds on pre-BSN Bioware Forums. I spent a thousand hours playing ME3MP and probably more than that discussing it and just reading the forums. And now all that is coming to an end.
What a stupid, stupid decision. A new big game coming out, we're slowly starting to get more information about it and to build hype, and now they decide to pull the rug from under the feet of their most hardcore fans?
There's no way in hell I'd have played ME3MP as much as I did without these forums. I wouldn't have met all the wonderful people I did. In fact, one of the main reasons I was excited about MEA was that it would've revitalized the community and brought back some old faces. Now...
...I'm starting lose interest in MEA.
There are about a dozen games in my immediate waiting list; games that I own but haven't played or finished, even though I fully intend to. There are some fantastic games that are out now. Many fantastic games are to be released in the near future. Suddenly it doesn't seem such preordained matter that I'll be playing MEA in the first place. The community was that little bit of extra that put Bioware games ahead of others, at least for me.
This is just sad. And being the optimist that I am, I fully admit I did not see this coming. What an incredible FU to the community that has kept the games alive.
Well, thanks to all you BSNers, at least. You made this one of the best gaming experiences of my life. Just... what a tragicomical way to bring all that to a close...
Now I'm off to play some more DOOM. A much better game than what I expect MEA to be without the added value of the community.