113 réponses à ce sujet

[Heimdall]

It probably was successful , but David Gaider also said DA2 was also successful despite the overall disapointment.
The issue is we don't know how successful DAI was supposed to be.What was the goal?

If Youtube playthrough are any indication , and I believe they can show a trend , well DAI isn't all that trendy compared to this other RPG I shall not name.

Well, In the earnings call for the quarter it was released in, the EA CFO said DAI beat expectations. Granted, companies tend to low ball expectations specifically so they can tell shareholders they beat expectations. Either way, even if the game that shall not be named did better, the indication seems to be that DAI did well.

[Seraphim24]

I owe BioWare a lot trust me.  Practically a fan for life.  I may just buy their products New even if I think they are crap in the future just out of loyalty and to repay my debts to them lol.  

 

I just think though that most BioWare fans just take for granted what BioWare and to some extent EA does because they don't often venture out into the rest of the gaming industry and don't know just how bad it has gotten.  Granted the state of RPGs for this generation is very strong so far with FO 4, Dragon Age Inquisition, and Witcher, but the rest of the gaming industry?  Only games I am interested in right now are essentially remakes of old generation games or if Ace Combat actually does release another installment. 

 

I kind of like... I  mean gaming has been around awhile, I think if you still don't know you feel about it... like it's kind of time to make up your mind sorta deal I guess.

 

We aren't getting anything substantially new from major players like Nintendo, Blizzard, etc, but even more important we haven't for awhile. Most of what you get is set in stone. 

 

Bioware is sort of unique in that they had that blast of stuff with DA2 and ME3 where they really went for it, and caused a big impact. 

 

But yeah, gaming in terms of an innovative platform for new ideas or stuff like that is pretty much toast. 

 

The trolls eating a portion of Bioware was dumb, but I think between CDPR and a few other things it'll work out. 

[Al Foley]

I mean considering that that  other game may be...from a critical and sales perspective...the best game ever made saying DA I lost to it is kind of like saying, especially given how well we know DA I did, is like calling Hank Aaron a failure because he's not Ricky Henderson. 

[Al Foley]

I kind of like... I  mean gaming has been around awhile, I think if you still don't know you feel about it... like it's kind of time to make up your mind sorta deal I guess.

 

We aren't getting anything substantially new from major players like Nintendo, Blizzard, etc, but even more important we haven't for awhile. Most of what you get is set in stone. 

 

Bioware is sort of unique in that they had that blast of stuff with DA2 and ME3 where they really went for it, and caused a big impact. 

 

But yeah, gaming in terms of an innovative platform for new ideas or stuff like that is pretty much toast. 

 

The trolls eating a portion of Bioware was dumb, but I think between CDPR and a few other things it'll work out. 

Which is sad because I contend gaming has the greatest potential for story innovation of any medium ever created.  But no one is tapping into that potential this generation aside from BioWare and CDProjekt Red.  Unlike last generation which when the last generation came out you had a major outpouring of creative and story telling energy creating some of gaming's most beloved franchises.  BioShock, Mass Effect, Call of Duty 4...which won awards for game story...Uncharted, and a few others. 

[Seraphim24]

Which is sad because I contend gaming has the greatest potential for story innovation of any medium ever created.  But no one is tapping into that potential this generation aside from BioWare and CDProjekt Red.  Unlike last generation which when the last generation came out you had a major outpouring of creative and story telling energy creating some of gaming's most beloved franchises.  BioShock, Mass Effect, Call of Duty 4...which won awards for game story...Uncharted, and a few others. 

 

I think you are starting to see more interesting independent games like Banner Saga and stuff, it's not all Nintendo rip-off sorf of stuff.

 

I think the NX will be a hard punch as well. 

[vbibbi]

Really, we shouldn't read anything into the closure of the forum except that Bioware doesn't put much value in the forum.

 

It really doesn't reflect much about the company as a whole especially given how little interaction the devs have offered, to them it probably seems inconsequential.  As much as that annoys us, I don't think it indicates much if anything about the status of the company or any specific project.

 

Hopefully it's not a reflection of the financial state of any upcoming games or Bioware as a company. But my tinfoil theory is that Bio is well aware how much of their vocal and/or loyal fanbase is going to feel alienated by this decision; this could be a subtle method of trying to reduce the amount of vocal customers who would complain about the direction new games are headed. Based on the Twitter poll some weeks back asking if people would be into a strategy DA game, the increasing focus on multiplayer and open world single player, I wouldn't be surprised if all new Bioware games will be drastically different from the ones we know. So closing the forums is an effort to lose the fanbase who primarily want to play single player RPGs and focus on the fabled wider audience of average gamers.

 

Exactly.  It should not effect it in any way shape or form and its a little bit silly to presume otherwise.  Yes for the fans the forums look important.  Yes, it is a bad idea to close them down.  but from BioWare's perspective (and more importantly EAs) it looks like a non-essentially resource waste.  

 

As has been pointed out far more concerning is the people who are leaving. 

 

Conal did state that closing the forums was not a fiscal decision. So I'm sure it doesn't hurt to recoup a bit of budget from closing the forums, it doesn't sound like EA/Bioware was feeling a pinch in resources from keeping these forums open. Which really does beg the question, then, why they couldn't just keep the forums open even without developer presence, as they have been? Or even close the boards but keep them accessible for the hundreds of useful threads for bug fixes, hints, mods, etc?

 

Why?  

DA I was successful.  ME 3 was successful at least from a sales POV and there's little reason to assume ME A won't be successful.  Granted EA is weird and granted ME A could flop but I would be a lot more worried about BWs fate based on how well or not well ME A does.  All this Cassandra screeching is a bit...weird. 

 

By "Cassandra screeching" are you referencing the Cassandra of Greek mythology rather than Seeker Cassandra? Because if so that's incredibly ironic, given that Cassandra was cursed to truly prophecize the future, only to have no one believe her.

 

Well gaming has been in the process of being harvested for some time, I tended to look at the longer Bioware produces high quality experiences as being an unexpected bonus, but the trolls have targeted them for termination for a long time. 

 

Cynical perverse logic, but it's true. 

 

If a major game developer can be terminated by internet trolls, that company was not in a secure place to start with.

[Al Foley]

Hopefully it's not a reflection of the financial state of any upcoming games or Bioware as a company. But my tinfoil theory is that Bio is well aware how much of their vocal and/or loyal fanbase is going to feel alienated by this decision; this could be a subtle method of trying to reduce the amount of vocal customers who would complain about the direction new games are headed. Based on the Twitter poll some weeks back asking if people would be into a strategy DA game, the increasing focus on multiplayer and open world single player, I wouldn't be surprised if all new Bioware games will be drastically different from the ones we know. So closing the forums is an effort to lose the fanbase who primarily want to play single player RPGs and focus on the fabled wider audience of average gamers.

 

 

Conal did state that closing the forums was not a fiscal decision. So I'm sure it doesn't hurt to recoup a bit of budget from closing the forums, it doesn't sound like EA/Bioware was feeling a pinch in resources from keeping these forums open. Which really does beg the question, then, why they couldn't just keep the forums open even without developer presence, as they have been? Or even close the boards but keep them accessible for the hundreds of useful threads for bug fixes, hints, mods, etc?

 

 

By "Cassandra screeching" are you referencing the Cassandra of Greek mythology rather than Seeker Cassandra? Because if so that's incredibly ironic, given that Cassandra was cursed to truly prophecize the future, only to have no one believe her.

 

 

If a major game developer can be terminated by internet trolls, that company was not in a secure place to start with.

I don't know.  Like I said I disagree with the decision but to assume that this, by itself, is evidence of some kind of lack of health at BioWare is...wrong...in my opinion.  There are things that could be a lot more concerning and some of them have even occurred at BioWare of late. 

 

I meant the Cassandra in Greek mythology.  Though apparently I had the legend wrong.  Regardless I usually refer to 'Cassandra screeching' as any prophecy of general doom and gloom which does not seem to hold up. 

[Akiza]

It is. But since we know they're working on that, and they're still closing down the ME forums, it means closing down the DA forums is less of a worrying sign than it otherwise would be.

MEA was already greenlight unlike DA4

[Tidus]

Seraphim24, Why is it any time a person speaks negative about a game or company they are trolls? The hard truth is companies need to hear negative feed back so they can improve their product line or face the possibility that their customers will speak even louder by keeping their debit cards in their wallets or purses.

 

EA/BW made a business decision to close the forums for business reasons maybe due to downsizing in order to cut costs or to consolidate BW completely into EA-instead of BW Dragon Age it could be EA Dragon Age or no more DA games.  There's nothing to see here because when a company buys another company they usually fold it into one large company to trim operating costs and improve the bottom line which makes their investors happy.

 

In the end its all about money and keeping investors happy.

 

 

Square Enix is still cranking out new games or new games in their popular series. DA4 should have been announced by now with a release date of November/December 2017.

[TheAtomicSurvivor]

I'm thinking it more unlikely than there will be another Dragon Age game.

 

I'll be honest and say Dragon Age 2 was the game EA wanted not want the fans or Bioware wanted, but then it flopped on EA. DAI made commercial success, but it means keeping a firm grip on a game EA doesn't really want. 

[mmoblitz]

ME:A should be less than a year away from release.  Think about previous games and what we had seen/know about the games at this point before release.  At least a year out we had awesome trailers and actual game play footage as well as more dev game play footage.  What have we gotten with ME:A?  Next to nothing compared to other games at this point.   What we have gotten is senior devs leaving, delays, and now an announcement that Bioware is closing the forums.

 

I won't bury my head in the sand and think that everything is all rainbows and unicorns.  If there is another DA game, I think it will be totally different from it's predecessors and i don't mean that in a good way.  the days of 100 million dollar budgets are quickly becoming a thing of the past.

 

Just look at all the studios under the EA umbrella and you will see patterns in all of them.  I don't like the way any of this is heading.  My cousin who has been a software engineer in the gaming industry for 15+ yrs told me not long ago that publishers all across the industry are moving to cheaper, easier, and more streamlined games.  There is one publisher in particular that seems to be leading the way and I don't think I need to tell you who it is.

[Jigglypuff]

It's over now for Dragon Age and MEA may not even be released 

[themikefest]

I believe there will be another DA game. My guess is they're being tight- lipped about it since they don't want to take away any attention from MEA. I would not be surprised if Bioware announces the next DA game at E3 2017. Yes I could be wrong since there is also the possibility that they will announce the new IP at E3 2017

[wicked cool]

Interesting that they wanted the forums closeda a long time ago
I originally thought it was EA/money and we are in a doomsday scenario but honestly if they want they can shut down production of games whenever they want so why start with forums
My new theory is the minority voices in bioware who wanted the forums closed a long time ago are now in power. These people are thin skinned and hate the idea of being critized in their safe zone

[Tidus]

wicked cool, They will hate it more when people start voting with their debit cards. There's no doubt we will see streamline games since games has become overly complicated with side quests, explorable areas   and therefore became costly to produce.

 

Some of the glaring game  glitches in DA:I is inexcusable as is the storyline WTH moments in DA:O and DA:1..

[vbibbi]

I don't know.  Like I said I disagree with the decision but to assume that this, by itself, is evidence of some kind of lack of health at BioWare is...wrong...in my opinion.  There are things that could be a lot more concerning and some of them have even occurred at BioWare of late. 

 

I meant the Cassandra in Greek mythology.  Though apparently I had the legend wrong.  Regardless I usually refer to 'Cassandra screeching' as any prophecy of general doom and gloom which does not seem to hold up. 

 

Yeah I don't think the forums closing is a direct sign of the health of Bioware, nor would I want it to be. Despite all of my whingeing on these forums I don't wish anything bad on Bioware or anyone who works there. I do see this more as a tactic for managing PR for MEA and potentially trying to actively weed out certain types of fans. I personally think it's more a sign that future games (maybe MEA or maybe all games released after it) will deviate strongly from what we currently know to be
"Bioware games." By distancing itself from the vocal minority of fans, many of whom have been with Bioware since early days, they're allowing themselves more leeway to change the games to try to attract different consumers. The more casual gamers who want a more streamlined experience.

 

As a private company they are free to do whatever they want, within legal boundaries, but I think it's a shame that Bioware will potentially transform into a different game developer with only the name and brand remaining the same.

 

You must be affected by Cassandra's curse, then, since you see her prophecy of gloom and doom as incorrect and a waste of breath

 

I believe there will be another DA game. My guess is they're being tight- lipped about it since they don't want to take away any attention from MEA. I would not be surprised if Bioware announces the next DA game at E3 2017. Yes I could be wrong since there is also the possibility that they will announce the new IP at E3 2017

 

I think there will be at least one more DA game, but I would not be shocked if DA4 was extremely different from the current DA games we know. Even DAI with its emphasis on open worlds and multiplayer is still recognizable as a Bioware and DA game. But we could be moving to a different game formula for future games. Maybe a strategy game that is set against the Tevinter-Qunari war, with short interludes of on the ground combat between campaigns.

[Pasquale1234]

Yeah I don't think the forums closing is a direct sign of the health of Bioware, nor would I want it to be. Despite all of my whingeing on these forums I don't wish anything bad on Bioware or anyone who works there. I do see this more as a tactic for managing PR for MEA and potentially trying to actively weed out certain types of fans. I personally think it's more a sign that future games (maybe MEA or maybe all games released after it) will deviate strongly from what we currently know to be
"Bioware games." By distancing itself from the vocal minority of fans, many of whom have been with Bioware since early days, they're allowing themselves more leeway to change the games to try to attract different consumers.

It has occurred to me, too, that this forum closing might be designed to offload consumers with certain types of expectations. It's possible that they're thinking the easiest way to deal with some of the toxicity that has grown around here is to just shut it down for awhile, and perhaps start over again at some point in the future.

It is, I think, a lot more difficult for a product's creator to moderate forums about said product than it is for some other entity to sponsor such a forum. A lot of consumers seem to have the attitude that their purchase of a product entitles them to beat up on its producers about their every dissatisfaction with it. These same people seem to think that their feedback consists of nuggets of gold upon which producers should focus with rapt attention. All too often, I read comments in these forums like, "BioWare's political plots are circus wagons of nonsense" or "BioWare's understanding of medieval combat tactics are comically atrocious" instead of constructive, useful feedback they could use to improve. Although BioWare has historically been really good about accepting feedback, there's a limit to how much of that kind of manure a human being can wade through and still get up and go to work every day. I wasn't at all surprised about the recent comments about employees needing therapy after ME3's reception - I frankly expected that would be the case.

(As an aside, one of my personal pet peeves are the comments about lazy devs. These are people who often work 100+ hours/week, and go for months on end without a single day off to deliver an entertainment product on time.)

So it's really no surprise that they prefer to communicate with fans in person or via facebook or twitter. People are generally much better behaved in those venues than they are when they can hide behind a completely anonymous forum account.
 

The more casual gamers who want a more streamlined experience.
 
I think there will be at least one more DA game, but I would not be shocked if DA4 was extremely different from the current DA games we know. Even DAI with its emphasis on open worlds and multiplayer is still recognizable as a Bioware and DA game. But we could be moving to a different game formula for future games. Maybe a strategy game that is set against the Tevinter-Qunari war, with short interludes of on the ground combat between campaigns.

Maybe?

DAI offered the most complex crafting system we've seen in a DA game thus far, and it seems to have been generally well-received. I could see some streamlining, perhaps in the form of fewer types of materials, less level-locking of found gear, etc. I would be surprised, though, to see all of that go away after they devoted quite a bit of effort to building those mechanics.

The thing about these fully-cinematic games with large casts of fleshed-out characters and loads of cutscenes is that they're awfully expensive to produce. Then there were a lot of complaints that some of the conversations were not in cutscenes. Also note that, despite the improvements the devs feel they've made during the course of the franchise, a lot of people still seem to prefer the Warden and DA:O. Returning to that formula (or a modified version of it) could be a viable option for them.

[vbibbi]

It has occurred to me, too, that this forum closing might be designed to offload consumers with certain types of expectations. It's possible that they're thinking the easiest way to deal with some of the toxicity that has grown around here is to just shut it down for awhile, and perhaps start over again at some point in the future.

It is, I think, a lot more difficult for a product's creator to moderate forums about said product than it is for some other entity to sponsor such a forum. A lot of consumers seem to have the attitude that their purchase of a product entitles them to beat up on its producers about their every dissatisfaction with it. These same people seem to think that their feedback consists of nuggets of gold upon which producers should focus with rapt attention. All too often, I read comments in these forums like, "BioWare's political plots are circus wagons of nonsense" or "BioWare's understanding of medieval combat tactics are comically atrocious" instead of constructive, useful feedback they could use to improve. Although BioWare has historically been really good about accepting feedback, there's a limit to how much of that kind of manure a human being can wade through and still get up and go to work every day. I wasn't at all surprised about the recent comments about employees needing therapy after ME3's reception - I frankly expected that would be the case.

(As an aside, one of my personal pet peeves are the comments about lazy devs. These are people who often work 100+ hours/week, and go for months on end without a single day off to deliver an entertainment product on time.)

So it's really no surprise that they prefer to communicate with fans in person or via facebook or twitter. People are generally much better behaved in those venues than they are when they can hide behind a completely anonymous forum account.

 

I agree with this. It's a shame that people have turned to personally attacking employees and they no longer feel safe/welcome here. That's pretty gross of the community.

 

The issue with closing the forums is that it doesn't actually seem to be about the employees. The reasons Bioware has given are nonsensical and have nothing to do with their stated goal of having the community interact with developers. Yes, posters will complain about aspects of the game, but how often does someone say "Bioware I want a response to my complaint" on these boards? Rarely, and those types of posters are usually informed by the rest of the community that that's not how the forums work. Most people who post here consistently do so to communicate with each other, and lurkers or new people can get information about the games in a centralized location rather than having to scour multiple social media sites.

 

If this were about Bioware employees why wouldn't they have closed the forums after ME3 or even DAI? Why now, two years after their latest game release and less than a year before their next release? If they're just concerned that the developers don't use the forums to communicate with fans, why not at least leave the forums as read only indefinitely so that people can read the game guides, access mods, get bug fix hints, etc.? By completely erasing the boards, it seems more like Bioware wants to erase public record of complaints against them, warranted or unwarranted, and completely control fan feedback.

 

If the Bio devs really hate these forums, my impression is that they haven't come here for some time, anyway, so what has changed that they feel the need to nuke them? Conal stated that it wasn't a fiscal reason, so if that's true, what is the reason?
 

Maybe?

DAI offered the most complex crafting system we've seen in a DA game thus far, and it seems to have been generally well-received. I could see some streamlining, perhaps in the form of fewer types of materials, less level-locking of found gear, etc. I would be surprised, though, to see all of that go away after they devoted quite a bit of effort to building those mechanics.

The thing about these fully-cinematic games with large casts of fleshed-out characters and loads of cutscenes is that they're awfully expensive to produce. Then there were a lot of complaints that some of the conversations were not in cutscenes. Also note that, despite the improvements the devs feel they've made during the course of the franchise, a lot of people still seem to prefer the Warden and DA:O. Returning to that formula (or a modified version of it) could be a viable option for them.

Well, streamlined can mean different things to different people, or focus on different parts of the game being streamlined. I do think it's more easily seen in the ME series, since it went from an RPG-shooter hybrid with three dialogue options in each conversation to a corridor shooter with two dialogue options and little to no reactivity to previous games' choices.

 

But streamlined for DA can be seen for the reasons you mention, quite validly: increased dialogue, character models, visual detail, game engine specs, all cost money. Money that has to come from somewhere, so the effort of branching paths, multiple dialogue pathways and quest outcomes is reduced to compensate.

 

While crafting is more complex in DAI, I assume it takes less resources than writing dialogue and hiring voice actors, paying the writers to make branching quest paths and make previous games' choices have substantial impact on the game world. And this is why so much side content was contained in notes and letters rather than NPCs or interactive quests. Shifting resources to pay for better technology and such. It's inevitable and makes sense, but to me it does mean a lot of the actual gameplay and story content does become streamlined.

[Heimdall]

One theory is that Bioware knows that a vocal contingent of fans on these boards are the perpetual "Bioware is dead to me because they changed things in their new game" folks that never seem to go away.

Thus, they want to wipe the slate clean as they launch the next wave of products, maybe quietly creating new forums for new fans to discover after the release of MEA.

[vbibbi]

One theory is that Bioware knows that a vocal contingent of fans on these boards are the perpetual "Bioware is dead to me because they changed things in their new game" folks that never seem to go away.

Thus, they want to wipe the slate clean as they launch the next wave of products, maybe quietly creating new forums for new fans to discover after the release of MEA.

 

Yeah that's my assumption. And I'm sure they consider me as one of those perpetual naysayers who won't die.

 

I really don't understand their PR strategy, though. In this and most other things. They really don't seem too concerned with burning bridges, and eventually their goodwill with fans runs out.

[Heimdall]

Yeah that's my assumption. And I'm sure they consider me as one of those perpetual naysayers who won't die.

I really don't understand their PR strategy, though. In this and most other things. They really don't seem too concerned with burning bridges, and eventually their goodwill with fans runs out.

Well, I can't remember a time when Bioware had good marketing judgement.

[Pasquale1234]

I agree with this. It's a shame that people have turned to personally attacking employees and they no longer feel safe/welcome here. That's pretty gross of the community.
 
The issue with closing the forums is that it doesn't actually seem to be about the employees. The reasons Bioware has given are nonsensical and have nothing to do with their stated goal of having the community interact with developers.

The announcement talks about all of the other social media venues / geek culture that have sprung up over the last few years, and the devs interact in these other arenas, too. The more of these other venues that arise, the thinner they are spread in order to try to keep up with as many as they can.
 

If this were about Bioware employees why wouldn't they have closed the forums after ME3 or even DAI? Why now, two years after their latest game release and less than a year before their next release?

I expect it's been simmering on the back burner for quite awhile now. I think it was an awfully difficult decision, but these forums have been mostly ignored by BioWare for quite some time - and they finally formalized the decision to get it over with.
 

By completely erasing the boards, it seems more like Bioware wants to erase public record of complaints against them, warranted or unwarranted, and completely control fan feedback.
 
If the Bio devs really hate these forums, my impression is that they haven't come here for some time, anyway, so what has changed that they feel the need to nuke them? Conal stated that it wasn't a fiscal reason, so if that's true, what is the reason?

Have you ever left something simmering on the back burner for so long that just keeps getting harder and harder to deal with, to the point where you feel you have little choice but to blow it up, walk away, and maybe start over? At this point, there is so much unmoderated stuff in these forums, it feels like searching through a cesspool to find a few gold nuggets.

I'm just as disappointed and confused about it as anyone else - all I can really offer are a few theories.
 

While crafting is more complex in DAI, I assume it takes less resources than writing dialogue and hiring voice actors, paying the writers to make branching quest paths and make previous games' choices have substantial impact on the game world. And this is why so much side content was contained in notes and letters rather than NPCs or interactive quests. Shifting resources to pay for better technology and such. It's inevitable and makes sense, but to me it does mean a lot of the actual gameplay and story content does become streamlined.

Excellent point there.

I was actually quite surprised when they "went there" with a full-on mage rebellion, because people have such entirely different opinions about how they would like that to be resolved, and at some point the world state needs to be homogenized to some degree. In the end, our only influence was over the selection of the next Divine, which won't be too difficult for them to deal with going forward.

But, yeah, everything about branching cinematic storylines that lead to multiple world states is very expensive to produce and manage.

[Tidus]

Heimdall,Maybe they're like other companies to concern about the bottom line and pleasing their investors more then customers?

 

I'm on a R/C forum and was among those that raise a racket about  one company's crappy motor and  the company responded that they will look into the matter.  The last two releases has a new and improve motor so, maybe there is a lesson there that BW can used?

[Heimdall]

Heimdall,Maybe they're like other companies to concern about the bottom line and pleasing their investors more then customers?

I'm on a R/C forum and was among those that raise a racket about one company's crappy motor and the company responded that they will look into the matter. The last two releases has a new and improve motor so, maybe there is a lesson there that BW can used?

A motor that doesn't function properly isn't the same as a game that has design elements you don't like.

[vbibbi]

Well, I can't remember a time when Bioware had good marketing judgement.

 

True, I should have been more specific in for how long I haven't understood their PR   Perhaps when employees speak directly with the community, it helps defuse unpopular decisions, if only because the employees remind us that they're all people too and are really invested in creating awesome games. It is our fault (the forums, not anyone specifically in this thread) that they no longer come here individually and engage us. But that has unfortunately contributed to the downward spiral of Bioware PR.

 

The announcement talks about all of the other social media venues / geek culture that have sprung up over the last few years, and the devs interact in these other arenas, too. The more of these other venues that arise, the thinner they are spread in order to try to keep up with as many as they can.
 

I expect it's been simmering on the back burner for quite awhile now. I think it was an awfully difficult decision, but these forums have been mostly ignored by BioWare for quite some time - and they finally formalized the decision to get it over with.
 

Have you ever left something simmering on the back burner for so long that just keeps getting harder and harder to deal with, to the point where you feel you have little choice but to blow it up, walk away, and maybe start over? At this point, there is so much unmoderated stuff in these forums, it feels like searching through a cesspool to find a few gold nuggets.

I'm just as disappointed and confused about it as anyone else - all I can really offer are a few theories.
 

Excellent point there.

I was actually quite surprised when they "went there" with a full-on mage rebellion, because people have such entirely different opinions about how they would like that to be resolved, and at some point the world state needs to be homogenized to some degree. In the end, our only influence was over the selection of the next Divine, which won't be too difficult for them to deal with going forward.

But, yeah, everything about branching cinematic storylines that lead to multiple world states is very expensive to produce and manage.

 

Good analogy here, and personally I can understand how frustrating that would be for them. I really feel bad for those who have needed therapy or to avoid public engagement because of community reaction.

 

OTOH, Bioware is a company and their business management should not be equivalent to how an individual would handle a really tough situation. Nowhere in the devs job descriptions are they required to come to the forums and engage customers. It was a nice bonus. BUT Bioware as a company had an obligation to manage these forums since they opened, and by letting the situation bottle up until their best solution was to nuke to rubble, they poorly handled part of their company.

 

It's awful that individual employees no longer felt like they could come here. But that doesn't waive Bioware' responsibility of these forums, and they should have been able to better manage before it got to this point of no return. I see people willing to cut Bioware slack as if they were a person going through some rough times. Why should consumers cut slack on poor management practices from a multimillion dollar company? We should not attack or belittle the company or employees, but I don't think it's fair to us as consumers to say "well the forums were being mean so of course the company had every right to abandon it, and then arbitrarily decide to take it down and eliminate any positive impact it still had for the community."

 

This all really strikes me as PR management rather than because Bioware feels they aren't being "fair" to the community by not engaging them here. The forums don't expect to be engaged by Bioware here anymore. It seems more like proactively eliminating the chance for bad community reactions to MEA.

 

And note, I am in no way stating that I think MEA will be bad or disappointing or anything. There's honestly not enough information at this point for me to make any sort of prediction, although I have personal biases. But I think based on the last few years, Bioware has decided to be overly conservative on allowing unmonitored community reaction to its new releases. Which is reasonable enough, considering even if MEA is an amazing game, it won't be to everyone's tastes and some will complain no matter what. But rather than take that risk, PR has decided to eliminate the primary source of potential negative feedback.

 

Perhaps leaving the forums up as read only would still serve to immortalize all previous negativity toward Bioware and they want to start over. But it does seem to be throwing the baby out with the bathwater, and intentionally trying to drop older fans for a new customer base.