The BioWare Thread

BioWare is a video game developer located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, founded in 1995 by Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip. BioWare is currently owned by EA. The company specialises in RPGs, and became famous for launching highly praised titles such as Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. They proceeded to make several other successful games such as Jade Empire, the Mass Effect series and the Dragon Age series. In 2011, BioWare launched their first MMORPG: Star Wars: The Old Republic.

While BioWare's releases were initially acclaimed, following the EA acquisition their reputation began to suffer. Dragon Age II received a mixed to negative reaction from BioWare fans and critics and the ending of Mass Effect 3 proved so controversial that BioWare was forced to release a new ending via free DLC to rectify the problem. Similarly, while The Old Republic had a successful launch its subscriber base began to decline forcing the game to adopt a hybrid free-to-play model to remain profitable. Dragon Age: Inquisition opened to a warmer reception than Dragon Age II, but some longtime fans felt the game failed to live up to the standard set by Dragon Age: Origins.

Personally, Knights of the Old Republic is one of my favourite games of all time and I loved the Mass Effect series. Yes, even Mass Effect 3. I played it after the ending shitstorm had blown over with the "Extended Cut" DLC, so I never had to suffer through the disappointment that was the original ending. I've never played Dragon Age, but I have Origins with all the DLC festering away on my computer and I still mean to give it a whirl.

As for the other stuff, I'm not a fan of MMORPGs, but The Old Republic marks the longest I ever stuck with a MMORPG before getting bored which is saying something. I'm currently undecided on whether to get Mass Effect: Andromeda. I played the other Mass Effect games on PC, but I don't think my laptop will be powerful enough to handle the new one and I'm not sure I want to switch over to consoles for the new series. That and one of the people working on the game is an open racist.

 

Used to love Bioware, but now I'm not a fan. The steady removal of classic RPG elements from their games + locking plot-critical characters and stories behind a paywall have pretty much spent any good karma they had built up with me.

Also the character designs for Andromeda are ugly