Is Bioware the biggest tragedy of gaming history?

[The One Percent]

EA and Activision are both toxic to the industry. They destroy everything they touch and try to milk as much money out of gamers as they can.

[Durandro]

Nope, thats THQ.

I'd say that's more criminal. I have no idea how they mismanaged their budget so badly with the number of fantastic games they released.

[Wilian]

Biggest? Not by far. I wouldn't even say it's a tragedy. They willingly joined in with EA and anyone who saw the deal happen in 2007 knew that this was the end. The immediate decline and deteration that was obvious enough to happen for anyone joining hands with that mammoth showed when the team had shipped their last "independently" done games.

It only was a self fulfilling prophecy.

[Wilian]

Well at least Westwood didn't start making bad games before being killed off. They were killed off after making Red Alert 2 - one of the best RTS's ever made. But its still tragic.

The last Westwood title that they had creative control over was Tiberian Sun and even if EA rushed it out (after buying the company in mid developement and then reducing the dev time by half), it came out as far more ambitious and feature filled game than RA2. The only thing that RA2 ever had over TS was more polish. RA2 was a stump of a game compared to TS.

Here for your reading leisure.

Electronic Arts, who had acquired Westwood Studios in 1998 and published Tiberian Sun, and had no direct part in its development, pushed for Tiberian Sun's release ahead of schedule, resulting in a number of engine and gameplay features being omitted from the game, some of which were later included in Firestorm expansion pack. Subsequent games in the franchise were also heavily subjected to increased control by Electronic Arts, as well as departure of numerous Westwood personnel, eventually resulting in Westwood being closed down and assimilated.

Several images and references in the Tiberian Sun "rules" file indicate that more features were planned for the release. A former Westwood employee working for Petroglyph elaborated upon them in March and May 2007.[4] A "loadout" screen was to be implemented, allowing commanders to pick units to take into battle before missions. The "loadout" screen was finished in a prototype sequel to Tiberian Sun, codenamed Command & Conquer: Incursion, but Westwood was dissolved and Electronic Arts did not revive the concept.[citation needed] Drop-pods were intended to be customizable for GDI before deployment. Lighting was intended to make a huge difference for day/night play, as units spotted by light posts/towers would be susceptible to enemy fire at greater ranges, and in turn would suffer a reduction in their own range ability. Westwood planned the Hunter/Seeker Droid option to support selection of target types, but ultimately the droid was made to attack at random. Developers also didn't have enough time to finalize balanced differences in terrain types, or to make The Forgotten a full faction for the expansion, as it was initially intended.

[Durandro]

Actually, I forgot about Tiberium Sun. That was a really good game.

[MarySue]

I felt like that when Black isle went down. Neither dragon age or even skyrim came close to Baldur's gate series or Planescape torment,not to mention Fallout

[Wildmoon]

Bioware is not the company I mostly buy from but I did enjoy one of their games immensely which was DA:O. DA2 was garbage imo. I am not the kind of person who judge the quality of games base on developer's reputation. I judge it by watching youtube and some preview/reviews and decide for myself. If a game is fun and it comes from EA then I will buy it with no problem. As it has been proved many times that everyone makes mistakes so I find it ok for famous company to release medicore games from time to time as long as it's not on purpose.

[Todgruppe]

Westwood and Cavedog were pretty tragic as well.

RIP C&C and Total Annihilation.

[Deleted]

RIP C&C and Total Annihilation.

Wouldn't put TA to bed just yet:

http://www.uberent.com/pa/

Planetary Annihilation looks like it has some potential to be a nice successor, hopefuly it will be better than supreme commander.

[Todgruppe]

Why should gamers be treated differently? Your oil companies don't milk as much as possible from us? Funny how people think gaming needs to be all about caring and ..hell..even losing money just to make gamers happy? If those companies do indeed destroy anything they touch, I guess we are free to buy different products?

Because some feel, whether right or wrong, gaming was the last vestige of not getting fucked over by "the man". That aura is gone in the form of EA/Ubisoft/etc.

[Deleted]

Why should gamers be treated differently? Your oil companies don't milk as much as possible from us? Funny how people think gaming needs to be all about caring and ..hell..even losing money just to make gamers happy? If those companies do indeed destroy anything they touch, I guess we are free to buy different products?

Well it being an entertainment industry I would say making people happy is very important.

I like some of the games EA and activision make, I just don't like their business model.

[Deleted]

Because some feel, whether right or wrong, gaming was the last vestige of not getting fucked over by "the man". That aura is gone in the form of EA/Ubisoft/etc.

Yeah like games being released with DLC on the same day...

[scvd]

In short. No.

[Deleted]

I think it's mostly just nostalgia talking. For example when Mass Effect 3 was about to come out, I decided to play 1 and 2 again to get a perfect save.. and guess what. ME1 just sucked compared to 2 and 3. The story was still good and graphics were ok for that time but the gameplay was just bad and all those boring reused terrain and riding around in that truck.

Also like 95% of games that come out have always been bad and not worth the time.

But the good news is that as a customer you can actually control the quality. Just don't buy the games you think are bad and buy the ones you like and let the money do the talking.

[Deleted]

i would say bullfrog.. but Peter Molyneux is just a giant douche now so im kinda glad they arent around anymore

[noralya]

Blizzard is massively sliping away from what it once was. Before it cared ONLY about gameplay and the quality of a game. Now it's all about "acessibility" and getting as many subs as possible.
Look at how many "features" wow has that could be for free such as name change, xrealm, xfaction, race change, microtansactions with pets from the store etc.
Adding "multiple dificulty levels" rather then focusing on actual content.
How many months was naxramas the only instance being raided? (save for some other 1 boss instances)
How good was Trial of the crusader quality wise to any of the previous instances?
How long did people had only ICC to raid?



The focus has been moved from making excelent gameplay by a few passionate game developers, to huge companies making games to milk as much monney as they can.

Did diablo 3 REALLY need a RMAH? was it THAT better for the game? was a gold ah not enough? Have chinese gold farmers and bots sudently dissapeard because of this?

Sigh... Seriously? People need to stop spewing bullcrap like "game companies' only goals were to provide sunshine and rainbows for us costumers, now they're all greedy and evil bastards, booohooo!"

Newsflash: Every single successful company,

ever,

even gaming companies,

every. single. one.

is out to make.... MONEY! "GASP OF HORROR"

None of these companies are charitable organisations guys, they need to make money, that is ALL there is to it.

Horrible isn't it? Well, no. Because how d'you make the most money? Have the best games around.

guess what, if DRM and mandatory micro transactions were a viable business plan for gaming companies, I can guaran-fuckin-tee you, EVERY SINGLE GAME RELEASED would have such features.

It's like people bitchin about XBone and PS4, making it look like Sony were angels or the Second coming of christ or whatever. The only reason Sony didn't try and implement something like Microsoft was planning was because they were smart enough to know it wouldn't be well received by players. That's all. Not because of some carebear, "we lovez teh peoplez" attitude. Just because it WAS. NOT. PROFITABLE.

Jesus.

[Eliandal]

Wow...short memories...

OSI - original makers of (almost) all things Ultima

Sierra Online...

Both of which took far bigger falls than Bioware

[Drithien]

Man, that thing about Bioware rings so true. When they were an independent studio it was as if they could do no wrong. And as they went from success to success I couldn't help but wonder: just how much better will their games be with all the money that they make, giving them the opportunity to do just so much more. And now this... Mass Effect 1 was the last great game that they made for me. And it has so much potential to be the greatest role-playing game, ever. The scope of personal choice and customisation was immense; and of course it would only get better from there on. Right? Wrong. Queue Mass Effect 2, which ditched even the state of its predecessor for accessibilty, turning a game with vast potential, in a role-playing/shooter hybrid. Instead of the game digging even more into its role-playing elements, with all the nerdgasms that would entail; it started wanting to be Modern Warfare, in space, with some role-playing elements. From the essence of role-playing games, the forging of ones story, the in-depth gameplay, to cheap attempts at coolness, and by-the-book structure.

Sadly, they seem to be just one of many. Resident Evil got annihilated by Capcom; starting with 3. For survival horror to a Modern Warfare-scene-laden, action packed Gears of War with zombies. From counting your pistol bullets, and agonizing about their usage whenever you came across a zombie in a dark corridor, to raining bullets on hordes of enemies. World of WarCraft similarly went from an open-world, huge fricking world, filled with adventure and mystery, to arguing about whether dailies and raiding are viable reasons to play; from 38 zones in vanilla to... 8 in the expansions. And then there is Tomb Raider, that just had to get the God-of-War treatment to look exciting, although it's supposed to be an exploration and platforming game. Splinter Cell's shame of a devolution. Rare's fall from grace: from the developers of masterpieces like GoldenEye 007 and Banjo-Kazooie to making Kinect games. And so on. The overall view is just disheartening.

My personal "favourite" are Monolith. The creators of Blood, Shogo, F.E.A.R., Aliens versus Predator 2, the best-first-person-shooter-ever: No One Lives Forever; they have been something like my heroes in game development. From one crazy idea to the next. They just set trends, and keep on going. Or at least used to. Now they develop half-price games that some people may play for a few weeks and then forget they ever existed like Gotham Impostors and Guardians of Middle-Earth.

It seems like commercial success is both a blessing and a curse for videogames. Developers get more reasources to make games, but publishers and share-holders stump down on them to make more easy and safe profit. And in a world that is ruled by money, there is not much that can be done, other than stay independent and pray you don't go bankrupt.

[Lithios]

I agree with Rare. Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Banjo Kazooie, The Donkey Kong series, CONKER. Literally some of the most iconic and well made games in all of gaming history made there and now they make Kinect games.

[Deleted]

Agreed. Bioware has gone down the shitter. Sure their production values are way up but their games are turning mediocre.

Interplay is another tragic story.