When we first got married, hubby was the gamer. He was passionate about games like Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights. Then Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic released and he had the very first hook for gaming that drew me in. I watched as he played Jade Empire on the XBox after work and eventually got brave enough to give it a go myself. But nothing beats my first Bioware game KOTOR and the special place it holds in my heart to this day. Bioware was THE standard for RPG gaming. They managed to tell compelling stories, have interesting game play and always seemed more concerned about was the game fun and ready for release than meeting corporate goals just because those goals existed.
Then Bioware was bought by EA and everything changed. Way back then, hubby predicted that EA would be the death of Bioware. And slowly, and I loathe to commit the following words to print, he was being proven correct with each new game release. The nails in the coffin, so to speak, were Star Wars: The Old Republic and Mass Effect 3. Both games, while having their strong points and decent stories, showed strong evidence of being rushed to market and a dramatic decline in the powerful story telling EA is capable of.
Today, Bioware announced the death of the company although it was in the format of a blog posting concerning the retirement of it’s founders, Drs. Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk. I am seriously bummed. I wish them both the best in all their future endeavors, but I dread any new titles being released. I don’t trust Bioware after the tragic, horrible, “what the hell was THAT!?!” ending of Mass Effect 3, and that was with the doctors still at the helm of the company but under EA’s thumb. I’m sure that EA will continue to push Bioware to publish crap games to make money at the expense of game play, story telling, and players.
No comments:
Post a Comment