BioWare: EA doesn't tell us what to do

By Robert Purchese Published 3 October, 2011

"We still have huge autonomy," say Docs.

BioWare still has "huge autonomy" in what it does, co-founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk have promised Eurogamer. To say that EA now calls the shots "is not actually remotely true".

"One thing we commonly see is when fans don't like something we do, they put in the comments, 'Oh those EA guys, they're making BioWare do...' And I always chuckle because we are EA, we're BioWare - we're both, and we still have huge autonomy in terms of what we do," Greg Zeschuk told us.

"We're not being forced to do anything or told to do anything. We make the decisions. We take input.

"It's just funny when people say that, because it's not actually remotely true."

"At the end of the day, we're responsible for the quality of the content and games we release, and we're committed to try and always take feedback really seriously from our fans and be humble about how we take it - use it to make the next games better," Ray Muzyka added.

"You're only as good as your next game, and that's the way we've always felt. That's still very much a philosophy at BioWare; quality in our products and delivering each game and exceeding expectations and always trying to delight and surprise our consumers. That's still what we try and do."

"Not that we're bound to it, but we think a lot more about the commercial elements than we used to."

Greg Zeschuk, co-founder, BioWare

EA bought BioWare's parent company VG Holdings (also owner of the late Pandemic Studios) in 2007. Autonomy or not, The BioWare Pair admitted to paying more attention to the commercial prospects of a budding idea today than they used to.

"Not that we're bound to it, but we think a lot more about the commercial elements than we used to," Zeschuk explained. "Way, way back, years ago, we didn't even consider those, we just made stuff. And some of the stuff we made, in retrospect, was kind of crazy, like MDK2 - that's just crazy!"

"We thought about commercial," interjected Muzyka.

"Yeah," chimed Zeschuk, "but not on a..."

"High level," finished Muzyka.

"You have to let go of that to a certain degree otherwise you'll always be a follower," continued Zeschuk. "We're this funny combination where we understand the commercial pieces but we're also willing to take risks that we think are sensible - and we're willing to take risks that may seem kind of crazy. We're still driven to a certain degree by that intuition that we had back in the day.

"The key," declared Muzyka, "is to never lose sight of the fact that, at the end of the day, we're making entertainment and art. We're tying to make a fun experience for the fans. They're one of our key stake holders and we have to deliver and exceed their expectations.

"EA has a green-light process which we participate in but again, it's like, OK, are you not going to green-light Mass Effect 3? Like, really?

Greg Zeschuk

Today, Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka - both high flyers within EA, not just BioWare - are removed from the rank and file of day-to-day game development. Muzyka bosses the RPG/MMO label at EA, and Zeschuk is focused on the impending launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic. They typically delegate other duties to their experienced team leaders: Casey Hudson for Mass Effect, and Mike Laidlaw for Dragon Age.

"It's interesting because when we start out to make something, it's almost pre-green-lit," Zeschuk shared. "When Ray and I sat down with Casey [Hudson] to do Mass Effect, we all kind of said, 'Hey let's make a space game.' And Casey said, 'Yeah, well I want to make it a space opera.'

"'OK.'

"That was the green light.

"EA has a green-light process which we participate in," Zeschuk added with a smile, "but again, it's like, OK, are you not going to green-light Mass Effect 3? Like, really? You know what I mean."

BioWare games today - Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Star Wars: The Old Republic - merge features from each other and the past. "A lot of the same principles are there," Muzyka explained. "The pillars of gameplay that we followed then, like 15 or 20 years ago, are still very similar now, but we deploy them in different ways."

Your BioWare game has also been "supplemented" by market research (to check you want it); mock reviews at a development milestones (to get an outside critical opinion); and tested by normal people. "They're never wrong," said Muzyka of testers. "It helps you craft tutorials, to refine the flow."

Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka also play the games.

"We still play everything we release, we always have and we always will. We enter a lot of feedback, a lot of bugs," said Muzyka.

"Most of our our games, before we ship them, we finish them several times. The Old Republic, we're probably at that level or higher, in terms of hours.

"That's been running for a while. Actually we do keep track, and I believe it's hundreds of hours," added Zeschuk.

"Both of us," remarked Muzyka. "There's many people in the team that are, too - it's the kind of game you can sink a lot of time into and have a great time throughout."

Muzyka revealed that he played Neverwinter Nights for three years after release. "I tried a lot of fan content," he said, "user-generated modules, made some myself - not very good ones."

Under a fake name?

"Yeah, I think so," recalled Muzyka.

"Muzyka?" quipped Zeschuk. "No one can ever recognise him!"

"Akyzum," riposted Muzyka, laughing. "No, no."

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (61) Latest comment 8 months ago

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  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #1 8 months ago

    So the online pass for Mass Effect 3 was Biowares idea then, that's pretty coincidental

  • Bleemo #2 8 months ago

    The docs have lost all credibility to me they just sound like suits. It hasn't stopped Bioware from making the Mass Effect games that I like but there is definitely early signs that Bioware are on the slippery slope what with the crap DLC for their recent games and Dragon Age 2.

  • Kami #3 8 months ago

    "You're only as good as your next game, and that's the way we've always felt"

    Surely that should be only as good as your LAST game?

    Otherwise, I don't think EA are squeezing them. But with so many projects on the go, I often wonder if BioWare are stretching themselves rather thin in some areas - the quick and cheap copy-paste feel of Dragon Age 2 for example, doesn't show a lot of love and care or attention to detail. Just turned out as quickly as possible.

    Which is a pity. But then, I have no idea what goes on internally. I'm sure some people thought the design of Dragon Age 2 was "forward-thinking" and "revolutionary" inside, whereas what a lot of gamers felt and saw was "Cop-out" and "Lazy design".

    Less is more - but that less really does have to shine for that to hold true.
    Edited by Kami at 03/10/11 @ 15:17

  • bad09 #4 8 months ago

    Well if EA don't tell you what to do you've become crap on your own then?

  • unacomn #5 8 months ago

    Of course you have autonomy. Everything related to Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age 2 inspires the belief that you have autonomy.

    Also, you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

  • HyperTails #6 8 months ago

    BioWare make some of the best games around IMO, but when you consider issues that Dragon Age 2 had like its rushed dev cycle, even though I love the game, it seems like it was EA saying they wanted it out NOW. And Mass Effect 3 rumours of a multilayer mode sound susiciously like EA.

  • digoutyoursoul #7 8 months ago

    dont believe him, the head guy at ea stated all future games will have sort of multiplayer. i love mass effect and its mythology but i get slightly annoyed when i hear that potential multiplayer could be implemented, the game or the series does not need it, it does not need co-op either, imagine you want to do a good personal playthrough and someone on your team makes a balls of it with a decision?

    mass effect is a single player experience.

  • ubergine #8 8 months ago

    Well it's great that they take responsibility for Dragon Age 2 being tepid, underdeveloped garbage. Richard Garriot I expect would have blamed EA for Ultima 8 and 9 being such shit games.

  • henro_ben #9 8 months ago

    They sound more like they're trying to convince themselves rather than us.

    Pull the other one good doctors, it's got bells on etc.

  • geeza2020 #10 8 months ago

    Stopped reading at:

    "One thing we commonly see is when fans don't like something we do, they put in the comments, 'Oh those EA guys, they're making BioWare do...' And I always chuckle because we are EA,..."

    /vader
    NOOOOOOOOooooooo!!
    Edited by geeza2020 at 03/10/11 @ 16:09

  • HyperTails #11 8 months ago

    Now that I think about it, Kinect in Mass Effect 3 sounds like Microsoft giving EA a cheque and EA telling BioWare that theyll be forced to add it into the game, rather than BioWare deciding to add in the feature.

  • HL706 #12 8 months ago

    So if BioWare call the shots, and Mike Laidlaw is responsible for Dragon Age, why hasn't he been sacked yet?

  • Sikosh #13 8 months ago

    Of course they don't. Because EA never would get anyone to churn out a sub standard sequel in a year that was just a cash in on the franchise, right? I mean, it's not like they've ever done that before.

    /Dragon Age 2

  • hulahoops #14 8 months ago

    "'Oh those EA guys, they're making BioWare do...' And I always chuckle because we are EA, we're BioWare - we're both, and we still have huge autonomy in terms of what we do," Greg Zeschuk told us."

    Oh those EA guys, they're making BioWare say that.

    Nah, I work for a company in a similar position; had success in its own right then was bought by EA.

    Every time our fans don't like something they say exactly the same thing "EA made them do it, it was so much better before".

    The truth is that EA is extremely strict about never acting like that. They're completely hands off. They offer advice, but they're extremely insistent on letting successful companies keep on trucking as they always have done. They're like the manager who hires a team and trusts them implicitly to make their own judgements these days.

    Of course, I never would have said such a thing before EA fitted these darn mind control implants in my head.

  • Koozer #15 8 months ago

    I read that as "We still have huge anatomy."

  • makariel #16 8 months ago

    Of course EA will greenlight Mass Effect 4 and Dragon Age 3. But will they greenlight Jade Empire 2? Or an entirely new IP? Will they greenlight Dragon Age 3, 4 and 5 without online pass and tacked-on multiplayer component?

  • bobfish09 #17 8 months ago

    EA gave them a huge amount of power, they are in charge of EVERY role playing game that EA has ever made, is making and will ever make.

    Of course EA don't tell them what to do, you only give that much power to people who already think like you!

  • darkmorgado #18 8 months ago

    at the end of the day, we're making entertainment and art.

    Please explain Dragon Age II, because that was neither.

  • MojoDex #19 8 months ago

    Dear Bioware

    Stop Lying.

    From
    Gamers

  • yoomazir #20 8 months ago

    "BioWare still has "huge autonomy"

    sure Ray, sure Greg, I believe you guys, after all, you were the ones who sold it to EA...

  • Spekingur #21 8 months ago

    You only say it's huge to get girls...

  • ChairmanYang #22 8 months ago

    I'm inclined to believe the doctors about this. After all, the Bioware rot began well before the EA purchase. Baldur's Gate 2 was the company's peak; after that, Neverwinter Nights, KOTOR, and Jade Empire were all pale, dumbed-down shadows.

    So it's not EA's fault. Want to know the real reason Bioware has fallen so far? Read this quote from the article:
    "Not that we're bound to it, but we think a lot more about the commercial elements than we used to," Zeschuk explained. "Way, way back, years ago, we didn't even consider those, we just made stuff."

  • Lord_BeeJee #23 8 months ago

    It doesn't matter who is to blame but it's sad to see their games turn into slick, polished presentations that hide all complexity so they don't confuse the newly targeted customers (drones without a free will). I fear for mass effect 3 :/

  • GamesConnoisseur #24 8 months ago

    ^

    I agree that BGII Shadows of the Amn was the peak, but later games, KOTOR, Neverwinter Nights and Jade Empire weren't as dumbed down as ME2 or DA2!

    I enjoyed all their games but their games although still has great qualities, particular ME2, but we can see how much they tried to make it too appealing for the mass market and discarding the deeper RPG elements. DA2 went much too far, shoddy rushed works, never bothered to disguise the same standard map being reused. Wouldn't mind as much if covered the unused bits to give some illusion.

    Blatantly killed the illusion, as if leaving all lights on when on ghost train.

    That not showing you cared as much as you did in earlier games. Backlashes from DAII gives me hope that MEIII ll br more refined than that.

  • RevanNL #25 8 months ago

    BioWare: EA doesn't tell us what to do, they just give us suggestions and since they provide the money, we're very inclined to follow those suggestions
    Edited by RevanNL at 03/10/11 @ 17:42

  • anomagnus #26 8 months ago

    I know people on this site, and on others to be fair to EG, would love this to be true. LOVE IT. After all, one of the coolest internet bandwagons to be on right now is Anti Bioware. Doesn't make a it a fact, though.

    From what i've read, on multiple sources, on multiple studios, EA is doing its best to remain hands off. Its allowing games studios to make the best games they can.

    Of course, when you see something you don't like, its EA's fault. Its EA's fault that Bioware wants to put multiplayer in. Never mind the fact that bioware was putting multiplayer in RPGs years ago. How many of you even remember that BG2 had multi player? Do you even recall that NVN was in fact a prototype MMO? Bioware was pushing multiplayer long before it was the standard.

    Instead, like a shower of ignorant pricks, out come the trolls to play. Bioware were pushing RPG multiplayer years ago, they actually STOPPED when they weren't with EA, and now they've started again. While you can disagree with the game play mechanics all you want (and given the fact that you need an internet band wagon to play on to be 'cool', i'm sure you will), but you cannot argue with the fact they achieved commercial AND critical sucess with the ME franchise and the DA franchise.

  • hiddenranbir #27 8 months ago

    I'm glad Bioware have mentioned this again, got bored of this "ea ruined Bioware" talk. Bioware ruined Bioware.


    Neg me but they're saying MDK was crazy when infact it was a great idea. To imply that they wouldn't do MDK now they're in this more dominant position is what makes it very sad.
    Edited by hiddenranbir at 03/10/11 @ 19:19

  • arcam #28 8 months ago

    but you cannot argue with the fact they achieved commercial AND critical sucess with the ME franchise and the DA franchise

    No one's arguing that, and it's missing the entire point anyway. Really your post reads like the internet cool kids kicked you out of their group or something and you still haven't got over it.

  • sabbede #29 8 months ago

    Oh come on Docs, let EA take the heat!

  • Shikasama #30 8 months ago

    Saying something like EA let Bioware make the best games it can, then looking at the game Bioware make, is not much of a defense of Bioware.

  • anomagnus #31 8 months ago

    @arcum

    The first three paragraphs addressed the point, I didn't think I needed to put into the last paragraph.

    But then, you weren't really interested in that, as you just wanted to make a pithy remark. Just because people want to believe EA is calling the shots, doesn't make it fact. Had you you read my full post, you would have seen that.

    I'm sorry that 4 paragraphs was too much for you

  • Nevflinn #32 8 months ago

    Listen, docs, the first step to recovery is to admitting you have a problem. You are the s-t-r-o-n-g one: you don't have to let EA abuse you like this.

  • simonpm #33 8 months ago

    I don't believe the autonomy rhetoric for a second.

    When any organisation is absorbed by a larger parent company, they ALWAYS have to fall in line with their wishes. The same happened when Blizzard fell in with Acti-greed. Before you knew it, they were concentrating more on selling shiny flying horse mounts from their store website rather than actually fixing the class balance within the game.

    The same will happen to Bioware (EA) and Id (Bethesda).

  • arcam #34 8 months ago

    @anomagnus

    I may have dismissed your point for being bitter and vitriolic, but that's no worse than you dismissing everyone else's point for wanting to be part of some cool kids' internet hatewagon.

  • Lemming81 #35 8 months ago

    In other words 'our mistakes are our own'. Good to know.

  • CaptainKid #36 8 months ago

    "You're only as good as your next game, and that's the way we've always felt"

    Dragon Age 2.

  • SheffAl #37 8 months ago

    It just doesn't wash. You are doing the Online pass like all the other EA games because EA told you. That is not autonomy.

  • anomagnus #38 8 months ago

    @arcum
    I might well have treated some other people with respect, had they presented a point, and not an opinion. The truth is, i don't work for Bioware, or EA, and i am willing to bet not one other person here does. So really, NONE of us know whats going on in there.

    Yet there are two many people on this site willing to come on, and make a claim that EA is ruining bioware based purely on their anger because recent games weren't want they wanted. Just because people disliked DA2 doesn't mean EA calls the shots. Thats not a point. Thats pure internet bullshit opinion.

    More than that, the hypocrisy around bioware is disgusting. I compare the favourable response that naughty dog gets for a multiplayer in uncharted to mass effects, and what is said about ME. Multiplayer is core to neither game, and i'd agree that an attempt to force it into games with such strong narrative would be a mistake. But if it as optional extra, then what difference does it make? You're never forced to play. One game gets a gold star for it, the other gets berated. How can you tell me thats not anything but a bandwagon?

    Regardless, we'll see what happens when ME3 comes out. If i have one fear for it, it is that it will be over cooked. In a vain attempt to please so called 'hard core fans', they'll stumble at the last step. I still look forward to the game, and i'll still call bullshit when i see it around the anti bioware bitching that i see. Further to that, EA have been responsible for some of the games i enjoyed most over the past few years, including Crysis, Dead Space, ME and DA. I find it hard to hate them for the crime of delivering a product that i want.
    Edited by anomagnus at 03/10/11 @ 18:17

  • Apaar #39 8 months ago

    Some problems I've noticed with their games:

    TOR seems very clunky and old in terms of gameplay and is visually horrid, and many if not most original fans would have preferred a KOTOR 3.

    Mass Effect 3 takes further steps towards Gears of War, adds kinect waggle, and with rumours of multiplayer in the mix, I can't help but feel that the general anticipation for the game is much lower than it was for ME2.

    Dragon Age 2 was an utter failure on virtually all respects, and their condescending post-release attitude has been like salt to the wounds.

    BioWare DLC is rarely any good, often laughably bad.
    Edited by Apaar at 03/10/11 @ 18:19

  • zoweewowee #40 8 months ago

    That's very surprising. At least now we can blame them and only them for turning mass effect into shite

  • arcam #41 8 months ago

    Regardless, we'll see what happens when ME3 comes out. If i have one fear for it, it is that it will be over cooked. In a vain attempt to please so called 'hard core fans', they'll stumble at the last step.

    That opinion shows just how we are on opposite ends of the scale on this debate. That Bioware will ruin the last game in their increasingly watered-down series by focusing too much on their hardcore fans is the last thing I expect to happen.

    My prediction is that half of EG will hate it, the other half will call it GOTY as soon as it's released, and we'll get precisely nowhere in finding a definitive answer as to whether Bioware have been getting better or worse since they were sold to EA.

    Edited by arcam at 03/10/11 @ 18:32

  • anomagnus #42 8 months ago

    @Apaar

    You're on the TOR beta, are you? Or is this a guess? The game combat seems exactly like WoW, to be quite frank.

    Secondly, i didn't know there was a ME3 beta? Could you tell us what the story is like on it?

    Finally, regarding DA2. It is your OPINION that it was poor. I didn't find it poor. If it didn't fail for me, why is it a failure?

    You're entitled to your opinion, no doubt, but its pretty hard to think of it as bullshit when you're pontificating before the games are already out.

    @Arcum

    This is the type of person i was referring to, and the reason why i think most people are jumping on a bandwagon. Ill informed, pre concieved opinions, with either zero basis in fact, or a passing glance at something.

  • anomagnus #43 8 months ago

    @arcam

    Curious, how for you this has to be a competition between two opinion sets about how good bioware is now. I mean, you can have your opinion, but there are some easily checked facts. DA and ME are both commerical AND critical successes. ME2 acheived higher scores, and more sales POST EA purchase. Thats in not in dispute. Thats not an opinion. Its just fact.

    This isn't about anything other than you having your opinion proven correct. The truth is, apart from a very embittered and vocal minority, no one gives a fuck about EA owning Bioware.

    If you don't like their direction, then don't buy ME3 or DA3. Go and play Dark Souls, or the witcher. I have no time for Nintendo, Zelda, Mario, Metriod etc. But i know people that love them. Good for them, i'm glad they enjoy the games. They're not for me, but i dont have this incessant need to be on each EG news article, bitching about Nintendo.

    There isnt a single RPG franchise that hasnt become more open over the past 10 years. Compare morrowind to Oblivion, and then compare morrowind to skyrim. Look ar Deux Ex, and compare it to Deus EX:HR. Even the witcher only became harder because of poor combat mechanics. MMOs became a hundred times more accessible. None of these games have suffered, either at the hands of critics, or at the hands of the only people that count. The consumers.

    You call it dumbing down. Thats an insult to everyone that actually enjoyed the game. It speaks volume about you as a person that this game could only be enjoyed by those less intelligent that the so called hard core fans. Too many RPGs carry baggage from 30 years ago. Removing outdated concepts is not dumbing down.

    If ME3 is just as good as ME2, then i suspect (opinion alert) that a lot more than half will enjoy it. However, if we look at people prone to bitching on the posts, you bet that this vocal minority will be out in force. Number of posts is not equa to half the play base. I suspect there are thousands more readers than posters.

    In short, i have ZERO interest in Bioware's quality as a result of an EA purchase. I only have one question. Is their latest game something i want to play? If it is, great. If it isnt, then so be it. But i won't make shit up, i'll just skip the game, and move on. Perhaps you could do the same.

  • _Price_ #44 8 months ago

    Fair enough Bioware. I'll put it to the test:

    I'm currently working under the assumption that Mass Effect 3 will be worse than the original. Prove me wrong.

  • arcam #45 8 months ago

    In short, i have ZERO interest in Bioware's quality as a result of an EA purchase.

    Isn't that really what this story is about? Anyway, I don't care that we disagree about dumbing down, or about who Bioware are trying to appeal to, or about whether they are better or worse than they used to be. I just don't like it when say that those with an different opinion are only pretending to hold that opinion to be cool.

    This isn't about anything other than you having your opinion proven correct.

    It's not about proving my opinion to be the right one, it's about you accepting that people can have real reasons for having that opinion in the first place. Saying those who disagree with you are just jumping on a bandwagon is a cop-out.

    edit: and why do you keep bringing intelligence into it? That's irrelevant to the casual/harcore debate. My dad is more intelligent than I am but he will choose Bejewelled over Starcraft every single time.
    Edited by arcam at 03/10/11 @ 19:11

  • Peter_LIAR_Molyneux #46 8 months ago

    You gotta love anomagnus calling anyone who disagrees with him "the vocal minority" when it is he who is in the minority in this thread.

    Question: if the majority (of people who purchased Bioware's recent games) are silent then how do you know they agree with your opinion anomagnus? Serious question.

  • WallaWalla06 #47 8 months ago

    I want to believe Bioware...but I can't. The large majority of Mass Effect fans don't want multiplayer, they just want an epic singleplayer finish. And yet, multiplayer rumors keep popping up. And meanwhile, EA's the company who basically said that every game needs a MP component now, which is why they shoehorned one into Dead Space 2, and will likely force multiplayer into Mass Effect 3.

  • Subdominator #48 8 months ago

    I will buy Mass Effect 3 because I want to know how Shepards story ends, but I won't touch any Bioware games in the future.

  • dirtysteve #49 8 months ago

    'EA don't tell us what to do, we just coincidentally agree with them, and implement similar policies and design decisions.'

  • Rack #50 8 months ago

    @Subdominator. Same here. Whether EA are calling the shots or Bioware's culture shifted dramatically the very second EA took over they just aren't making games I enjoy anymore. My reasoning here is that Bioware are talking like EA and introducing restrictive first sale policies like EA then it's likely we have a massive profit obsessed conglomerate on our hands.

  • Lobotomist #51 8 months ago

    Guys. We became shitty developer all by our selves. Not EA fault

  • divmax #52 8 months ago

    Maybe they can explain why SWTOR is going to be the first western MMO to not have a completely western global launch and to exclude whole regions because of supposed quality of launch considerations. So please explain why every other company managed. I love Bioware games but this time I'm afraid my money is going elsewhere, I don't care if they open up my region after launch. I'll be deep into GW2. Thanks for making the choice easy.

  • Nova1977 #53 8 months ago

    You're not gonna bad mouth the guy paying you, but maybe they're telling the truth.
    Just remember Directive 4 people - "You're our product. And we can't very well have our products turning against us, can we?"

  • dirtysteve #54 8 months ago

    Seems to be the trend among a lot of developers, get into bed with a big publisher, then make a big deal out of claiming it doesn't affect them.
    Surely there must be some influence, no publisher would trust a developer to deliver the goods on good faith alone, they are way to cynical for that. The developer's proven record is probably just an enticement for the purchasing company, not a guaranteed of complete autonomy.

  • metroid455 #55 8 months ago

    LOL oh Bioware (puts on Irish accent "sure you do twot twot twot!!";) so then watering down the RPG elements for ME2 and turning it into clunky TPS was your idea was it?, what about the watering down of DA2 because of the first one supposedly not being accessible enough for the mainstream gamer ?, face it Bioware your now officially EA's little underlings

    lol negged, seriously you can't tell me that ME2 and DA2 weren't significantly easier than their predecessors because they were!!!
    Edited by metroid455 at 04/10/11 @ 11:57

  • Gunship #56 8 months ago

    The common criticism is "BioWare is shit because of EA". CEO's do an interview denying EA has any influence... Is it just me, or has their reply not tackled the whole issue?

  • Skirlasvoud #57 8 months ago


    That's like Achmed the Dead Terrorist telling me he his completely autonymous from Jeff Dunham.

    I have trouble taking the puppet serious, despite his brilliant acting, because in both cases the bigger one has his fist shoved firmly up the little one's rear.

    But hey, look on the bright side Bioware. When you're succesful, people will praise you. When you fail, people will hate EA. It's a win-win situation.

  • Inmediasress #58 8 months ago

    One word "accessible".
    That describes everything since the two doctors use that in every second sentence when they talk about games surely that is not the influence of EA.
    Besides if you have to defend yourself in an article you pretty much proven your guilty.
    Edited by Inmediasress at 04/10/11 @ 10:54

  • anomagnus #59 8 months ago

    @arcum

    This story is about Bioware saying that EA don't call the shots. None of us know whether EA does or not, but you already had someone in this thread comment that EA don't work like that. I've no way of knowing whats true or not, but neither does anyone else. Too many people are jumping on a bandwagon, becasue they're not backing themselves up with anything other than 'bioware is shit, EA is shit' and nothing else. Its pure opinion. I didn't like DA2, therefore EA has ruined Bioware.

    I also brought up intelligence because when i see watered down, i read dumbed down, which might have been an over reaction. But i see the 'dumbed down' statement a lot, even in this comments thread. It still an insulting attitude to have. Is it anywonder, even in the spectrum gamers, that RPG fans are looked down on?

    @Inmediasress

    That would only make sense if they weren't faced with an incessent vocal miniority spewing shit they can't back up. This rebuttal of the EA control arguement isn't coming from nowhere. Its coming from people like you openingly accusing them of something, without anything other than an opinion to back it up.

    Everyone has an opinion, but when its just bile, why should i treat it with respect?



  • SheffAl #60 8 months ago

    Well I loved ME1, liked (but not loved) ME2, ME3 sounds dodgey with its online pass and kinect features, diluting the single player it seems to me. I hated DA for its casual nature, poor design and awful DLC aspect. That is not bile it is my opinion. the world is full of opinions, we all have them.
    Edited by SheffAl at 04/10/11 @ 12:31

  • onlynapkin #61 8 months ago

    The composer for DA2 outright said EA forced them to release the game early. Gaider simply said they were under pressure to get things done quickly. But if you want us to think you ruined yourselves, sure.