BioWare Director: “I’ve Never Been At A Company With This Level Of Fan Engagement”

BioWare has been extremely keen to court fan opinion of late. Many believe this has been directly prompted by the ferocious backlash over Mass Effect 3′s controversial ending. But a senior member of BioWare’s development team claims that the company has always worked hard to reach out to its fanbase.

[Jinkies]

"that the company has always worked hard to reach out to its fanbase."

Oh you mean like you asked us for months what we wanted to see in a Uber Mass Effect 3 Collectors Edition only for you to cancel it. Then theres the rushed ME3 ending which I'm pretty sure Casey was the main problem behind it, lets not forget EA pulling the strings behind closed doors and you guys covering it up pretending that everything is fine.

If you guys really cared then the inducruation theory would of been the ending of ME3, we would of gotten a DLC pack to actually finish off Harbinger and everyone would of been fine with that, but I guess you couldn't face the fans coming up with a better story then you guys.

[SephirothX21]

If you spent less time bitching and more time learning how to develop games, maybe you could contribute to a game better than Mass Effect 3. Though, I have my doubts.

[ForgottenProphecy]

We shouldn't let Bioware forget their mistakes

[Megaton]

I agreed until you mentioned the indoctrination theory. That stupidity and the people who follow it are a pestilence.

[Jinkies]

Nope...it made more sense then the ending so calling it stupid is ignorant.

[Megaton]

It's a series of reading between lines that don't exist and clutching at imaginary straws. It's the pinnacle of desperation and delusion.

[TekoIie]

@Jinkies

I agree with megaton. I would much rather get a choice of 3 shoddy endings than 1 being forced down my throat which downright sucks.

Now if they had made it so Based on certain combinations of every major decision you made throughout the game resulted in a different ending and the indoctrination theory was one of those (which is what should've happened) then I'm on board...

But otherwise it can go straight to hell.

[TrendyGamers]

I wonder if the next Mass Effect will get a reveal at E3?

[animegamingnerd]

its probably right now only on the drawling board

[omi25p]

This is EA we are talking about, its probably almost finished. It will be there " Big triple A" Rpg next year.

2011 it was Dragon age 2, 2012 it was mass effect 3, 2013 is dragonage 3 2014 its mass effect 4.

Its how EA develops they release the same game every year with a different story and weapons ect.

Just look at Battlefield and Medal of honor

[Aloren]

They'll probably reveal the next Dragon Age. I don't think we'll see anything about the next mass effect before the next VGAs (at the earliest).

[shodan74]

@ TrendyGamers

Probably too soon. I know there's six months to go, but only last week BioWare were suggesting they hadn't actually decided whether it would be a prequel or a sequel! I reckon they're in the VERY early stages of development.

[unchartedxplorer]

Considering that bioware made an entirely new dlc for people because that weren't happy with the original ending, is generous enough. Sure they shouldn't have released the game with that type of ending, but think about the amount of developers that made a new ending dlc because fans weren't happy with it. Heck, even bethesda couldn't make proper port for the ps3 and still can't for the past year.

[Summons75]

Entirely new dlc = a slide show. The ending isn't the problem, the fact that they promised your choices from me 1,2&3 would effect the ending and then turn around to completely ignore every plot choices since the start (ie: killing the rachni means that they still survive in me 3). The only fan interaction Bioware has with its and is making promises and breaking them and listening to their wants and doing the opposite.

I use to respect Bioware too.

[Aloren]

Even if it were only a slide show, how many developers have made such a move ?

If you want a game that completely ignores every single choice you made even though it promised they would change the outcome dramatically, try the walking dead. It's an excellent game, yet nothing can change. No matter what you do, you'll always have the same ending with the same survivors.
ME3 vanilla ending actually offered a lot more diversity than TWD.

I agree some choices in ME (like the rachni queen) were not given the impact they deserved.
Still, it's not "completely ignored", you get different dialogues and a different outcome when it comes to war assets.

But anyway, you can't say everything is ignored. You still decide the fate of entire races (Geth, Quarian, Krogan...), most of the ~20 squadmates you have during the trilogy can be either dead or alive... Look at Ash for example. She can die in ME1, she can be killed on the Citadel in 3, she can die while running to the beam, she can leave the normandy to be a specter on Hackett's ship...

[aliengmr]

@Aloren

I would expect any developer that botched a part of their game to fix it.

For ME3, its story is its primary selling point. It was broken. It wasn't just the choices, but the entire concept was a mess. I expected them to fix it as I would expect the COD devs to fix a gun that was messed up.

You don't end anything, much less a trilogy, with more questions than answers. Sure you can leave some things to the imagination, but not the entire thing. You also try to avoid putting the resolution BEFORE the climax. Even if you could justify doing all that, ME is not the type of story to do it with.

When the readers of Mass Effect Deception pointed out serious inconsistencies in the story Bioware and Del Rey acknowledged the mistakes and promised corrections in future editions. When you create a "lore heavy" story like ME you have a certain responsibility to that lore. And while the book had far worse errors than the ending of ME3, it was still terribly inconsistent.

ME3 was terribly rushed. While great care was taken with the sub-plots, the main plot seems like it was hammered out in no time at all. Had they had more time, they might have done better. They had a certain amount of responsibility to the lore they created and tossing it all out on some half-baked, "rocks fall" ending, complete with its very own plot holes, was something they had a responsibility to fix.

[rpd123]

"the fact that they promised your choices from me 1,2&3 would effect the ending and then turn around to completely ignore every plot choices since the start"

This argument makes no sense to me. The plot choices from ME1 meant close to nothing in ME2. Why would it be any different in ME3? What did you want 100 different possible endings? It's not their fault you had unrealistic expectations.

[Godmars290]

And never has a game company so failed such a fanbase.