Dragon Age

[Volourn]

"Bioware owes its fanbase nothing, nothing but their livelihood by buying all their past games which has kept them in business. "

 

Wrong. BIo doesn't owe their 'fans' for that. BIO owes their own ability to make game speople want to buy, and play for their livelihood and success.

 

You make it seem people buy BIO games out of the of their goodness of their hearts or some sort of charity. WRONG.

 

BIO (and any other developer) succeed and fail on their merits not on the 'generosity' of the most selfish, hateful, arrogant, pathetic, scummy, full of themselve creatures in the entire world's history - the 'customer'.

 

I got no mercy for punks like that.

 

 

[RangerSG]

I have to say, this has been a month so far where Bio has sold a great deal of whatever capital it had with it's fanbase rather cheaply. From the "Dragon Age speaks to a very, very, very important audience..." spiel, to this non-event on the website, to the headache over the NWN 1.69 patch (which may or may not have been avoidable). This is not their best fortnight ever.

 

That said, who knows, the trailer may be impressive and surprise us, I believe Gaider has it in him to do that, regardless as to whether or not the suits in the offices above him 'want' him to.

[Sand]

Don't forget the DRM and severe bug problems that the PC version of Mass Effect suffers, add to the fact that the so called "included" DLC is no where to be found.

[Leferd]

When has there NOT been severe bug problems with PC games? BIO marketing definitely dropped the ball and shanked the FG attempt with DA, but cut them some slack. They screwed up. No biggie.

ME's DLC is being worked on. They are fixing bugs. It'll get released. NWN2 has delayed patch releases as well, not to mention the MOW snafu.

 

I'd say Bioware is on par, or a bit (significantly) better than most companies outside of Blizzard with regards to customer support.

[Sand]

NWN2 works for me. ME for the PC doesn't. NWN2's patch can be delayed all Obsidian wants. I do like to be able to play ME on my PC, however, and get everything that was advertise on the box that it is suppose to have.

[Leferd]

As opposed to what was advertised on NWN2 Gold's box? Where's MoW?

 

I didn't finish NWN2's OC until a full year has passed after its release.

 

My system specs:

 

Intel e6600 Core 2 Duo

2 gigs ram

8800 GTS

Vista

 

result: bugs galore and CTD's. I used to work QA and so I have a very high pain threshold when it comes to tolerating bugs. NWN2 took its toll on me.

 

That's great, NWN2 worked for you out of the bat. Power to you. But for many of us, and including certain Obsidian developers, NWN2 on release was NOT ready, and didn't really become a good game until after MotB was released.

 

You should know by now that if you want to avoid complaining about bugs on your pc games, you should wait until a number of patches have been released. If you can't wait that long, then replay the game on your 360 and unlock more achievements.

[RangerSG]

NWN2 was pretty buggy on release, yes. But not unplayable like MEPC is for lots of people (me included). Demiurge has earned a one way trip to my "never buy again" list after this fiasco.

[Dakar]

Somehow I didn't think that SpikeTV watchers would be their target audience... Going the Bethesda route, I see

 

That's just ridiculous. There are basically two choices if they want their game trailer to get attention on a television channel: G4 and SpikeTV. Unfortunately there is no intelligent thoughtful gamer channel out there.

[Humodour]

Somehow I didn't think that SpikeTV watchers would be their target audience... Going the Bethesda route, I see

 

Now, now. Their marketers have carefully analyzed the results from their focus-groups and came to the conclusion that the most important segment with purchasing power are the common plebs, er...i mean the SpikeTV viewers.

 

Somebody has been reading too much Marx, Orwell, Plato.

Those guys would probably be aghast at how carelessly / inappropriately their names are thrown around.

 

So what, EA is Big Brother now, or the capitalist superstructure? Good lord, the gaming internet's head has reached a deeper and darker depth of its own ass.

 

Hello there Over Reaction, how are you?

 

It was a reference to his use of the words 'plebs' and others in a post for like the 4th time in as many days.

[~Di]

Geeze, you guys are a tough audience! Hey, I liked KOTOR a lot; I liked KOTOR 2 more. MEPC was a very good game. Not great, but damned good. I have waited for DA for more years than I can remember. Unless Bio/EA pull something like the "10-day internet recheck" crap on it, I will have DA in my hands within a week of its release. There are only two games on my "must-have" list at this point: Fallout 3 (yes, I know, it will bear little resemblance to the original, but I still gotta see what I gotta see) and Dragon Age.

 

I guess I'm a Bio-fangirl. I've yet to have a Bio game (including Jade Empire) that I didn't have fun with and feel it was flat worth the money. I really don't understand all the negativity and mistrust about a game that has spent long years in development by a company that has never really let its fans down with quality and story-telling ability (if one charitably disregards NWN OC as perhaps the least successful of their efforts, despite the fact that their least successful still outshines the "best" most developers have offered to date).

 

Why all the Bio-hate? I, for one, cannot wait for the release of Dragon Age. I suspect it will outshine BG and BG2 as the new fantasy RPG classic standard. If I'm wrong... well, I'll cry. But I don't think I'm wrong. Be optimistic, people! I think Bio's decades-long legacy of quality deserves that much.

[Humodour]

I had no problem with KOTOR 1 or 2. KOTOR 1 was a very fun game, and KOTOR 2 improved upon it a lot. It wasn't 'better' due to bugs and cut content, but it was certainly still entertaining.

 

Now I'm not a fan of the direction Bioware is heading, or rather has already ended up, but that said I am looking forward to Dragon Age, since I have an incling it'll be a refreshing diversion from Bioware recent path.

[RangerSG]

I don't hate Bioware. In fact, I'm often accused on here of being a fanboy of theirs. I enjoyed KotOR a great deal, KotOR2 as well. As for ME, I have no way to evaluate it yet, as I am one of the hundreds if not thousands who cannot run the game yet. Whether the problem is Demiurge's port, DRM glomming my PC until it dies, or (as I suspect) both of the above, it still makes the game impossible for me to judge. And it points to the very real reasons for trepidation about where Bioware is headed...EA insisted on DRM, it broke the game. And they have a reputation of destroying studios.

 

Now, if this was old EA, Dragon Age would be dead already. It's a game they don't get. And it's on a platform they don't believe in. But Bio has this window to prove that they are right and the suits are wrong. Will they? If not, it'll be the end of whatever Bio was, period.

Edited July 11, 2008 by RangerSG

[Volourn]

"As for ME, I have no way to evaluate it yet, as I am one of the hundreds if not thousands who cannot run the game yet."

 

The numbers of people whoa r eplaying MEPC far outnumbers those who cna't. The game is broken for you. It's not broken.

Edited July 11, 2008 by Volourn

[RangerSG]

Thankfully even Bioware does not share your attitude. As I've been PMed by their tech support trying to replicate the numerous GPF faults the game generates.

 

I'm very glad you aren't in QA. If the game doesn't run for large swaths of people who meet the recommended stats for the game, it was prematurely and inappropriately released. Period. The only saving grace is that Bioware technically did not control the release on the title. Demiurge did, as they were the port's developer.

[Humodour]

I'm pretty sure Bioware are glad Volourn has no affiliation to them as well, with his attitude.

[Sand]

I don't hate Bioware, Di. I just hate their marketing schemes.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Why are people anxious to play Dragon Age again? They haven't shown anything that could spark hype.

[Humodour]

The 'mission statement' of the game; what it's design to be, what it's designed to achieve.

 

The same reason people might be excited about Alpha Protocol or Aliens.

[mkreku]

There are only two games on my "must-have" list at this point: Fallout 3 (yes, I know, it will bear little resemblance to the original, but I still gotta see what I gotta see) and Dragon Age.

[newc0253]

Why all the Bio-hate?

I think the better question is: why not?

 

I, for one, cannot wait for the release of Dragon Age. I suspect it will outshine BG and BG2 as the new fantasy RPG classic standard. If I'm wrong... well, I'll cry. But I don't think I'm wrong. Be optimistic, people! I think Bio's decades-long legacy of quality deserves that much.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to DA too.

 

The thing is, i've been looking forward to it for ... hmm, 2004?

 

I'll judge the game according to its merits when it's released, it's the endlessly extended hype which is wearying.

[Gfted1]

 

 

Thats me ever since that meatspin link Xard posted.

 

Oh the humanity.

[Xard]

Admit you got past 50 spins

[Deraldin]

Admit you got past 50 spins

You want to look away, but you just can't...

[Gfted1]

Admit you got past 50 spins

 

 

TBH, I had never heard of meatspin until that very moment, so imagine my shock and disgust. I damn near broke my right index finger trying to close that page.

[taks]

oh my... you guys are just plain bad. i think i just suffered irreparable damage to my psyche.

 

taks