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[Mizhara]

Warning, this is mostly an overly elaborate and long marriage proposal.

There is little doubt in my mind that I am a fanboi. Yes, the i in fanboi is integral to the deeper layers of meaning inherent in the word. I am a zealot if you will. A fanatic that will with vigor and determination stand on the rooftop and shout out da troof! Even worse, I'm a shameless fanboi and proud of it.

Over many years I've been playing video games on various consoles and systems, from the days of The Last Ninja on C64, loaded with care from a cassette player through various Nintendo and Sega systems... all the way up until today where I own various systems and I keep finding games in my Steam list that I can't even remember buying. It's that extensive. This, I feel, gives me a little bit of credibility as a gamer both of the 'old school' that wrote their own games on that over-sized keyboard hooked to a television and of the newer school that knows that the only thing that truly matters are graphics and boom headshots.

There's no doubt that the gaming industry has changed enormously from those beginnings and much of it for the worse. The market's flooded with bland and crappy games and whenever someone comes up with something 'new', everyone scrambles to incorporate into their own crappy games thrown out to make a quick buck. Someone comes up with something that's a success and 'clones' quickly follow since this indicates to some people that it's a formula worth squeezing until it's bled dry.

Is this universal? Is this the only state of the gaming industry of today? Hardly. Some developers still manage to impress with every game they release. They do their own thing, come up with their own ideas while still letting other games and developers inspire them. Then... then they craft entire universes.

It's been a long time since I've played a game and truly found the world it's story unfolds in to be unique. Half-Life managed it fairly well, since it played on a lot of the stereotypes and sci-fi clichés but still managed to make every part of it unique enough to truly be seen only in that world. There's a few others that manage it to. I'll even grant the Halol universe that honor, even if the games themselves were bland and boring to anyone with FPS experience on superior FPS platforms. The Legends of Kyrandia series from the Ye Olde DOS era along with Day of the Tentacle managed this. In fact... until Half-Life came along, I can't recall any truly unique worlds made between the days of HL and these old adventure games, if I allow myself to omit System Shock.

There were games that were truly excellent and awesome, absolutely, but they were all set in established or derivative worlds. Worlds made by others, then used as a setting for games, or worlds that were... to say it nicely... 'inspired' by other known settings. You have the Baldur's Gate series and all the other isometric RPGs that would set your mind on fire with it's fantastic storytelling and gameplay, but kind of cheated a bit since the world was already established.

There's hundreds of examples of fantastic games that all 'cheated' a little by using existing worlds as a foundation. There's very few games that can be examples of worlds unique to that name. A few I've already covered, and two in particular will be mentioned in a few moments.

Yes, I'm a fanboi... and here is why.

The Mass Effect and Dragon Age games will be counted as my two favorite singleplayer experiences of all time because of the world building. The crafting of the very universe they exist in. Sure, the gameplay has mostly been seen before. Sure, there's criticisms to level against parts of the games, but they're just so infinitely... polished and unique. There is no world like that in Mass Effect in any other games or books. There's no fantasy world like that of Thedas.

Bioware has sat down and become Gods, creating two separate and unique existences that has no match anywhere else. This is what I believe will cement them in time as the fantastic game developers they are. Creating games that are very well polished in absolutely all aspects. You can't point at any feature of those games and say 'that was poorly done'. Sure, they can improve some parts, but they're all good to begin with, and that is almost unique in the gaming industry of today.

Almost every single game I play has some features that just make me go 'did they even try?', but I can't find that in Bioware's games. Every feature of their games is well polished and unique to their games. Storytelling, gameplay and fun factor are all shooting through the roof in their games and when they have the audacity to create wholly unique worlds for these things to exist in? What other choice do I have but become a fanboi?

The world of Thedas has stunned me. It's a living, breathing fantasy world with complex and strong politics, inter-racial relations, countries and people. Most races can be recognized from other fantasy worlds, but are still wholly unique to Thedas. The elves that have chosen not to submit to human supremacy travel like gypsies and outcasts to avoid being chased off or killed by racist humans. The ones living in cities are herded into alienages, little slums where they can carve out a meager existence. They're just one example.

Other ways it truly distinguishes itself from others is how it deals with magic, mages and the world's response to it. Religious oppression. Justified partially by how these masters of magic are also the most vulnerable to the horrid demonic forces at play where their powers come from. The Fade is another fantastic innovation that is unique to this world. The demons, the spirits, this dreaming world... it's a true joy to delve into this new fantasy world's intricacies and the things that make it unique.

This is also what gives it it's storytelling strength. There's so much racism, oppression, justified hatreds and conflicts that it truly feels like a real world compared to how most fantasy worlds have this utopian feel to them where the only real investment of emotion comes due to external evil/conflict which tropes and clichés will ensure are vanquished anyway. They don't grip quite like Thedas does, since they don't feel... real.

Bioware has in two extremely different genres... sci-fi and fantasy... managed to craft a genesis which spawned two unique and interesting worlds that truly manage to grip you. They've created settings which lends themselves so much to storytelling due to the feeling that 'this is how a world like this really would be'. The stories are grimdark, the worlds hold both twisted and horrible evils, but they also contain so much realism to it. The enemies aren't necessarily those mustache twirling evils you expected them to be, nor are they truly 'wrong'.

So, as a Gamer that has seen pretty much every world crafted by game developers and as a voracious reader of both science fiction and fantasy... I have to take my hat off and give Bioware a bow. I am their fanboi, now and forever, for having done something that's pretty much unique in today's gaming industry.

They've broken the molds and instead created something of their own. Something truly unique and mindbogglingly well polished. If anyone wish to experience something new and emotionally gripping... something that'll make you feel for your own character and even for the NPCs, scripts and all... support this developer and buy their games.

Do the same with other developers you feel embody this philosophy that mass-production of the latest fad with different names attached is not the way to go. Show the industry that we gamers appreciate and support these marvelous creations and that we seek quality over the latest fad.

Support those who craft unique universes.

[Zuzanna Alondra]

I am not nearly as well worded as Mizhara, but I have to agree wholeheartedly with Mass Effect.

I used to love to game - owned half a dozen systems, thrice that in games (at least) and would play for hours.  But then - I got bored.  I'd seen it, done it - there wasn't really anything new.  I even bored of MMO's and computer games.  I don't even know where my disks for The Sims went - and I don't care.

Until Mass Effect.

Mizhara and Havohej harped for weeks about it's storyline, carefully not giving spoilers while trying to get me interested.  I kept telling them I hate shooting games, but they insisted I give it a try. It turned out the best game I had ever played/watched (I'm bad at shooters, so I got help from time to time).  When my ex moved out I let him pretty much take every game I had.

And then treated myself to a copy of Mass Effect 2.

I now only play two games often enough to say I play them.  The Wii Fit - still working off my baby chub look- and Mass Effect 2.  I'm borrowing an Xbox, but if Fox took it back, I think I would buy one, just to see the ending of ME2.  Then I would play it again on a paragon file - just to see the difference.

[Ken]

Much love for BioWare from me as well.  I thought NWN lacked the appeal of their other titles, but it was ambitious, and the Baldur's Gate series, Jade Empire, Mass Effect series, and Dragon Age series are all certainly among my top 10 gaming experiences ever, the last two easily placing in the top 3.  I'm unlikely to follow them into their MMO foray with SWTOR, but for an entertaining single-player experience with unique, interesting, and meaningful storylines, you simply cannot beat their RPGs. 

This I would contrast with the no less complex settings of open-ended RPGs in the Bethesda style that host vast but unguided gameplay possibilities.  While Morrowind, Oblivion, and Fallout 3 all gave me a great sense of scale and opportunity and, in my opinion, established equally unique and interesting universes, they ultimately lacked the sense of meaning and importance that suffuses the experience in ME, DA, or even Jade Empire and in some ways were hamstrung by the lack of "left and right limits".  When you build a game world to present seemingly unlimited direction for the player, there is a lot that can slip through the cracks in terms of technical production and balance.  Based on my experience with the Elder Scrolls and Fallout 3, I will probably wait 1-2 years after Skyrim is released to allow for the various challenge and realism mods to appear and mature before diving back in to a Bethesda RPG.

There is also something to be said for Black Isle and Obsidian, relatives/precursors of the BioWare studio, whose names have been attached to similarly excellent productions.

Finally, I would also contend that there have been a few other titles out there that compete with BioWare's RPGs for the quality of their settings and the cohesive experience of gameplay and story.  Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is absolutely one of those, and I have fond memories of Descent: Freespace for the same reasons.

[lallara zhuul]

Strange.

For me my experience with Bioware has been quite the opposite.

Their universe building has failed to inspire me, their way of telling a story has failed in immersing me and usually the game mechanics are nothing but poor rip-offs from previous games by other developers.

I can only comment on Mass Effect, because I have not played Dragon Age.

To me the universe was nothing but old cliches wrapped to a neat package.
The mass relay/gate complex created by an ancient race of progenitors that had affected the development of one or more races of the current universe... done so many times before that to think it unique is quite... ehh.
Just the name Protheans had me facepalming.
Even the Citadel itself... maybe its because Carl Sagans Contact is one of my all time favourites when it comes to sci-fi novels.

Then the fact that ME2 broke the immersion of the player even more.
In the first installation you had the illusion of exploring the planets (quite tediously) which was replaced by the probe system in the second game. At least in the first game it gave you the illusion of an expansive universe, while the probing system pretty much clipped the wings of that one.
Enhancing the railroading tendency of a Bioware game even more.
I just don't understand why gathering resources in sci-fi games is so damn hard.
Starflight and Star Control 2 had it spot on.

I can't be even bothered to go into Biowares older games, their way of doing things is quite apparent for anyone who has played their games, from stereotypical characters to hamfisted railroading when it comes to the primary storyline.

Don't get me wrong.

I like playing Bioware games (at least the recent ones, Baldurs gate was a disaster.)

I just feel that when somebody does a long praising speech about the virtues of Bioware they tend to forget their vices as well. The problem at the moment, for me, with Bioware is the fact that they have a certain kind of game making formula that they are applying across the board, to me, the formula is uninspired and stale.

To think that Bioware has reached the pinnacle of game making and storytelling, to me, is false.

Because I would like for them to discard their formulaic way of doing games and reach out to somewhere beyond.

Become more.

* lallara zhuul shrugs.

I just have the gut feeling that every time Bioware is praised to have reached the title of 'Best' it means that they can stop making better games. To me they have pretty much churned out the same game time and again, the technology around the game just has developed.

Just my 0.02 iskies worth.

[GoGo Yubari]

I personally enjoy Dragon Age more than Mass Effect, though I'm not saying ME isn't good. Setting-wise, ME is indeed a pastiche of all kinds of scifi cliches gathered into a bundle, but I don't really mind because it makes all those things playable for me. So, great! I can't shake the idea that playing ME is less like playing anything and more like watching a movie,though. Maybe for that reason, I've only ever enjoyed one playthrough of ME.

The Dragon Age setting is in no way immune to the occasional cliche or the like, but in terms of re-inventing fantasy is a bit more fresh than ME. The setting isn't what sealed the deal though. The first Dragon Age felt like a very open world experience to me while still having a tight plotline and the ending was very well crafted to accommodate the differences of each playthrough. I was blown away the first time I played it. The game is an action adventure with interesting high stakes politics and truly meaningful player decisions. Dragon Age 2 had less of that type of excellence, but it's still a decent game in the series.

One has to wonder when either of those settings will become an MMO, if ever.

[Lyn Farel]

More or less like Lallary for me. Cheesy stories (especially recently). I could speak for hours about this, but the omnipresence of the hollywood B series screenplays with rubbish stories filled with clichés, without even mentionning the fact that Shepard is a bloody tasteless character and a testosterone drived cunt. Well... Still better than Dragon Age.

Though I loved ME nevertheless, for its universe (and artistical settings) and immersion, mostly. Like I loved kotor. But when you compare the story and the script of the first opus to the second in this last case (the second is not from bioware), well, there is a HUGE quality difference. Just HUGE.

[Mizhara]

Yeah indeed, the difference is huge. KotoR2 was horribad in that regard, heheh.

There are many valid points made though. Of course Bioware has not achieved perfection. No game developer has. However, out of all the roleplaying game developers out there, they're still the best developers I know of. Their games are ridiculously polished, the characters are interesting, the stories are good and the telling of the stories is top notch...

When compared to any of the other RPG devs, that is.

There'll always be people who disagree. With games, as with everything else, there's the matter of individual taste to consider. Personally, I find railroading to be a necessity for a good narrative. When you open the world up too much, the storytelling becomes lacking. There just haven't been any good games released anywhere that manages to give a good open world without the immersion jarring reality that it seems like the entire world just waits for you to get your shit together and return to the main storyline.

"Wait, what? I just spent months becoming the leader of thieves, assassins, fighters and mages. I'm an arena champion and I've pretty much just fucked around for a good long while. Are you seriously telling me you've just stood here at the sewer entrance and waited for me? No one else interested in helping you find that one guy you're after? Hell, he's probably long gone by now! No? He's still here? Same position as he's always been? ... the fuck is wrong with you people?!"

Without some good railroading, the main plot kind of falls through the cracks, to me. That's another reason I really like the Bioware games as they're just very good at making the story progress naturally.

[Lyn Farel]

I agree with the railroading storylines. More you create freedom of choice in terms of changing the scenario for the player, less it becomes powerful for obvious reasons.

I disagree with Kotor 2, actually I meant that it had an awesome, original, dark, subtle, peotic, and extremly deep story (too bad the game got litterally killed when forced to be released too soon, everything gets hard to follow and understand with all these gaps in the screenplay and the missing stuff, especially at the end). I am just speaking of the story ofc.

I still think that bioware are a very good RPG studio, don't get me wrong. I just think their stories could be a lot better.