Which is why it said "very likely" it gave a probability based on the websites audience, not everyone fits into it but they felt the majority did.

Honestly, is there anyone here who is still able to take BioWare seriously?
I mean we're talking about the guys who invented the "Awesome button!" here.

Very few RPGs (if any) have found that perfect balance between elements from action based and stat based frameworks, not to mention the perfect way to blend it. When Mass Effect and Dragon Age started, it leaned too much towards stat-based, then they overcompensated for it in the next game by making all the stats and everything take a real back seat when compared to the action (Dragon Age 2 wasn't as extreme with this overcompensation as Mass Effect 2). Hopefully, after a while, a game developer will make a game that can balance the stats (like attack speed and damage done with a weapon) with the action of the game (like removing all forms of auto-attacking and making the chance of success more dependent on player skill (and by skill, I don't mean having the ability to crunch numbers or memorize a cool-down rotation better than others). Borderlands seemed to have a good grip on how to do that in a shooter RPG where your weapon had bonuses and penalties dealing with fire rate, magazine capacity, damage, etc. that weren't so important that you had to know what gun made all the difference, but those attributes weren't negligible. Enemies would also have certain parts of their body resist most, or even all damage, which means you needed to quickly develop a strategy to get your opponent to expose a sweet spot for you to nail (giggity) in order to survive the fight. Too bad that Borderlands just lacked so much from the environment.

lol. The first that came to my mind was Dragonballs RPG in red/white console. Not to mention the old FFs. I didn't know jack about computer games until 1990. PCs were luxury goods back then and I lived in a slum.


The co-founder of Bioware finally speaks out. And all these time the dreaming fanbois kept blaming EA for what it had become. It was and it has always been Bioware's choice to be incorporated, especially during the time when Bioware was soaring with NWN after effects. The move to make ME console only told me they WERE moving away since then. If not EA Bioware would have gone there without return.

EA, the only company who is willing to go so far to link every single games together at the same time delivering varieties, so they won't die alone, became the meatshield for some of these companies' failures.

SW:TOR, well at least James Ohlen is on this project. With old game concept like that, I'm not sure I'd like it more than the slightly more innovative titles like Rift and Age of Conan. Of course it's all about stories and content, but well... it's an MMORPG. I mean, you're hitting the wrong target to be honest. And DON'T tell me EA's pushing them to MMORPG market. No, Bioware has been thinking about MMORPG ever since the success of NWN, with tons of NWN fan base suggestions. Look through its forums archives, if you can still find them.

I'm sorry if this a dumb question, but what's TOR? I need to look it up to see how bad it is :celebration:

Starwars: The Old Republic.

Am I shooting myself in the foot on these forums at this point by saying that I actually LIKE Dragon Age II?

Editing companies are doing games depending on what the market demands is. End of story.
The bulk of the market is the 12-30 years old north american male who will buy FPS, with gorgeous graphic effects. So why worry to make a complex RPG ?
Fallout answers totally to this demand, an FPS with RPG elements making you believe you are playing an RPG...

If, in the next 1-2 years, the market changes, there will be RPG coming back and these guys of Bioware will contradict themselves shamelessly, trust me.

What will cause the market to change? TELL ME, AND BY THE SWEAT OF MY BROW AND THE BLOOD OF MY VEINS, I SHALL MAKE IT SO!

RPG's if anything, I think are becoming more relevant. Games are starting to become noticed more and more as not just entertainment, but as art. You only have to play games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age and Fallout to see that RPG's are right at the forefront of this trend, right next to indy games like Limbo. I have owned an NES, an Intellivision, a PS2, an Xbox and an Xbox 360, but at heart I am a PC gamer and I think at the heart of PC gaming is the RTS. RTS games seem to be becoming less relevant in the grand scheme of gaming, with the last few holdouts of Starcraft, Warhammer: Dawn of War and Age of Empires. I may be a rabid fan of the RTS, but I know its few major flaws. In order to enjoy it you need to be patient and you need a PC, it is definitely one of the most console specific games. The RPG has no such limitations, it can be played on any console, RPG`s can have lot of action like Mass Effect 2 or be mostly story driven like Dragon Age. RPG elements are even leaking into other games genres. In Call of Duty multiplayer you have been able to gain levels, customize your weapons, your appearance and even choose different equipment and abilities, these are all RPG elements. So no, I don`t think the RPG is losing relevance, I think its at the forefront of gaming.

Absolutely not. I liked Dragon Age II as well. It just wasn't an RPG and nowhere near as captivating as the older BioWare games.

And no, they're not nostalgia goggles.

I finally played BG 1 and BG 2 this summer, to the end. I can safely say that they are 2 of the best games I've ever played. As someone who also played Dragon Age 1, I can't see how DA1 was hailed as a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate by the devs, they feel nothing alike. I will give points to Bioware for some of the DA1 party members though, for the most part they where interesting characters.

Bioware is placing so much pride in their cinematics - when they're clearly such rank amateurs. And to place so much emphasis on that in an mmo - I'll tell you exactly what will happen: players will find the skip button very quickly.

That's beside the point. I'm not one to say what Bioware is or is not allowed do, nor is my intent here - despite the jab I gave - to anolyze the quality of their games. I am merely questioning their notion of RPG's being "less relevant" because:
1. There is no high profile -RPG- titles currently being made (at least not announced as far as I know) to have a point of reference, as the forced genreblending is all that is offered. Yet everywhere you see people craving for a good RPG with some "oldschool" touch.
and
2. The last - and quite recent - one was their own game, which was quite succesful and appeared to have quite relevant impact on the RPG communities.

So I don't really know if this is Bio's way of saying "we just don't want to do that [censored] anymore" (in which case, it would be decent and honest of them to just say it), or if they are so blinded by the success of Mass Effect, that they really believe in the claim of non-relevancy despite their own game proving otherwise.

I'm glad you enjoyed them. Now pick up Planescape: Torment and expect the way you look at games to be changed forever.

I've already gotten an email from BioWare saying I've breached the TOR NDA so I'll keep it simple (though I'm not too worried about it): the story present in TOR was a breath of fresh air for MMOs and is probably the only reason I'd consider playing the game. I have no doubt that players will attempt to skip them, they did for Final Fantasy XI, but they'll be missing out. If they do skip 'em they might as well just go play WoW.

Years ago I had played it, though I never got very far. I intend on finishing it the next time I start it up again. ^_^

I've still gotta finish my mage runtrough.

You will start it up again right now, island-man!

Yes some very interesting and nicely polished characters, but calling it spiritual successor of BG series or inspired by AGoT is an insult to these titles.

I see what you mean, but I can also understand people who consider the original DA a spritual successor to the BG games. Maybe not in the sense of quality, but both games were more traditional RPGs in a time when the old-school RPG was in a slouch, and both games made the concept of a role-playing game revive. Sadly, unlike after the BG series, BioWare didn't continue their move and started making RPG-Lites instead.

It's their lame excuse for "Kotor 3."

And 4, 5, 6 and 7 too. According to an interview (wihch I apparently cannot find anymore).