So, there are a ton of videos floating around on this topic, and I agree to some level with most. like this below
Now there are many reasons why i don’t agree with this guy on all his points, because even if I agree the first ‘cracks’ if you want to call it that, was seen in DA2. Namely the stupid fetch quests, and re-use of areas over and over; I do not agree with him, that not being able to customise your companions, or the linear gameplay was the reason. I think it was actually pretty innovative at the time, they wanted to try a different format, because at the core, it’s still a solid RPG with choices that matter, and a goal you understand and fight for.
DA2 is about family, and it’s centered in one city, I think that was a deliberate choice to make it ‘local’ instead of open world like DA1.
However, I don’t know why this guy doesn’t mention this at all, probably because he is focusing on Dragon Age, but I think the major mask fall was the Mass Effect 3 ending.
As I just tried to explain to my children today, unlike Dragon Age, Mass Effect was a trilogy, and so the story spanned over 3 games. Your major choices as Commander Shepard, carried over to the next game, and mainly influenced if a character was dead, or if you let someone live. Shit like that, but the thing was, you felt like it mattered… Even in the beginning of ME3, you could still feel the choices your Shepard had made way back in the first game.
And then someone’s cognitively challenged cousin got their hand on the game, and well.. we all know what happened.
Mass Effect 3 was EPIC! it was amazing and you felt like you had to make Shepards story count. And then you get sucked up in a bad LDS trip, talk to shadows, and get to choose a color.
Fuck that!
Fuck that so much!
Imagine playing 3 games, where your choices matter, and then you get to select blue, green or red. And the only difference is the text on screen?
Much later it was revealed that they had indeed made another studio make the ending, but most of all it was because they just wanted to kill off Shepard, because Shepard isn’t Mass Effect.
And that was where they were wrong, and people tried to tell them. If you wanted to make it about ‘the universe’ then you should have shifted gears after the first game, and given us another protagonist, and not continued Shepard. Just like Dragon Age, or Baldurs Gate did.
Mass Effect IS Shepard, it’s that simple. But EA knew better than the fans, and so they said ‘never again Shepard, deal with it. you don’t like the ending, too bad.’ and then they set about making Dragon Age 3.
Then they made Anthem which was pure shit, and also not an RPG.
So eventually they released Mass Effect Andromeda, which was more than broken on release.
They made a day 1 patch, but it didn’t change much as you can see. And yes my face gets tired too.
I HATE HATE HATE this game, it’s awful and you don’t care about the characters at all, I mean I played it through one time, and there were crewmembers I never met, because I simply never cared enough to look for them.
And i was not alone, at all. It failed spectacularly, and the kicker is that this game doesn’t even have a fucking ending, it’s like “tune in next time”. Except there is no next time, thank fuck.
The thing is, Andromeda was the absolute abomination born out of EA’s tonedeaf approach to the consumers. They solidified with some leaked emails, that it didn’t matter how shitty the game was, people would buy it because of the IP, that simple.
And that is why many was wary when the DA4, announced as the Dreadwolf, changed… seriously look at this.
This is technically the same damn game… but not.
And I am kinda glad that I didn’t buy Veilguard, because after Andromeda I was done, I mean I am still so fucking angry of how they decided to ignore everything everyone said, and just force the ‘no Shepard’ narrative through. That I simply didn’t believe they’d make a good Dragon Age game, and when I saw the first Veilguard trailer (the one above), I knew I was right.
If you watched that first video in this entry, you’d know he goes into the whole ‘from singleplayer to pvp and back to singleplayer’ shit, which I definitely think is a huge reason for the game being shoddy at best.
But I don’t think that’s why it failed.
It failed because it’s not a fucking RPG, we expect Dragon Age to be a dark fantasy RPG, and this shit it’s like Anthem but with Dragons (as one of the designers working on the game said). But they are right, it’s a dumb hack and slash game, with political opinions so heavy you choke on it.
When it released they defended it, said that everyone who was kinda bothered with the political agenda shoved in everyone’s faces was a bit much. They were just homofobes, or transfobes. And while some might have been, others were definitely not! Everyone hated this fucking game, and everyone hates being spoonfed political agendas when they just want to kick back and play a game.
DO NOT PUT REAL LIFE POLITICS IN YOUR DAMN GAME.
Point one, people play to escape reality. And point two, just don’t.
And if you ask me, they decided to shit on all the Dragon Age lore that came before, because otherwise this game couldn’t pull a plot. The Qunari never gave a flying fuck about gender politics before… Hello!? Anyone remember Bull? – or well Sten?
And why do the Qunari look like smurfs with horns? I hate that, I truly do. And I am not saying that because I hate that character, that I forgot the name of… probably because I never played it. I couldn’t give less about that character, I just hate they look like smurfs.
It might be a decent game, but it’s not a Dragon Age game.
The arrogance of referring to core consumers as ‘the nerd cave’.
What I am trying to say, is that EA thinks they know better, they think they have these old IPs with a loyal fanbase, but you see, people are not that loyal. They just aren’t… Bioware, like Black Isle used to mean good times, but that is a very long time ago.
I hope that either EA kills off Bioware and just goes back to making stupid Sims expansion packs no one wants, and dumb sports games. Or let Bioware do Bioware, seriously if they don’t they will go the Ubisoft route, straight to fucking hell.
I am not buying a single fucking EA game until they fix what they have broken, and I don’t care about what they ‘claim’, because that attitude they have shown us from ME3, to ME:A and in DA4 is just disgusting. And if all I can do, is to speak with my wallet, so be it.
Companies ARE the consumers, because without the consumers, they are nothing. EA fails to realise that these might be old beloved IPs, but that doesn’t mean people just eat it even if you took a shit on it. It means they have high demands to the quality – get it right EA.
DREAMS OF A LOST MOONCHILD 
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