Former BioWare lead writer reads the runes on EA-Saudi deal and speculates that 'guns and football' are in, 'gay stuff' is out, and the venerable RPG studio may be for the chop

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/former-bioware-lead-writer-reads-the-runes-on-ea-saudi-deal-and-speculates-that-guns-and-football-are-in-gay-stuff-is-out-and-the-venerable-rpg-studio-may-be-for-the-chop/

133 points · 37 comments · view on lemmy.world

37 Comments

vpol@feddit.uk · 26 pts · 350d (1 reply)

I thought EA was dead for a long time.

Klear@quokk.au · 3 pts · 350d

He is, but him keeping the complaints about his copper earned him immortality.

krooklochurm@lemmy.ca · 18 pts · 350d (6 replies)

And nothing of value was lost.

Not because of the gay stiff, kind, but because the BioWare hasn't made a game that isn't shit for ages.

NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 350d (5 replies)

...

Homie? I am not going to pretend I have liked... ANYTHING Bioware has done since DA2/ME3. But when your first response to "gay stuff is out" is "nothing of value is lost. Oh, I mean Bioware, not the actual gay stuff" you have to really question what you are doing with your life.

Some shit is more important than your hatred of a studio for... not making games you want to buy. And you ALWAYS have the option of pretending it is Friday and shutting the fuck up.

krooklochurm@lemmy.ca · 13 pts · 350d (3 replies)

Wat

Tyrq@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 8 pts · 350d (1 reply)

Drugs

krooklochurm@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 350d

Yes please

someguy3@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 348d

Not that I agree with him but this may help https://youtu.be/6EI_RYIEtrg

yucandu@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 350d

I like how on Lemmy, both these comments are upvoted.

Wahots@pawb.social · 17 pts · 350d (9 replies)

Did EA have games with gay stuff?

Moontress@lemmy.ml · 51 pts · 350d (2 replies)

Mass Effect and Dragon Age series come to mind

Skyrmir@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 350d (1 reply)

Sadly Dragon Age is dead after that last attempt at a sequel. They should sell it off to a company that might actually be able to fix it.

BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 350d

Dragon Age died with the first sequel.

SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 350d (2 replies)

I made sure all my Mass Effect playthroughs were as gay as possible

pressedhams@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 10 pts · 350d

That’s using the ol spacenoodle alright

mysticpickle@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 350d

I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite bath house on The Citadel

squirrel@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 18 pts · 350d

Besides what was already mentioned: For what it's worth, Apex Legends has a lot of queer characters.

sleepydragn1@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 350d

The Sims comes to mind here, since it's had same-sex relationships for quite a while (and same-sex marriage for at least 3 and 4, I think).

Manifish_Destiny@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 350d

Not intentionally.

supernight52@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 350d (2 replies)

Wait, Bioware still exists? I thought they were quietly shuttered after Andromeda. Either way- not like this will fundamentally change anything with how EA already works. Garbage no matter what.

RipLemmDotEE@lemmy.today · 7 pts · 350d

Yes, but Bioware has been in bad shape since EA doomed Anthem by forcing a complete rewrite and redevelopment 18 months before release, and then pulled funding after letting Anthem's dev team promise a full 2.0 fix. Anything EA touches turns to feces, even if it was once great.

Logical@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 350d

Unfortunately BioWare has been in sharp decline for a pretty long time now, though they are still releasing games. As an old school big time fan of the Dragon Age series, I didn't even want to try the latest entry in the series, because I saw enough to know I'd be disappointed. And as I understand it, their other franchises and games released have pretty much gone in the same direction for almost a decade now.

yucandu@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 350d (1 reply)

EA killed my favourite game series of all time, Super Mega Baseball. Also Command and Conquer back in the day. They claimed they were done with that buyout-competitors stuff but they clearly are not.

Aganim@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 350d

Don't forget about them screwing Origin Systems. RIP Wing Commander and Ultima.

SurfinBird@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 350d (2 replies)

Bad news if you were waiting for a new gay rpg

BleatingZombie@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 350d

Honestly, which good RPGs aren't gay?

SweetCitrusBuzz@beehaw.org · 3 pts · 350d

There will be others.

vane@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 350d

FC 2026 with dragon age and mass effect characters confirmed.

BroBot9000@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 350d

EA has been utter shit for years. Hopefully this shreds them and their IPs up and we finally get some new and original ideas from the indie studios that pop up from the ruins.

Bennyboybumberchums@lemmy.world · -3 pts · 350d

If by "gay stuff" you mean terrible fucking writing, then yeah, fingers fucking crossed. The lead writer for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, should be the last person on the planet talking about quality of products. Maybe stop trying to make things gay or straight, and focus on making them fun would be a good way to go...

janewaydidnothingwrong@lemmy.world · -8 pts · 350d (6 replies)

Calling BioWare venerable is a complete joke. The last decent games they made were Mass Effect 1 and Dragon Age 2, and that was about oh 20 fkn years ago. Maybe they were venerable once, but not for a long time. I'm okay with putting them to rest. (do bungie next)

iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 350d (4 replies)

I don't know how much weight I put on an opinion that thinks Dragon Age 2 was better than... Well, mostly anything.

rafoix@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 350d (2 replies)

I never played it because it shifted the series toward the crowded action adventure genre than the CRPG genre.

Was DA2 actually that bad even as an action game?

krooklochurm@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 350d

I tried playing it when it came out for like 3 hours and I just couldn't. As far as I could tell it had fuck all to do with DA1 and it was just.... awful.

Logical@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 350d

I played through it a couple of times. Honestly, even as someone who absolutely adores Origins, enjoyed Inquisition, and is generally a big fan of the lore and the setting (at least up until Veilguard), it's a tough sell to someone who isn't already a big DA nerd. The characters and story are both solid, thanks to the fantastic writing and voice acting at the studio during that time, and tbh I don't even mind the more action-oriented combat, which I thought they pulled off well enough. It's a different kind of story, more character driven than Origins, and I think it fits for what it is. Where you really notice how rushed it was is with how many of the locales are just straight up copy pasted throughout the whole game. There's like five warehouses and caves which are just reused throughout the game everywhere. And, worst of all imo, their solution to making the game longer was just to add arbitrary waves of enemies for every encounter. It makes the game way more repetitive than it really needed to be. There are other, more minor flaws, but those two together really stand out and make the game difficult to play through, and not in a fun way. Makes it feel like kind of a hack job.

janewaydidnothingwrong@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 350d

Luckily opinions can be ignored if desired. I remember liking it quite a bit but you never know

vzqq@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 350d

The last decent games they made were Mass Effect 1

That bitch Ashley had it coming.