Why? Do they buy more copies than the mass market? It's quite simple - they'll pay attention to the people who give them the most revenue, as any public business should do. If you think you're a minority then you have to up your spending to compete and make your voice heard. It's easily done - if every old-schooler bought three or four copies of Bioware games then they'd be much more inclined to listen.
I'm going to sound quite silly/immature here, but I'm still going to say what I have to say.
First of all, that "buy more copies" doesn't make sense. I would be supporting games that I don't disagree with. Why would I buy four DA2's when I think Bioware is going in the wrong direction. They wouldn't be more inclined to listen, they'd just smirk at the huge amount of games they sold.
I think it's obvious that Bioware has grown into the large company they are now because they captured the hears of old-school RPG fans with a relatively accurate REAL-TIME translation of the AD&D ruleset with Baldur's Gate in 1998. They gained hordes of fans and collected huge critical acclaim with those games. I think a big part of their reputation is based on that original trilogy.
If I were ever to be involved in the development of a video game, I would be unable to deny my long-term fans the game they want. Sure, I can be an irrational bigot sometimes, but there's no denying that the people over at Bioware love video games and love their fans. So, why are they not paying attention to us? I know that everyone want to make a bunch of cash so that they can undertake bigger projects, but don't tell me there's no way to make a good, solid income WITHOUT making an interactive RPG movie, ESPECIALLY for a company with the reputation of Bioware. People will eat up anything they push out, because critics are going to praise the writing, story, characters and combat of their games no matter how good/bad it is (to a certain degree).
Long story short, I think the excuse of "they have to earn money to make a living for themselves" is not a good one IMO. They should be perfectly able to make a game that appeals to the majority of the people who attend the Watch here, and still make profit.
The problem is with mainstream video game reviewers I believe. Some of the reviews for Bioware's latest games have been totally unjustified in my opinion.
Look at the review of Jade Empire at IGN. Anyone recall that one? The reviewer gave that game a 9.9/10 and stated that he actually wanted to lower the scores of all other Xbox RPGs so that he could make Jade Empire look even better. Now, we all know opinions can be subjective, but they've got to appeal to a core of truth. I do not believe for a second that JE was worth a 9.9, because the story was dull (and had a TERRIBLE ending), the combat was an unfortunate failure, it had little depth in almost every aspect of gamplay, and it was pretty darn short and restricted to boot.
Another example: the Gamespot review of Dragon Age. My arch-nemesis, Kevin Van Ord, gave the game a 9.5/10. Some of you might say that he is correct, but I believe the reason why is not correct. Some of the reasons he gives for awarding the game a 9.5 is that the writing is simply "THAT GOOD!!!" (this line includes a zoom-shot on his face in the video review). I think the writing is decent, definitely above average for a video game, but in the end it still comes off as silly a lot of times. Praising the story through the roof is also not plausible for me. I thought the storyline was terribly clichéd (which is not uncommon in an RPG, I admit) and for all the "details" Bioware crammed into the game, there were surprisingly few details on what the hell the deal was with the Darkspawn and the Arch-Demon. But then again, Van Ord is the same man that said Eternal Sonata had a brilliant story and beautiful graphics…
In the Mass Effect 2 review over at IGN the reviewer (the ever-incompetent Eric Brudvig) stated that Mass Effect 2 also had a brilliant story and was one of "the most personal experiences ever". C'mon guys, let's be serious here, did anyone really think that ME2's story was good? There was barely any story to speak of, and what story there is doesn't built on the previously established story/universe of ME1 (I sort of liked it's simple old-school Sci-Fi storyline) and it only poses more questions without answering one. I mean, I'm hunting a race of synthetic humanoids and I can't even comment on The Illusive Man's (What a horrendous name BTW) cybernetic eyes? Shepard must be blind. Calling it one of the most personal experiences ever when you can barely customize Shepard or make a whole lot of choices in the game makes it even more unbelievable. Bioware said that the original ME1 savegames stored up to something like 150 choices you made in the game (not that I recall making 150 choices in that on-rails Shooter/RPG), but the only conversations I recall were of this type:
A random NPC triggers a conversation when walking past it
Random NPC: "You are Shepard right? Weren't you dead?"
Shepard: "I was, but now they resurrected me with Billions of Space-cash to kick some alien butt."
Random NPC: "I see. I wanted to thank you for saving me on Noveria/Feros/Vermire/Whatever."
Shepard: "No problem. I live to serve."
Random NPC: "Cool."
And then you can't talk to Mr./Mrs. Random NPC anymore.
And does anyone recall that scene when Garrus walks into the Comm room when he should have been in the sick bay?
"You do realise this plan has me walking into hell too? Just like old times!"
and
"Hell Garrus, you were always ugly. Slap some face-paint on there and no one will even notice."
Garrus: "Ha-ah! Don't make me laugh, damn it. My face is barely holding together as it is."
Garrus: "Everyone was always ignoring you and hitting on me. Time for you to get a fair shot at it."
Yeah, superb writing there guys! And let's not mention Joker/Seth Green shall we? I almost started to weep out of anger when I found out he survived the Normandy crash.
Mega-long story short, I believe mainstream media has been encouraging Bioware's latest games for all the wrong reasons. I'm not saying those games were BAD, but the rave reviews only make Bioware want to make "BIGGER" and "BETTER" games, thereby ignoring more than a few what I believe to be key elements of the genre.
That's why I have four copies of The Witcher (2x collectors).
Also, I don't think most of us have the cash to pay for that.
Anyway, I realize my post will irritate most because it's perhaps a little on the childish/juvenile/immature side of things, but it is sort of how I feel about Bioware's latest games, and certainly how I feel about the reviews that have been popping up on "mainstream" video game sites. I apologize if I irritated someone with it, but I just had to say it
