The weird reason I haven't played a Bioware game since 2012

I've been considering replaying the Mass Effect series, but the price of Bioware Points keeps putting me off.

I have two competing thought processes clashing whenever I think of replaying Mass Effect.

I'm a completionist who likes to play game series in order, and want to complete all missions available, but I'm also obsessed with getting value for money.

I replayed Mass Effect 1 before playing 2 (including my first playthrough of Bring Down the Sky) and played both games again just before the third came out.

But whenever I think of playing the series again I look at the prices to 'complete' the game with story DLC and decide to play something else instead.


Basically, to complete the Mass Effect Trilogy, I'd have to pay $144, which is the same cost of buying four copies of all three games and still having $24 left over, and the games, besides decreasing in price over time, are also often on sale while the DLC is still at release price and rarely if ever seems to be on sale.

So for the past five years I've been waiting for something that may never happen, and this is certainly a big part of the reason I haven't bought either Dragon Age Inquisition or Mass Effect Andromeda.

It would not surprise me if, instead of discounting and charging normal money for the DLC or bringing out a complete edition, they just let them die with no possibility of buying them – much like Neverwinter Nights Premium Modules

I suspect I'm the only one weird enough to continually delay replaying a game or playing a sequel because I refuse to either overspend on or ignore extra missions, but I thought my insanity was worth sharing.

I am in the same boat actually. I played ME2, but not ME3 as I wait for DLC to become more reasonably priced. I think they did go on sale for consoles, but not for PC. They even increased their price lately iirc.

You do not need to buy all the DLC. According to most people, several of them add little to no value.

Well, when I don't want to pay an unreasonable price for something - I either accept that I won't get it - or find another way to get it.

I highly recommend not sitting around lamenting it.

There are many, many great games to play and enjoy. If you really want to support the people behind this practice, then I'm sure a sale is coming eventually. You just have to wait.

Bioware Points are scam, I posted it numerous times.
Won't check math spoiler, made one myself a few years ago.

There was a post on official Bioware forum how to get Bioware Points for cheap, but Bioware killed their official forum and now I'm sorry I didn't backup that particular thread. No promises, but I'll try to find it in google cache or something.

I remember when EA released the whole trilogy, and called it complete. When in reality all three games were missing DLC's, and expansions. Freaking hilarious I tell ya.

Like Joxer said above the BioWare points were/are a scam.

BioWare really makes it a point to try to milk their customers every way they possibly can.

Then EA, BW and some gamers act surprised that gaming community doesn't trust BW; that gaming community doesn't believe BW; that gaming community doesn't have a great deal of sympathy when things don't go well for BW.

All the potential goodwill they've wasted...

__

I bought a Mass Effect Trilogy bundle here (dunno about DLCs) (disc version) massively discounted in an electronics chain shop for 2,99 Euros some months ago.
Haven't played it so far, though.

Cough, cough...where is that scoundrel Dasale?

As for this, well in their defense, more meaty Dlc's are not bad, but you'd be crazy to buy it all.
It was even worse with DA Origins.

Don't worry about it. Just think of all the indie RPGs you could buy with that money and then buy all of those instead. If you choose wisely, I promise you will far more enjoyment from those than re-watching an interactive movie with shooter segments.

I found it easy to skip ME4 just because it wasn't on Steam. That is such an alien thing to me these days that I tend to forget that the game even exists until I see a thread like this.

BoboTheMighty said:

As for this, well in their defense, more meaty Dlc's are not bad, but you'd be crazy to buy it all.
It was even worse with DA Origins.

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At least with DA:Origins a GotY bundle was released that contains everything. They never did that with any of the games that followed.

JDR13 said:

At least with DA:Origins a GotY bundle was released that contains everything. They never did that with any of the games that followed.

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I knew that deep, deep, deep down inside JDR there is a part that still loves Bioware.

BoboTheMighty said:

I knew that deep, deep, deep down inside JDR there is a part that still loves Bioware.

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Very deep. Like colon region.

As long as Bioware is affiliated with Electronic Arts, and/or exclusively uses the Origin platform, I'll never buy another product of theirs. To all intents and purpose, they no longer exist for me, save for mocking purposes, and reminding people of when they actually made decent non-scamming games.

The Brown Dragon said:

Basically, to complete the Mass Effect Trilogy, I'd have to pay $144..

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I don't know whether to laugh hysterically, shout with righteous indignation, or simply direct you to pirate "Ultimate" "Complete" versions that have all the extra content in a single simple offline installer, one for each game.

Price may be something that's relative, though I can't think of any game that justifies that kind of price, if I won the jackpot I wouldn't be willing to pay that much for it, especially not for a digital version.

JDR13 said:

At least with DA:Origins a GotY bundle was released that contains everything. They never did that with any of the games that followed.

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I'm not sure if every tiny little bit of cosmetic preorder DLC is a part of it but they did release a GOTY of Inquisition fairly soon after the release of all the DLC and they discounted it very quickly, too.
There are also bundles of other games, of course. Battlefield always has the premium versions and SWBF has an ultimate edition.

The whole ripoff with BioWare points and no GOTY version is luckily exclusive to Mass Effect 2 + 3 and Dragon Age 2 and has not been continued.

I'm no fan of some of EA's business practices but credit where credit is due: Origin has turned into a very decent platform and EA have done bundles and sales aplenty as well as generous demos/trials, a generous refund/return policy, free games, intelligent downloads that allow you to play before the download is finished, excellent download speeds and Origin Access is not that bad of a deal if you plan on going on an EA product catalogue gaming spree .

The only people they really fleece are the preorder and release day buyers but anyone with a bit of patience is rewarded with quick, substantial discounts as well as bundled versions.

Moriendor said:

I'm not sure if every tiny little bit of cosmetic preorder DLC is a part of it but they did release a GOTY of Inquisition fairly soon after the release of all the DLC and they discounted it very quickly, too.

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You're right. I forgot about DA:I which is funny because I own the GotY edition.

I got it really cheap from some digital store in the UK awhile back. I think I paid $10 for it, and I remember thinking it might have been a pricing mistake on their part. I've still yet to install it.

I agree with everyone's dislike of Bioware points as a concept.

I disdainfully think of all of those game currencies as "Itchy and Scratchy money"

I'll likely consider this again in a few years and if the prices remain the same once again choose to play something else instead (unless I notice a sale where I can get all DLC for a total of $20 or less - then I'll probably bite)

I do find it interesting that in a case study of one (me!), I'd bought Bioware games at full price on release since Baldur's Gate, then suddenly stopped. (Hell, I even bought Dragon Age Origins and Awakening twice as I also got the Ultimate Edition.) If they knew my purchasing history they'd probably make the wrong conclusions seeing as I'd bought all 4 games that included Bioware points, then stopped buying after Bioware points were discontinued. Oh well, it's their loss.

Please keep in mind that if you think you're necessarily supporting Bioware by buying their games - you're wrong.

You're supporting the investor and he's the one who decides if your support is for Bioware or not. Even then, you're not necessarily supporting more Bioware games of the same nature - because that's also up to the investor first and Bioware second.

For instance, I supported both Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins - and they were both very, very successful.

The result? Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 2.

Now, I know a lot of people love Mass Effect 2 - but I consider both gigantic steps down from their prequels.

So, what did my support actually do? It told EA that, since the games were such hits, they should go ahead and streamline sequels for the masses and ignore the core audience.

This is just another example of why capitalism has failed and the publisher model is terrible.