I think the thing that gets me the most about the “support biow@re no matter what!” crowed is the simple fact that that alot of fans have been doing that already.
For a long time.
If you’re a fan of Biow@re games or even just the popular one’s you’ve probably heard of, witnessed, or experienced:
Dragon Age 2’s rushed development that made it vastly unpopular despite being really fun to play,
The fallout from the ending of Mass Effect 3,
Dragon Age: Inquisition being an empty game full of fetch quests with a boring storyline and dumb metaphors for oppression that somehow made it to be game of the year.
And other such hits.
Plenty of people have stuck with Bioware over the years because they made the types games they wanted to play.
And here’s the skinny: Biow@re is a company of professionals; as I said, these are not your friends down the street. They don’t need to be “protected” from people who don’t want to play their new game.
The backlash against Anthem isn’t even about a AAA game studio doing something new – the primary criticism and concern directly ties into the wild story behind the development of Mass Effect: Andromeda.
How, what should have been the triumphant return of a beloved franchise, became a shell of what it was meant to be because project leads and experienced developers were pulled away to work on Anthem, how it was given to a group that was completely unprepared so the bulk of the company can work on, you guessed it, Anthem!
A single player game was then pushed to the side in favor of a online multiplayer game, Someone in cnarge at EA decided that people don’t play Single Player Games, Dragon Age 4 isn’t even in development yet (apparently) – there’s a very obvious implication here.
Yet, clearly, alot people still have hopes for Biow@re Studios. They wouldn’t be holding out for Dragon Age 4 if they didn’t.
So lets not pretend anyone has to buy every game Biow@re puts out because “they need our support!”
Because if you’re not the target audience for Anthem, you really can’t be expected to play.
If I could just add…
^This is my internet. It is called a Rocket Data Hub. You know how you can have data on your phone? This box is just that; a phone (it even has a number) purely for data. It also works just like data, meaning it is quite slow, and it can cut in and out on you. And it is also pay per use–the more you use, the more expensive the bill is. And if you go over the limit, then it’s $5 per GB, and let me tell you, add tax onto that and I have had some massive bills that have meant financial suffering, because the site to monitor your usage is delayed and we had no way of knowing we were over.
It is the only available source of internet connection where I live. Not even satellite internet is an option. I am part of the estimated one million Canadians with this problem. When I say I am unable to play games that require an internet connection, I am not joking or being hyperbolic. I mean that it would cost me hundreds of dollars to attempt such a thing, and I say attempt because the quality of the internet would not allow for steady playing.
Some people are under the impression that internet is readily an option for everyone, when it isn’t.
People who say “buy Anthem to support BioWare, even if you don’t like it” are starting to get more and more grading on me, to be honest. I am not buying Anthem. It would be like buying a car when you don’t have your diver’s licence, just to support the dealership.
I like single-player, offline RPGs, and I have loved BioWare for delivering that, especially when more and more companies are pushing for games that require an online connection/are multiplayer based. And now they’ve fallen in line with that. Why the hell would I support yet another company abandoning all of their rural fans?
But I don’t think I deserve being called less of a fan because I won’t buy a game I can’t play. I will support the Dragon Age and Mass Effect franchises by buying Dragon Age and Mass Effect related things. And I hope to god that the next DA game doesn’t require internet. So that I don’t lose one of my special things.
funeral-biscuit 