Do you agree with what I said about Bioware being misunderstood or do you think I am wrong? Please let me know.

Can I add one more thing? I know, I know, lol. But I see a lot of people talking about how free they were to make a lot of different choices in Origins. Origins was made originally as a one off game. Though BW had hopes they'd make more, they weren't sure if it would even sell that much, so yeah, they let you kill npcs and gave you that freedom. As soon as it was announced that there was going to be a franchise, they had to account not only for the story they wanted to tell in this game, but acknowledge your past choices in a different game/s. I can't think of any franchise that has done that, having separate protagonists in the same world while respecting your previous choices. Unless someone can enlighten me, what BW does with DA is unique.

Great points. This is why I actually enjoy Bioware games the most. For me it's the perfect amount of "choice". I've played all bioware games except bg1&2 so I never understand people comparing Bioware now to BG3 for example. They aren't trying to be that anymore and haven't been that for a long time. And I also have DAO nostalgia big time, my all time favourite game, but I'm just grateful we get more content in this incredible setting. I'm not getting hung up on the lack of a tactical view.

Another way to look at it is even with the overabundance of choice that you have in something like BG3, your adventure is still curated. It's a video game. The devs can offer you thousands of choices and record hundreds of variations of reactions to what you choose, but there is currently no way to REALLY have an infinite amount of choices and reactions... that's still limited to imaginations and tabletop rpgs. Great video!

Bioware has always created curated experiences because they're telling very specific stories. They give you freedom in how you approach the world, but it's always been limited to the confines of the story they're telling. You can not have true "open" experiences and a singular, coherent story. By way of comparison, Bethesda gives you a lot of freedom, but none of their stories are particularly complex or even necessarily memorable. That's the trade-off. At least until AI reaches a point where it can become a defacto "dungeon master," addressing every possible outcome on the fly. Despite the pushback against such things, I actually prefer a voiced protagonist. It's more immerive for me, and it makes me feel like my character is part of the story and not just an observer.

This is a really interesting, insightful video you've put together. I overall agree with a lot of your points, and you actually put into words something I'd always felt and not really been able to describe with your discussion on the type of rpgs Bioware makes. Their games aren't on-rails per se, but they are made and written to tell a story and to express certain themes. The choices we get give us the opportunity to engage with that story and those themes in different ways, with some extra choices sprinkled in to let us express our characters in ways that help to make them feel more unique and personalized. And honestly I think I like that approach better than the BG3 approach, where my character ended up feeling very empty and disconnected from the world.

There are people who don't understand why Bioware decides to add in a lot of LGBT stuff in their RPGs like Dragon Age and Mass Effect. First of all, it's a Canadian Gaming Company that's been supporting the LGBT community since gay marriage was legalized in Canada at around 2005. Second, Bioware is trying to market their games to everyone, including people from the LGBT Community. Sure Dragon Age Inquisition was banned from India for have gay romance options, but that didn't stop the game from reaching a lot of sales success. Lots of games were banned from certain countries. Example: Mortal Kombat 2011 was banned from Australia for explicit depictions of dismemberment, decapitation, disembowelment and other brutal forms of slaughter. Some people complained that Dragon Age Inquisition was bad for having gay romances, despite the fact that Dragon Age always had gay romances since Origins. And besides, Dragon Age is one of those games where players can romance any companion they might have feelings for, no matter what the race and gender is. Baldur's Gate 3 did the same thing with having gay romances and that game was considered the best game of 2023. Fire Emblem Three Houses had gay romances and that game won best strategy game of 2019. All that I'm saying is that it's Bioware's choice to have gay romances in their games because their country supports the LGBT community.

An argument I see is, "How can Bioware make the combat so causal when BG3 shows you can make complex gameplay and be super successful?" As much as people online criticize various AAA RPGs for being too actiony, there's a reason why studios moved away from the combat of Baldur's Gate 1 and 2. The truth is that RPGs would not be as big now if studios sticked to the hardcore/janky mechanics of the 90's and early 2000's. Now, of course happy that BG3 sold 10 million copies while being a more tradional CRPG game. That does not change the fact that Veilguard has been development before Divinity original sin 2 was even announced. Even if we assumed the real development started in 2021 (which is very likely), BG3 was in early access for a year from the point. I do not believe that Bioware has anymore goodwill left from both EA and the public to delay the game another 3 years to make Veilguard more BG3. I'm fine with people being skeptical/having low expectations for veilguard. The game has clearly been through development hell. But people shouldn't just mark the game for death before it's released and judge by fair standards. Not standards that was only raised a year ago.

I enjoyed this video. I was very glad to see creators making rational arguments about BioWare games in stark contrast to the angry weirdos declaring that BioWare went woke because of EA and Black Rock. Which is just an absolutely wild take that I can’t believe more than one person maintains for a game company that has made games with gay romances for almost 20 years. Not adding much to the discourse here, but I wanted to post a comment for engagement :)

Saw a video the other day saying DA Veilguard is practically porn, and people were agreeing with it. Idiocy.

First Comment! I Like Your Viewpoint Knight It clearly shows a gap between Young and Old Audience and understanding changes.

Bioware was inclusive before inclusivity was common! Amd its no "woker" than BG3 which is apparently the best game. The algirithm loves all comments, both positive and negative. So say how you feel. I feel so excited for this game. It looks like a natural progression from inquisition.

The issue is Simple Players: Bioware should make a CRPG like Baldur's Gate 3. Bioware: No and that wasn't our Baldur's Gate that was Larian's Studio Baldur's Gate. Players: We don't understand. There are Different Studios and Larian's Studio only makes CRPG and Bioware makes Action RPG's. What the Players should say is we like Larian's Studio and understand that isn't Bioware. Now I went and lost them on understanding. Simple this Bioware makes Games their way & Larian's Studio Makes Games Their way they are total Different Studios there is Different Styles and yes even when Someone making the Same Game they do it in Different ways.

You seem to be trying to answer a question no one asked. I have never come across anyone that didn't understand that Bioware create mostly heavily story driven RPG's, not sandbox RPG's like Bethesda, the question has always been the degree of freedom provided in the game, a question that has been clouded by the problems the company has had over the last 15 years since EA bought them (some of those problems were very much of their own making).

I’m glad there’s someone like you with rational thought which is what’s sorely needed. The “wokeness” arguments are incredibly tiring to hear. It’s like those folks forgot those are optional and aren’t being forced on them. I play Dragon Age for story and more, but keeping gameplay refreshing and interesting is also important. If the my kept things exactly the same, then yeah, a game will get boring fast. Things have to change up at some point. BioWare’s layoffs were already painful and past employees actually have been bullied off by fans. Support is sorely needed for games to succeed or even continue. And companies like EA do hurt them in more ways than one, that I can agree on. That’s my grain of salt on the matters. Also the recent arguments about the god mode. People forget disabled gamers exist (I am one of them but not physically).

We should, regardless of the game or studio, judge a game for what it is trying to be. Bioware games are always penalized by not being something else, instead of being judged by what they really are. Sad, unfair and infuriating.

Dragon age 2 had quite great dialogue, Inquisition was acceptable but not great, Andromeda was very bad (it was very childlish, it felt like they were trying to capitalize on the superhero trend), Anthem.... not comment. For the first time since Origins, it seems like Bioware finally had the time and freedom to make a proper singleplayer game. So far EA always forced them to release games too early or focus on stupid trends they couldn't deliver. First they had to ship DA 2 and ME3 in 2-3 years, then they had to focus the fucking live service model and multiplayer (a singleplayer focused studio making multiplayer live service games, what could posibly go wrong). Now, finally, EA game them the space and freedom they needed to do what they know best, so let's see what they coocked so far.

It's such a crappy feeling not getting what you want but alas - the gaming industry not pandering towards a specific demographic is natural. I really believe that the industry no longer elevates the previous 'gamer archtype' as the standard anymore and as such all we will see from that group (NOT ALL OF COURSE MY BEAUTIFUL FRIENDS) is alot of overt complaints about pandering and wokeness which is nothing but ironic as now they are what they feared lolol.

Origins gameplay was very good for a CRPG at release, and the majority of CRPG's then and now are player for story first. ARPG's are completely different, which is what Veilgaurd looks like. Therefor, it would only make sense that if 50% of the people don't care too much about the combat system and 50% would 100% prefer a modern real-time-with-pause system that implementing that type of combat would have been the correct call. Instead they went with a _"Spider-Man Remastered"_ style of gameplay without the webs or any valid reason in regards to what the fans who do care wanted. It is also my assumption that the reason you can only have a 3 ability _"Loadout"_ in a fricken single-player fantasy rpg is because the team had a similar system already built for the original multiplayer looter-slasher version of the game and did not have the talent to get a decent rtw/p system in a reasonable amount of time for a reasonable amount of money. The lack of hyper-attractive women also tells me that they don't care about what their *_straight_* male fans enjoy in games either, but it also kinda sucks for gay chicks too as I know more than a few lesbians and bi women who will *ONLY* date/lay down with 8+ out of 10 women who are borderline swimsuit model attractive. I'm not going to beat that point too much besides saying _"Yep, they are real. I see 4'11"-5'11" women 5 or 6 days a week at the gym who have measurements like 32-36 large "C" breasts, 20-24 inch waists and 34-38 inch hips while weighing between 98 and 135lbs. Are they _"The norm?"_ Of course not, people are fat in general now, but it was the norm 20 years ago, and most women would look like that if they stayed at a healthy *body fat percentage* for their height. It's also a fantasy game, but whatever, Bioware can wait to see how sales turn out knowing that the majority of _"straight"_ guys are not going to be interested in the romance part of their game, which has been a big part of their games for 26 years now. I think it is silly as you can accommodate both audiences pretty darn easily, but instead they'd rather risk EA Motive making the next Mass Effect game? Ridiculous. And that is where the big difference is. Bioware *used* to try to appeal to everyone possible in their game's genre. Now they are aiming squarely at a subset of a subset and telling the other fans that they are wrong for not liking the direction of the game. _"Give it a chance you bigot."_ Well no. Let me play the game for 20 hours for free and I'll give it a shot. I'm not giving them $60 or $70 bucks to _"Give it a shot."_ I'm one of those people who has been playing since BG1. I also like traditionally _sexy_ women. Romances have always been a big part of Bioware games to me, with the most important part being the writing/story which said relationships are a part of. Next would be gameplay. I prefer strategic problem solving or skill based action with numerous options. This game seems like it is simply not something I am going to like. Divinity OS2, Persona 5, Pillars of Eternity DF, Final Fantasy 16, Witcher 3 or Horizon Zero Dawn? I'd be fine with combat in that vein, but this just feels _off_ *to me.* I hope the game is good, and if people whose tastes align with my own review the game well then I will probably buy it. if not then I won't. Just like I won't buy Horizon Forbidden West or Spider-Man 2 for _"Uglifying"_ characters for no reason after the fact, I'm not buying a Bioware game that intentionally removes or changes things they already know a huge segment of their audience likes. Blackrock, Vangaurd, State Street etc. will get sick of funding this DEI/ESG bullshit at the expense of fans who aren't quite as PC as they would like sooner rather than later (once the governments stop bailing them out with taxpayer money it is a wrap). This is not about _"Woke"_ content. BG3 was chocked full of Indian Dwarves and African American Gnomes yet no one cared. This is about "Woke" at the expense of "Straight". Include branches for both, make gameplay the focus, or get ready for the game to lose a lot of money. In the case of Veilgaurd and what I assume was at least $300M + marketing, I sincerely hope it is a good game. If it isn't objectively appealing to more than just the one demo *_it appears_* they catered to I just can't see them selling the 10M+ copies EA is going to demand for the money they have invested after ME:A and Anthem, the latter of which was an unmitigated disaster.

BioWare is not misunderstood. The audience is expecting more Mass Effect-like games, which is what they are known for. And what they build. A marginal amount of people may interject into the discourse surrounding BioWare with baseless expectations of infinite freedom and character expression, but they are not the kind of people to inform themselves on the reality of BioWare titles via a youtube video. What people expect from BioWare is : more of what they have produced in the past. There is no significant or widespread misunderstanding and the studio is very far from being the most misunderstood. The only mistake is paying attention to this discourse. Look where it is witnessed (Reddit, X...) and see it for what it is : a natural consequence of an unhealthy platform profiting from unending discourse, facts or reality not being needed.

I think Bioware has struck a pretty good balance between player choice and reasonable limitations on those choices to tell a cohesive story. Imo, that's fine. I don't have much else to say but thank you for the video! Keep it up!! Actually, I'm gonna add, it's weird that diversity is such a problem for some people. It's a fantasy world! It can be whatever, there's no limitations really in that regard, why should it only be white people? This "forced diversity" stuff really got me thinking what it actually means. There are maybe some things out there where the diversity feels very forced, but Dragon Age IS NOT one of them. Heck, I don't think Dragon Age could ever BE one of those "forced diversity" places. The world they built is naturally diverse. We're in a different part of the world than in previous games, of course there's gonna be more differences! The fantasy and sci-fi genres have always been pretty diverse in my experience, maybe not always, but I think it usually is. I think that's cool.

It's funny you should mention CDPR because they just got lambasted recently. Let me describe every title so far: "IS CDPR TAKING THE KNEE TO WOKE WRITERS, IS CDPR BOWING DOWN TO DEI" yeah that. Really proving dead internet theory true more each day. At this point, I'm reserving any and all opinions of Veilguard until the product actually launches. I have concerns, but I'm far more willing to give it a fair chance now as a side-effect of outrage peddlers poisoning the well.

The thing I have learned about Bioware is that it's not the Bioware that used to be my highest regarded studio anymore and I have no reason to be excited about anything they work on any longer. And freedom of customization is definitely not why.

Seems like you feel into a trap of thinking about BioWare as an entity, it’s not, it’s a studio with people working in it, and these people make games. Modern BioWare has absolutely nothing to do with the team that made ME or dragon age, it’s BioWare only by name.

Just play Baldurs Gate 3 if you want maximum choice.

No, what you DONT understand about people not understanding bioware is that people see the superficiality of the choices provided by BioWare and criticize them for it ONLY (I dont think there are people who dont understand them at all) - why give a choice if you will do what you want anyways? (that is the most common complaint I see, which suggests understanding) You waste your time making it, you waste players time picking it and it makes no difference. (I personally like the choices as they add flavour and you can make the main protagonist have the personality you want.) People simply wanna have results that are totally different and quite frankly, that would make the games impossible to make or have any sort of sequels. good options needs to be heavenly and bad options hellish, if the option is the same thing BUT the difference is that your character may be more emotional or cold for the other choice is just not enough of them. What I meant by that. I think people ARE understanding BioWare but hate what they are doing and want them to change into something different. Also a lot of the time their choices would result in the plot not being possible (BUT it could be solved with some short game over cutscene with the villain winning like Baldug gate does it - say you kill Solas immediately because you dont trust the guy and then it shows you that without his guidence you couldnt close the portal and everything got overrun - DA Inquisition has actually just this in the mission failure/death screens like "With the Inquisitor out of the picture Corypheus was able to overwhelm the Inquisition forces and Thedas soon followed" and then you have only the option to accept this as your ending or reload a safe. I think if BioWare added some disasterous endings and enabled them to make stupid choices but canonized actually going full length of the game and have those game overs be just as a fun ending, it might be satisfying them a little :) As for the Woke aspect, I think BW are sexist who make complex female characters and males are usually make as the laugh stock commedy relief like Garrus, Vega etc. Do you think BW comment on EA was genuine or with gun to the head so to speak? I think the answer is clear.

Yaaay new video!!!

That's exactly how I feel about Guerrilla, and Horizon games are not even an RPGs!

When people say "Woke", no one means "Progressive" nothing wrong with being progressive. what they mean by "Woke" is forced DEI, the kind you can feel is just there for the sake of DEI and not the story or world-building. the current state of DEI does more exclusion, the opposite of what they're supposed to do. take the same s3x relations, when they push it too much in their products, it doesn't promote inclusion, it just excludes the majority of their statistically straight players! Nice video, I never got the hate Bioware got. every game doesn't need to be genre-defining. These types of overreactions of gamers are going to kill franchises and developers in this "no second chance" environment of the gaming industry, Although I admit Bioware has gotten more second chances than any other developer. Back in the DA:O days, almost no game was able to do what Origins was doing, it became a staple in the genre. nowadays on the other hand, what Origins did is the bare minimum of an RPG, so when people make an RPG even better than Origins, it'll never be prased like Origins because as good as it may be, it doesn't push the genre like Origins did and gamers somehow expect the same feeling with every new DA game as they felt with Origins. It's not fair to expect a developer to push one of the most over-saturated genres every time, just let them make their game, it's either good or bad, there's no point overreacting to it!

I understand Bioware, but my issue is I'm sooo tired of marvel movies, and now these game look like some mash up of marvel, and pixar movies. It just looks like it is made for a 8 year old. maybe I'm just old but this game just looks silly. I played D.A. Inq. and just refuse to eat this slop any more

I don't really blame EA. EA wanted Mass Effect 2 just as quickly as Dragon Age 2. The Mass Effect team pushed for 6 more months than the Dragon Age team, though. Mass Effect 2 ended up being a great game, whereas Dragon Age 2 had more issues. I still like or love both games. EA distributed all of the games in both franchises. It's hard to celebrate certain titles made under EA ownership and criticize others due to EA ownership of BioWare. It doesn't work both ways.

THIS IS ALL A MOO POINT, people dont really know what RPGs are, that is why DIABLO still goes on after all these years, you made it out to be that the majority of people are RPG elites. bioware's mass effect and dragon ages are like the witcher games, whiles compering them to bethesda is just one big mistakes, bethesda is lazy, all their features are stagnated, protagonist not having VO are relegated to indie, budgeted, double A games only, because you need to welcome the normies is what is the most important, you cant say you are making a AAA game and what it launch is just any of the shadow run games

Fine, they are "misunderstood".. Fortunately there are better developers to buy from that we do understand.

Veilguard doesn't feel like Dragon Age anymore because of the comic look, Solas looks so ugly. Instagram filter made it to Thedas. The demons.. a disco - fever dream Only two companions instead of three. The rest is totally fine, I want to romance the elven Warden and Neve if BioWare stops using Instagram filters, every characters face is way too smooth and flawless.

The problem is Biowares current hiring practice and which voice actors that are being employed. Americans that think USA problems qnd social ilks are the only thing that matters. It's clearly American racism against the entire world. Americans think their issues are the only valid issues and are the only issues in the world.

Maybe that’s why games like BG3 have been so successful, while dragon age hasn’t been as successful since origins.

Of course videogame will be curated. I mean if Bg3 was DnD game, party would have convinced DM to insert "Descent into Avernus" somewhere in act 3. 😂😂 Thing is about DA2 and 3, they are simply did not scratched that"Epic fantasy" itch that NWN and DAO perfectly did.

Well done sir good video🎉👌🏾

RPGs where the main character isn't voiced, doesn't have an established background, leaving you the player to make up one; I know many RPGamers love this. But it doesn't work, whatever you make up in your head your character is, doesn't always fit within the what video game itself allows. It's literally impossible to account for that, which for me is very immersion breaking. I'd rather a custom main character that you choose 1 of many backgrounds to shape their own narrative within the game's world. Yes it's limited, but there are clear rulings and guidelines how they fit in as a whole. Mass Effect does exactly this and it worked very well for the trilogy.

Hope you won't get any type of hate from "gamers™" or something

I'm still missing something that picks me up as a fan. So far I've only heard about romances and genders, about a no-die mode and hairstyles. Where is my tactical combat system, my blood magic, my nightmare mode and how it has evolved. Don't get me wrong, the other one picks me up too and I'm looking forward to it. But it's not really anything new, Dragon Age has always been diverse and open and that's a good thing. It feels a bit like they listened a lot to the fans who played Dragon Age mainly for easy and romance, but Dragon Age is more than that... I'm still waiting for them to show me the other one, I hope.

At the end of the day it is every gamer for themselves. There are those who hated ME3 just for the ending, but was "ride or die" for the game Anthem, just as there are those who not only still bash Diablo 3 today, but played and put more money than a $60-$70 game in Diablo Immortal (This includes streamers/influencers) instead of focusing on the real issues of "always online", microtransactions, battle passes, etc in single player focused games. There are those ok with the free to play model in payed for games. To all these gamers, we are at an impasse. Peace is a lie! Keep buying loot boxes and I'll continue playing 'woke' games that are great.

👍👍👍

they clearly are trying to not make a good game.

this is mostly just rambling with not much of a point

dislike bioware way going too poltical prefer keep it fentesy focus on story not add thos ting just keep male famle defeult

This is some seriously deluded 'analysis'. Lol.

4:03 C'mon man, thats a weak ass argument in the defense of pre-established characters, and its not what old school bioware/black isle fans are complaining about. In about two minutes you laid out the entirety of several games' protags pre established identity. That should have told you something, and that something is BW/BL was responsible for the barest of bones and it was up to the player to flesh out the protag as they saw fit. Thats how you build a connection with a player, thats how you keep your games played 20+ years into the future. You think _anyone_ is going to be playing the new Dragon Age, or the new Saint's Row, Fallout 76, etc even five years from now?

>Diversity mentioned in first two minutes Yeah, I think I'm outta here. Not getting much better than this

My problem with Dragon Age is the gameplay, they made one of the best RPGs into an action rpg consolified mass market slop.