This applies to SWTOR I'm sure as well, so here it is. "Excuse the rant but interviews like this are the reason why I've lost all respect for Bioware. Since joining EA, they rarely speak the truth... about anything. 1- EA has absolutely no interest in satisfying Bioware's core audiences and Muzyuka knows it. Here's what John Riccitiello said about the Mass Effect franchise, which directly applies to Dragon Age. "One of the things that Ray Muzyuka and the team up in Edmonton have done is essentially step-by-step adjust the gameplay mechanics and some of the features that you'll see at E3 to put this in a genre equivalent to shooter-meets-RPG," he said, "and essentially address a much larger market opportunity than Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 began to approach. We're huge believers in the IP and are purposefully shifting it to address a larger market opportunity." The "much larger market opportunity" Riccitiello's talking is the shooter and action audience. This is what caused the changes to Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 2. Bioware's existing core audience didn't fit into EA's business model so both franchises were reworked to appeal to EA's target audience. EA forced Bioware to abandon the established audiences and refocus on EA's target audience instead. Bye bye DA:O and ME 1 fans, hello Call of Duty and Halo fans. 2- It is true the biggest complaint about Dragon Age II was that it felt like a dumbed down adventure. But the changes had absolutely nothing to do with mainstream appeal, accessibility or core fan feedback. The big reason why DA:O and ME 1 were highly successful with RPG fans, core players and shooter fans was the games were designed and balanced with the preferences of all audiences in mind. Not just one audience. Streamlining the games removed this balance and placed the preferences of EA's target audience over those of the others. This translated into sequels that were less accessible and less enjoyable for most of the existing audience as well as the wider, possible audience. Streamlining the games reduced the mainstream appeal of the games, it didn't increase or expand it. 3- Compare Muzyuka's claims about fan feedback with those made by Christina Norman, the lead designer of Mass Effect 1 and 2. Again, this directly applies to Dragon Age. [Paraphrased by interviewer] "ME 2's reinvention was more internally motivated - which is to say, initiated by the team in response to their own dissatisfaction. That's not to say the ME2 team didn't take feedback into consideration; on the contrary, Norman showed off an extensive spreadsheet that dissected dozens of ME reviews, noting complaints and praise alike. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, these were simply guideposts for the sequel, and Norman's crew took a more holistic approach, using their research to realize the core objective of creating a follow-up that felt more internally consistent. The most important lesson taken from ME feedback was the fact that the game looked and moved like a shooter, but didn't feel like a shooter. Norman's task was to evaluate all the factors behind this discrepancy and reinvent systems as needed. To this end, the ME2 team stripped out the game's RPG components entirely, working from a baseline game that was, simply, a third-person shooter. Once they were satisfied with the feel of the game, they began restoring role-playing components again -- but reworked to prevent compromising the shooter style." Does it sound like Bioware used the feedback provided by their core audience of RPG fans and mainstream players? Or does it sound like Bioware used the feedback provided by EA's marketing department about their target audience of hardcore shooter and action fans? So excuse me when I laugh out loud when Muzyka talks about valuing feedback from Dragon Age's core fans. 4- "Maybe some of that can be attributed to some of the fans of Dragon Age: Origins who were maybe expecting a similar experience." Um... excuse me? Some of the fans? No Dr.... all of the fans expected it. Because that is how branding and building brand loyalty works. You establish standards which creates expectations in the future. This motivates consumers to purchase the products in the future. Both DA:O and ME 1 established large and diverse audiences. All of those players had very reasonable and legitimate expectations the sequels would deliver the same style of game play, the same level of quality and the same amount of content delivered in the first titles. Bioware and EA knew given the extent of the changes, they had a responsibility to disclose it to the established audience so they could make informed purchasing decisions. But they also knew if they did, large portions of the established audience would not have purchased the games. At least not until the price had dropped after a few months. So for DA 2, they released a tightly controlled demo that only allowed an extremely limited view of some of the minor changes. And they didn't release any demos of ME 2. As a result, the players who purchased the sequels expecting a similar experience got burned. When Muzyka claims that "Dragon Age II was successful in expanding the audience for the franchise" he excludes the fact that the expansion was caused by attracting more shooter fans with the streamlined design while keeping the established RPG audience in the dark about the changes so they'd buy the game sight unseen. In both cases, what EA and Bioware did was dishonest and unethical. They intentionally mislead their core audience to avoid losing sales and profits. 5- If you believe Muzyka or Bioware when they say "we can actually take the best of breed features from the original game in Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II and put them together", I have a bridge I'd like to sell you. Bioware made the same promise about combining the best in breed of ME 1 and 2 in ME 3. Now take a look at what Bioware has planned for Mass Effect 3 and you'll get a good idea of what they will actually do to Dragon Age. Casey Hudson (Project Director): "Normal is the new Veteran” in Mass Effect 3, effectively making it the most challenging game in the Mass Effect trilogy." Corey Gaspur (new Lead Designer): "... You're fighting a force that's a lot more intelligent this time around, and a lot more punishing. The game is just intense even when you play it on Normal." Christina Norman (former Lead Designer): "On those harder difficulty levels we can make the enemies exhibit specific behaviors more often, or even give them new behaviors that we think will work for a harder difficulty level, but which won't work for an easier one." Reconcile this with a researched and proven fact: the more difficult a game becomes, the less accessible and enjoyable it becomes to larger groups of players. The higher the difficulty, the smaller the audience... a proven fact. So Bioware is actually moving further away from the core audience by catering to an even narrower segment of the hardcore audience with extreme difficulty. But rest assured when the game is released, EA and Bioware will advertise and market it to the mainstream audience and claim it was designed to be "accessible." So don't hold your breath waiting for Bioware to come to their senses with Dragon Age. The sad reality is the studio that created DA:O and ME 1 died when it was assimilated by EA." Anonymous inputer name here. Educate yourself, realize the truth and become a better person for it.

nope cancelled already.