BioWare, We Still Love You...

It's been a rocky few years for BioWare, mostly ever since they were acquired by Electronic Arts. Gamers have been riding alongside the role-playing storytellers for years and have expressed a deep appreciation for their art and expertise in crafting masterful characters and colorful universes all their own.

I admit that these last few months have not been the best for BioWare. It probably seems like the whole gaming world is out to get them and that fans have turned favoritism into furor. Well, it's not all bad BioWare. We understand your position and guess what? We still love you.

All the vitriol over the Mass Effect 3 ending? Well it hasn't really died away and even though it caused gamers to protest, donate $80,000 to charity which ended in controversy, flame forum boards, create a new watchdog group, and have thousands of cupcakes sent your way, we still love you.

The reason gamers are forgiving is because we know your history, BioWare. We were there with you when you were competing against Activision's MechWarrior and Sierra's Starsiege series with your first ever game, Shattered Steel. We know you helped shape the revolution of RPGs alongside Jagged Alliance and Fallout with your unforgettable, highly replayable medieval-fantasy RPGs, Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights.

We were also there standing by you, basking in your glory when you broke ground on consoles with the Xbox exclusive, Knights of the Old Republic. The game set a whole new standard and bar for how console RPGs could be, and then you followed up with the gorgeous and beautifully made Jade Empire...a game that actually let us play Asian people who were fully fleshed out characters and who did more than just shoot fireballs in 2D planes or mimic Bruce Lee in one-on-one fighting competitions.

Then came the masterpiece that put you on the mainstream map of success...the game that changed the face of interactive galactic space-adventures forever: Mass Effect. This game helped shape a generation of profound character studies and story development within the interactive entertainment industry, it was later followed by the equally successful Dragon Age: Origins, which helped further cement your status as a mainstream triple-A ball player...and we loved you for it.

But then...then things started to change. No one wanted your relationship with EA to happen, but it did. And then Dragon Age II happened and we all seen the new relationship as a cancerous thing, like a young girl being wed to a con-artist who had been wed many times before. We knew it wasn't going to end well, but we supported you nonetheless. We knew things were going to get rough, like TORtanic rough, but we loved you just the same.

And then, well...then became now and now is not looking so pretty. "DLC" and "BioWare" in the same sentence now sends chills down our spines, and the name "Shepard" brings us pangs to our heart. We hear the phrase "video game ending..." and we immediately gasp, shake our heads and stare up to the heavens thinking about the ending that never was. We hear "Prothean" and think stripped content. Now, the words "Mass Effect" are bittersweet, like a last meal for a death row inmate...only, he was missing a piece of fried chicken before being sent to the chair. But it's okay, because we still love you.

And even though we know that you're honor-bound by your contract to keep your lips sealed about the horrors you witness under your imperial overlord, we don't hold it against you, we understand. Even when they send you out to do damage control for release dates that should have been pushed back, or content they could have let into the package without a separate price-tag, it's okay, we understand. You were just honoring the marriage, and we still love you.

Now when the time comes, and oh that time will come...when that rickety old con-artist goes to wed himself a new bride, and make him some new kids to turn over some new profits, we'll still be there, BioWare. When that coot sets you out to fry when the eggs are no longer golden, the fur is no longer shiny and the sales are no longer sparkling, we'll still be there BioWare. And when you decide to brush yourself off, clean off the pro-corporate filth, kick off those old marketing shackles and get back to what you loved best and what we loved you best for, we'll be there to support you.

So keep that head up high, because when you go knocking on that KickStarter door to make the game we've been waiting to play since the original Mass Effect, and you come asking real nice for a dime, a dollar, or two, you can bet your bottom bill that us core fans, us loyalists, us pure-bred gamers will be right there holding up our wallets waiting for your return. Because BioWare...we still love you.

Signed,

Your Loyal Fans