Or prepend it with an F

That's been true for maybe 30 years. 20, anyway.

As soon as they started talking about accelerating innovation, creating new "intellectual property", and increasing shareholder value, the "Arts" were definitely over. And probably before then.

EA published several Commodore 64 games I liked

They bought Bioware after Mass Effect

In that case also they were effectively done with the game, but it wasn't out yet.

I hate how plausible this is.

Fitting, in a way. An illustration of the direction they went and what effectively ended them.

If you weren't already boycotting them I have a tough time believing you'll stick with it now

If u don't put respect on NFS underground I don't think we can be friends

I stand corrected, looks like EA bought them just 1 month before Mass Effect's release. But yeah, by that point the game was already being printed on discs, with Microsoft as the initial publisher.

Yup, and there's a little quid pro quo, too: You have to stay but they make you president in the corporate structure over the acquisition and probably get stock offerings. Kind of expected, but I'm sure it's nice to be able to say you're a senior VP or whatever in a much bigger company.

They were just counting down the days for when their contracts were up.

Kind of a shame but also understandable. You put your life, blood sweat and tears, all the overtime, every waking moment, to build something and if the opportunity to cash out arrives they almost always take it. Otherwise they're just riding the wolf by the ears until they crash from burnout.

Who was EA sold off to?

A.I is the reason.

The Saudis and Jared Kushner, but mostly the Saudis. It's a private equity fund, and they used a leverage buyout for the sale, which means they basically took out a loan against the thing they're buying in order to fund it. There's a lot of debt to pay interest on, and cost cutting was inevitable.

I guess, players refused to play games which lack contrast and expose them to the same politics they are already experiencing in their daily lives. Maybe all the newer games needed for success was an integrated mini game about the character doing their taxes.

I came late to the party and played Inquisition first, and thought it was really enjoyable, and played Mass Effect 3 before the first 2, and thought it was great. I think sometimes gamer expectations are just impossible to meet, and on some level I'm happier to see a studio try something different, rather than shovel the same old grain into the feedbag.

Think I'd blame the downhill turn which has mostly continued on Riccitiello

It's been shit for years, mass effect 2 was the last great title they did, 16 years ago

I can imagine shill comments about the show as well.

"Haters are whining about this show over nothing. Shepard becomes a spectre, Saren dies at the end, Sovereign goes boom. What more do you people want?"

"The retelling of Virmire is way better than the OG. It turns out that Liara only needed to mind meld with one of the workers in the facility, and compel that worker to initiate the self-destruct sequence. Like, duh. Is Game Shepard just stupid?"

"People keep complaining that the Citadel is only seen at the end. New York is actually within budget. I liked the Empire State Building scene with TIM tbh."

"TIM is at his best in this show. His sword is so cool!"

"Reimagining the Geth as the Borg was a master-class move. Geth-Jenkins was the best! Maybe he'll come back as Legion in the next season?"

"People keep complaining that the Citadel is only seen at the end. New York is actually within budget. I liked the Empire State Building scene with TIM tbh."

"Plus they go to Vancouver and London in the third game, what makes the time spent in New York any different?"

"Reimagining the Geth as the Borg was a master-class move. Geth-Jenkins was the best! Maybe he'll come back as Legion in the next season?"

"If they just had the robot faces, you couldn't see the actors properly emote. This is much better for the format of TV, the performances can shine and deliver the emotional nuance of the Geth."

Can you expand on this?

Revenge for what they did to Dead Space 3, then.

Hopefully another company can gobble up bioware talent, at least.

To the surprise of nobody. Who thought Saudi's and Kushner bought EA because they you to 'ship a same sex NPC.

It seriously feels like I just lost a friend.

Your friend was bought by EA and all his innard replaced by bunch of cockroaches, just like the dude in Men in Black (1997). If we take corporate personhood seriously, the fucker that died is not the same person who worked on BG2.