They've definitively been defensive, but their defence involved the company CEO issuing a public statement that
something was being developed to (as they hope) address the very criticisms of fans. Their defensiveness has been defending their decisions as is, and poorly understanding (or outright ignoring) most of the criticisms towards the narrative and writing.
As I've said, I expect their 'game content initiatives' to, by large, fix nothing, adding more fluff and exposition to the shit that will forever be shit, but they're putting themselves out there to address the criticism.
They
are making some changes/additions, and the CEO had to make a public address to confirm this. That's a pretty big deal, and shows they can't just sweep it under the rug. Someone, somewhere up in the EA/BioWare chain of command, isn't happy with how this is playing out.
And I think that though DAII's response wasn't anywhere near as big as this that yeah, the scale of this response is a "fool me twice" situation. Double burned, double pissed.
I really DON'T think Bioware gives a fuck about making the best product possible because they DIDN'T. If it meant that much to them, they'd have executed better. That is bit of a simplification but as a company, they have shown over the past few years that they care less and less about putting out the best product possible to us as consumers. You can subjectively believe that they care so very deeply, but that certainly doesn't change some of the big mistakes they've made.
If you want to go after 'the man' rather than 'the people', then you have to know who was in charge of what, and what their decisions actually were. I could start picking out names of Bioware staff who I THINK are in charge of certain decisions, but if I don't actually know, then am I not placing blame on the innocent? And if you believe that we should place blame on individuals, then shouldn't you start by naming who is responsible, or trying to find out? Otherwise it's a moot point.
I can't really debate this with you if you're going to put BioWare under one big umbrella of "they don't give a fuck about products". If you want to feel that way fine, you've made your point and I see the angle you want to take. But it's an angle I cannot side with, agree with, or debate against, because we don't see eye-to-eye. You want to view BioWare as a single entity and hold that entity responsible. Fair enough. I'd rather dig a bit deeper than that. EG: I'm happy with the writing work provided for 90% of Mass Effect 3. I am not happy with the ending. I am not happy because Walters and Hudson made some fucking bad decisions by themselves. I hold them entirely responsible, and direct my criticism there way.
Them not attending the PAX panel I feel is an example of other people sharing my stance directing similar criticism right at them.
