The problem probably isn't even the writers - TOR actually, to my mind, lifts a bit of the flak of Gaider and his writing team in DA. Some Bioware highup, who doesn't have a clue about writing or games, has looked at their games and gone 'oh, people buy our games for the stories and the romance options - ok now ALL bioware games must allow maximum romances with as many NPCs as possible!'. That 3 completely different writing teams are all pushing the same shit, and in a really transparent 'tick these boxes: maximum sex options, alien fetish, player gets betrayed, twist 3/4 of way through story arc, etc' manner, indicates that this shit is coming from the top down, rather than from the writing team up.
You think so? Wouldn't it be more in the lines of "don't do anything unexpected" - and then they give their approval only when the writers do something that's in accordance with the formula, until they don't even try anymore? Even then, that's a bit forced, I doubt producers and "highups" really give any specifics about the writing. They probably don't know about "story and romance options" - just that Bioware made games that sold, and they must reproduce the formula to get profits. You don't see Bioware - whatever its division may be - struggle with this, they seem fine just bullshitting their way through creativity if it serves how many games they can produce. You don't get that tension between designer and producer you'll get from Obsidian for example - where MCA & co frequently subtly comment about the pragmatic state of the business. If there is that tension with Bioware, I don't see it. They always were glad to make shit, and I bet they hire people who have the same mentality in their ranks
I agree with much of what you say. Part of Bioware's problem is that they have a direct fanbase (not enough to reflect their larger success) who rabidly defend all flaws as though they are 'awesome features'. These are the same people that give Bioware the impression that their more successful games sell on romance and story (even though t he games that crash also have ths). They're the same ones who tell Bioware that - having already convinced them that romance and story is the thing to emphasise - inter-alien sex, furry-fetish, collect-them-all sex-quests and EPIC EPIC EPIC (read: absurdly, embarassingly cliched, even by kid's cartoon standards) stories are what will sell.
TOR reflects this perfectly. All that research, and barely a gameplay or technical improvement in site (and arguably a great step backwards) - with all the emphasis on voice-acting, linear stories and the opportion to shag almost anything regardless of corniness ad absurdity.
The thing is, this is being done by 3 completely independent writing teams. Gaider has absolutely no input on anything outside of DA - no input on TOR, and no input on ME - yet I can forgive the common error around here, because the writing fits all the same boxes. When 3 completely different teams have the exact same approach, that reeks of 'here's a formula, write it for us'. Don't worry there's plenty of derp with the writers (Jennifer's comment about 'here's our AWESOMELY diverse romance options: a super-slut and a large-breasted-but-otherwise-childlike-virgin'. That's got to be the most anti-feminist attitude by a developer in recent rpg development, and it came from a female writer with no sense of self-awareness or irony. And again, no hope for change, because the Biotards actually LIKE that shit. Similarly, the sheer number of sex options in TOR break the fourth wall and just scream 'someone in marketing told us that these would help sales'.
So plenty of derp in execution as well as idea. But it really does look like there's a top-down formula that each writing team must meet. And while there may be room for small improvements (e.g. desiging characters with plot-related AND thematic (always overlooked by Bioware) ties to the larger game...and THEN deciding which would make sensible romances, where AGAIN, the romances contribute to the plot and themes in an interesting way, the basic failings of the structure are insurmountable. They promote their games for their writing, but no writing team could create good work when they're being told 'must tick x boxes: romance, twist, etc'.
(e.g. of tying romances to themes - the slight nastiness/selfishness implied if TNO hooks up with Annah, knowing by then he brings torment onto those who follow him, and that it can only end in misery for Annah, and the final toment: when Ravel points out to your party members the torments you've inflicted on them , she can't come up with a convincing one for FFG. Until the very end...where FFG pledges that she will never stop looking for TNO, returning to the lower planes that she fled from and despises, wasting the rest of her life (which for a succubus could be a LOOOOOONGGGGG time) on a hopeless and meaningless quest that dooms any hope she has to a life of anything but...again...the curse of torment. But none of that would be possible if MCA had to meet a tick-a-box writing style, that is so overwhelming that 3 completely independent teams with no contact with each other still manage to sound identical).
Fuck, the TOR team isn't even Bioware, as we know them. They are Mythic with the Bioware label whacked on them. And yet Mythic's writers are now sounding exactly like Bioware's writers. That can only be caused by topdown demands.
