// KOTAKU — GAMING
Developers, Creators, And Fans Remember BioWare: ‘I’ve Been Trying To Replicate That Feeling For Almost My Whole Life’
When I initially put out a call for fans, developers, creators, and media to reach out to me with stories about their experiences with BioWare, the now-shuttered developer of some of the most beloved western RPGs of the past 30 years, I was frankly overwhelmed by the outpouring of responses from people who had a story to tell. I was so overwhelmed, in fact, that I was only able to use a fraction of what showed up in my inbox for this collection of memories, praise, righteous anger, and mourning. Whether they were old heads who had been playing BioWare games since the days of Shattered Steel and the original Baldur’s Gate or folks who fell in love with the Edmonton studio’s work through Mass Effect and Dragon Age, it’s clear that BioWare’s games left an imprint on fans that has outlived the company itself.
(Submissions have been lightly edited for style and clarity.)
If BioWare’s games have proven anything, it’s that everyone’s story has its own unique beginning, and that’s reflected in how its fans came to know its work through so many different points of entry.
My first BioWare experience was with the first two Baldur’s Gate games. I wasn’t much of a PC CRPG gamer in 1998 but BG1 just absolutely blew me away with what, at the time, felt like endless options for character customization, the broad sweep of the story that felt like a true investment in the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop I had been playing for only a few years at that point – and the Forgotten Realms where I cut my teeth as both player and Dungeon Master – and the amazing writing on the characters. This doubled in effect when BG2 arrived in the year 2000, and between those two games I lived in BioWare’s Forgotten Realms like it was a second home. — Phil Morgan, host of Deleted Saves Podcast
I swiped Baldur’s Gate from my dad when I was nine – he wasn’t into role-playing games and I have no idea why he had it, but it clicked immediately for me and I spent hours trying different types of characters, killing NPCs I shouldn’t have, and getting to know that world. It blew me away when I realized I could recruit different party members in Baldur’s Gate, and that it had an impact on the story. It meant I could replay the game over and over and make different choices to see what would happen, and that became something BioWare was known for. — Chuck Zimmerheld, Giant Bomb
Years [after playing KOTOR], my next experience was attending a Video Games Live concert with conductor Jack Wall, who was the composer for the first two Mass Effect games, and that’s where I first heard the Mass Effect theme. That song was so beautiful to me that I knew I had to play the game it had come from. I didn’t have a lot of money at the time, but I scrimped and saved and got my brother to go half in with me on an Xbox 360. I bought a used copy of Mass Effect before we’d even gotten the Xbox, I was so excited. It blew my mind AGAIN in so many ways. A shooter RPG. A unique space adventure not tied to the IPs I’d enjoyed all my life. I fell in love with all of the unique characters and the idea of a space-faring future where humans weren’t the dominant species felt so fresh and exciting. — Jeremy Greco, BioWare fan
My first experience with BioWare, and one of my earliest memories of gaming in general, was watching my older brother play Dragon Age: Origins in 2010 on our PS3. I was frankly terrified watching it as an 8 year old. To this day, seeing the Darkspawn still conjures up a deep-rooted childhood fear of the Blight sweeping across the land. I remember playing through the game a few years later, thinking I was braver, and being absolutely horrified by the Circle Mage origin. I mean the Harrowing was insane to me. I think it took me maybe a week of going back and forth to finally finish that prologue. That game absolutely set the bar for me of dark heroic fantasy and hugely influenced my taste in games and stories ever since. — Jerram Carr, junior narrative designer
BioWare’s games were th