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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1820 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 23, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Why do you think they got bad at making games though? I’m going to guess it’s because the guys who made kotor and ME1 were a bunch of Gen X computer guys who loved early pc games and were incredibly talented. As the commercial success came and they grew exponentially, they hired a bunch of diverse young millennials and women that wanted to instagram their first day at BioWare. Then trump 2016 happened and it became a moral imperative to use their positions to fight the culture war.

I mean, I remember people saying the writing was on the wall when they brought some community manager on staff (why is it always a community manager?) who thought it would be really fun if there were a button that let you skip all the gameplay and just experience the shipping story. At least I think I'm remembering that approximately right. Was a long ass time ago now.

I think was Jennifer 'hamburger' Hepler, who ironically turned out to be one of the better of the new crop of writers at Bioware, which perhaps isn't saying much. She was never a community manager.

If I recall correctly she left during the development of Inquisition.

I remember people saying the writing was on the wall when they brought some community manager on staff (why is it always a community manager?) who thought it would be really fun if there were a button that let you skip all the gameplay and just experience the shipping story.

I think the perfect compromise for that sort of thing was cheat codes. I'll freely admit that I only made it through Starcraft, Warcraft 3, and BG:ToB via cheat codes. And I'm fine with that! I wanted to see how the games ended, not say that I "beat the game". Did I have the same experience as someone skilled enough to win, though? No.

Accessibility options have become the modern equivalent. I found that several games went from deeply annoying and painful to awesome through switching accessibility settings. Most notably Pacific Drive.

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