Which RPG studio has caused the most harm to the RPG genre?

[Ysaye]

For mine the thread of development that has created the most harm:

(Ultima 6-7 companions lead to) Baldur's Gate 1 popularised the concept of recruiting walking talking bickering "companions" for nerds like us that didn't have that in real life. This led to a natural progression of Baldur's Gate 2 Romances which was the floodgates for decline; it was these romances that first attracted non-rpgamers who in turn brought all of these demands about what the genre should be.

 

[Thalstarion]

Bioware and Bethesda, arguably. Both put out RPG's that at least tried to be decent yet their most recent entries are utter slop and make the likes of Skyrim look like high art by comparison.

Square Enix and Capcom have fallen pretty hard as well. Might as well consider them to be Western studios these days due to how many deranged Californian progressives they have in positions of influence.

 

[DemonKing]

Personally i blame them (among other things like RTwP) for all later CRPGs with literary hundreds of pages of bad writing and for the idiotic dialogues - BG1 was one of the game that started it.

I didn't mind the RTWP combat to be honest. The romances stuck in my craw because they seemed like a waste of resources and weren't the reason I wanted to play a fantasy CRPG.

Look at modern CRPGs - RTWP combat is dead but romances are front and centre with ever more resources poured into them. You tell me which has had the worst impact?

 

[Tyranicon]

literary hundreds of pages of bad writing and for the idiotic dialogues

Nice pun.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

What was the first studio that came up with idea that RPGs need a "plot"? Total decline.

Richard Garriott, Origin, and the Ultima series have been mentioned at least three times in this thread before this post.

 

[Serus]

Personally i blame them (among other things like RTwP) for all later CRPGs with literary hundreds of pages of bad writing and for the idiotic dialogues - BG1 was one of the game that started it.

I didn't mind the RTWP combat to be honest. The romances stuck in my craw because they seemed like a waste of resources and weren't the reason I wanted to play a fantasy CRPG.

Look at modern CRPGs - RTWP combat is dead but romances are front and centre with ever more resources poured into them. You tell me which has had the worst impact?

See that I only mentioned RTwP in passing. Writing diarrhea and Biowareian dialogues was my main issue.
And don't be so sure RTwP isn't returning. All that is needed is ONE very successful AAA game that everyone will start to, as usual in such cases, copy. In fact, imho, it is inevitable sooner or later. Let's just hope for the "later".

 

[Skinwalker]

Fine, I added Blizzard, you can change your votes too.

 

[frankenchrist]

I would say it's actually Square (not that they ever made actual RPGs), but their incredible financial success with FF7 is what actually caused Bioware (and Black Isle, too, with Planescape Torment), to start adding more and more story, relationships (and, eventually, romances) into their RPGs, which eventually led to the decline. Serves them right too, taking inspiration from a godless nation.

 

[Lord_Potato]

Fine, I added Blizzard, you can change your votes too.

Finally a good use for my 2nd vote.

It is my 1st vote however that does the best work. Very happy to see Cleve 'win' against CDPR and ZA/UM

 

[kangaxx]

I'm surprised so few of you voted Larian.

Only two votes doomed this poll. Need at least 5.

But you can only pick two! It's like Sophie's Choice.

 

[Hydro]

Third place Swen
Failed even here

 

[NecroLord]

Fine, I added Blizzard, you can change your votes too.

Blizzard does not even deserve to be mentioned, since it is on a whole different level of scumbagginess and sleazy corporate practices.

 

[Paul_cz]

Weird poll.
Bioware is two studios, one from BG to ME3, and one from Andromeda to Veilguard.
First one is influental and positive, second one is lame and pathetic.

So I voted for Bioware, but only for the pathetic part.

Bethesda is similar though. From Arena to Skyrim, there was decline but the games were still acceptable.
From FO4 to Starfield, the decline got bigger and bigger.

 

[NecroLord]

Bethesda is similar though. From Arena to Skyrim, there was decline but the games were still acceptable.
From FO4 to Starfield, the decline got bigger and bigger.

Julian Lefay era...
We're NOT getting another game like Daggerfall.
Shame.

 

[Skinwalker]

Fine, I added Blizzard, you can change your votes too.

Blizzard does not even deserve to be mentioned

MAKE UP YOUR MIND, PEOPLE

 

[Swen]

I'm surprised so few of you voted Larian. If Bioware has introduced retardation to the genre, Larian has cemented it with both DOS2 and BG3. What I mean by that are RPGs that focus on presentation and romance at the detriment of everything else: mechanics, UI, UX, itemization, combat encounters, C&C, reactivity etc. Larian has cemented voice acting as a requirement for medium to large scale RPGs, they have taken romance to extreme levels by focusing so much development time to something that should've never existed in the genre, because of them rotatable camera is a must, their itemization is the worst in both old and new RPGs yet no one outside of Codex seems to care about it. Worst of all, every fucking RPG that comes out in the next decade will be compared to it, but not from point of view that matters for the genre, but mostly voice acting/graphics/romance/story etc.

What a retard.

BG3 is probably the most reactive CRPG ever made you dumb dumb