BioWare were the heart of the western computer RPG, even at their most chaotic

With EA having closed BioWare this week and about 50 staff, mostly working on Mass Effect 5, affected, the author looks back at the studio's influence on the western computer RPG. He argues BioWare wrote the genre's vocabulary around itself, from Baldur's Gate popularising D&D adaptations to Mass Effect and Dragon Age shaping party stories, branching plots and in-game romance. He also admits his own enthusiasm waxed and waned, citing Anthem's struggles with live service and Mass Effect: Andromeda's shallowness.