And how am I switching crtierion?
In fact, I disregard "RPG elements" as a criterion because it doesn't really matter, except for close minded RPG elitists. Characters helped ME2 reach its metascore....so characters are part of the metascore criterion. Had the third act of TW2 been has good as the first two acts, it would have been better than ME2. The game ran out of gas at the end, unlike the first game.texasgoldrush
Like I said by discussing various aspects of games without announcing or properly defining them in OP or at least in advance. Then, it's no wonder that this thread is rather confusing and little bit messy. At least in my opinion.
I mean, for example, if I wanted to make a thread defending particular game/s or at least why I like it, I would firstly clearly state my own preferences, when it comes to various gaming aspects. E.g. the most important things for me are non-linear story, big detailed levels, active NPCs that do different things in the games (sleep, walk, talk, cook), good facial animations of main characters and sections with different gameplay (boss battles, stealth missions, hacking / lockpicking minigames, vehicle sections). I don't care that much about about romances, combat in general, graphics (except for aforementioned animations), music, A.I. ... As a result, I find game X (let's say Fallout 2) to be a better game than game Y (let's say Deus Ex Invisible War) because ... and again I would state all of those gaming aspects, in which game X is in my opinion better than game Y and which are important for me.
Then anybody, who disagrees can state their own preferences or question my judgment in my own categories (Is Fallout 2's story really more non-linear than that of Deus Ex IW? Are NPCs in F2 really more active?). Providing that they do the former, we can discuss what "should be" the most important categories and why. This way, I could have a transparent discussion which does not confuse anyone and I (probably) do not risk that much, that somebody would call me a fanboy or hater.
Of course, if your goal is to present, that Bioware is a more successful company than it used to be, then you will have to focus more on sales numbers (because at the end of the day, those are the most important thing for business and survival of the company) and compare Bioware's current position on the market with the situation, that was few years ago, when they were still making "good games". However, under no circumstances I would use critical reception, because... Who cares? Surely not the forumites here - you won't have any decent discussion about that and most likely not even the companies themselves - unless bad reviews start to hurt their sales, which is not always the case.
In both cases though, I would recommend to make your OP / posts more personal (something is good / better / the best according to "you", not in general) and encompassing (you can't focus only on "some" aspects - e.g. characters and ignore others - e.g. level design, unless you state that you don't care about that aspect, which again makes your post more personal).
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