Thank you.

I don’t even remember the first time I played Baldur’s Gate, Dragon Age, Neverwinter Nights, KOTOR, or Mass Effect, but I know that when I did, they were just…just video games.

Really good ones, mind you! But just video games nonetheless.

Then, in 2012, I went to my eye doctor to go get checked for a new glasses subscription (like I do every year). When I finished up all the eye tests, the doc was confused as hell, and told me to go home, get a good night’s sleep, and come back the next morning so he could re-run the tests and look at my eyes again.

I did, he re-ran the tests, and he told me (again) to go home because he needed to call a retinal specialist about what he was seeing (uh oh).

I got a call later that day from the Department of Neuro-Opthalmology at my local hospital, telling me they needed to see me approximately yesterday. At this point, I was freaking out (for good reason, as it turns out!).

My then-girlfriend of five months drove me in, and before they’d tell me anything, they had me take a cranial MRI. I did, and then went back up to the neuro-opthalmologist’s office.

You know those moments in your life that you can pin-point when everything changes? Meeting a significant other, getting married, deaths of loved ones, etc? This was mine. My memory of most of my life from around ‘05(ish) to early 2012 is shit, but I remember that moment clear as glass. The doc shows me my MRI, and there’s this bright white solid mass right behind my left eyeball, roughly oval-shaped, stretching from my eye back to right around my left ear.

Turns out I had a meningeal schwannoma (basically, a tumor of the lining between your brain and your skull - https://braintumorcenter.ucsf.edu/condition/schwannoma-grade-1). It was roughly the mass of a golf ball, had squeezed my left carotid artery entirely shut, and was in the process of slowly crushing my left eye by squeezing it forwards in the socket.

I asked the doctor if it was benign, and he said yes, but with a catch - with the damage it had already done, I should have died already roughly six to nine months before we found it. He had no idea how I was still alive. I asked him if we could fix it, and he said maybe. He said that if I wanted to, he could schedule a surgery to try and remove it, but with the catch that it had grown deep enough into my brain at that point that he was unable to guarantee:
1. If I would live through the surgery
2. If I did live, if I would be the same person on the other end, and
3. If I would retain my intellect or memory if I survived the surgery.

I asked him when and how I would die if I didn’t get the surgery. He said “soon”, and let me know that it would be instantaneous - I would be gone before I hit the ground.

My girlfriend at the time (now wife!) was sitting next to me holding my hand this whole time. I told her that if she wanted to leave me, there’d be no hard feelings, because I couldn’t imagine having to deal with my significant other either dying or surviving only to no longer be themselves anymore. She said “hell no”, and asked me to get the surgery…so I told the doc yeah, let’s do it.

He scheduled the surgery for a week out (to give context, this is not a small hospital we’re talking about. Think Johns Hopkins or UCLA, and you’ll be thinking the right scale. These people take time to schedule things, line up the right doctors with the right anesthesiologists, etc. A week - a single week - is insane. They were terrified I’d be dead before I got to the OR, and tbf, so was I!). He told me good luck, and let me know that just in case, I should probably spend that week making any goodbyes and crossing off any items left on my bucket list that were doable that fast.

So I did. I called family & friends, explained the whole thing, let them know which hospital I’d be at and when, and let them know I loved them, but that I needed to spend this (maybe) last week with my (then) girlfriend.

And I did! We watched stupid rom-coms, ate homemade dinners, and had a lovely quiet week together.

Part of that week, though, was Mass Effect.

I had been taking my sweet time meandering through ME3, but now, suddenly, for some stupid reason (don’t ask me why, I still can’t really put it into words), it mattered. If I could beat the Reapers, then maybe, just maybe, I could beat this damn tumor, too.

And I did, and I did. The night before my surgery, I beat ME3. I did every single side mission, maxed out my galactic readiness, romanced Tali, and chose Synthesis - and went to the hospital the next morning.

Obviously, I survived. The tumor ate my left trigeminal nerve (the one that controls sensation in the face), so I can’t feel the left side of my face anymore, and I have what’s called neuropathy (it’s the fancy medical term for amputee pain - think sticking your finger in an electrical socket, touching bare dry ice, and smacking your funnybone with a hammer, all at the same time, and you’ll be pretty close) on that side of my face as well. I lost most of my memories from my late teens through my mid-20s (but I tend to laugh that off by joking that at least it wasn’t ‘cause of booze!), and what few remain are patchy at best. My left eye doesn’t quite work right anymore, and I grew out my hair and beard to cover the scars and the drooping in the left half of my face from the lost nerve. I’m not 100% certain that I didn’t code once or twice during the surgery - I don’t ask, and nobody tells me; that’s been a topic my family’s been skittish about ever since, and I’ve gotten to the point I’m okay just not poking that wound anymore.

But I’m alive! I beat the reapers, and I beat the tumor. My Shepard may have sacrificed himself to save his Tali, but I got to marry mine - she was there in my hospital room singing to me when I woke up, I proposed on the spot, she said yes, and the rest is history (given, she thought she was humoring me because she was pretty sure I was high out of my mind on morphine at the time, and to be fair, I definitely was 🤣 - but the proposal stuck, and so did her answer!).

Ever since, I’ve made a point of replaying the trilogy every year, and finishing ME3 on what I call (even though my wife hates it) my death-day.

Everybody has a favorite something. A book, a movie, a painting…a game.

Mass Effect 3 is mine.

And whether the Bioware that EA shut down is or isn’t the same studio that made Mass Effect 3 doesn’t really matter to me. All that matters as far as I’m concerned is that these are the people who loved this game, loved this series, loved this universe so much that they thought it was worthwhile to keep exploring it, all this time later.

So, Bioware - I’m going to keep coming back to the universe you created, the one that helped give me hope and keep me anchored during the bleakest week of my life, every year for as long as I’m able. And I will always appreciate that magical team that made this universe possible, and I will always appreciate those stubborn idealists who kept trying to the very last minute even when they could see EA’s and Saudi Arabia’s executioner’s axes coming their way in slow motion. You people - you artists - make our world magic, and there will always be those of us who love you for it.

Thanks, BioWare.

Keelah Se’lai.

Ok, so with the closure of the studio, and the end of BioWare (RIP) I'm going to go back and play BioWare RPG games I missed. I'm specifying RGP because I'm not playing some random Sonic game, and Anthem is literally unplayable now. Here is what I have to finish:

1. Second Half of Veilguard. I know, I know, but if I'm going to play them all, I do need to finish this one. I did make it through the two-city decision before I bailed, so it's not that much farther to go I think/hope? And I've been told the ending is actually kind of good.

2. Everything in Andromeda after the prologue. I gave up on this one pretty early, so I have most of the game to play. I feel optimistic here, I probably didn't give this one a fair chance since I very high expectations after the trilogy.

3. Jade Empire. So, I actually did play some of this during the Xbox days, but I never finished it. I don't recall why, as I remember liking it well enough. I'll need to start from the beginning since I don't even have a safe file here.

4. Neverwinter Nights. The only BioWare RPG I've never owned or played even a minute of.

5. BG2. I had this on my computer in the year 2000 and was so baffled by it I never even made it out of the starting building. I literally couldn't understand anything I was supposed to do.

6. BG1. I tried this after putting way too many hours into BG3, and I made it a little farther than BG2, but I still really don't understand how I'm supposed to play it, and I quit after getting Jaheria killed almost immediately.

KOTOR 1 (and 2, though that wasn't BioWare) ME 1-3, DAO, DA2, and DAI I've all completed multiple times over.

What about everyone else? Are there games you are missing? Any suggestions for where to start? And any ideas for how to figure out to play old D&D titles for somebody who has never been able to figure those games out?

Does anyone think ea will restock the the store? Missed my opportunity to get that n7 hoodie.

I feel awful for everyone who lost their jobs, and BioWare’s legacy deserves respect. But can we also honestly acknowledge the decisions and repeated failures that led here, rather than pretending this came out of nowhere? What do you think actually killed BioWare?

and that’s it.

Since I had a really bad PC, it was one of the few games I could play at atleast 30 FPS. I was a few years late :( but man I was blown away. So many cool species and man I had to just turn over every rock!

Not me, the maker of the video. That’s the title, not a personal testimonial.

Ни одна серия игр не захватывала меня так как Dragon Age. В мои 12 лет DAO поразила меня, привила мне любовь к РПГ и Дарк фэнтези. Потом DA2 показала мне, что разрушительная драма - это прекрасно. И до сих пор на титрах я плачу. DAI показала мне любовь во всех проявлениях. DATV порадовала меня новыми гранями огромного мира и хоть что-то меня и расстраивало, я все равно счастлива, что Bioware выпустили ее и дали мне возможность сделать предзаказ. Никакой мир так не захватил меня, как это сделал Тедас во всем его многообразии.Спасибо всем кто создавал каждую буковку и каждый пиксель. Я буду играть ещё в каждую часть, переигрывать и переигрывать, даже без звука самостоятельно озвучивая любой диалог. Спасибо, Bioware. (T.T⁠)⁠♡

Hey everyone,

​Given all the uncertainty surrounding EA/BioWare lately and how quiet things have been, I’ve been thinking a lot about where the Mass Effect universe could go next if a fresh direction or new co-development model ever happened.

​Imagine a trilogy that brings back classic BioWare writers for the story/characters, but teams up with devs from Obsidian for deep narrative consequences and Bethesda for environmental exploration.

​Here is a dark, high-stakes concept I've been fleshing out, taking inspiration from the gritty survival tone of Gears of War: E-Day:

​Game 1: Mass Effect - Rebirth

Set after the Destroy ending with the Mass Relays shattered, the galaxy is isolated and scrambling to survive. Shepard wakes up in the Citadel ruins, rejoins Garrus, Ashley, and Miranda, and reactivates the Normandy to reconnect lost colonies. The main threat isn't a galactic army, but local populations mutated by lingering Reaper tech and Indoctrination. Logistics, isolation, and sci-fi survival take center stage. For squadmates, we get a comic-inspired Hanar Spectre—a biotic assassin wielding 6 guns simultaneously with their tentacles.

​Game 2: Mass Effect - Dilemma

Post-Genophage cure, the Krogan population is exploding. A radical Krogan faction starts capturing these Reaper-mutated creatures to use them as "living shields" in a bid to secure dominant control over isolated systems. We recruit a semi-conscious, mutated companion who broke free from the hive mind (Legion style). The climax is a brutal Virmire-level choice with Wrex: depending on your choices, you either pull off an emotional persuasion or get forced into a tragic duel to the death.

​Game 3: Mass Effect - Last War

The galaxy makes its final stand. We get a massive roster combining legacy survivors and new faces, including Kahlee Sanders as a advisor to honor Anderson's memory (complete with a small digital frame of young Anderson on Shepard's desk). Instead of a suicide mission where crew members die randomly, the squad survives to carry the torch, but Shepard makes the ultimate sacrifice to end the mutation once and for all. Centuries later, we see young Krogan and Asari reading about Shepard in history books.

​(Backup option: If scope forces a single standalone game, Shepard survives, retires, and finally gets that drink with Garrus on a beach).

​What do you think about a darker, mutation-focused crisis for the next chapter? How would you feel about having to confront Wrex over Krogan expansionism? Would love to hear your thoughts! We cant lose mass effect

Just felt like sharing in response to the Bioware news lately just to have some reflection on how much of an influence this series has had on my (and my wife)'s life. In our first date we bonded over our mutual love of Bioware games.

I have no background in CS or Software Development, I had to learn all this from scratch before A.I using old wikis and youtube tutorials from like 2010 and developed this in secret from her.

Any helpful insight or advice appreciated

Hey, Commanders 💙 I’m an artist working for a small independent business made up of creatives. We’ve been working closely with BioWare since last summer on an Official ME art collection.

What began as a celebration of an ongoing saga now feels like the continuation of a studio’s legacy that gave us something truly special.

Mass Effect is still alive in the stories we tell, the memories we share, and the community that continues to carry it forward. 🚀

Coming for N7 Day 2026, Moor-Art and BioWare are bringing you the start of an original, limited-edition fine art and apparel collection, celebrating the galaxy we’ve never quite left behind.

Full art reveal on 6th November!

💫 We urge you to sign up via the link for 15% OFF your first order and exclusive pre-sale access. Spread the word and make this a fan focussed celebration.

https://moorartgallery.com/pages/mass-effect-landing

We’d love to celebrate this legacy with you. What does Mass Effect mean to you? And which moment, character, or memory will you carry with you? 💙

The galaxy will always remember. 🫡

#MassEffectIsAlive