Bioware, though, has been moribund long before they joined the Dark Side. They fell into cookie cutter mode with the original KotoR. I remember interviewing Muzyka after BG2 appeared, the sheer enthusiasm he (and the other physicians who formed the original company) had. They wanted to translate the experience of AD&D from their gaming sessions to computerized games, and it took them forever, at first. Before BG1 appeared, they were considered prime vaporware country, going through three different publishers and four years of development.
(In fairness, one of those publishers, Virgin USA, was closed by its parent company while BG1 was "maturing" under their guidance. I saw an alpha at that time, with Minsc running down a street repeating over and over "Butt kicking for goodness! Butt kicking for goodness!" It wasn't the kind of thing you easily forget.)
Once they hit, it was like a bombshell. And BG2 was just that much better, in several respects, even if they did give up a fair amount of non-linearity (though they disguised it well). But with KotoR, they were doing a lot by rote. And over the years, they just grew bigger, and bigger, and kept turning out the same product.
With success. Success, and utter predictability. Two factors EA loves.
