That's it, as gaming gains more popularity the geek factor diminishes. I'd say overwhelmingly that any of us who have been gamers for the last 10-20 years are all pretty sharp, pretty educated people, who all walk slightly off the beaten path. Now as gaming has become big business the dumbening down must ensue in order to bring in the masses. Most of the games that are popular these days are shite from a critical standpoint when it comes to story and dialogue. That's because the masses aren't well read, and would rather watch some reality TV BS than pick up a good book. So, spending the money to hire real writers is a waste when that good writing would be lost on the majority anyway.
With EA behidn them and the ridiculous amount of money they spend on advertising, I'm sure the reviews will be better, just like they were for DAO, which in no way came close to the stellar reviews it recieved. I'd be much more interested in reviews where there are no advertising dollars involved.
And for you poor souls that believe games like Mass Effect and DAO are good writing you really need to start reading consdierably more.
The Harvard Classics List
http://www.bartleby.com/hc/For sci-fi/fantasy, read guys like Roger Zelazny, Harlan Ellison, Asimov, etc. Zelazny probably was the best for writing dialogue.
"The horse I bet on was so slow, the jockey kept a diary of the trip." - Henny Youngman