BioWare, creators of Mass Effect and Dragon Age, have been in the news this week for completely non-gaming related reasons. A mated pair of Geese have taken up residence atop BioWare’s Edmonton office in Canada. Named Ganders and the Arishonk, the pair created a nest on the roof of the studio to lay their eggs.
BioWare then set up a live streaming webcam and let the magic unfold.
“Ganders, the female, sits on her nest atop the studio, patiently incubating her eggs while her hubby the Arishonk protects the nest from a distance,” writes BioWare. “How many eggs did Ganders lay? When will they hatch? Do geese like Mass Effect? From 1-10, how cute is a baby goose? To satisfy our desperate need to answer these questions, we’ve set up the BioWare Goose Cam, which will monitor Ganders 24/7 as she tends to her nest. We hope you watch it too.”
The Goose Cam exploded on twitter, leading to multiple hashtags, fan art, and an endless parade of pun-related jokes. At any time there are hundreds of people watching live on YouTube. The Goose Cam even captured the goslings making their first adorable steps outside of the nest.
Naturally the next step was naming the babies. After the obligatory Ryan Gosling, of course.
BioWare set up a name bracket yesterday and ran a series of polls to vote on the best names. All of them give hilarious nods to characters from Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
The results are in: all hail Cassandra Pentagoose! BioWare has continued to stream the goose family all week, along with epic music from their gaming soundtracks.
BioWare has suggested that fans donate to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Society of Edmonton. The non-profit organization helps provide care for injured and orphaned wildlife in the area.
