Bioware General (Mass Effect/Dragon Age/Other)

[TTTX]

Yeah, the guy's a snake, but is one of the few that now and then still actually tries to do real journalist work. Plus BW's reaction is pretty much damning evidence that things are the way he wrote in his article, or very close to that.

As we say in Denmark "even a blind chicken can find a piece of corn sometimes" (a rough translation).

[NCLanceman]

On one hand, Schrier is a little shit weasel, and a gaming journo, but on the other, he's probably right about this. It really does seem like Bioware does not have leadership capable of leading.

That and it's almost amusing that both Canadian studios wasted over half a decade fucking around, while the Austin studio is steadily generating profit with TOR.

Almost.

Schrier's saving grace is that he is a journo. Unironically or euphamistically. He's not a blogger, he's not a commentator, he's not a reviewer. He goes out, finds stories, and returns with stories. This is the one thing I trust him to do and he's good as gold like this.

Also, holy shit. I can't imagine what it's like to spend all that time doing fuck all productive because no one makes decisions. If anything, this article makes me feel a lot better about Anthem because man. For a game that only had a solid direction for sixteen months, it's a pretty fantastic game.

[Vol]

@TX: "Even a broken clock is right twice a day." I like your version better, it's more insulting to the target.

And yeah, he actually does journalistic work, which as loathe as I am to admit, means he doesn't deserve the boollet. Still a shit weasel, has been since he was a teenager.

Oh to be a fly on the wall of Bioware Edmonton right now. Austin is probably feeling real vindicated, but also worried they're going to be forced heavily onto Anthem while their new TOR expansion is coming this year. But the roadmap of content is ambitious, and if Edmonton's entirely washed their hands of it to go do DA4, while this story makes Bioware and EA look like retards, we all know how out of touch companies can overcorrect.

Unless it comes to fixing a terrible, soul-crushing ending to a beloved game trilogy, then it's artistic integrity and I'm still mad about that.

[Someone With Mass]

@TX: "Even a broken clock is right twice a day." I like your version better, it's more insulting to the target.

And yeah, he actually does journalistic work, which as loathe as I am to admit, means he doesn't deserve the boollet. Still a shit weasel, has been since he was a teenager.

Oh to be a fly on the wall of Bioware Edmonton right now. Austin is probably feeling real vindicated, but also worried they're going to be forced heavily onto Anthem while their new TOR expansion is coming this year. But the roadmap of content is ambitious, and if Edmonton's entirely washed their hands of it to go do DA4, while this story makes Bioware and EA look like retards, we all know how out of touch companies can overcorrect.

Unless it comes to fixing a terrible, soul-crushing ending to a beloved game trilogy, then it's artistic integrity and I'm still mad about that.

"Our endings have been leaked and it's less than a year until release! What do we do?!"
"Scrap it all and make new endings! That'll work."

At one point, it becomes EA's fault for not stepping in and doing something about a problem that has persisted for years. If they can fire people at their companies, they can sure as fuck hire them too. Hire some managers already.

[Vol]

I'm a firm believer that responsibility for fuckups flows upwards, because that's where power is. If a grunt isn't performing, it's her manager's job to fix it or get rid of them. If they don't, then it's their bosses job to do the same. All the way up to the moneymen at EA, who assuredly pushed Frostbite and didn't step in to find out where their money was going for 6 years.

[magnuskn]

True enough and clearly the mandate that the Frostbite engine needs to be used in all EA titles (at least by BioWare) has helped fuck up the last three games they released with it (and, yes, I do think DA:I was a fuck up as well, even if it was commercially successful). But it seems that EA has been giving BioWare as much rope to hang themselves as they wanted and the leadership for Anthem has rather busied themselves tying nooses instead of, y'know, leading. With the result which came out to almost universal disdain.

And I'm not saying Anthem is totally bad. I got a few hours of enjoyment out of it and probably will play it in the future (currently I probably will do a Borderlands 2 re-run, since I played through the story only once and got all the DLC's a few days ago). But the game could have been much better and a keeper, if the leadership at BioWare had gotten their shit together, instead of holding years of fruitless meetings.

[TTTX]

@TX: "Even a broken clock is right twice a day." I like your version better, it's more insulting to the target.

You are welcome to use the Danish version if you ever want to impressed some friends someday and be weird.

[TTTX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEQFZ8cshaI

[Vol]

No dev posts on the subreddit since the Kuktaku article, must be a lot of high level talks going on. And by that I mean suits trying to protect their fiefdoms, undermine their enemies, and maybe even come up with some solutions.

[magnuskn]

I wouldn't wonder if the executives at EA didn't know how bad BioWare was handling its internal matters. That's the kind of thing you would want to hide from the guys giving you money. Might be that EA sent some hatchet men to clean things up.

[TheodoricFriede]

No dev posts on the subreddit since the Kuktaku article, must be a lot of high level talks going on. And by that I mean suits trying to protect their fiefdoms, undermine their enemies, and maybe even come up with some solutions.

As I recall, Casey Hudson actually did make a statement by sharing an email that he sent to the staff.

Essentially he acknowledged that there have been severe management problems, and is going to meet with the team to re-evaluate current policies.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7nredCVqx4

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkvyJ2-SgVc

[TheodoricFriede]

What the FUCK has been going on at Bioware for the past 10 years?

[Vol]

If I had to take a blind guess, the good employees didn't want to stay under EA's yoke, the leftovers got promoted and can't lead, and they hired a diverse group of underlings who can't create a homogeneous work place.

[TheodoricFriede]

I know "Im done with Bioware" comes up a lot in this group.

But FUCK man... I'm like... at the stage of wanting to just get rid of merchandise and shit. Looking at a lot of it no longer makes me feel joy. Im just frustrated.

[magnuskn]

Mass Effect and Dragon Age are not Bioware, they were made by the company. I still enjoy the characters from back then. And since no one at BioWare is apparently willing to return to them, they probably will stay untouched by further greedy BS. Win-win.

Wow, that it has come to considering this a win, though...

[FrozenShadow]

What the FUCK has been going on at Bioware for the past 10 years?

I would quess the exact same thing as in all other studios that got bought by EA and then closed few years later.

EA kills creativity and innovative game developing.

[Alienmorph]

I feel less and less bad for burying my love of BioWare alongside Shepard's charred corpse every passing year. Whatever they are now... fuck 'em. And fuck EA for helping another company to destroy itself.

[TTTX]

What the FUCK has been going on at Bioware for the past 10 years?

they got bought by EA.

[Someone With Mass]

Ever since Andromeda, I think BioWare getting shut down would be a mercy kill. The so-called "BioWare magic" is just for idiots that think that pushing your employees to work themselves to death is a viable long-term strategy. BioWare can't stay true to its former self with the short-sighted neanderthals at Retarded Arts wanting to maximize profits with the least amount of effort and time, while pushing their hilariously overrated garbage game engine on the developers because they can't be bothered to pay for an engine that can actually do something without the user having to re-invent the wheel all the time. Couple that with the inept management, there's no wonder the talent left.

[TTTX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Spu24TAAusk

well it seems that anthem is getting a bit abandoned.

[FrozenShadow]

Well, there is zero surprise here. It was quite obvious from the start that Anthem wouldn't be doing well. All of these recent problems just had made it worse. I highly doubt there would be any "10 year plans" with Anthem. It will probably face the same thing as Andromeda in that most of major future DLC/content will be completely shelved. So, Anthem will probably be dead before this year ends.

[Alienmorph]

Yeah, at this rate it won't last 10 months.

[TheodoricFriede]

Uhh, as happy I am to shit on anthem, this is a bit of a stretch.

They missed a stream due to technical issues. It means nothing.

[TTTX]

Uhh, as happy I am to shit on anthem, this is a bit of a stretch.

They missed a stream due to technical issues. It means nothing.

well there is also the whole content roadmap for anthem in april, none of it have been put in yet (and we are around middle of april now) and now they miss a stream among other things, seems to suggest that there some problems behind the scenes (or maybe more considering the article posted not so long ago).

[Alienmorph]

Yeah, seems more to be a symptom of bigger issues behind the scenes. Which from what we know are definately there in some capacity.

It could just a coincidence too, for sure. But if that's the case, why don't at least post a few screenshots or even a short video to tease people and to show they were indeed ready to show some new content?

[Alienmorph]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9Y_PJ9lByw

EA preparing for a double-kill?

[FrozenShadow]

Yeah, seems more to be a symptom of bigger issues behind the scenes. Which from what we know are definately there in some capacity.

It could just a coincidence too, for sure. But if that's the case, why don't at least post a few screenshots or even a short video to tease people and to show they were indeed ready to show some new content?

Oh there sure are problems the behind the scenes. If you have read Jason Schreier article about Anthem and it's development, it's obvious that Anthem was real problem case from the beginning. It's actually total surprise that we even got the game we have at the moment.

And the funniest part from that article is that Anthem's mess ain't even really completely EA fault. It was Bioware itself that messed up there big time..... though this EA mandate of using the same game engine for all of their games did play big part here.

[Alienmorph]

Yeah, I guess the whole "BioWare Magic" bullcrap is, ironically, at least partially true, because not many other studious would have been able to release ME:A or Anthem, considering what nighmarish dev cycle they've had behind the scenes.

Too bad that the people actually making said "magic" happen are the ones being treated worst than slaves and the first that are fired and kicked out without thanks whenever it's time to cut costs.

So even in the unlikely scenario that EA still doesn't plan to put the company out of its misery, I can't see them pulling that crap out again in the future.

[TTTX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_T0JXz90Q4

[Vol]

So, uh. Bioware's been real quiet. Had a weird dev stream. So there's shit going down internally, but it's not been made clear how Anthem will be affected.

[Alienmorph]

And apparently the game is getting so devoided of life there's already people having to wait regularly 15-20 minutes just find a match.

10+ years journey... suuuuure...

[TTTX]

So, uh. Bioware's been real quiet. Had a weird dev stream. So there's shit going down internally, but it's not been made clear how Anthem will be affected.

I'm pretty sure the game is going to die, now the road map have been delayed indefinitely and the player base have pretty much moved on to other games.

The only way they can really keep the game on life support (so they actually have time to try and turn the game around) if they go free to play.

[Someone With Mass]

Truly, games as a service is the way of the future. They'll be remembered for barely a year and then fade into nothingness.

[magnuskn]

https://youtu.be/_3M0Xt97aFI?t=2310

Spoilers for Game of Thrones S08E03. Putting this here, because I wonder how much royalties they had to pay for this. Somebodies a Mass Effect fan at HBO, apparently.

Apparently the "start at this mark" feature of Youtube has problems with long videos, because you have to wait until 38:10 until the actual music I refence starts.

[Alienmorph]

Considering the fan reaction to some of the events in that episode, putting the ME3 theme there feels very appropriate...

[Dragaros]

https://mobile.twitter.com/Darokaz/stat ... 3592150016

https://www.reddit.com/r/AnthemTheGame/ ... _they_are/

https://www.reddit.com/r/AnthemTheGame/ ... wn_on_ps4/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/ ... 2c84ec7409

"Bioware Responds to Disillusioned Community After Delaying Anthem Roadmap Indefinitely"

"As Anthem Playerbase Declines, Matchmaking Becomes Problematic"

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdZFjJpO3OI

[Someone With Mass]

Spoilers for Game of Thrones S08E03. Putting this here, because I wonder how much royalties they had to pay for this. Somebodies a Mass Effect fan at HBO, apparently.

Apparently the "start at this mark" feature of Youtube has problems with long videos, because you have to wait until 38:10 until the actual music I refence starts.

I heard a reality TV show about farms or something use the Stand Strong, Stand Together theme a year after ME3 had come out while I was on my lunch break. I started laughing because it was so sudden.

Say what you will about the game itself, the music is really good.

[TTTX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPbgdMbhREM

Well if Anthem wasn't dead before, this pretty proves it's going to be soon or already are.

[Alienmorph]

I think it's even worse. I think BW is trying to get DA4 moving in the right direction (for EA) to prove thei're still worth something before they get their plug pulled for good.

I doubt it's going to work. But who knows.

[TTTX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fNIGxe76So

[TTTX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KgCaVT2mEQ

So according to leaks the Leadership of BW believes players are to blame for anthems failure.

[Alienmorph]

Of course. Always out fault for not being big enough sheeps and actually still wanting good games. Fuck 'hem.

[Raga]

Only "artistic" type products are ever subjected to this absurd justification. If you try it with anything else you immediately see how stupid it is:

"The problem isn't that our cleaning product eats holes through people's clothes. It's that people are picky and won't wear anything that isn't perfect."

"The problem isn't that our tires explode and cause people to skid out of control. It's that people are afraid of dying and too attached to life."

If you are making something to sell at a profit for the purpose of making a living, you are making a product, artistic or like, get over it. And any product is subject to what consumers actually want.

[Alienmorph]

Exactly. I've been dealing with the whole "subjective value of art" theory even since colledge, when I was told to not bother learning to paint realistically by people who then went singing phraise of "paintings" that were literally just blobs of tar throw on a glass shard. I really, really, REALLY fucking hate it. And the way it's constantly being used to try sell people shit movies, games and comics is a neverending source of disappointment to me.

[TTTX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNE9BUqxn8E

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpWzarlnVSc

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cnMBbHOFdc