#BioWare Austin

[felassan]

The latest on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and the next Mass Effect, from today's new BioWare Blog post [source].

Text version:

"As we look toward the future, BioWare is focused on being a leader in developing immersive, emotionally charged, single-player games, with teams primarily in Austin and Edmonton. This means a renewed focus on our two key franchises: Dragon Age™ and Mass Effect™. For Dragon Age, we continue to build, polish, and tune an exceptional experience we know our fans will love. We can’t wait to share more on this soon. For Mass Effect, we continue pre-production with a core team of veteran storytellers who are bringing the deep franchise history forward in a spectacular new way. I’m excited about the opportunities that lie ahead, and Keith wanted to share his own thoughts about the transition.  Stay well, Gary McKay General Manager, BioWare"

[three--rings]

So it's time for my "alt-right dudebro gamer" Dragon Age opinions.

(Note: I'm a 45 year old womanesque queer person who mostly plays indie and Japanese games.)

(To further my cred I was super excited to meet and hear Karen and Patrick Weekes talk about this game in development at Havencon a couple years ago...it's a small queer con in Austin.)

Dragon Age is my all-time favorite game series. I adored Inquisition, though DA2 has my favorite characters overall.

My opinions about the gameplay reveal are:

The environments and background graphics and effects look awesome.

The character design still bugs me quite a bit. The faces, ESPECIALLY the female faces look Disney/anime/Overwatchy in structure. The textures looks a lot better in game than in that trailer. I miss my Not Particularly Pretty Female Characters. They have sameface now.

There's something off in the lip syncing. Mouth animations looks weird. I can't define it more than that but I noticed it with multiple characters and it through me out.

Varric's hair annoys me SO MUCH. Someone pointed out he looks like Blackwall and now I CANNOT UNSEE.

The structure of the game/quests/whatever looks fine, this reminds me of all the moments running around Haven at the beginning of Inquisition. Some of my least favorite moments, but yanno.

The combat. I'm very worried about the combat.

I am 45 years old and I have arthritis in my hands from gaming and knitting. I gave up knitting to keep gaming. I cannot play some action games. Like Hades, I tried but simply couldn't continue more than an hour because of the pain. And that's with my hands in good shape these days.

Some action games I can play, but only on easy, and sometimes only if I limit my playtime. This is simply a reality I've had to get used to, but it does kill me sometimes.

Do you know how enjoyable it was to pick up Baldur's Gate 3 and be able to put it on a higher difficulty, to be able to actually struggle through combats and have to use tricks and my brain and try and fail and do it again, all without worrying about my hands? Makes me think I need to replay Origins again.

So I'm concerned. The combat in this game is focused on attack type, dodging, parrying, countering (according to bioware)....all stuff that requires quick and frequent button mashing, which is what I can't do. So I'm looking at a game that I can probably only play on easy and maybe even not then? In my favorite game series.

The question we don't really know is how different it will be from Inquisition, and I find it hard to tell from the footage since we can't see what buttons are being pressed. But I'll say that while I love it, Inquisition was the game that first hurt my hands. It made me aware of the problem and made me have to start limiting my activity.

IDK . I just hate the idea that devs have that turn based games can't do well and are inherently not exciting.

Fucking Solas motherfucking killed Bianca! That was the first time in these reveals I've been 100% reacting as a fan. NOT BIANCA!!!! HE MUST DIE!

Oh I did like the Rook in the gameplay and his face looked good. Again I feel like it's the character design and not the engine that is the problem.

As for the plot, it's interesting that Solas has gone from Main Antagonist to Opening Antagonist and I wonder if he's actually going to transition to an ally later in the game to undo whatever the fuck has gone wrong in this clip.

I do still have some worries about the writing. "She's greatest detective ever and she has a lead on Solas." So do you think that lead is the giant glowing thing in the middle of the city spitting out demons? Did you need a great detective?

And basically nothing I've seen so far has super MOVED me, as someone with serious connections to this world and the characters, other than the fucking Bianca moment. I'm hesitantly curious about some of the new companions. And if the griffon thing had come at a moment other than me going WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS? in the trailer I may have been a lot more excited.

So yeah, call me a hater or whatever. But that trailer reveal CRUSHED me emotionally. I was so depressed the rest of the day Sunday. These are my true reactions to the gameplay footage today. I don't have an agenda, other than I want the game to be good and I want it to do well and my confidence in EA and Bioware is at a very low point.

I've tried to keep a realistic mindset this whole time, but keeping in mind HOW MANY PEOPLE have left Bioware, how few OGs are left, the constant turnover in leads, the game being scrapped and redone like twice from scratch. And the game industry as a whole at this time, I have to be somewhat skeptical in general.

I'm not a skeptic overall, I was both a Cyperpunk 2077 enjoyer (but not apologist) and a Starfield defender and frankly there was a lot less reason to be skeptical of those games before release. So am I going to say "well I've been a Bioware fan since KOTOR 1 released, so I'm gonna hype it up and not point out flaws I see?" No. I'm going to be honest.

I'm not a casual Dragon Age enjoyer. I can't react casually to this stuff.

Will I play the game? Almost definitely, but am I going to wait till the release reviews? Probably.

[greyias]

I really don’t want swtor to shut down it’s the only eu thing that’s active we have left

I knew these asks were going to start coming in.

So for those who haven't heard, it was reported, and then later confirmed by Keith Kanneg on the forums, that EA is "selling" SWTOR to another developer, Broadsword. For those who want to read the article discussing it, you can read here: https://www.ign.com/articles/star-wars-the-old-republic-development-third-party-bioware

TL;DR -- It's not shutting down. The servers are going to stay active for a while

There's a few points to note here:

If I understand things correctly, EA actually owns Broadsword. So EA is in fact not actually offloading a property, I think what's actually happening is BioWare Austin itself is being divvied out and would not be surprised to see if that branch is shut down

At least half of the SWTOR dev team is part of this move, so the key things to keep an eye on is which members of the dev team are moving. If the narrative staff is kept intact, then we have more story ahead of us beyond what's been written, and they've confirmed we're getting 7.3, 7.3.1, and 7.4. It's important to note that their production timeline is generally a year out from things being written, so story-wise, if they have narrative staff, we'll likely still have some story drops ahead of us

SWTOR is profitable (it hit over $1 billion in profit several years ago), and I will admit I don't have the best understanding of video game finances, but my impresion it was far into the black and maybe not an enromous cash cow, but a decent consistent revenue stream. EA is a publisher that is about profits, so as long as the game is profitable, even if there's not new story drops, the game will stay online

Disney has seemingly taken a recent interest in SWTOR after mostly ignoring it after its acquisition of Star Wars, even going so far as to finally acknowledge the general KOTOR/SWTOR era in their presentations last year at Celebration. Does this ultimately mean anything? I don't know, but SWTOR is one of the longest running current properties with a stable player base. They're just as interested in profit as EA. Probably another indicator that the game will keep running for a while.

Other properties that Broadsword operates, such as Dark Age of Camelot and Ultima Online, are old games. Ultima Online was released in 1997, and the servers are still active. So like, I think regardless of what happens in regards of the story, we're not losing the ability to log in and play the game

Long term subscriptions - I remember reading, and forgive me, because I've long forgotten the source, that a key indicator if the servers are going offline is to also keep an eye on the six-month subscription option. Basically, if suddenly the only option for subs goes down to one month, that's when to worry about being able to actually play the game.

This is probably not about SWTOR, but BioWare as a whole. It seems there's a leadership issue at the main Alberta office that's causing issues. This is likely an Anthem issue all over again, but Anthem this time happens to be the Mass Effect and Dragon Age properties. Unfortunately, BioWare Austin looks like it's going to suffer the consequences of that, even though they've been running a tight ship overall compared to the rest of the branches. I feel for them. This sucks.

Now I'm not an oracle, I have no idea if this is ultimately a good or bad thing for the game itself. There's a lot of evidence for both sides of the coin, so right now the best thing is to wait and see. We at least have the promise of the next two patches. Let's focus on enjoying that, and celebrating what we love about our silly space game.

If you love the game, keep playing it. Spend money on it, and keep it profitable and it will stay around. Be kind and supportive of the devs, who regardless of how this shakes out, are going through a major transition. But immediately decrying an active game's death and going into doom and gloom is not going to help things.

Will we get more story beyond 7.4? I do not know one way or the other. I hope we do, but it's hard to say for certain on that front. But I do believe we'll still have our toons and be able to replay all of the released content for quite a while to come. Again, for now I'm just going to enjoy my favorite game, and support it as long as I have it. Even if this inevitably means it's going to change.

[sarasa-cat]

Reading that recent blog post from the general manager at bioware, i couldn't help snickering and cringing when reading the phrase "emotionally charged, single-player games"

(context: "BioWare is focused on being a leader in developing immersive, emotionally charged, single-player games, with teams primarily in Austin and Edmonton.")

So, emotionally charged is what we're calling it now. Hm.

[trans-march-truther]

in this Chinese game you can flirt with a woman as a woman and that's more than Star Wars: The Old Republic ever gave you without making you buy an expansion pack

(no I will never let go of my grudge against Bioware Austin)

[omniversalobservations]

Michael Scott in Mass Effect (2023)

YouTuber eli_handle_b․wav uploaded a video simply titled “Michael Scott in Mass Effect.”As the name suggests, Michael Scott is placed into a plethora of memorable Mass Effect scenes as if he were meant to be there. Such scenes include Normandy’s destruction at the start of Mass Effect 2, a Citadel dance party, and a steamy bit of platonic arm touching with Miranda Lawson.

Since publishing his mash-up video, it’s amassed over 300,000 views on YouTube and has taken Twitter and Reddit by storm. You can check out why the bizarre creation has captivated folks so strongly below. Warning, it’s quite funny in case you aren’t into that sorta thing.

Speaking with Kotaku via email, eli_handle_b․wav said that the idea to put Michael Scott in Mass Effect came as a suggestion from his brother. Prior to making the video, eli_handle_b․wav said he’d never watched The Office before. Once he finished watching the entire sitcom in two weeks, he concluded that “Michael Scott is the perfect candidate for commander of the Normandy.” Producing the video also took him around two weeks using Adobe Premiere, After Effects, and Mocha Pro. On the video’s reception, eli_handle_b.wav said, “It’s always riveting to realize that your ideas and your work receive such a massive response.”

Arguably the most spectacular part about eli_handle_b.wav’s mash-up is how natural Michael Scott looks when placed next to Bioware’s character models. My favorite scene in the mashup hands down goes to the extra touch of camera work and model placement eli_handle_b.wav put into Michael Scott’s not-so-daring evacuation of the capsized Normandy. Having him shove Ashley Williams into a roaring fire before cutting to CCTV footage of Michael Scott running down a corridor by his lonesome was basically how I envisioned that scene going down if players made the wrong choice on Virmire.

Outside of the Michael Scott in Mass Effect video, eli_handle_b.wav has been cooking up a bunch of equally brilliant video game mash-ups with popular movies and television shows. Chief among them being Leslie Nielsen in Detroit: Become Human, Tony Soprano in God of War, and Austin Powers in Mass Effect: Part 1 and Part 2. Here’s hoping eli_handle_b.wav graces us with another hilarious Mass Effect mash-up video that holds us over until Bioware gives us a crumb of news on the upcoming Mass Effect game.

Source: Kotaku

(images via YouTube)

[jcmarchi]

Hades II Cover Story, Xbox Studio Closures, And Animal Well Review | GI Show

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/hades-ii-cover-story-xbox-studio-closures-and-animal-well-review-gi-show/

Hades II Cover Story, Xbox Studio Closures, And Animal Well Review | GI Show

In this week’s episode of The Game Informer Show, we discuss our Hades II cover story trip to Supergiant Games in San Francisco and Xbox shutting down four game studios, including Prey, Dishonored, and Redfall developer Arkane Austin, alongside Tango Gameworks, the team behind The Evil Within series and last year’s critically-acclaimed Hi-Fi Rush. Afterward, we chat about Shuntaro Furukawa, President of Nintendo, revealing the company will reveal details about the Nintendo Switch’s successor within this fiscal year via a post on X. Before diving into our positive reviews of ’90s-survival-horror Crow Country and Little Kitty, Big City, special guest Charlie Wacholz joins us to chat about his Animal Well review, in which he calls Bigmode’s first published title “a masterclass in environmental design.”

Watch the Video Version:

[embedded content]

Follow us on social media: Alex Van Aken (@itsVanAken), Marcus Stewart (@MarcusStewart7), Wesley LeBlanc (@LeBlancWes), Charlie Wacholz (@chas_mke)

The Game Informer Show is a weekly gaming podcast covering the latest video game news, industry topics, exclusive reveals, and reviews. Join host Alex Van Aken every Thursday to chat about your favorite games – past and present – with Game Informer staff, developers, and special guests from around the industry. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

Matt Storm, the freelance audio editor for The Game Informer Show, edited this episode. Matt is an experienced podcast host and producer who’s been speaking into a microphone for over a decade. You should listen to Matt’s shows like the “Fun” And Games Podcast and Reignite, a BioWare-focused podcast. 

The Game Informer Show – Podcast Timestamps:

00:00:00 – Intro

00:08:02 – Cover Story: Hades II

00:34:49 – Xbox Shutters Four Studios

00:53:49 – Nintendo Switch Successor Announcement

01:03:12 – Animal Well Review

01:28:21 – Little Kitty, Big City Review

01:35:00 – Crow Country

01:41:45 – Housekeeping

[gameforestdach]

Das Gaming-Universum steht vor einer atemberaubenden Neuerung. NetEase Games hat ein futuristisches Studio namens T-Minus Zero Entertainment gegründet, das von MMO-Kenner Rich Vogel geleitet wird. Mit Sitz in Austin, Texas, wurde T-Minus Zero im Mai 2023 gegründet und präsentiert ein originelles Third-Person-Multiplayer-Actionspiel, das in einem Sci-Fi-Universum stattfindet, wie es noch nie zuvor gesehen wurde. NetEase Games gründet T-Minus Zero Entertainment unter der Leitung von Rich Vogel. Das Studio arbeitet derzeit an einem originellen Third-Person-Multiplayer-Actionspiel, das in einem Sci-Fi-Universum stattfindet. Vogel, ein erfahrener Spieleentwickler, hat bereits mehrere renommierte Studios und beliebte Spiele gegründet. Die anderen Gründer von T-Minus Zero haben an bekannten Titeln gearbeitet und bringen dadurch viel Erfahrung in das neue Studio ein. Das Studio fördert einen Remote-First-Ansatz und befindet sich auf einem Einstellungsfeldzug. Ein genauerer Blick auf T-Minus Zero und seine Gründer Rich Vogel, der Mastermind hinter dem neuen Unternehmen, ist in der Gaming-Welt kein Unbekannter. Seine vielfältige Erfolgsbilanz umfasst Projekte bei Sony Online Entertainment Austin, BioWare Austin und Bethesda Game Studios Austin. Er war auch maßgeblich an der Entwicklung von Fanfavoriten wie Ultima Online, Star Wars: Galaxies und Star Wars: The Old Republic beteiligt. An Vogels Seite bei T-Minus Zero stehen der Game Director Mark Tucker, der Art Director Jeff Dobson sowie der Vice President für Betrieb und Produktion Scott Malone. Dieses erfahrene Team bringt viel Expertise mit und hat an hochgelobten Projekten wie Fallout 76, Doom, The Elder Scrolls Online, Dragon Age Inquisition, Mass Effect Andromeda und Anthem gearbeitet. Spiel-Erwartungen und Studio-Vision Obwohl Details über das Spiel streng geheim sind, können wir anhand von Vogels Ruf, Grenzen zu überschreiten, und der gesammelten Erfahrung des Gründungsteams eine frische und aufregende Interpretation des Sci-Fi-Universums erwarten. Das Studio setzt auf einen Remote-First-Ansatz, was für ihre zukunftsweisende Denkweise und ihr Engagement für moderne Arbeitspraktiken spricht. T-Minus Zero ist auf der Suche nach Mitarbeitern in verschiedenen Positionen, um die Grenzen dessen zu erweitern, was im Gaming möglich ist. Vogel äußerte seine Studio-Vision und erklärte, dass ihr Ziel darin bestehe, immersive Welten zu schaffen, in denen Spieler lebendige Gemeinschaften bilden. Er drückte auch seine tiefe Dankbarkeit für die Unterstützung und die kreative Freiheit aus, die NetEase Games dem Studio geschenkt hat und die es ermöglichen, ihren Traum zu verwirklichen. Unsere Schlussfolgerung Mit so viel Talent und Erfahrung, das sich unter dem digitalen Dach von T-Minus Zero Entertainment versammelt hat, können wir es kaum erwarten zu sehen, wie sie die Zukunft des Gaming bereichern werden. Rich Vogels Erfolgsbilanz als Studiogründer spricht Bände über das Potenzial dieses Unternehmens. Behaltet die Joysticks im Auge! Wie sehr freust du dich auf dieses neue in Entwicklung befindliche Spiel? Was sind deine Erwartungen? Lass es uns wissen und beteilige dich an der Diskussion in den Kommentaren!

[gmlocg]

1,828.) Star Wars: The Old Republic

Release: December 20th, 2011 | GGF: MMORPG, Open World, Story Rich, Action-Adventure, Choices Matter, Atmospheric | Developer(s): BioWare Austin, LLC, Broadsword | Publisher(s): Electronic Arts, Inc. | Platform(s): Windows (2011)

[renesassing]

i know i said 'probably' but i have been thinking about this for over a year and i'm right about it. i noticed some weird coincidences in kotor 1 and legit, the only reason i re-read the novel again recently was to figure out if my hunch was correct and i'm pretty sure it is.

of the 18 characters who are squadmates between the two games, only 3 make an appearance in the book: t3-m4, canderous ordo, and bastila shan. the other companions of kotor 1 are mentioned only once (literally in a conversation that removes them from the plot) and none of the kotor 2 companions are mentioned at all.

revan and malak falling to the dark side before the end of the mandalorian wars is never really mentioned until kotor 2. in k1, almost all conversations referring to their fall reference something in the unknown regions "corrupting" them and turning them to dark side.

in k1, malak has devices on the star forge that let him trap jedi between life and death so he can feed off of their power. in the revan novel, revan ends up trapped in a similar prison.

drew karpyshyn was the lead writer for the first kotor game, and in 2009, he moved from canada to austin, texas to work as one of the major writers for the old republic mmo. the revan book came out in 2011.

almost half of the book doesn't feature it's titular character (revan) and instead focuses on a sith character named scourge, and the sith empire on dromund kaas, the empire which goes on to be one of the major factions in the mmo.

scourge specifically betrays revan and the exile when they try to kill the sith emperor because he has a vision of someone else defeating the emperor. that someone else is the player character of the mmo.

literally none of the plot points or characters or themes of kotor 2 are featured in the revan book at all. and kotor 2 was not developed by bioware (they passed it to obsidian entertainment) and chris avellone was the lead writer, not drew.

listen. drew just railroaded back to his cool fanfic idea bc he was mad that kotor 2 made revan seem like a bad guy. and no one could stop him, because he was the lead writer for a lot of old republic stuff.

also like, as an aside, and this is just me being a nitpicky and annoying star wars expanded universe fan but. you know a star wars book is gonna be boring when the dramatis personae features ten characters and six are human, three are sith, and one's a droid. that's a bland star wars lineup right there. not even a fucking twi'lek.

a lot of what makes the 2011 novel bad (besides the general quality of writing) makes sense when you realize the book was probably written with the primary goal of wrapping up kotor/kotor ii as simply as possible to set up for the then-upcoming old republic mmo, and at least the general idea of it was thought up before kotor 2 came out with it's massive tone shift, and drew just clumsily railroaded back to his "cool idea" because he didn't give a shit about kotor 2.

[felassan]

A former BioWare Design Director has tweeted his take on the recent BioWare and SW:TOR news. tweet compilation, as it's interesting and illuminating insight:

"My take on the SWTOR/BioWare split For SWTOR: This is a Good Thing For BioWare: This is a Big Loss A thread:

My point of view is someone who worked for BioWare Austin on SWTOR from 2009 as an Assistant World Designer through 2022 as Design Director (with some Anthem, Shadow Realms, and <NDA> years sprinkled about).

BioWare Austin (BWA) was its own studio for many years, founded in order to make that game. MMO’s are expensive, y’all.

We didn’t really collaborate with BioWare Edmonton (BWE) on the dev side much, because there was no need to (with some exceptions – they had built the original on-rails space shooting component, for example).

As a business, in this model all revenue and expenses roll up into the greater whole (BioWare), which then roll into EA’s Group, and so on.

After many years, this model shifted and changed, for a large variety of reasons I won’t get into. BWA would no longer be a separate entity, but under the same core leadership as BWE – One BioWare (BW).

What this meant realistically was you had a boxed product business that had been tried and true for years, combined with a live service MMO business that wasn’t really understood by the boxed product folks. Arguably by EA either, to be fair.

You see, MMO’s can be fairly predictable if they run long enough. We knew the SWTOR business very well. We knew how to turn every dollar invested in the game into several more. SWTOR was (and continues to be) a very profitable business, with loads of heart behind it.

But an older game isn’t sexy. It’s not new. It doesn’t get marketing orgs excited or social media teams jazzed. It’s a ‘legacy game’, despite the mountains of income coming in that other franchises are built off of.

And you FELT it, as a member of the team. It’s a fantastic dev team, filled with incredible talent. How then, with such a close-knit team, did you always feel less-than?

Well, just take a look around. Look at BW’s social media posts and count the proportion of SWTOR game/fan/anything posts compared to ME or DA. Remember that BioWare 25th anniversary book? The beautiful 328 page recollection of BioWare’s history, and celebration of all franchises?

For a game like SWTOR that had been live already for 9 of those 25 years at the time of publication, how many pages, dear reader, do you think had any SWTOR imagery or content at all? Ten. Teams notice this. They feel it, and it feels like shit.

Does BW despise SWTOR? I don’t think so – they don’t understand it, and it was someone else’s game. Does EA despise SWTOR? I don’t think so – it’s a legacy live service, and again, was someone else’s game.

As a dev on SWTOR, you feel like your game is a burden to all of the layers above you, but you persist. You put so much heart and passion into the game, and you thrive on the fans and tremendous partnership with LucasFilm.

So to bring us back to current news, imagine a team excited about a game, with incredible plans, that have felt ‘less-than’ by their own studio and company for years, being unleashed.

Being part of an org that KNOWS the MMO business, and understands those player communities and the incredible stories and connections they form.

This feels like an exciting new chapter to me, and I’m optimistic about what this means for that team and the game. SWTOR is, to the best of my knowledge, the longest-running Star Wars anything, ever. It’s a special game and I’m so happy to see where the team takes it.

As far as BW, it would have certainly be in their best interest as a business to maximize exposure and support for SWTOR publicly over the years, since the SWTOR revenue has allowed for the…unusually long…dev cycles to continue for the last several games.

But now without SWTOR, there will be less places to hide heads, R&D, and time. You’ve got blockbuster single-player experiences hitting high Metacritic scores with…2-3 year dev cycles? And the BW pattern has been…double? Triple that?

I think it will be interesting to see how the EA/BW relationship continues to evolve in this new world. /end"

[source]

[videospilsmagasinet]

TEMA: Om spil fanget i udviklingshelvede

Hvad der lå og ventede af udfordringer, manglende kommunikation mellem to afdelinger og en direktion der ikke kunne skelne højre fra venstre, havde ingen set komme. Dette er historien om Anthem.

Historien om Anthem er en nærmest utopisk fortælling om fremtidsdrømme, hvor veje er belagt med guld. Det er historien om kritisk mangel på snarrådighed og et bevis på, at kommunikation er den vigtigste ingrediens i den opskrift der hedder succes. Saddel op i din Javelin, nu skal vi på skovtur.

BIOWARE Året er 2012. BioWare har netop trykket på udgivelsesknappen til det tredje og sidste spil i den populære Mass Effect serie, et spil som vandt hjerterne hos de fleste ved etteren og toeren, men som faldt igennem hos mange ved treeren. BioWare og EA går kort tid efter udgivelsen i gang med deres næste projekt. Hvad der lå og ventede af udfordringer, manglende kommunikation mellem to afdelinger og en direktion der ikke kunne skelne højre fra venstre, havde ingen set komme. Dette er historien om Anthem.

- Af Søren Zimmermann Larsen,

Redaktør på Videospilsmagasinet

At strække sig efter nye højder

På et kontor i den gamle Canadiske handelsby Edmonton samledes et hold af højt profilerede spiludviklere fra BioWare for at nedfælde idéer til den næste store udgivelse. For bordenden sidder manden bag flere succesrige spiludgivelser og han er endnu en gang klar til at svinge dirigentstokken. Navnet er Casey Hudson. Rusen efter 8 års arbejde med Mass Effect-serien har endnu ikke lagt sig, og der hersker en erobrende stemning på kontoret. Bølgen fra tidligere succeser skal rides videre, og det om man selv skal pøse mere vand på. I en galimatiask tåge af hovmod bliver det første forslag til det interne navn på projektet skrevet ned: på papiret står der Dylan, opkaldt efter den store musiker Bob Dylan. Med et håb om at dette spil ville nå lige så store højder. Stemningen er ustyrlig.

"På papiret står der Dylan, opkaldt efter den store musiker Bob Dylan. Med et håb om at dette spil vil nå lige så store højder."

Processen tager hurtigt fart og pilen peger mod ukendt land; sulten efter at prøve en anden formel end den vi kender fra blandt andet Dragon Age og Knights of the Old Republic skal stilles, og de gør holdt i et kooperativt overlevelsesspil. Præmissen lyder på indsamling af ressourcer og skrotdele til ens base, samt til rustninger og våben, og scenariet udspiller sig på en planet med forskellige monstre- og vejrforhold. Stilen bliver betegnet som en blanding af Dark Souls og Shadow of the Colossus; en mørk cocktail blandet op af støv, motorolie og metal. Navnet Dylan forbliver internt og ud til offentligheden dukker Beyond op. Navnet vækker nysgerrighed og forener hele opsætningen omkring det at overleve i livsfarligt terræn på en ukendt planet. Udviklerne hos BioWare er i ekstase, og målrettetheden i drejebogen er uomtvistelig. Og så alligevel ikke. For noget går for sig på kontorgangene i Edmonton, og i BioWares afdeling i Austin, Texas. Hverdagen begynder så småt at indfinde sig blandt udviklerne, og i takt med det kigger skeletterne lige så stille frem fra skabene. Bag facaden af succesfulde videospil ligger et firma der i den grad halter på mandskabspleje, og det begynder at sætte sine tydelige spor. I bakspejlet reflekteres et billede af tiden under udviklingen af Dragon Age: Inquisition. Et projekt der var fyldt med uhørte mængder af overarbejde, som tit strakte sig over hele dage i streg. Bioware og EA var tilbage i dårligdommen med stressramte medarbejdere, og en direktion der ikke var bange for at lade målet hellige midlet. Projektet blev styret med så hård hånd, at flere højt kvalificerede ansatte forlod BioWare. Til sidst håbede udviklerne at spillet ville fejle fatalt så verden kunne få øjnene op for et firma der internt ikke stemmer overens med billedet udadtil. Dragon Age: Inquisition endte med at vinde Game of The Year. Og branden var uslukkelig. 

Lige op til annonceringen ved E3 i 2017 skal Beyond pludselig skifte navn. Medarbejderne er målløse, for annonceringen er lige om hjørnet og T-shirtsene er blevet printet. Men det betyder ikke noget for EA. Begrundelsen skal findes i en tilsyneladende problematik ved at få rettighederne på navnet Beyond. Noget man ikke har tjekket op på fra starten og som nu bliver et stort irritationsmoment for dem der arbejder på projektet. Ledelsen hos EA beslutter sig for navnet Anthem. Uden om udviklerne, og uden der er nogen synderlig sammenhæng med spillets opbygning og navn. 

På arbejdsstationerne i Edmonton og i Austin er folk fortvivlede. Rettesnoren er bøjet i alle retninger og ingen ved hvilke elementer der skal med i spillet. Nogle godkender noget som andre efterfølgende afviser. Kommunikationen ud til udviklerne er i den grad mangelfuld og det er ikke alle der har lige adgang til vigtige informationer omkring processen i udviklingen. De to afdelinger snakker til sidst ikke sammen og stemningen bliver mere og mere trykket rundt på gangene. Og så melder Casey Hudson sin afgang fra BioWare. 

Caseys afgang danner et helt andet virkelighedsbillede. For Casey går med udtalelsen om at han er tryg og sikker ved at overlevere arbejdet med Anthem til den næste i rækken, da alt går lige efter planen. Alle vidste det ikke var sandheden. Men ingen siger noget. Det er ren Stockholm Syndrome. 

Hvor skal vi hen, du?

Som spillet tager form bliver udviklerne mere og mere i tvivl om hvilken type spil det egentlig er de arbejder på. BioWare vil én vej og EA vil en anden. Kontorerne i Edmonton og Austin kører i hver deres retning med 120 kilometer i timen. Op til 18 måneder før udgivelsesdagen, har spillet endnu ikke en form der er præsentabel. Ja, det er faktisk først i de 18 sidste måneder at spillet tager form. Det er for lidt og for sent. Vandrehistorien om Bioware-magien - hvor udviklerne retter fatale resultater til succeser på få måneder - udeblev. 

Spillet udkommer

Anthem bliver udgivet. I en tilstand der ligner noget der kræver mere end bare et par opdateringer. Det ser halvfærdigt ud, missionerne er kedelige og gentager sig, og NPC'ernes reaktionsmønster stemmer ikke overens med hvad der sker i historien. Selve kampagnen tager cirka 15 timer at gennemføre, og efter det så bliver det hurtigt kedeligt. Det virker halvhjertet, og det er synd. 

Anthem 2.0

Efter den katastrofale udgivelse, og Biowares laveste Metascore til dato, åbner Bioware og EA op for muligheden for en Anthem 2.0. De vil simpelthen genstarte hele serien. Fra bunden af. Planerne får dog ikke lov at stå længe, og på et møde omkring Anthems fremtid bliver det definitivt afgjort: Anthem er slut. Skylden bliver lagt over på COVID-19-pandemien, og at kræfterne skal lægges i andre projekter. Hvordan det var muligt at flyve så højt og falde så dybt, det er stadig ikke gået op for mig den dag idag.

Anthem er historien om et kollektivt kollaps ført an af ledende kræfter der ser anderledes på tingene end mændene på gulvet.

Artiklen er indhold for skribentens personlige holdninger og meninger.

[hardcore-gaming-101]

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Bioware’s return to Star Wars before the Disney buy out and after they handed off LucasArts’ ridiculous time tables to Obsidian is something people have had a lot of thoughts on, and most of those thoughts range from “meh” to “this is literally the titanic, look at this epic meme I made expressing this, fellow gamers.” The fact that Bioware thought it was a good idea to take what was then still the most popular, critical acclaimed game they made besides Mass Effect 2 and do a follow-up via chasing that sweet, sweet World of Warcraft cash cow instantly raised eyebrows, and the past decade has been a bizarre mixture of questionable decisions, gay planets, and Bioware Austin being terrified of their fanbase while also being frustrated for about half that time at the main office ignoring every lesson they learned with online games during Anthem‘s production. 

Read more...

[sullustangin]

Spouse and I have been reading about this.  Basically, last week, news broke that Bioware was using AI to write the scripts for Dragon Age.  That went over like a lead zeppelin with EA.  This comes after Anthem tanked in less than 2 years, after sapping resources for SWTOR which is still paddling along.  Bioware has also been pulling devs off SWTOR and Mass Effect projects to try to do a save on Dragon Age because it don’t look good.  This is all making EA unhappy with Bioware Austin.  There’s also been other stuff coming out about that particular office that hasn’t sounded good by several metrics. 

The transfer of devs from Bioware to Broadword  for SWTOR is also interesting, because it nearly triples the number of people working there.  Also, a number of Broadsword people are vanilla SWTOR developers.  In sum, they know the labyrinth that is the SWTOR engine as well as anyone. 

My optimistic theory:  EA has put SWTOR in a Safe Place for when Bioware Austin explodes and potentially takes out both Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises.  Who knows Dragon Age or Mass Effect outside of people who play games?  Who doesn’t know about Star Wars in some form?  Which IP do you save?  You never kill the goose who lays the golden egg.  So you triple the staff at Broadsword and tell the vanilla devs for SWTOR to have fun until you figure wtf to do next.  Like @sheyshen I have hopes that this is either temporary or Broadsword is going to get into new content and supplant Bioware entirely. Remember, Bioware is actively moving people off SWTOR -- this staunches the bleeding, since Bioware and Broadsword are not the same company. 

Worst case scenario:  SWTOR goes into maintenance and lives forever.  Dark Age of Camelot and Ultima are still going, 8+ years since their last expansions.  I only foresee a Galaxies situation if they have a replacement RPG they can release and make big money off of promptly. Even then, we know Filoni and probably Favreau play SWTOR; regardless of opinions on their work, they do have sway with the Mouse.  They want to play with their Space Barbies too.

End of an era

[dd-the-man-without-fear]

Austin Powers in Mass Effect: Part 1

by eli_handle_b․wav

[for part 2, click here]

[arcann]

The fact that swtor's character creator didn't shove us into a dark dungeon but after 10 years it decided it should