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Company News Report: BioWare Montreal scaled down, Mass Effect series on hiatus

Mozg

Arcane
Joined
Oct 20, 2015
Messages
2,033
Nietzsche gonna have to wait for the release of Telosin™ prescription reason-for-existence supplements. Not recommended for terrorists, numismatists, AGDQ attendants
 

Telengard

Arcane
Joined
Nov 27, 2011
Messages
1,621
Location
The end of every place
Man, sakes alive, have you all already forgotten how EA runs its business? Despite them doing the same thing for decade upon decade and there being countless memes about it, many of which memes have even been used on this very site?

But then, I suppose it is understandable when your heads are so far up your own asses that all you can see is your own shit. Honestly, though - EA buys a company, slowly drains away or fires anyone who they deem makes too much money, drains away core assets, and then pressures those remaining to make iterations on the core brand over and over on the cheap. So, as little money as possible going in, and as much coming out as it is humanly possible to extract. Banking on your dimwitted love of some past company and its games that no longer exists in under to get you to buy these mass-produced cheap copies that they churn out at speed for as long as your nostalgia lasts. And they milk that IP for all it's worth, until it becomes a shriveled up old prune that nobody wants anywhere. At which point, they put the IP on ice for a while, until nostalgia causes people to forget what EA did last time, and then they trot that asset back out to start the whole process over again under a new team. Milk milk milk.

They have their minions eke out the same story every time, utilizing the same characters every time, in a world gated in the same way every time, with the same sorts of events every time, with the same cheesy dialogue every time, which cheesy dialogue is told by the same voice actors every single time. Hell, even their level design is the same basic boxy shapes with occasional set pieces as it has been since Neverwinter Nights. The only thing they change from one game to the next is the textures and occasionally buying a new basic animation pack, plus throwing in whatever additional events the EA suits say are currently popular with focus groups. As a company, they suck, but they suck in exactly the same way as they always sucked. Indeed, they even generate the same internet drama as they did back when they put in a lesbian in Jade Empire and all the anti-SJWs crusaded against them then. And every time you all say that this time their SJWness will surely destroy them, even as you furiously masturbate to the lipstick lesbians kissing each other. But it never does kill them. Because there's a huge audience for lipstick lesbian pron, and it ain't lesbians.

Oh sure, the devs now put the Bull in for the ladies, and you hate that EA wants to sell to girls too*. But Jesus H, that's not SJWness, that's EA milking every customer they can get their hands on for all they're worth, and so they don't want to turn away half the population. Because that's all they are - a vast milking machine that really doesn't care one whit about games or culture or anything except the money it can extract. And here's a shocker, girls have money too. Milk milk milk. Money money money.


* cause they have cooties, and that's disgusting
 
Joined
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Messages
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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Serpent in the Staglands Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Eh. EA tried to get better and be a less suffocating influence over its studios than it was the in the 90s, but the studio management teams were far too cautious to make anything of it.

EDIT:

Citation (if you insist)

Bioware already went full action RPG with Neverwinter Nights, with Josh Sawyer (who worked on it in early production) admitting that it was an attempt to make a Diablo out of the 3rd edition D&D ruleset. There was one token companion that the PC had no control over (which Diablo also had), summons the PC had little control over (which Diablo also had), and very little context to form strategic decisions. By the time they got to HoTU, they had revived a little, but you still didn't really control the party as you would in NWN2.


Kotor brought back the party management, but its combat systems were fundamentally superficial and it boiled down to an action RPG with mild tactical elements.

Then there's Jade Empire, the beat-em-up/visual novel. GOG doesn't even list it as an RPG (it is hidden away in the Action category). Next.

Key point is that Bioware made all of these decisions before EA bought them, so they had already decided themselves to reduce tactics and aim for consoles.

I could go on.

Good to see a lot of these shite games get a more negative reception, tbh I don't know the difference between now and a few years ago but it seems like the average gamer is a bit more critical of AAA releases. Have they gotten that much more rubbish?

No, not really. They're just (a) all the same, Ubisoft style assembly line open worlds (b) marketed as the same Ubisoft style open worlds even if they aren't and (c) people have forgotten how to play games that aren't Ubisoft style open worlds.

A similar thing happened in the AAA industry during the Xbox/Xbox 360 era when first person shooters were saturating the market. They were able to co-exist for awhile but eventually Call of Duty and Battlefield pushed Medal of Honor into oblivion, games like Dark Watch never took off, etc.
 
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Self-Ejected

Davaris

Self-Ejected
Developer
Joined
Mar 7, 2005
Messages
6,547
Location
Idiocracy
lol of course the humorless scolds here immediately resort to reductio ad SJWam

BioWare's fate was written on 11/11/11, the date of Skyrim's release. Despite endless budgets and years of time, they failed to successfully adapt to the open world RPG marketplace. They're dinosaurs.

I can't agree with you here, I've noticed that once a person catches the mind virus their ability, humour and general competence enters a noticeable decline. In terms of an organisation hiring on the basis of meeting quotas, rather than the best talent will also have a devastating effect over the long term.

Besides there's still plenty of hype for non open world RPGs, the 'one city block' style still has a market, it just needs a competent, and well produced entry.

That is pretty much what ideologies do, and why Nietzsche came out swinging against them in Thus Spoke Zarathustra and other writings.

Every ideology that has ever existed is (obviously) empty platitudes and plausible sounding lies. People instinctively grasp for them, though, the same way addicts grasp for cigarettes or babies grasp for their baby blankets.

An ubermensch is effectively a human who has eliminated the ball of anxiety at the root of their skull that makes them want to grasp at ideas that provide them with a sense fulfillment and purpose. Instead, they laugh at the inherent emptiness of things and fill it with their own sense of purpose.

So if given a choice of every Communist country that has ever existed, that doesn't tolerate speech its owners don't agree with and builds walls to keep their populations from escaping the poverty within, or a Capitalist one where anyone is free to leave and free speech is enshrined, you would choose the one that everyone is trying to escape because all ideology is rubbish? Do you know how silly you sound?
 
Unwanted

Wonderdog

Neckbeard Shitlord's alt
Joined
May 2, 2017
Messages
1,477
lol of course the humorless scolds here immediately resort to reductio ad SJWam

BioWare's fate was written on 11/11/11, the date of Skyrim's release. Despite endless budgets and years of time, they failed to successfully adapt to the open world RPG marketplace. They're dinosaurs.

I can't agree with you here, I've noticed that once a person catches the mind virus their ability, humour and general competence enters a noticeable decline. In terms of an organisation hiring on the basis of meeting quotas, rather than the best talent will also have a devastating effect over the long term.

Besides there's still plenty of hype for non open world RPGs, the 'one city block' style still has a market, it just needs a competent, and well produced entry.

That is pretty much what ideologies do, and why Nietzsche came out swinging against them in Thus Spoke Zarathustra and other writings.

Every ideology that has ever existed is (obviously) empty platitudes and plausible sounding lies. People instinctively grasp for them, though, the same way addicts grasp for cigarettes or babies grasp for their baby blankets.

An ubermensch is effectively a human who has eliminated the ball of anxiety at the root of their skull that makes them want to grasp at ideas that provide them with a sense fulfillment and purpose. Instead, they laugh at the inherent emptiness of things and fill it with their own sense of purpose.

So if given a choice of every Communist country that has ever existed, that doesn't tolerate speech its owners don't agree with and builds walls to keep their populations from escaping the poverty within, or a Capitalist one where anyone is free to leave and free speech is enshrined, you would choose the one that everyone is trying to escape because all ideology is rubbish? Do you know how silly you sound?

He wants to be the one everyone is trying to escape from.
 
Self-Ejected

Davaris

Self-Ejected
Developer
Joined
Mar 7, 2005
Messages
6,547
Location
Idiocracy
Man, sakes alive, have you all already forgotten how EA runs its business? Despite them doing the same thing for decade upon decade and there being countless memes about it, many of which memes have even been used on this very site?

But then, I suppose it is understandable when your heads are so far up your own asses that all you can see is your own shit. Honestly, though - EA buys a company, slowly drains away or fires anyone who they deem makes too much money, drains away core assets, and then pressures those remaining to make iterations on the core brand over and over on the cheap. So, as little money as possible going in, and as much coming out as it is humanly possible to extract. Banking on your dimwitted love of some past company and its games that no longer exists in under to get you to buy these mass-produced cheap copies that they churn out at speed for as long as your nostalgia lasts. And they milk that IP for all it's worth, until it becomes a shriveled up old prune that nobody wants anywhere. At which point, they put the IP on ice for a while, until nostalgia causes people to forget what EA did last time, and then they trot that asset back out to start the whole process over again under a new team. Milk milk milk.

They have their minions eke out the same story every time, utilizing the same characters every time, in a world gated in the same way every time, with the same sorts of events every time, with the same cheesy dialogue every time, which cheesy dialogue is told by the same voice actors every single time. Hell, even their level design is the same basic boxy shapes with occasional set pieces as it has been since Neverwinter Nights. The only thing they change from one game to the next is the textures and occasionally buying a new basic animation pack, plus throwing in whatever additional events the EA suits say are currently popular with focus groups. As a company, they suck, but they suck in exactly the same way as they always sucked. Indeed, they even generate the same internet drama as they did back when they put in a lesbian in Jade Empire and all the anti-SJWs crusaded against them then. And every time you all say that this time their SJWness will surely destroy them, even as you furiously masturbate to the lipstick lesbians kissing each other. But it never does kill them. Because there's a huge audience for lipstick lesbian pron, and it ain't lesbians.

Oh sure, the devs now put the Bull in for the ladies, and you hate that EA wants to sell to girls too*. But Jesus H, that's not SJWness, that's EA milking every customer they can get their hands on for all they're worth, and so they don't want to turn away half the population. Because that's all they are - a vast milking machine that really doesn't care one whit about games or culture or anything except the money it can extract. And here's a shocker, girls have money too. Milk milk milk. Money money money.


* cause they have cooties, and that's disgusting

If I gave SJWs anything at all, I'll say they know how to work the system. Political correctness means siding with the bullies. Corporations side with the biggest bully, because they think it protects the bottom line. But as we see with Bioware and many other examples of companies and countries that have been destroyed by it, cultural Marxist political correctness reduces people's ability to Think.
 

Athos

Arcane
Joined
Apr 2, 2014
Messages
838
Location
Italy
Nietzsche gonna have to wait for the release of Telosin™ prescription reason-for-existence supplements. Not recommended for terrorists, numismatists, AGDQ attendants
Poor numismatists, what have they done to you?
 
Joined
Sep 7, 2013
Messages
6,150
PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Serpent in the Staglands Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
lol of course the humorless scolds here immediately resort to reductio ad SJWam

BioWare's fate was written on 11/11/11, the date of Skyrim's release. Despite endless budgets and years of time, they failed to successfully adapt to the open world RPG marketplace. They're dinosaurs.

I can't agree with you here, I've noticed that once a person catches the mind virus their ability, humour and general competence enters a noticeable decline. In terms of an organisation hiring on the basis of meeting quotas, rather than the best talent will also have a devastating effect over the long term.

Besides there's still plenty of hype for non open world RPGs, the 'one city block' style still has a market, it just needs a competent, and well produced entry.

That is pretty much what ideologies do, and why Nietzsche came out swinging against them in Thus Spoke Zarathustra and other writings.

Every ideology that has ever existed is (obviously) empty platitudes and plausible sounding lies. People instinctively grasp for them, though, the same way addicts grasp for cigarettes or babies grasp for their baby blankets.

An ubermensch is effectively a human who has eliminated the ball of anxiety at the root of their skull that makes them want to grasp at ideas that provide them with a sense fulfillment and purpose. Instead, they laugh at the inherent emptiness of things and fill it with their own sense of purpose.

So if given a choice of every Communist country that has ever existed, that doesn't tolerate speech its owners don't agree with and builds walls to keep their populations from escaping the poverty within, or a Capitalist one where anyone is free to leave and free speech is enshrined, you would choose the one that everyone is trying to escape because all ideology is rubbish? Do you know how silly you sound?

Communist countries are civilizations that have already been destroyed by ideology, capitalist democracies are just always at risk.

Fact is though, ideologies will eventually destroy that capitalist country with freedom of speech because maintaining that sort of high principle culture takes moral fortitude that ideologies don't really support. I can't really look at any existing political party in the entire world and say that they care more about things like honor, fair play, and the integrity of democracy than they do about winning and having power. The Information Age has more or less eliminated any trace of shame and pretty much anyone will cheat to win these days because they know for certain the ideas in their head make it okay.
 
Joined
Sep 7, 2013
Messages
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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Serpent in the Staglands Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
capitalist democracies are just always at risk
lol communist countries were last isle of freedom for usual people.
Capitalism is a cancer, parasitizing on people, and soon it start to eat masses of complacent fools in more obvious way.

This post would be a good case study of how ideology causes people to spout empty platitudes that a cursory glance at history or an iota of common sense would instantly disprove beyond all doubt.

Basically nothing good will come of it.
 

Riddler

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 5, 2009
Messages
2,353
Bubbles In Memoria
lol of course the humorless scolds here immediately resort to reductio ad SJWam

BioWare's fate was written on 11/11/11, the date of Skyrim's release. Despite endless budgets and years of time, they failed to successfully adapt to the open world RPG marketplace. They're dinosaurs.

I can't agree with you here, I've noticed that once a person catches the mind virus their ability, humour and general competence enters a noticeable decline. In terms of an organisation hiring on the basis of meeting quotas, rather than the best talent will also have a devastating effect over the long term.

Besides there's still plenty of hype for non open world RPGs, the 'one city block' style still has a market, it just needs a competent, and well produced entry.

That is pretty much what ideologies do, and why Nietzsche came out swinging against them in Thus Spoke Zarathustra and other writings.

Every ideology that has ever existed is (obviously) empty platitudes and plausible sounding lies. People instinctively grasp for them, though, the same way addicts grasp for cigarettes or babies grasp for their baby blankets.

An ubermensch is effectively a human who has eliminated the ball of anxiety at the root of their skull that makes them want to grasp at ideas that provide them with a sense fulfillment and purpose. Instead, they laugh at the inherent emptiness of things and fill it with their own sense of purpose.


A poignant comparison considering the SJW/feminism angle might perhaps be the spirit of seriousness as described by Simone de Beauvoir in The ethics of ambiguity?

" She calls this the attitude of "seriousness," in which the child "escapes the anguish of freedom" by thinking of values as existing objectively, outside himself, rather than as an expression of his freedom.[1] Once past childhood, one can be a sub-man who avoids all questions of freedom and assumes himself not free. The next rung up the hierarchy is the serious man who "gets rid of his freedom by claiming to subordinate it to values which would be unconditioned," in effect reverting to a kind of childhood.[1] Both the sub-man and the serious man refuse to recognize that they are free, in the sense of being able to choose their own values."

Or as described by Sartre: "The spirit of seriousness has two characteristics: it considers values as transcendent ‘'givens’’, independent of human subjectivity, and it transfers the quality of ‘desirable’ from the ontological structure of things to their simple material constitution."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ethics_of_Ambiguity

Funny because Beauvoir being one of the defining feminists of the 20th century.
 
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Telengard

Arcane
Joined
Nov 27, 2011
Messages
1,621
Location
The end of every place

If I gave SJWs anything at all, I'll say they know how to work the system. Political correctness means siding with the bullies. Corporations side with the biggest bully, because they think it protects the bottom line. But as we see with Bioware and many other examples of companies and countries that have been destroyed by it, cultural Marxist political correctness reduces people's ability to Think.
The only thing EA has ever kow-towed to was the stupid turdy awards naming them Worst Company in America. After that, they went through their franchise catalog and IP raped everything for whatever positive news they could drain out of them, even if they had to twist - for instance - tween Beauty and the Beast romance into some LGBT commercial. And it worked, apparently, because even though this fact was discussed ad nauseam here on the 'dex, saying that they would never get away with it, now even 'dexers I guess think the company supports the "Liberal Agenda". I guess now even the Codex are stuuupid enough to fall for the lines of some commercial designed to help a corporation clean up its stinky image.

Jesus, I know you guys are stupid enough to like Bladders Gate and Poop Age: Origins and even think them two of the pinnacles of RPGs, but this is like elementary level stuff. Especially when there are whole mega threads devoted to its discussion on this very site.
 

Elzair

Cipher
Joined
Apr 7, 2009
Messages
2,254
Tags: BioWare; Electronic Arts; Mass Effect: Andromeda

As you've probably heard, Mass Effect: Andromeda, the latest game in the Mass Effect series, was released back in March. Upon release, the game immediately became a laughingstock due to shoddy production quality and writing. It's not BioWare's first poorly received game, but never before have they suffered such an abject humiliation. Now it seems the time has come to pay the price of failure. Kotaku's Jason Schreier reports that developer BioWare Montreal has been "scaled down" back to its former role as a support studio, and that the entire Mass Effect franchise has been put on ice.

In the wake of BioWare’s polarizing Mass Effect: Andromeda, fans have wondered where the lauded sci-fi series will go next. The answer, according to people familiar with the studio, is nowhere—at least for the time being. BioWare has put Mass Effect on hiatus and turned Andromeda’s developer, BioWare Montreal, into a support studio, according to four sources close to the company.

That doesn’t mean there will never be another Mass Effect game, of course. It’s unlikely that BioWare will kill the popular sci-fi franchise. But BioWare is letting Mass Effect sit for a while rather than putting staff on Andromeda’s follow-up right away, those sources said.

Last month, a number of BioWare Montreal employees were transferred to the studio EA Motive, also based in Montreal, to work on Star Wars Battlefront II. Those remaining at BioWare Montreal will help support BioWare’s other games including the new intellectual property, code-named Dylan, which we expect the company to announce at E3. BioWare Montreal will also continue to patch and support Andromeda’s multiplayer.

BioWare’s main studio in Edmonton is heading up Dylan, while BioWare’s other studio, in Austin, is also helping out with that game.

When reached for comment, publisher Electronic Arts sent over the following statement, attributed to BioWare Montreal studio director Yanick Roy:

Our teams at BioWare and across EA put in tremendous effort bringing Mass Effect Andromeda to players around the world. Even as BioWare continues to focus on the Mass Effect Andromeda community and live service, we are constantly looking at how we’re prepared for the next experiences we will create.

The teams in EA Worldwide Studios are packed with talent, and more than ever, we are driving collaboration between studios on key projects.

With our BioWare and Motive teams sharing studio space in Montreal, we have BioWare team members joining Motive projects that are underway. We’re also ramping up teams on other BioWare projects in development.

There will be much more to come from BioWare in the years ahead.​
Mass Effect: Andromeda, released in March, was originally envisioned as a reboot for the franchise but went through a brutal development process for several reasons including technological challenges and a major scope change late in development, people familiar with the game said.

Reception to Andromeda was lukewarm, and people scoffed at its writing and animation. (Our review called it flawed and uneven.)

Andromeda was also the first game headed up by BioWare Montreal, which was founded in 2009 to help make downloadable content for Mass Effect 2 and 3. Although BioWare’s other two studios, Austin and Edmonton, also contributed to Andromeda, the game’s director, franchise producer, and leads were all based in Montreal. BioWare Edmonton had developed the first three Mass Effect games.

Now, sources say, BioWare Montreal is significantly smaller than it was just a few months ago. Those who didn’t go to Motive will help out with BioWare’s other projects rather than incubating and developing their own.

Earlier this week on an earnings call, Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson told investors that the publisher is “very happy with how BioWare is doing, how BioWare is treating Mass Effect. And our expectations for Mass Effect are still strong for the future and the franchise overall.” Wilson also put a great deal of emphasis on “live service” games, of which BioWare’s new IP is one. That’s the studio’s main focus for the time being.​
With the original BioWare Edmonton studio working on the new Dylan IP, which is rumored to be a non-RPG online game, it seems likely that the Dragon Age franchise is on hiatus as well. It's the end of an era, and one which many of us have been predicting for years. Almost twenty years ago, Origin Systems, formerly the world's top RPG studio before it was absorbed into Electronic Arts, found itself outsmarted and outcompeted by a new generation of RPG developers who were more in touch with what PC gamers were looking for. Chief among them, ironically, was a plucky young Canadian studio called BioWare. Origin was transformed into an MMO developer, and shut down a few years later without having released a single new game. Only time will tell if history is repeating itself.

Na-Na-Na-Na
Na-Na-Na-Na
Hey Hey Hey
Goodbye
 

Iznaliu

Arbiter
Joined
Apr 28, 2016
Messages
3,686
That is pretty much what ideologies do, and why Nietzsche came out swinging against them in Thus Spoke Zarathustra and other writings.

I'm not sure that's quite true, as we can talk of Nietzsche's ideology and beliefs. Ideology does limit your creative expression; but not having an ideology is promoting ignorance, hypocrisy, contradiction, and telling people what they want to hear instead of the truth.
 
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That is pretty much what ideologies do, and why Nietzsche came out swinging against them in Thus Spoke Zarathustra and other writings.

I'm not sure that's quite true, as we can talk of Nietzsche's ideology and beliefs. Ideology does limit your creative expression; but not having an ideology is promoting ignorance, hypocrisy, contradiction, and telling people what they want to hear instead of the truth.


Depends on how you characterize an ideology.

If you equate ideology with ideas and beliefs then obviously everyone has and needs those.

Nietzsche thought of ideology similar to the way Dostoevsky did. Dostoevsky thought the perfection God created in man came through in simplicity and that complexity and conceptual elaboration introduced by Satan made humans dizzy and sinful. So Dostevesky villains tend to be intellectuals and socialists who are very clever and literate and have intelligent, well reasoned theories about human nature and reality.

Nietzsche didn't believe in God but he did agree that the elements necessary for a happy and good life came naturally to humans and that tricky ideas like Christianity and its ideas of "universal justice" made people dizzy and sick, lacking the vitality, focus, and will power that came naturally to them as intelligent, living organisms.

Taoism and Zen are based on similar ideas of "emptying your mind" of all ideas about the nature of right and wrong, and reality itself, in order to be truly enlightened.

Ergo, a person who empties his mind of all thoughts about right and wrong as prescribed by ideologies like conservatism or liberalism will know for certain what right and wrong are because this knowledge is part of who he is without being manipulated by memes.

To be more specific, he will not know what is right and what is wrong, but rather what is "necessary", "natural", and "destined." He knows what will be and what must be.

Which, according to Zen and Daoists, makes the entire concept of right and wrong obsolete.
 
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Invictus

Arcane
The Real Fanboy
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
2,789
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Mexico
Divinity: Original Sin 2
This is, like, the most cliched of all plot twists... I mean ffs who honestly didnt see this coming? EA has perfected this shit!

They see an interesting studio which has several interesting franchises or IPs

They offer a chunk of money to so called "auteurs" be it Lord British or the good doctors

Supposedly creative "auteurs" decided that money is better than their artistic intergrity and all that good hippy shit and sign a clown suit contract to remain with the company long enough to sell the facade that it will be business as usual

EA decides to pump up some moneyz for the projects the studio has in development while simultaneously dumbing things down and effectively destroying whatever "it" factor that made the company stand out in the first place and gain followers

After the first couple of years the ruse is over the figurehead "auteurs" go on space trips, put out vineyards or sail around the workd in yachts full of russian hookers and coke while their staffs are studios are gutted for parts

Then as in Goodfellas, when the interest runs out and the IPs are milked for all they are worth then they just torch the place, business as usual and them decided to look for another interesting up and coming studio

They have done this time and time again and as an another poster said you cannot blame the snake for biting you since it is on their nature... and really the blame goes to the "auteur" fuckups that care only about money and all their "love for rpgs" is easily dissmissed when the prize is right

I knew it when I saw Bioware had sold out and honestly we all fucking knew, in all honestly who fucking cares about Bioware? The old Bioware died almost 5 years ago when everybody who mattered left... the light was still on but there was nobody home
The second money mattered more than anything else to the good doctora the gig was up
 

Azarkon

Arcane
Joined
Oct 7, 2005
Messages
2,989
Regardless of whether you agree with them, I do think Bioware's politics may have cost them dearly in this situation.

It should be remembered that much happened between the release of Mass Effect 3 in 2012, and the release of Mass Effect Andromeda in 2017.

Specifically, GamerGate in 2014, Dragon Age Inquisition soon after, and the closing of Bioware Social in 2016.

Before 2014, Bioware's inclusiveness agenda wasn't particularly controversial or heavy handed. I don't remember there being much of a back lash against social justice issues in 2012, and Bioware's main criticisms at the time had to do with their shift to console friendly action games and away from hardcore CRPGs, rather than their politics. Bioware's now infamous romances were defined by characters like Tali and Morrigan at the time, not Cassandra or the Bull. Their fan base on Bioware Social was satisfied with the content they were getting.

But once GamerGate happened, a decisive change in tone both within Bioware and across the gaming community took place. Bioware became much more heavy handed with their politics both in social media and in the design of Dragon Age Inquisition. Their designers became involved in the controversy, and generally came out in support for the feminists, which was to be expected.

People thought, at the time, that Bioware's fan base was aligned with them on the matter, but in retrospect this might have been an illusion. Sure, there was a vocal minority of fans who supported social justice issues and Bioware's every move, but many critics appeared on Bioware Social, especially after the release of Dragon Age Inquisition. They were shouted down as trolls, but may have represented a much bigger body of players than we thought, given the hostile environment against criticism that was the bubble of Bioware Social.

Yet, even with that environment, Bioware still considered it necessary to shut down Bioware Social, which speaks to the growing controversy around their politics and game design choices. This was not an isolated event. In the years after GamerGate, the gaming community in general became much more conscious of social justice activism and its influence within the industry, and the initial "victory" of the feminists may have been short lived. That is to say, by polarizing the community, they transformed an otherwise apathetic segment of gamers strongly against social justice activism, which was no longer "cool" or "inclusive" but became "disgusting propaganda." This is what is often described as "waking up."

Due to their enthusiastic support for social justice activism, Bioware's own games became a poster child - or even THE poster child - for social justice in the industry, and thus the main target of the developing back lash.

It's entirely possible that, in combination with other design flaws, production issues, and dissatisfaction with Mass Effect 3's ending, the perfect storm was created for Bioware in Mass Effect Andromeda. But to say this was strictly a matter of Mass Effect Andromeda being a shit game is to ignore the fact that Dragon Age Inquisition was just as shit of a game, and yet did not sell nearly as badly. In retrospect, Dragon Age Inquisition might have been the straw that broke the camel's back - the proof of Bioware's descent into social justice propaganda, the consequences of which are only now being seen.
 

decaf

Learned
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Apr 21, 2017
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Ergo, a person who empties his mind of all thoughts about right and wrong as prescribed by ideologies like conservatism or liberalism will know for certain what right and wrong are because this knowledge is part of who he is without being manipulated by memes.

Aren't all thoughts memes?

Anyway, in Zen, by emptying your mind, you react to reality instead of an idea of reality. Instead of having to search for a purpose for your actions, purpose is (somehow, dunno how don't ask me) revealed to you. At least that's what I understand about Zen.
 

Forest Dweller

Smoking Dicks
Joined
Oct 29, 2008
Messages
12,194
This is, like, the most cliched of all plot twists... I mean ffs who honestly didnt see this coming? EA has perfected this shit!

They see an interesting studio which has several interesting franchises or IPs

They offer a chunk of money to so called "auteurs" be it Lord British or the good doctors

Supposedly creative "auteurs" decided that money is better than their artistic intergrity and all that good hippy shit and sign a clown suit contract to remain with the company long enough to sell the facade that it will be business as usual

EA decides to pump up some moneyz for the projects the studio has in development while simultaneously dumbing things down and effectively destroying whatever "it" factor that made the company stand out in the first place and gain followers

After the first couple of years the ruse is over the figurehead "auteurs" go on space trips, put out vineyards or sail around the workd in yachts full of russian hookers and coke while their staffs are studios are gutted for parts

Then as in Goodfellas, when the interest runs out and the IPs are milked for all they are worth then they just torch the place, business as usual and them decided to look for another interesting up and coming studio

They have done this time and time again and as an another poster said you cannot blame the snake for biting you since it is on their nature... and really the blame goes to the "auteur" fuckups that care only about money and all their "love for rpgs" is easily dissmissed when the prize is right

I knew it when I saw Bioware had sold out and honestly we all fucking knew, in all honestly who fucking cares about Bioware? The old Bioware died almost 5 years ago when everybody who mattered left... the light was still on but there was nobody home
The second money mattered more than anything else to the good doctora the gig was up
I agree with everything you said, except I believe that the doctors at Bioware never had any artistic integrity. Remember that they were originally developing medical software - they only turned to games because it looked like there was money to be made there and they weren't doing so well with their first business. Baldur's Gate series happened because that was what was believed to be standard fare for a successful (i.e. profitable) rpg at the time (although already trying to get in on the Diablo action by making it real-time-with-pause). Once it looked like a more dumbed-down action rpg style was the way to go they didn't hesitate to go in that direction. So it should be no surprise that if EA offers them a bunch of money, they wouldn't hesitate to take it. They've been consistent in their actions from start to finish.
 

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