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Drew Karpyshyn back at Bioware...and now he's gone again

Will this change anything of significance at Bioware?


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Azarkon

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Karpyshyn had limited creative control over Bioware, but he had full creative control over his Chaos Born novels.

So... Anyone read those?
 

kwanzabot

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now they can make star wars 6


actually i had no idea who this guy is but i've actually read like 3 of his novels


wasnt a big fan
 
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Jools

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He's not that bad a writer, for the subgenre (movies/games spin-offs, of which I only read two or three). That said, nothing will change at BioWare, Drew or not.
 

Jools

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I'm surprised Drew is getting this much backlash.

You're surprised a Bioware writer getting a poor reception? That's a weird thing to be surprised about at the Codex.

Karpyshyn is a bit of a puzzle. On one hand he contributed to a lot of the ideas that defined role playing games from 2000 forward, creating games that a lot Codexers enjoyed, but often with qualifications. Fact is his "complicity" in the rise of cinematic technique in the medium (along with the rest of Bioware) is always going to color his reputation among the crowd of people who crave more interaction and less showing in their games.

Comparing his accomplishments to Avellone's isn't really fair, though. Avellone was the creative director on his most acclaimed games (FO2, PS:T, Kotor II), he had the advantage of a recyclable engine and assets, not to mention whole environments, like porting Korriban from Kotor into Kotor II. Note that Avellone stopped being a creative director the instant the job entailed familiarity with advanced programming issues like the Onynx Engine or the elaborate web of proprietary software needed to operate it and Obsidian's other systems. The point is, Avellone was in a strong position to build games around his writing sensibilities, and it shows a lot.

Karpyshyn didn't have that sort of control over the project. He was a subordinate to producers and directors whose primary concerns were knotted up with extensive engine, camera, and game play issues. Very likely underwriting Shepard as a guy who doesn't know much about the galaxy in the original Mass Effect game occurred because he wasn't sure exactly what the event or the situation would be. So, it was impossible to bear the exact visual context of the narrative in mind. That being the case, he had to fly with utility. Getting necessary information to the player superseded the importance of realism of the deficits in Shepard's knowledge of the galaxy and it inhabitants.

Accomplishments aside, Karpyshyn's writing style is, IMHO, slightly better than Avellone's. Neither really qualify, in my mind, for the actual label of "author" (nor does Heines, just to mention a third one with similar characteristics), and both will always be branded with the kinda demeaning mark of "videogame writer". In all honesty, at the end of the day, they're both all-round-mediocre writers: Avellone manages to pull off somewhat better plots, while Karpyshyn has a slight edge when it comes to the actual narrative style.

Outside the field of the videogame industry and the nerd-niche market that is spin-off's and tie-in's, they both amount to pretty much nothing, whilst appearing and towering giants in the mentioned markets, where, truth be told, they have (or used to have, because these days, even some indies are pulling some very neat writing out of their hats) little-to-no competition.

The sad truth is, the pretty-much-unknown fellow or fellows who write for Rockstar Games, do a much better job under every possible aspect (inb4 haters). Just to name one.
 

Athelas

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Accomplishments aside, Karpyshyn's writing style is, IMHO, slightly better than Avellone's. Neither really qualify, in my mind, for the actual label of "author" (nor does Heines, just to mention a third one with similar characteristics), and both will always be branded with the kinda demeaning mark of "videogame writer". In all honesty, at the end of the day, they're both all-round-mediocre writers: Avellone manages to pull off somewhat better plots, while Karpyshyn has a slight edge when it comes to the actual narrative style.
I don't see the similarities. Regardless of what you think of Avellone's work, it's obvious he's at least attempting to explore some manner of theme with his writing. Compare that to something like Kotor, Karphyshyn's main claim to fame, where it's impossible to take the story seriously because it's just a series of lazy contrivances:

The player character is the most (in)famous person in the galaxy, yet nobody ever recognizes him (can't spoil the big twist!).
The Jedi Masters think it's a great idea to let the extremely powerful Dark Jedi who almost defeated the Republic run loose and hope he doesn't do anything crazy (again, can't have anything spoiling the big twist).
The plot revolves around the search for a digital map that's somehow torn to pieces and scattered on various planets as if it were a physical map (why...?).

This isn't even mentioning the abysmal quality of dialogue.

The sad truth is, the pretty-much-unknown fellow or fellows who write for Rockstar Games, do a much better job under every possible aspect (inb4 haters). Just to name one.
What? Karphyshyn or Avellone would be lucky to get a fraction of the attention and praise that Rockstar's writing receives (I believe GTA IV may have been the first game to unironically recieve the moniker 'the Citizen Kane of gaming'). Not that I agree that Rockstar writing is any good - in its attempts to be edgy and gritty and satirical, it comes across as incredibly juvenile.
 

DosBuster

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Rockstar Games writing team is headed by Dan Houser and he often teams up with DJ Pooh (for San Andreas and V) and another relatively unknown game writer. But he's a damn good writer with an expert mastery in dialogue. Another really good writer is Erik Wolpaw (Psychonauts, Portal 1 and 2) along with Neil Druckmann (The Last of Us).
 

Jools

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Accomplishments aside, Karpyshyn's writing style is, IMHO, slightly better than Avellone's. Neither really qualify, in my mind, for the actual label of "author" (nor does Heines, just to mention a third one with similar characteristics), and both will always be branded with the kinda demeaning mark of "videogame writer". In all honesty, at the end of the day, they're both all-round-mediocre writers: Avellone manages to pull off somewhat better plots, while Karpyshyn has a slight edge when it comes to the actual narrative style.
I don't see the similarities. Regardless of what you think of Avellone's work, it's obvious he's at least attempting to explore some manner of theme with his writing. Compare that to something like Kotor, Karphyshyn's main claim to fame, where it's impossible to take the story seriously because it's just a series of lazy contrivances:

The player character is the most (in)famous person in the galaxy, yet nobody ever recognizes him (can't spoil the big twist!).
The Jedi Masters think it's a great idea to let the extremely powerful Dark Jedi who almost defeated the Republic run loose and hope he doesn't do anything crazy (again, can't have anything spoiling the big twist).
The plot revolves around the search for a digital map that's somehow torn to pieces and scattered on various planets as if it were a physical map (why...?).

This isn't even mentioning the abysmal quality of dialogue.

I did say that I find Avellone's "plots" (or stories or storytelling or whatever you wanna call it) are better, while Karpyshyn is imho better at the "technical" aspect of writing, his sentences flow better and are more pleasant to read, so to speak. Of course, both considerations are mostly a subjective preference of mine.


The sad truth is, the pretty-much-unknown fellow or fellows who write for Rockstar Games, do a much better job under every possible aspect (inb4 haters). Just to name one.
What? Karphyshyn or Avellone would be lucky to get a fraction of the attention and praise that Rockstar's writing receives (I believe GTA IV may have been the first game to unironically recieve the moniker 'the Citizen Kane of gaming'). Not that I agree that Rockstar writing is any good - in its attempts to be edgy and gritty and satirical, it comes across as incredibly juvenile.

And yet Avellone and Karpyshyn have more "fame" than the guys are R*, whom even I, who consider myself a "fan", never heard of before (which, I admit, could be a coincidence of me never really looking into the stuff and me hanging out on the 'dex too much). I mean, just look at the legion of wet-labia'ed fanboys we have here on the Codex...



in its attempts to be edgy and gritty and satirical, it comes across as incredibly juvenile.

Interesting, replace "edgy and satirical" with "deep and complex", and that's exactly how I feel about Avellone's writing. Karpyshyn, well, his writing doesn't even really attempt to be anything, and it just IS juvenile. Teenager pop fiction level of juvenile, contents-wise.
 
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LESS T_T

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:necro:

So much for that. Drew Karpyshyn left BioWare again: http://drewkarpyshyn.com/c/?p=1068

He will work on novels and do freelancer work for Fox's new game studio.

A New Beginning

Okay, time for my big announcement: I am leaving BioWare and striking out on new ventures!

Yes, it’s true. As of Friday, March 2, I am no longer an employee of BioWare/EA. Some of you might be thinking, “Wait, this sounds familiar!”. Yes, this is my second retirement from BioWare. Last time, I left to focus on my Chaos Born trilogy. This time, I’m leaving to pursue a number of other projects, including more original novels, an original sci-fi graphic novel I’m co-creating, and freelance gaming work.

I know a lot of you are wondering why I’m doing this. For many people, working at BioWare would be their dream job and they can’t imagine anyone stepping away from it. But it was time for me to move on.

Everyone who works at BioWare pours their heart and soul into the games they are making. It’s creatively demanding and – at times – exhausting. In the past, I’ve managed to juggle outside projects with my work at BioWare, but it always took a toll. And there were always outside projects I had to pass on because they would represent a conflict of interest with BioWare or EA properties.

So I made the decision to step back (again) and focus on my freelance work. I’d love to say more about the novel(s) I’m working on, or my graphic novel project, but those details will have to wait a while. (Yes, I’m using this announcement to tease other future announcements. In marketing, they call that “synergy”.)

But I’m not leaving games entirely. As of Monday, I’m officially working with Fogbank Entertainment and FoxNext Games. I can’t say a lot about what we’re up to yet, but here’s the official Fogbank Entertainment announcement.

I’m very excited to be part of the Fogbank team. I’ve worked with both Daniel and Alex before in my BioWare days, and I really like what they’re building. Obviously this release is a bit cryptic, but as more details of what I’m working on get announced, I’ll be sharing them on my Twitter feed and here on the NEWS page of my website.

Moving forward, I expect to start making semi-regular posts here, and not just about the projects I’m working on. One of the great things about being a freelance writer is I can write about… well, anything. So maybe I’ll react to politics or sports (and piss a bunch of people off). Maybe I’ll give my opinion on certain movies or TV shows (and piss people off). Maybe I’ll talk about my golf game or my favorite places to eat in Austin (and bore people). Maybe I’ll write posts about my creative process, using mysterious references to unreleased projects (and piss people off). And maybe (definitely) I’ll be posting information about any conventions I’m attending or public appearances I’m making or interviews and podcasts I’m doing. (Another benefit of going freelance is more free time to interact with my fans.)

So there you have it. Please don’t e-mail me asking for more information about why I’m leaving – there is no dirty laundry I’m just waiting to air. And please don’t ask about any BioWare projects I’ve been working on – just because I’ve left BioWare doesn’t mean I’m going to start blabbing all their secrets.

I’m sure people will read more into this statement than there really is, but there’s not much I can do about that.I know some people are going to dwell on the past, but that’s not my style. I’m looking to a bright future, and I hope at least some of you will enjoy where this journey leads!

Drew
 

Atlantico

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Well that's too bad. Sounds like what he working on got axed. Bioware is probably putting everything in the Anthem basket.
 

RepHope

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Fuck Bioware, they are dead to me.
Took you this long?

If it wasn’t obvious now, let me spell out for everyone: Anthem is going to mercy kill Bioware. Either it’s a success in which case they’ll be working on it for years until it’s time for Anthem 2, or it’s a failure in which case EA will probably finally stop raping Bioware's Corpse.
 

Theldaran

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Well, maybe now he can write for the new Star Wars movies, he'd probably fit well in there.
 

Vorark

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At this point I'm not sure if there's even a ship to sink at Bioware.

I once read one of Drew Karpyshyn's Mass Effect novels, it was the one about Anderson and Saren. Didn't like it, the writing felt dry. I believe he might be better at videogame writing than proper book writing.
 

Roguey

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Feel a bit of sympathy for the Biodrones who still refuse to believe the mine is now full of poison.
 

Theldaran

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At this point I'm not sure if there's even a ship to sink at Bioware.

I once read one of Drew Karpyshyn's Mass Effect novels, it was the one about Anderson and Saren. Didn't like it, the writing felt dry. I believe he might be better at videogame writing than proper book writing.

Who even remains at Bioware? Every noteworthy personality has long fled.
 

fantadomat

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mbv123

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At this point I'm not sure if there's even a ship to sink at Bioware.

I once read one of Drew Karpyshyn's Mass Effect novels, it was the one about Anderson and Saren. Didn't like it, the writing felt dry. I believe he might be better at videogame writing than proper book writing.

Who even remains at Bioware? Every noteworthy personality has long fled.
Diversity hires
 

Infinitron

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Podcast with Drew:
https://ticgamesnetwork.com/to/splt/int/the-inner-circle-special-with-drew-karpyshyn/

He's essentially saying that the heavy focus on technology and Triple-A assets has ruined the RPG genre and that it takes away the control of the author over the story.

No shit, Drew.

Some outtakes: https://ticgamesnetwork.com/to/splt...ass-effect-six-to-nine-months-pre-production/

Drew Karpyshyn on Mass Effect: “We Spent Six to Nine Months on Pre-Production”

Recently, Lenwood and I got the chance to interview a longtime veteran of the industry, Drew Karpyshyn. A talented writer, he worked with BioWare for 12 years on games such as Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire and Mass Effect. Our full interview with Drew Karpyshyn will be releasing extremely soon but in the meantime, we thought we’d give you a sample of what you have to look forward to. Here are some thoughts from Drew Karpyshyn on Mass Effect and its history.

Drew Karpyshyn on Mass Effect
One of the things we asked Drew about was how Mass Effect came to be, including whether parallels to Knights of the Old Republic were intentional and trying to understand the overall process behind creating such a huge new IP. We also asked about what it was like putting together the team for Mass Effect.

He told us that “What we usually try to do with BioWare is we try to build on what we’ve done before. So there was a lot of the same team, some of the writers, some of the artists, a lot of the production people, from KOTOR, came on to Mass Effect. We worked well together, we had done a pretty good job on KOTOR, it was a already a big success so wanted to keep a lot of that team together.”

He also talked about the nature of the conversation wheel and how things changed with having a voice protagonist.

“This idea of having multiple responses for the player to pick, we kept that but then we added this idea of full voiceover for the player and then we realized if we do that, you don’t want to read an answer and then have the character say it. It almost sounded like it was coming out twice, because you would read it in your head and the player would say the exact same thing” he says. “So then we had to come up with this whole paraphrase system where we had to give people an idea of what they were going to say in a way that would, when they picked the choice, let it flow into the voice of Shepard and still feel natural and not break up the cinematic feel of the scene.”

mass-effect-2-tic.jpg


Creating the Universe of Mass Effect
A lot of work went into the creation of the Mass Effect universe, as the team drew elements from Aliens, Terminator, Star Wars and anything else that had the same “spiritual” feeling and getting a unique universe. In fact, the team spent over half a year just getting the outline right.

“We spent six to nine months with just a very small team planning out the universe of Mass Effect before we even started production on the game, figuring out what the different races were, the different species, what the different planets were, how the political system worked, how the technology worked, just so we had this base to build on.”

That effort definitely paid off for players like myself, who pour through the Codex soaking up all the information. There’s no denying that it was a bit of a risk though. Drew explained that spending that much time on pre-production might not have been possible in this day and age and that the publisher has to have a lot of trust with the developer in order to work on a game like that.

“That’s something that is very important in games but it’s hard to do sometimes because it can feel like you’re spending a lot of time not making the game, you’re spending six months planning and no production is being done and there’s nothing to show for it. You really need the money people or whoever’s calling the shots to trust that you’re doing this for the right reasons and that it’s going to pay off in the end,” he says. “At the time, BioWare was still owned by Ray and Greg, they were running things and they gave us that kind of freedom.

“It’s tougher now, with the big companies like EA and they’ve got so many projects going on if you spend six months and you say ‘Here, we’ve got a three page outline after six months’ they’re gonna say look at you and say ‘Well, what have you been doing? Where’s all that money going?’ Plus, they might have a hundred people in the studio waiting for you to get this done. It’s a little bit different now when you go to make a game. You still want to put that background in but there’s different pressures. Luckily, we were sort of in an era where we could take that time and do different versions.”

mass-effect-3-tic.jpg


Mass Effect 3 and That Ending
While Drew was an integral part of the writing for Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, he wasn’t involved with Mass Effect 3. I asked him about what it was like not being a part of the writing for the third game and why he left the Mass Effect team.

“Yeah, so, we knew it was gonna be a trilogy right from the start” he says. “The idea was, in the first game we wanted to introduce the Reapers, in the second game we wanted to expand on what the Reapers were doing, sort of build on that and in the third game you would finally get the ultimate victory or find the ultimate ending to this Reaper threat. But we didn’t have a lot of details fleshed out, you have to be flexible.”

Going in-depth on why he left after the first two games, he explained that “The reason I left was I was mostly because I was moving to Austin, I grew in Edmonton and I just was tired of the winters, they’re brutal, I was done with ice and snow, I wanted to move on. BioWare had opened a studio in Austin, Texas that was working on the Star Wars MMO, so they wanted me to come down and out help with that because of my experience with Knights of the Old Republic, so it was a good fit, that’s the reason I left Mass Effect, there wasn’t anything political about it.”

One of the major issues that faced Mass Effect 3 post-release was the ending and its infamously poor reception. Endings are extremely important for games and they’re very difficult to get right. While different ideas were tossed around before Mass Effect 3entered production, Drew doesn’t think the team working on the game had enough time to properly refine the ending.

“You need a lot of time and I’ll be honest, I don’t know that they were given the time they needed to pull it all together. I feel like, and this is me speaking as someone who wasn’t a part of the project and didn’t see what was going on, because there’s a lot of really good stuff in Mass Effect 3, like it as a game, it’s a really great game. But the last thing you see is that ending and it didn’t work for a lot of people and I understand why.”

He goes on to say that “It’s unfortunate, because I think it overshadows all the good stuff that was in the game. Most people, if you had stopped it five hours before the game was over and said ‘What do you think so far?’ they would have said ‘Awesome!'”

Summary
So, that’s Drew Karpyshyn on Mass Effect. Our full interview with him will be available extremely soon. In it, we go over everything we’ve talked about here in addition to Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire and some of Drew’s opinions on changes in the industry and at BioWare.
 

Freddie

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Podcast with Drew:
https://ticgamesnetwork.com/to/splt/int/the-inner-circle-special-with-drew-karpyshyn/

He's essentially saying that the heavy focus on technology and Triple-A assets has ruined the RPG genre and that it takes away the control of the author over the story.

No shit, Drew.

Some outtakes: https://ticgamesnetwork.com/to/splt...ass-effect-six-to-nine-months-pre-production/

I think Karpyshyn is saying a lot considering that at least his public self as writer has always been a strong team player. There were people asking questions from Karpyshyn after ME3 fiasco, but I don't think he ever said anything negative towards other developers. And what comes to ME3, he isn't right guy to ask about it anyway.

What comes to ME3 there were other sources. Casey Hudson who was producer asked more time, but EA didn't approve. Mac Walters was the lead writer and when it came to time to create the ending for trilogy he didn't had much to show. Hudson was forced to hack ending together with him from whatever story pieces and graphical assets they had ready. Kinda ironic that some of the Karpyshyn's original ideas were used.

But what Karspyhyn says about too limited pre-production time, it IMO fits in the bigger picture where EA buys studio / IP's and then turns those franchises to something terrible that won't even sell. I don't see this is the only fault of EA. In case of Command & Conquers series they messed the franchise up one way when they kept shifting the goal posts and then in the end... oh goodness!

So what practical value there is in being an indie and for studio and gamers. More control versus the risks of getting underfunded. For small team I think control over pre-production time might be one.[/QUOTE]
 

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