ANTHEM - failed Destiny clone from BioWare

[Clockwork Knight]

 

[Infinitron]

 

[gruntar]

Anthem Does Not Have Romances
https://www.gameinformer.com/2018/06/09/anthem-does-not-have-romances

I bet Bioware wanted to put a fully equipped gay brothel in the game, so that weirdos and SJWs could boink all the fauna the game has to offer, but EA said

Maybe EA is a learning animal after all. Maybe.

Apparently not.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/anthem/anthem-romance

BioWare is open to Anthem romance, after all

Update, June 13: BioWare has clarified that it does want romances in Anthem, but they’re not part of the immediate plan.

It doesn’t look like Anthem will contain the same level of narrative depth or romance options as BioWare’s other major titles. Yet the studio’s still open to having some old-fashioned banging in its co-op shooter - it’s just not it in the current plans.

BioWare’s Casey Hudson said that while the team has been saying no, “the nuance is, of course we do want relationships. [Anthem is] just more in an action genre of storytelling.” That’s in contrast to the expectations of “mature-rated storylines” from previous titles like Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

“Of course, like with other games, we just want to see how people respond to that, and then we can build more," Hudson says. He then gives the example of Mass Effect’s Garrus, who started life as “a kind of birdlike concept art” before becoming one of the best-loved characters in the series.

“It turned out that people loved Garrus so much that they wanted romances with him,” Hudson tells VentureBeat, “so we built that into Mass Effect 2 and people loved it. That same opportunity exists here. If people really like a character and they want to spend more time with them, want a relationship with them, that’s definitely in the cards for the future.”

 

[J_C]

Anthem Does Not Have Romances
https://www.gameinformer.com/2018/06/09/anthem-does-not-have-romances

I bet Bioware wanted to put a fully equipped gay brothel in the game, so that weirdos and SJWs could boink all the fauna the game has to offer, but EA said

Maybe EA is a learning animal after all. Maybe.

Apparently not.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/anthem/anthem-romance

BioWare is open to Anthem romance, after all

Update, June 13: BioWare has clarified that it does want romances in Anthem, but they’re not part of the immediate plan.

It doesn’t look like Anthem will contain the same level of narrative depth or romance options as BioWare’s other major titles. Yet the studio’s still open to having some old-fashioned banging in its co-op shooter - it’s just not it in the current plans.

BioWare’s Casey Hudson said that while the team has been saying no, “the nuance is, of course we do want relationships. [Anthem is] just more in an action genre of storytelling.” That’s in contrast to the expectations of “mature-rated storylines” from previous titles like Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

“Of course, like with other games, we just want to see how people respond to that, and then we can build more," Hudson says. He then gives the example of Mass Effect’s Garrus, who started life as “a kind of birdlike concept art” before becoming one of the best-loved characters in the series.

“It turned out that people loved Garrus so much that they wanted romances with him,” Hudson tells VentureBeat, “so we built that into Mass Effect 2 and people loved it. That same opportunity exists here. If people really like a character and they want to spend more time with them, want a relationship with them, that’s definitely in the cards for the future.”

LOL, I imagine after they made the interview about no romances, their Biotard fans flipped out about MAH ROMANCES, so Casey had to jump in to assure everyone about including them in the game. How pathetic of a human being you have to be if you just NEED romances in your RPG to enjoy them.

 

[imweasel]

It sounds like Bioware is just concentrating on making a good game for now (it will be shit), and they'll add all of the controversial romance as well as xenophilic/beastiality stuff later.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.pcgamer.com/bioware-answers-our-biggest-questions-about-anthem/

BioWare answers our biggest questions about Anthem
From how the open world works to what happens when you die, BioWare's Mark Darrah gives us insight into Anthem.

EA's reveal of Anthem during its E3 press conference definitely gave us more questions than answers. The co-op loot shooter looks like Destiny, but BioWare's insistence that their take on the genre is something new and innovative is hard to wrap our heads around. Even after playing a 30 minute demo, we still couldn't get a strong sense for how Anthem differentiates itself.

Even though we enjoyed combat and flying around in our exosuit Javelins, there were still a million questions burning in our brains about how these systems would stack up to deliver something special. After speaking with executive producer Mark Darrah, it's not exactly clear that Anthem isn't just Destiny with jetpacks—which isn't something to aspire to if the recent backlash around Destiny 2 is any indication.

Still, BioWare is obviously keeping a lot of things a secret, and we're keen to see what kind of story Anthem is able to tell. Here's what Darrah he had to say.

PC Gamer: People have this expectation for what is a BioWare game and Anthem seems to subvert a lot of that. Why move in this new direction away from what BioWare has been known for?

Mark Darrah: You know the interesting thing is if you look back at BioWare's history, we've been changing the types of games we've been making the whole time. I think what has been happening for a lot of that time is that the definition for genres has also been shifting. If you look at Baldur's Gate compared to Dragon Age: Inquisition, they're both considered RPGs but they're very different from each other. There are relationships in [Baldur's Gate] but there are no romances, it's a different camera angle—it's different in a lot of ways. Evolution has always been a part of our lineage.

I think what's happening with Anthem to some degree, we were looking to do something that allows us to tell an ongoing story, to have a world that has really good watercooler moments. One problem we often have with our storytelling is that it's not really viral, people don't really share their experiences because they're worrying about spoiling it and also there's a tendency for people to think that maybe they like it but other people won't. But having this shared world gives people a lot more opportunities to talk to people and not worry about ruining that experience for them.

What's happened since Anthem first started development is that an entire genre has risen out of nowhere. I mean, Borderlands existed when Anthem started but nothing else did. I think that the connection to what we've done in the past is still clearly there, but there's expectations coming in from a genre that has emerged and encapsulated Anthem since then that is maybe throwing people off a little bit.

What is the balance between treating a slice of Anthem as an action experience and a narrative experience. Is it delivered in missions or is it through contextual or event-based experiences?

So there is some in-mission narrative that is delivered. But we don't do any branching in that, it's more radio chatter or conversation that everyone shares and sees that. And then we move the branching into Fort Tarsus, or at least one of your hubs, Fort Tarsus or maybe your Strider. What that is designed to do is to remove the social obligation that you feel. If you try to play a story, if you play BG multiplayer or you play... Divinity: Original Sin 3?

Original Sin 2.

Original Sin 2. You can play that co-op. It's really awkward because someone in the group wants to keep going and you want to sit back and think about the conversation, so what we do is we try to make the co-op experience very seamless, but not just seamless in joining but seamless in breaking apart as well. So when you finish a mission, unless you have a [premade] group, we want that connection to dissolve, so you kind of go away and then you can go and join back up again if you want. To really remove that barrier for co-op experience. We've grouped up, but I kind of don't want to play with you anymore, how do I get away from that? I mean, whether I need to leave for the night or even if I just want to go into freeplay and explore some lore and pick some crafting materials up or talk to people in Fort Tarsus, how do I seamlessly and gracefully leave that group? So we try to remove that barrier and dissolve these groups more naturally.

Is there any kind of narrative choice in the game? Are you making branching decisions like you do in other BioWare games?

So there is branching in Fort Tarsus, you make choices. I think we're only doing binary branching, as opposed to six [options], just because this is bringing in some different people and that can kind of be an intimidating thing. Out in the world, there's no branching because you'll be with other people and we don't want you to stop and agonize over a decision.

Spoiler

When I see a game like this and I know that my friends are going to be in it every night playing whereas I'm a bit more casual, is this something where I'm going to be left behind?

They'll be able to play with you on any of your missions to help you out and bring you along. You'll be able to play together in Strongholds [a more challenging form of group content] and in freeplay [where you can explore the world at your own pace], but you won't be able to jump ahead in the story and see the story missions they're seeing. But that's actually only part of what's there to experience. In terms of actual progression, we do have a steeper progression curve than something like Destiny, because of PvP they have to have a very flat progression curve. Not having PvP allows us to steepen that and make the rewards more meaningful, but that does mean that there's a difference between a first level character and a 25 or 30 level character.

Are Strongholds sort of like dungeons in other MMOs?

Yeah, they're similar. The reason we didn't call them dungeons is because they're relatively big and have a lot of open space—they're outdoors. So dungeons just caused this odd…

They make it feel like you're going into a cavern.

And often they do have caverns, but you'll come out into this big caldera that's 400 acres in size and you'll be like, how is this a dungeon anymore? But it's a four person thing, more difficult, higher loot rewards. So, yeah, basically like a dungeon.

Is there a good reason for high level players to go back and do stuff with their low-level friends?

Yeah, so when you do a mission ... [you] can come in as a mentor as well and we reward you in different ways to say, go play with people, maybe not even people that you know, who are earlier in the game to show them how to play, help them out. It also kinda gives them an exposure to, oh look, this is a level 30 guy with epic shotgun that lights people on fire. And now you have something to strive for. So, yeah, absolutely, there are rewards specifically designed to encourage people to go back through that older content with other people.

Let's say I just want to explore and see what's out there, how much freedom do you have, even as a low level character, to go out and have a good time in the world?

Freeplay is a mode designed specifically for going out alone—there's four people on the server, but you're not tethered together. Your direction is yours and everyone else has their own thing so you're probably barely even seeing other people. In the open world you can definitely get yourself into trouble, but you also have a jetpack so you can, if you're careful, get yourself out of most of the trouble. You're probably not going to kill a titan, but you can probably get away from the titan.

Say you're high level in freeplay, what's the drive of that? Is it just to explore the lore or are there events or quest chains?

So in freeplay there's world events, so the titan is a world event. As well, freeplay is the best place to get crafting materials because we populate it more densely in that mode because it's about taking your time and looking around. So when you're looking for crafting materials that's the place to do it, you can get a little bit on missions but it's really more, get your boots on, I'm going to freeplay if you're looking for crafting materials.

There's only four people in freeplay? That strikes me as quite a low number, especially if world events are triggering. Are world events designed to be soloed?

So world events are balanced above solo. You could solo them, but they will broadcast themselves and try and draw people back together. But what we're trying for with freeplay is, we're actually looking for a more solitary experience. We're not discouraging, but we aren't encouraging you to stay together, but then world events will draw you back together.

So in terms of crafting, is that how you work towards high level endgame stuff or is it more important to be doing events or other things?

So the balance isn't really clear to me yet, but you can do both. There are loot drops, and then as you get into the max level eldergame stuff that's where you're getting the infused shotguns of 'blah blah blah.' It's designed to be a very long loot chase, much more like Diablo than like Destiny in terms of there's a little bit of randomness in there. You can get the best shotgun and then get the shotgun with the best mod and then get the shotgun with the best stats. It gives you a lot more to achieve.

During combat, are there mechanics for aggro and does that play into classes?

There's no aggro control on the Colossus [the tankier Javelin] right now, but that's probably something that we're going to look at. Everyone's natural inclination is to be like, that's a tank, it should probably have some aggro control. Right now it's largely just based on DPS. And certainly when we get into the Interceptor and the Storm [other Javelins], they're much breakier, they'll need some aggro control for sure.

Chris: What happens when you die?

Steven: I ask myself that question every day.

You can be revived by other squad members, and in freeplay by other people that are on the server. It'll broadcast the fact that you're down and maybe someone will come, maybe they won't. If that doesn't happen in a certain period of time, you will respawn at a resupply point which is basically a cache of gear out in the world. If you're near the end of a mission and two of you go down, other people can bring you back up. Or, if you're like, you're never going to be able to revive me, just send me back to the resupply point. But if all of you go down you go back to the resupply point.

So what about the boss. If we all wipe, does the boss stay in the same condition?

So right now he stays in the same state he was when you went down. I will see where we end up because I can certainly argue both sides of that one.

What sort of mechanics are in place for making meaningful boss fights? One of the problems with a lot of these games is that their health bar is just really big and that's it.

One of the things that really is interesting with Anthem is the mobility. We can do a lot more stuff around what would normally be relatively simplistic 'stand behind the column to avoid the big beam that kills everything.' We can do more interesting things because you can fly, so we can do more stuff that forces you to move around the battlefield. And additionally, because we have elemental damages and resistances, we can get into a little bit more puzzle type stuff where we can look into opportunities for you to do a lot better if you're taking advantage of that elemental stuff.

So you've mentioned Strongholds, you've mentioned freeplay, and then story missions. Are those kind of the trifecta of content, so to speak?

So there's some other things that we aren't really talking about yet, like stuff we're doing in the eldergame. But yes, those are the big three things.

And will PvP be off the table forever?

I don't know if it's off the table for forever, but because of us taking advantage of not having PvP and pushing into more extreme kinds of loot, if we did have PvP it'd have to be structured in such a way that loot balance wasn't a problem or a separate mode that you took a different Javelin—we'd make a special Javelin just for PvP that has its own much more restricted loot tables. I wouldn't say never, but it hasn't been taken into account into our design at all.

When it comes to weapon and itemization, how many different weapon types are there?

Yeah, so there's the primary gun types like pistols, assault rifles, shotguns, grenade launchers, and miniguns. Those kind of overlap the different suits, so the lighter suits can use pistols but the Colossus can't use pistols but everyone else can't use the minigun that he can use. There's an overlap there. And then each Javelin has different gear slots that are unique to that Javelin. So you saw that the Ranger has a wrist slot that's like a rocket and then for that you can get different like; okay this is a rocket that does damage and this is a rocket that lights enemies on fire. They have grenades, and each suit is like that.

Are there any weapons you can tell us about that are really creative, non-conventional firearms?

We're probably going to have some aura type things to be more, a bit more providing other aspects of combat and not just doing pure damage. And the Storm is much more elementally driven, they have a gun but they're not using that they're often shooting ice bolts and things like that. They're a bit more mystical in nature.

Apart from what we saw in the demo in the landscape, the caves and whatnot. Can you talk about other parts of the world that vary from what we've seen?

We're not talking about that too much right now but it is a world that… so the Scars have definitely left footprints over parts of the world where they've come in and build these metal hives that they sort of build and live in. And then there's places that are really dominated by the Shaper ruins which are sort of these really high tech, circular areas. Biome-wise, I don't think they'll be able to talk about that now.

Can you trade with other players?

So we're not going to trading at first at least from a balancing perspective, just so we don't have this problem of 30 level people loading up their first level characters with stuff that throws the game out of whack. I wouldn't take it off the table forever, it's certainly something that allows an interesting longterm engagement. We would like groups of people to be able to share something, so that they can say, we all want to be purple and have this kind of design on us. So some way to allow that experience.

So if Chris and I are both level 30 and I get the gun he's been wanting, there's no way to give it to him?

No.

So what's the live update plan look like then. Is there a series of things that you think is a really good way to expand in the future? Seasonal stuff, that kind of thing?

We want seasons, we'll have live events. I don't think we're really to talk about it in details quite yet. Partially just because I just want to be able to adapt and change it as we get into the last stretch.

Is there any kind of social structure between players. Can you form guilds or clans?

Yes, but I feel that requires a longer explanation with more supporting materials than I have to provide.

What feature do you see being what keeps players coming back?

I think second to the [endgame]—the progression should keep you running—there is something called the Pact of Glory and every week you have certain goals to achieve and if you achieve them you get additional rewards of in-game currency to use. And then the other thing is that because this is an unfinished world, it allows us to do things and to change and really, long term, what keeps people engaged long term is shifting the way they think about what they already have.

So traditionally, BioWare, when we release DLC and things like that, it's okay, here's some new story and people go [eating noises] and then they're done. But if we can change almost the basic concept of what's going on, so you're like, okay so I have a flamethrower but now all the monsters are flame monsters, so what am I going to do with this thing? You can kind of introduce these puzzles over time that kind of change up the way the relationship the player has with the equipment they already have, that's really what I think keep people engaged long term in the games that have lasted a really long time, it's that ability to shift the meta over time.

You're entering into this market that's dominated by Destiny. It's the big shooter in this genre, what's the special stuff about Anthem that would convince someone who is really into Destiny to drop that and play this instead.

For Anthem, it's really about that feeling like a superhero. Having that feeling of moving seamlessly, working together in bigger combos and having that feeling like you're not just a guy with a gun, you're a guy that has abilities beyond that. And then I think, at the end of the day, BioWare has a commitment to characters that will come through in the experiences people will have in Fort Tarsus as well.

 

[markec]

I saw some gameplay footage and the game looks so bland and boring.

You fly a bit then you shoot bunch of enemies that just stand there and shoot back, then repeat that for the rest of the game.

This is going to bomb so hard and I cant wait to watch that trainwreck in action.

 

[LESS T_T]

https://www.pcgamer.com/bioware-answers-our-biggest-questions-about-anthem/

From how the open world works to what happens when you die, BioWare's Mark Darrah gives us insight into Anthem.

[...]

What is the balance between treating a slice of Anthem as an action experience and a narrative experience. Is it delivered in missions or is it through contextual or event-based experiences?

So there is some in-mission narrative that is delivered. But we don't do any branching in that, it's more radio chatter or conversation that everyone shares and sees that. And then we move the branching into Fort Tarsus, or at least one of your hubs, Fort Tarsus or maybe your Strider. What that is designed to do is to remove the social obligation that you feel. If you try to play a story, if you play BG multiplayer or you play... Divinity: Original Sin 3?

Original Sin 2.

Original Sin 2. You can play that co-op. It's really awkward because someone in the group wants to keep going and you want to sit back and think about the conversation, so what we do is we try to make the co-op experience very seamless, but not just seamless in joining but seamless in breaking apart as well. So when you finish a mission, unless you have a [premade] group, we want that connection to dissolve, so you kind of go away and then you can go and join back up again if you want. To really remove that barrier for co-op experience. We've grouped up, but I kind of don't want to play with you anymore, how do I get away from that? I mean, whether I need to leave for the night or even if I just want to go into freeplay and explore some lore and pick some crafting materials up or talk to people in Fort Tarsus, how do I seamlessly and gracefully leave that group? So we try to remove that barrier and dissolve these groups more naturally.

 

[Infinitron]

http://blog.bioware.com/2018/06/26/suit-up-building-the-javelins-of-anthem/

In Anthem, javelin suits equip pilots with superhuman abilities. Outside the walls of Fort Tarsis, this necessary tool enables you—a Freelancer—to explore and fight in a savage world.

When we showed Anthem to the world at EA PLAY, we wanted to offer a unique look at our javelins. What better way to do this than bring real-life Ranger, Storm, Colossus, and Interceptor suits with us? To pull it off, we asked Henchmen Studios to complete the builds, and they delivered in stunning detail.

Over a period of several months, Henchmen built the suits from the ground up, and we put together a video to give you a look into how it was done. Each suit is built to scale, with the Colossus checking in at a towering 8’3”. We think you’ll be as impressed with their work as we were.

 

[fantadomat]

Hahahahaha just skimmed trough,saw some guy talking how they want to make it super practical and shit,next screen i see is some guy covered in plastic shit that have a hard time moving. What a bunch of retards.

 

[markec]

If those suits looked like this, game might have got a tiny amount of my attention.

 

[Alienman]

They are really going all in on this crap.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

 

[fantadomat]

This will be amazing destiny rip off! Can't wait for the release drama.

 

[DragoFireheart]

If those suits looked like this, game might have got a tiny amount of my attention.

Any man that doesn't like that is either gay or a cuck.

 

[Mustawd]

If those suits looked like this, game might have got a tiny amount of my attention.

Any man that doesn't like that is either gay or a cuck.

What does being a cuckold have anything to do with it?

 

[Rahdulan]

I can't be the only one already seeing some freaky facial animation here, and they chose to put that on display.

 

[SerratedBiz]

When you've been working with faces such as those in DA:I for so long, it is the faces of real humans that begin to look uncanny to you. They've been prosperized by their irresponsible exposure to chaos.

 

[sullynathan]

game looks like lost planet now

 

[thesheeep]

Those faces are right out of an uncanny valley nightmare.
The grinning is some Dark Knight joker shit.

The game looks alright, though. Reminds me of FireFall.

 

[DragoFireheart]

What does being a cuckold have anything to do with it?

They wouldn't like it unless their local bull was pounding the shit out of it.

 

[fantadomat]

That is the good stuff we live for,oh bioware you will give us another glorious meme and gif product.

 

[Infinitron]

http://blog.bioware.com/2018/08/02/mid-summer-update/

Mid-Summer Update

Fellow humans!

It’s been a busy summer. We kicked it off by heading out to LA for EA PLAY and E3 in June. After the press conference, we showed Anthem in a series of theatre demos running live in front of audiences for the very first time. After a tremendous effort by the team push to get the game looking and playing great, it was awesome to see the team rewarded with cheers and applause from the crowds.

Then at Dark Horse’s booth at San Diego Comic-Con we announced a partnership on upcoming Anthem art book and comics – another awesome experience meeting and connecting with players of all of BioWare’s games.

At E3, Anthem won over 30 awards including Best Action Game and Best PC Game, which was an incredible achievement for the team and a great sign of things to come. But the best part of the summer has been meeting players at these shows – hearing feedback and sensing the excitement as we head into the final months of development. That support means more than you can imagine to a dev team, and today in the halls of BioWare you can feel a new level of energy around making Anthem an amazing experience.

Anthem’s Executive Producer Mark Darrah has been doing a tireless job answering questions on Twitter so I won’t attempt to expand on that here. But some of the most frequent questions we’ve had – which weren’t fully explored in our demo – had to do with story and character. Specifically, “how can there be agency of your story in a living world that you share with friends?”

It’s a great question, and in my opinion our solution to this design challenge is one of the most innovative things about Anthem. We talked briefly at EA PLAY about how the solution is called “Our World, My Story.” In the dynamic open world, everything is experienced in real-time by all Anthemplayers – day/night, weather, and world-scale events that shape the ongoing narrative of the setting. This is “our world,” which we share as a player community. Then when you return to Fort Tarsis, that’s actually a single-player experience, and it’s where you spend time developing relationships, making choices, and seeing consequences. That’s the “my story” part.

But even with that description I know there are many more questions about how it will work. To really go deep on this subject, we’ll be doing a panel at PAX where we’ll talk about “our world, my story” and other big questions you’ve had about Anthem.

In the meantime, our Star Wars: The Old Republic team is hard at work on some amazing plans for the coming year, with new features and surprises that I think makes it the game’s most exciting year yet. And yes – we hear loud and clear the interest in BioWare doing more Dragon Age and Mass Effect, so rest assured that we have some teams hidden away working on some secret stuff that I think you’ll really like – we’re just not ready to talk about any of it for a little while…

So you can probably tell that I’m really proud of the work our teams are doing to create amazing game experiences that deliver on our studio mission. But mostly I just really want to thank all of you for your support this summer. We’re exploring some new territory with Anthem, and it means everything to us to have people around the world that are excited to come along with us on the journey.

It’s been an awesome summer so far, and I can’t wait to close it out with our PAX panel in Seattle later this month. See you there!

Casey

 

[Fedora Master]

Surprisingly few browns and womyn for a Bioware dev team.
e:

In the meantime, our Star Wars: The Old Republic team is hard at work on some amazing plans for the coming year, with new features and surprises that I think makes it the game’s most exciting year yet.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-08-30-anthem

BioWare: "Anthem is not a departure, it's the continued evolution of our craft"
Game director Jon Warner discusses the terror and excitement of leading BioWare's new flagship IP

When it was revealed last year the BioWare was working on an online multiplayer shoot-and-loot title, speculation abound that this was the end of BioWare as we knew it.

As a studio known for its single-player, story-focused RPGs, the change in direction appeared to many a cynical ploy, fueled by a desire from parent company Electronic Arts to jump aboard the money train that Activision was currently driving away from the station at a frightening speed with Destiny.

But speaking with GamesIndustry.biz at Gamescom this year, Anthem director Jon Warner said it has all the hallmarks of a BioWare game, but with expanded scope. Not only is it developed by the core team behind the Mass Effect trilogy, but the team has gradually expanded over the years, assimilating members from Dragon Age: Inquisition, and Mass Effect Andromeda.

"It's a true amalgamation of all our experiences and all of our game teams," says Warner.


Jon Warner

Of course, that does little to dispel the notion that the studio known for character-driven experiences shaped by the player has been forced to kowtow to the industry's gradual move over to games-as-a-service.

While undoubtedly a business decision, given that EA has been instrumental in remodelling the industry this way, Warner expressed his excitement at the new opportunities presented by the shift, suggesting it doesn't necessarily represent a departure away from the status quo for BioWare.

"If you look at BioWare games on a spectrum, from Baldur's Gate to Neverwinter, and Jade Empire to Knights of the Old Republic, to Mass Effect and Dragon Age, you'll see that the games have always been about evolving our technique and storytelling... so the way that we look at it, Anthem is not a departure, it's the continued evolution of our craft and our technique," he says.

"I think once players get their hands on it and dive in they are going to find a world that is well realised and full of rich characters that you're going to want to get to know, and you'll be the hero of your own story, and honestly that is the heart and soul of a BioWare experience."

Warner, who joined BioWare six years ago to work on the live services portion of Mass Effect 3, has experience with the games-as-a-service model, and shared his design philosophy on how to make it work for players.

"[There's] two big principals there: one is generosity towards our players," he explains. "We never ever want people to regret spending time with us, or spending money with us, and that's something that's really important to us as gamers and as creators.

"We never ever want people to regret spending time with us, or spending money with us, and that's something that's really important to us as gamers and as creators"

"The other one is providing experience that is engaging... being able to inhabit a BioWare-style experience over a longer period of time is something that is very interesting for us, so that sense of engagement and wonder, and trying to provide continued reasons to re-engage, is also a principal that guides us."

According to Warner, BioWare began early-stage production on Anthem almost immediately after the studio was done with Mass Effect 3, before the "current crop of social RPGs were announced or delivered".

"The core of our vision has remained steady and true," he says. "So for us inside who've been able to see that evolution all the way through, it's quite a different picture from the outside in.... it's always been true to itself and true to the vision we laid down when we set out to do it after Mass Effect 3."

Despite all of this, BioWare has been facing down fairly negative public perceptions since it was acquired by Electronic Arts, one that it has increasingly struggled to counter. The decision to fully embrace live services, coupled with the lacklustre critical and commercial performance of Mass Effect Andromeda, was only worsened by a series of high-profile departures from the studio over the past year.


Anthem is slated for release in February 2019, but so far the marketing push from EA has been minimal

BioWare general manager Aaryn Flynn left a month after the Anthem was revealed at E3 2017, while Mass Effect writer Drew Karpyshyn parted ways with the studio after having worked on Anthem for around two years; he was followed shortly afterwards by Dragon Age creative director Mike Laidlaw, who had been with the studio for 14 years. James Ohlen, who spent 22 years at BioWare as lead designer of the Baldur's Gate series, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, and Dragon Age: Origins, left the studio just last month.

"It's really interesting," Warner muses. "I think BioWare is kind of a peculiar place in that we haven't had a lot of departures for a period of time and there is always in the tech industry especially, and video games in particular, a certain mobility in the workforce as people go from project to project, and people have tended to settle on BioWare for long periods of time.

"We still have lots and lots of veterans that have been around for a long time, and honestly I think this is just BioWare being a little bit more like the rest of the industry as talent kind of flows... I think an important part of staying vital, staying relevant and being able to continue to tell interesting stories and create amazing experiences. I view it as natural and healthy."

"The act of creation and the act of creativity, is all about mistakes, and trying new things, and getting to failure quickly so that you can iterate and learn and grow"

While Warner has nearly 15 years industry experience, he has never directed a game of this scope before. That said, he served eight years in the military and, when asked why he thinks he got the job, said: "I think I just bought a different perspective, a different type of leadership to the table that they felt was what Anthem needed, and I feel lucky to serve in that capacity."

But with just six years at BioWare, only three of which have seen him leading as game director of Anthem, he says the experiences been terrifying and exciting in equal measures.

"One thing to put out there really clearly is that I'm the game director of the game, the leadership of the studio is really involved and always has been in guiding Anthem because it is so important to us as a new IP," he says.

"Of course Mark Darrah our executive producer... has a very storied history at BioWare with a lot of experience there, and Casey [Hudson] is now our general manager, so thank god it doesn't all fall on my shoulders, because I think that would be daunting; but at the same time I feel like I have added my own elements to the game, my own take, my own creativity, and the support of the studio has been really wonderful in that regard.

"It's a place where you don't get punished for making mistakes, because the act of creation and the act of creativity, is all about mistakes, and trying new things, and getting to failure quickly so that you can iterate and learn and grow. So it's been a wonderful experience for me, and terrifying at times, it's been exhilarating at other times, but it's been truly one of the best experiences of my career."

Another concern which lingers over the production of Anthem is the relatively quiet marketing push EA has offered so far. The E3 reveal last year was followed by silence from the studio, and speculation from consumers and press; although the degree of exposure has been turned up since E3 2018, with just six months to launch, the hype machine has yet to splutter into life.

"You'll see a big media and marketing presence in the coming months," assures Warner. "It was our desire as developers to hold this a little closer to our chests and play our hand a little more quietly while we developed the game and really let it mature and become what we wanted and needed it to become before sharing it with the rest of the world."