ANTHEM - failed Destiny clone from BioWare

[Nano]

https://www.pcgamer.com/anthems-conversation-system-allows-for-two-dialogue-choices/

Anthem's conversation system allows for two dialogue choices
We've finally seen Anthem's dialogue system in action.

During a Q&A session at a pre-panel press briefing on Anthem at PAX West, BioWare debuted footage of the conversation system players will use in Fort Tarsis, the singleplayer area players visit between multiplayer missions.

Forgoing the complex conversation wheel of previous BioWare games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age, Anthem will only allow for two dialogue choices in conversations. The two choices aren't aligned with a morality system of any kind, but do differ in tone slightly.

When asked why the system was simplified for Anthem, executive producer Mark Darrah replied, "We are showing this to an audience that is not used to these kind of decisions and conversations. We wanted to keep it simpler, but we also don't want to present you with any false choices."

Fort Tarsis is where you'll do most of the talking, and from a first-person perspective as opposed to the third-person javelin camera in the shared world. Conversations pull the player in close and provide supplemental information about who you're talking to, whether they're tied to a political faction, and whatever back story BioWare deems important. Character models look great, and the facial animations are leagues better than Andromeda's, but I'll still miss the impression of complexity I got from more choices.

Clearly, Anthem isn't just another BioWare RPG, but I don't blame anyone for expressing concern at its differences from the studio's previous games. Change is hard, but everything we know about Anthem so far points to an impressive, entertaining cooperative shooter with a heaping of BioWare's storytelling on the side. It's hard to be mad about that.

Christ.

 

[fantadomat]

True incline,players don't need fucking dialogue options! Who the fuck needs dialogue at all! Just lets kill creatures and loot!


Lol i have the feelz that this shit will flop hard . No bioware fan is buying their games for the shooting. It is amazing how insane EA are.


Does anyone else think that they could get in real problems if that shit flops hard?

 

[Martius]

So there are two triggers on gamepad so there will be whole two dialogue options to choose. Truly, this is successor of dialogue wheel we deserve!

 

[Infinitron]

Yesterday's PAX West stream:



https://www.pcgamer.com/bioware-announces-an-anthem-demo-is-coming-in-february/

Anthem will get a demo in February
EA Access subscribers and anyone who preorders are guaranteed access.

During a pre-panel press briefing at PAX West, Mark Darrah and Mike Gamble of BioWare announced that the VIP demo for Anthem will be arriving on February 1st for PC, Xbox One, and PS4 simultaneously.

'VIP' because EA Access subscribers and anyone who preorders are the only ones guaranteed access, though more methods for having a go at the demo will be detailed at a later date. Gamble and Darrah said that this will not be a tech demo meant designed for testing online infrastructure, but a legitimate, old-school demo—a vertical slice of Anthem designed to demonstrate what it's all about.

Tech tests will happen as well, but details for those have not been announced.

Demos are rare, arguably replaced by a combination of Early Access, temporary betas, and plentiful access to video footage. BioWare's typically known for sprawling singleplayer RPGs where your relationships with characters and choices have a big impact on the story and world, which makes a shared-world shooter that looks like it's doing a convincing Destiny impression a tougher sell for BioWare's usual crowd. Everything we've learned about Anthem so far makes it sound like a good time, though I don't expect it to scratch my Mass Effect itch. Andromeda left a big rash behind.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...s-a-single-player-story-in-a-multiplayer-game

How Anthem puts a single player story in a multiplayer game

After a long period in which it was difficult to really define what Anthem really is - beyond it feeling like EA's answer to Destiny - Bioware's multiplayer shooter is finally starting to come into focus and it looks pretty decent.

Speaking at a panel at PAX West titled 'Anthem: Our World, Your Story', Bioware laid out exactly how the game is going to be structured in order to accommodate a hefty emphasis on single player story content in a primarily multiplayer experience. Here's how it works.

In Anthem, you play as a Freelancer - a javelin pilot (javelins being the powerful exosuits) who is relatively independent, much in the same vein as a ronin or superhero. As well as tackling missions, your job is to try to acquire shaper relics - these are relics left behind by mysterious progenitors 'the shapers' in order to harvest the energy of the anthem of creation. These are dangerous, powerful artefacts and one of your goals is to find them and power them down to avert disaster. You are supported in these activities by a pit crew; a small cast of characters in charge of keeping your suit in good nick. You also receive tactical information in the field from your Cypher - specifically a man called Owen. When out on missions, you can team up with friends or matchmake with strangers online. After each mission however, you return alone to Tarsis city; specifically, your instance of Tarsis city.

Tarsis is the place in which all of the single player story content is housed and it was clear from the panel that Bioware is placing great emphasis on making it feel fully fleshed out. The trading city is populated by quest givers and ordinary NPCs alike, and talking to them will allow you to develop relationships and make important story decisions that influence the tone of events to come. The story will be played out in multiplayer missions as well, of course, but there won't be any story decisions for you to make in those sections - you are in charge of all of your own decisions in Anthem.

We got an example of this structure as we learned about an NPC called Mathias. At one point during Anthem, you'll be given a mission to find and rescue an arcanist. You can matchmake with anyone else who is able to do that mission (or anyone who's already completed it) and then set off together to bring Mathias the hapless arcanist home. Once the mission is over you receive loot and XP, and then Mathias becomes an NPC in Tarsis. At this point, each player is free to interact with him in whatever manner they choose without having to accommodate input from any other player - he's your Mathias alone, in other words. As you talk more with Mathias you can develop a strong relationship with him, you can be nasty to him, or you can ignore that aspect altogether.

What you can't do, however, is do yourself out of receiving any future missions. While your relationships with NPCs in Tarsis may not always be positive, quest givers will never shut you off from taking a mission - Bioware being keen to make sure everybody has access to all of the game's content no matter what choices they make. When it comes to NPCs who aren't mission givers, mind you, the gloves are off - we were told that certain choices will have 'more permanent' consequences with these characters.

We were also told a bit more about exactly how these relationships work given that this is one of those rare Bioware games in which you can't have sex with something. Anthem offers the 'same effort' when it comes to relationships, but that effort is spread across more characters with different relationships; sometimes these are just friendships, sometimes you'll find yourself digging into the past of the character. You just won't end up humping them. These relationships and characters are apparently going to be developed further after launch, with new dialogue, adventures, information and character content being added to live servers after the fact. Indeed, there seemed to be an air of genuine excitement of the possibility of adding story content that has a specific place in the game's timeline, free from the writing restraints enforced by a piece of DLC that could take place at any time during a playthrough.

In a slightly sheepish nod to Mass Effect: Andromeda, the panel also covered the way role playing conversations are presented in Anthem. While missions take place in third person in order to give a sense of the javelin suit's power, all Tarsis city content takes place in first person in a deliberate move to make the player feel a bit smaller. While previous Bioware games have featured role playing conversations that take place without any specific camera work or setting, they have been keen to avoid doing the same in Anthem. Every conversation, we were told, has been staged and lit properly in order to ensure that each interaction has the proper sense of impact. Good news, since it seems you can expect to spend a lot of your time in Tarsis talking to people.

The different take on relationships as well as the overall game structure is indicative of Bioware's apparent drive to set Anthem apart from some of its other properties; 'Anthem is not Mass Effect, Anthem is not Dragon Age,' we were told. All in all, I'm far more interested in playing Anthem than I was before - there seems to be a decent amount of story on offer and I like the idea of being able to explore it at my own pace and in person, rather than solely listening to radio chatter while zipping about the place and shooting at enemies. A central hub that isn't just a place to manage loot and start the next mission is also pretty inviting - it's a strong contrast to the tower in Destiny, which rang hollow for me at the best of times.

A multiplayer shooter it might be, but it seems like Anthem might well manage to become a decent single player at the same time, which would be quite some feat. There's no PvP mode at launch as a result - the developers wanting to focus solely on getting the core experience right - but if I have to sacrifice deathmatches for an actual, robust single player story, it's a trade off I'm willing to make.

 

[Naraya]

https://www.pcgamer.com/anthems-conversation-system-allows-for-two-dialogue-choices/

When asked why the system was simplified for Anthem, executive producer Mark Darrah replied, "We are showing this to an audience that is not used to these kind of decisions and conversations. We wanted to keep it simpler, but we also don't want to present you with any false choices."

What a time to be alive guys...!

 

[thesheeep]

To be honest, though, I never expected the game to have ANY dialogue choices to begin with.
I always saw this as some kind of Destiny, Firefall or Borderlands.

 

[vonAchdorf]

To be honest, though, I never expected the game to have ANY dialogue choices to begin with.
I always saw this as some kind of Destiny, Firefall or Borderlands.

They emphasized C&C "muh personal story" - and dialogue options are basically the only place where "C&C" happens in a modern game, so it's not unexpected.

 

[thesheeep]

To be honest, though, I never expected the game to have ANY dialogue choices to begin with.
I always saw this as some kind of Destiny, Firefall or Borderlands.

They emphasized C&C "muh personal story" - and dialogue options are basically the only place where "C&C" happens in a modern game, so it's not unexpected.

Yeah, in theory.
But this is an MMO in the veines of... well, the games I listed. I don't see the point in adding dialogue choices or C&C to this, to be honest, so I figured they were just buzzwords because "we're Bioware, gotta uphold the charade".
Of course, might just turn out like that anyway, just like SW:TOR has lots of dialogue choices, but none of them of any relevance.

 

[fantadomat]

They still think that Biowaste have some pull. It is just another one of EA's poor decision making. They are having a fuck up after fuck up. It is really affecting their stocks. Who knows,they could even go down the drain in a few years.

 

[Space Satan]

Upholding great Bioware traditions

 

[Modron]

Upholding great Bioware traditions

Won't play this but still I am disappointed that it isn't gratuitous butt shots.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

arabs check
blacks check
asians check
fatso check
shit game check

 

[Clockwork Knight]

A simplistic dialogue might be the best choice for this kind of game, actually. Probably won't convince many Bioware fans to play a Destiny clone, but it makes things more tolerable for fans of the genre who might not want lots of blah-blah interruptions between the pew-pew parts.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.pcgamer.com/how-fortnites-cube-is-inspiring-anthems-post-launch-plans/

How Fortnite's cube is inspiring Anthem's post-launch plans
BioWare's producers talk about the 'spice' Epic adds to seasonal content to keep players engaged.

Fortnite doesn't even need a story. A multiplayer battle royale game only needs people to play it, but when the closure of a time rift in the sky summoned a massive purple cube that’s been rolling over the map, burning runes into the ground and leaving behind low-gravity bubbles, the innumerable Reddit threads and YouTube videos promoted more discussion than any videogame story since Mass Effect 3’s contentious ending.

Now imagine the whirlwind of speculation applied to a live event taking place in a game with people and places you (hopefully) care about. Aiming to take the studio’s famous storytelling to a shared world, BioWare executive producer Mark Darrah and lead producer Mike Gamble cited Fortnite's cube when I chatted with them at PAX West about their post-launch plans for Anthem.

“Well one problem that we’ve had with BioWare games is there’s a real reluctance to talk about what you’ve experienced because of the feeling of spoilers,” says Darrah. “But when you look at something like Fortnite, there’s this very shared communal storytelling going on, like with the purple cube or the missile or the meteor showers. People share this experience because they know everyone saw it. That’s what our world actually gets us. What we’ve never had before is the ability to have a shared experience we can all talk about and have storytelling on this communal level.”

Like Fortnite, they’re starting with a malleable world that suits on-going surprising narratives of every size (and shape).

“It’s cool because the world fiction and the IP is all build around this, right?” says Gamble. “You have this incredible force that no one can really quantify that just basically is just ripping the world and changing it and creating new disgusting creatures and different things.”

Gamble’s referring to the Anthem of Creation, ancient technology left behind by an advanced race use to create and modify worlds. Ancient tech from an ancient race is a BioWare cliché at this point, but it’s necessary for Anthem’s future. Anthem is, in every sense, designed for world-building.

But as was the case with Destiny 2, players inherently burn through updates faster than they can be created. Maintaining an efficient development pipeline that keeps up with the quickly waning interests of its players is a gargantuan effort, but Darrah tells me they won’t make the same mistakes as other live games, once again pointing to Epic for reference.

“So we definitely are planning to do some seasonal content, bigger stuff. But then I think we need something more than that. I think what Fortnite, what Epic has done that others maybe haven’t figured out, is that they have seasons—big 10 week-long things—and then within that they’re like, we’re just going to sprinkle in something on top of that,” says Darrah. They’re dead set on avoiding droughts, and say they might even do live storytelling more often than Epic is in Fortnite.

“What then you see is a lot of developers are missing is that second level of thing,” says Darrah. “They’ve got the season and they hit that cadence. ‘We do five things a year, six things a year.’ But they don’t have that extra little bit of spice, and that’s what Epic has figured out.”

“We have a full plan. Potentially even a third layer,” adds Gamble. “We understand completely that as time goes on people’s interest in things will drop off and then the only people you’ll be able to get back are the ones who are super hardcore in the game. We don’t want that.”

Epic’s Fortnite spice so far has arrived in the form of a meteor shower, a missile launch that broke open the space-time continuum on a live server, and most recently, the massive purple cube’s wayward march across the map. Darrah and Gamble are reluctant to detail exactly how their layered post-launch narrative updates will manifest in Anthem—that would mean spoiling the base game—but they’re looking to what they’re renowned for as a starting point: character.

Darrah tells me, “We can have one of the characters you’re already interacting with be like, ‘Oh, you know I heard about a big purple cube!’ And then you show the big purple cube, and then the big purple cube moves, and then oh my God, the big purple cube is whatever the hell the big purple cube is going to be.”

“And we can do that without the players waiting for five, six, three, four, whatever months for massive DLC,” adds Gamble. Larger releases of story-based DLC are still promised, and they’ll all be free, but between them will be these connective events.

A shared story is a major change for BioWare, and a risky one at that. Darrah and Gamble are aware they might be alienating fans who prefer personal authorship over every inch of their world, but they’re ready to expand what players expect from BioWare. “Anthem is its own thing. Anthem is not Dragon Age or Mass Effect,” says Gamble.

Fort Tarsis, a singleplayer hub filled with characters and vendors players explore on their lonesome between missions, could scratch that choice-and-consequence itch players still want from BioWare anyway. Cordoned off from the events in the shared world players will zip about in their javelins together, Fort Tarsis is where you’ll build (or break) relationships with the locals. While who you choose to make friends and enemies of won’t—can’t—determine the fate of the shared world, Darrah doesn’t believe that matters.

“When you go and look at the moment of agency that really people remember from previous BioWare games, they aren’t the earth-shattering ones. They’re the personal ones, the ones that impacted people that you cared about.”

Players may not be able to change the course of history on their own in Anthem, which leaves BioWare’s live team behind the steering wheel—a team prepared to make those earth-shattering changes on behalf of everyone, sometimes according to goals or conditions that players will need to respond to in unison.

“We lose the ability for you to say ‘I’m going to push this button and that mountain over there is going to explode.’ We as developers can decide to blow that mountain up because you guys all didn’t kill enough Scars, and then that’s a thing we can experience together, the consequence of that,” says Darrah. “And I think that’s amazing, but from a personal agency perspective the story choices that really matter are like ‘I didn’t help this person and now they’re dead.’ ... We can diverge there because that’s the kind of thing and impact that I see reflected back at me in my version of Tarsis, and you see in your version your version of Tarsis. But when we’re out in the world, the world doesn’t care. It doesn’t care about that. I care, but the world is impassive to that.”

But the world won’t be quiet. If BioWare can keep pace with the likes of Epic’s wild Fortnite stories, then Anthem could become one of the most fascinating live games yet. We'll be able to try BioWare's first shared-world shooter out when it gets a demo in February, and it'll release that month, on February 22.

To cap things off, I ask them what color Anthem’s sentient cube will be. They laugh, but tell me lavender. A gentle shade of lavender.

 

[Pika-Cthulhu]

I cant really see much Firefall in there other than slow as shit jumpjets to waddle around in, everything else looks slow and clunky like an MMO raid encounter on thorazine. Is it at least open world, or just instanced missions where you wont ever run into another player outside of inviting to squad before launching/having them drop in an open group? Kinda wish I played more Firefall before it went tits up, was in the closed beta, then dropped it for a few years, came back during some wierd changes, then left it again, had an itch to play it a few months back and learned of its demise, is sad now, no jumpy flying shoot shoot

 

[Mustawd]

I think the Bioware guy or the article author is missing thenpoint. Shared events aren’t a new thing at all in multiplayer games. The likely reason the purple cube thing is so widely discussed is that Fortnite itself is immensley popular.

That being said, those kind of shared events in a mp aren’t a bad idea at all. I just don’t see what the big deal is.

 

[Infinitron]

Casey Hudson: Anthem is kinda like Baldur's Gate if you think about it http://blog.bioware.com/2018/09/25/anthem-hits-alpha/

Anthem Hits Alpha!
by Author -Casey HudsonPosted on - September 25, 2018

It was 20 years ago when I joined BioWare – September 8, 1998. I had just finished my degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alberta and found out through a local TV show that there was a videogame studio right here in Edmonton. I spent the summer talking with the founders, Greg and Ray, about joining BioWare as a Technical Artist, and they offered me a job.

Back then we were a small independent studio. Under 50 people. But we were working on a game that was highly anticipated around the world. Baldur’s Gate was a few months from release, and even though I was hired as an artist, my first task was to help test its multiplayer feature.

I was impressed with the vision for the game: recreating on the PC the experience of playing pen and paper D&D with friends. Being able to adventure together with your friends as a team of heroes, even if they are playing from another city or country, was a magical experience – and one that made a strong impression on me about our mission as a studio. We knew we had something special. Baldur’s Gate had fun gameplay, impressive visuals and rich storytelling with memorable characters. And beyond that, we were excited about its potential to bring players together.

20 years later, I’m having the exact same feeling.

Last week, the Anthem team passed its Alpha milestone – meaning that every part of the game is in, and functioning. It’s a ton of fun to play, and full of engaging character moments and storylines. But it’s also exciting to see people around the office (and at our partner studios) grouping together for adventures in this new world we’ve created. BioWare games have always been about capturing a shared experience – whether through a party of fictional characters or other players – and somehow the idea of players being immersed together in the universe of Anthem makes the setting seem even more real.

These days the energy around the office feels a lot like it did back then on Baldur’s Gate, where the team is starting to get a sense of the magic they’ve created together and there’s a growing excitement about finally releasing it into the world. There’s a ton of work ahead, but everyone knows what they need to do and is working with a level of passion and effort that’s truly inspiring.

The team has been working incredibly hard to reach Alpha, and considering the complexity and scale of a game like Anthem, hitting this milestone on time is a tremendous achievement. So what’s next? Now that all the important pieces are in the game, we can move almost entirely to bug-fixing, testing, and tuning – which will be an incredible amount of work on a game this big. We have some really ambitious plans for launch and beyond, and we really want to get it right. We will have news soon about when you can learn more about Anthem and try it out yourself.

Until then, know that your support means everything to us. Seeing so many of you at PAX for the Our World, My Story panel, your encouraging words and great questions on Twitter… It makes a difference. Because all the effort that the team puts into making these games is really fueled by the hope that in the end, you will like what we’ve made. And even though we’ve passed a huge milestone, there’s still a lot to do. So like Haluk says, “tiiiime to get to work!”

Casey

 

[Frozen]

Soon...this will be the final nail.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Soon...this will be the final nail.

If we consider the track record of the Game Director, then yes indeed.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

Isn't producer's job just that- to know people in high places?

 

[Gerrard]

>Disney
>Dragon Ball Z
What the fuck?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

>Disney
>Dragon Ball Z
What the fuck?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalanche_Software

It was one of -- if not the worst -- DBZ games ever made.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Soon...this will be the final nail.

If we consider the track record of the Game Director, then yes indeed.

He likely got his jobs through contacts. Getting a good job has a lot less to do with actually being good at the job compared to knowing people.

Destiny 2 set such a low bar that Anthem will be a success no matter what happens.

 

[sullynathan]

Anthem looks good