People News David Gaider leaves BioWare

[Morality Games]

Thing is, there is an opportunity cost to making another Dragon Age game. EA sees Skyrim and FO4 numbers and will do whatever it takes to get there. I don't know DAI's numbers but it clearly is nowhere near Bethesda's games.

Patrick Weekes is the DA writing lead though, and they're not going to keep him employed to work on nothing. If the next DA fails to expand their audience there might be cause for concern, but that isn't the case now.

Dragon Age has more or less joined the library of RPG/strategy franchises turned into a Frankenstein monster by EA's incessant attempts to doctor in changes that appeal to mass markets. It didn't fail quite as spectacularly as some of the past examples sales wise but it is occupying too much development/studio real estate for them to waste much more time on it. Why care about 3 million sales in a genre where there are 30 million sales? Why spend 3 years trying to get 3 million sales when you have 30 million sales to obtain? Inquisition proved that the core mechanics of the Dragon Age franchise are fundamentally unappealing to majority of casuals, no matter how bastardized and action orientated they become. Can't change them further without alienating long time fans even more than you already have, so you have to cut and run.

Aside from that, it is my understanding that the DLC has tied up most loose ends from previous games. There's nothing wrong with leaving the franchise the way it is.

I "guess" EA could declare the next Dragon Age will be a new series in the world of Thedas, with Skyrim mechanics, but I super question the value of another open world Fantasy mainstream title.

If EA wants Bethesda sales numbers they have to abandon Dragon Age. Metacritic would get torpedoed by people who would hate revisions like dropping party-driven mechanics (which mainstream casuals don't find fun) in favor of a PC with a single computer controlled companion, third to first person, etc.

That is why EA/BioWare are now working on a new "Open World™" RPG with a new original IP. They think they can make a Skyrim killer (or at least equivalent sales).

I don't think they will pull it off though (Skyrim's Sales numbers).

Is that so? Wonder what the genre would be. Steampunk is the only staple feature that isn't represented in the current line up of releases.

 

[Sothpaw]

Patrick Weekes is the DA writing lead though, and they're not going to keep him employed to work on nothing. If the next DA fails to expand their audience there might be cause for concern, but that isn't the case now.

Sure DA2 and DAI failed to expand their audience, but fourth time's a charm maybe.

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

He himself delivers some epic quotes.

Holy crap!
This disgusting piece of shit makes my blood boil!

 

[Sothpaw]

If EA wants Bethesda sales numbers they have to abandon Dragon Age. Metacritic would get torpedoed by people who would hate revisions like dropping party-driven mechanics (which mainstream casuals don't find fun) in favor of a PC with a single computer controlled companion, third to first person, etc.

I don't think there's an "if." A smaller publisher's rpg absolutely demolishing your rpg's sales isn't acceptable.

 

[Roguey]

If EA wants Bethesda sales numbers they have to abandon Dragon Age. Metacritic would get torpedoed by people who would hate revisions like dropping party-driven mechanics (which mainstream casuals don't find fun) in favor of a PC with a single computer controlled companion, third to first person, etc.

People don't mind the thid person perspective of the Witcher or the GTA series. As of DA2, you already can just let the AI handle the companions and complete it through only controlling one character.

So he made a mod. He and million other people make mods... Sorry, but I am not impressed. One thing is improving other peoples work, the other thing is creating stuff from scratch. A lot of Ks projects showed that. Would the Mod for would also be good if he would have made it for vanila Neverwinter nights 2? He had a good base to start from.

Gaider was responsible for designing most of Athkatla and the Drow City in the Underdark. This makes him a better area designer than nearly all the area designers who worked on Pillars of Eternity. It's pretty easy to see how if you take a glance at the games that have influenced him most http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...re-release-thread.75304/page-265#post-3458613

Sure DA2 and DAI failed to expand their audience, but fourth time's a charm maybe.

Iteration is key.

 

[Morality Games]

People don't mind the thid person perspective of the Witcher or the GTA series. As of DA2, you already can just let the AI handle the companions and complete it through only controlling one character.

Witcher 3 is a game that is comfortably approaching six million and will plausibly double or near double that after a couple years of sales. Franchise is far above Bioware but only 33% the sales potential of Bethesda.

Grand Theft Auto is a completely different context. The game isn't specifically about immersing yourself in a richly detailed speculative fiction world, which first person is ideally suited for. Reason why Bloodlines, System Shock 2, and Deus Ex are so loved is because first person is a naturally more immersive camera angle than third person. Same principle applies to perspective in fiction writing. Not to say third person fiction "can't" be super immersive -- in the same way as Vanguard in ME2 can take Sniper Rifle perk to patch up their long distance combat weakness -- but having a party of characters following you around doesn't contribute much to the atmosphere for the majority of those 30,000,000 players. The physics of it are just too obtrusive; you can't have a richly interactive environment like Skyrim because companions would constantly be getting in the way of you clicking and moving things. You would have to constantly reset the distance from which they stand from the player because you need them to stand close when there's going to be a fight but far away when you're trying to explore the room.

Thus the open world in DA:I was even more superficial than Skyrim.

 

[Roguey]

Reason why Bloodlines, System Shock 2, and Deus Ex are so loved is because first person is a naturally more immersive camera angle than third person.

Immersion is subjective.

you can't have a richly interactive environment like Skyrim because companions would constantly be getting in the way of you clicking and moving things.

Divinity: Original Sin didn't have this problem.

 

[Delterius]

Reason why Bloodlines, System Shock 2, and Deus Ex are so loved is because first person is a naturally more immersive camera angle than third person.

Nope.

 

[Tommy Wiseau]

[URL='https://twitter.com/manveerheir']Manveer Heir‏@manveerheir

A lion does not concern himself with the opinions of sheep

[/URL]

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Wow what a hateful little shit. Kinda surprised EA allows his racist rants. Then again shitting on whites is perfectly fine to the SJW media so no surprise at all.

EA no doubt considers his rants part of their outreach to the social justice whingers, keeping this group appeased with changes to their pseudo-RPG series Mass Effect and Dragon Age, while allowing EA to continue unmolested their more profitable genres of sports and FPS.

 

[Morality Games]

Reason why Bloodlines, System Shock 2, and Deus Ex are so loved is because first person is a naturally more immersive camera angle than third person.

Immersion is subjective.

you can't have a richly interactive environment like Skyrim because companions would constantly be getting in the way of you clicking and moving things.

Divinity: Original Sin didn't have this problem.

Immersion is subjective from person to person, not from demographic to demographic. Demographics are where a functionally impermeable illusion of objectivity and constancy takes shape; it isn't real, but it is real enough to organize a company or a product around it. Just because one group of people (nerds who grew up in the tradition of Lord of the Rings and emulating fantasy fiction who are happiest and most immersed as the Aragorn/Gandalf commanding their own Fellowship) needs the third person perspective and party management to be happy and immersed doesn't mean the larger group (casuals who want to plug in and play a game where they can immediately find something to do -- even if its just a endless train of procedurally generated quests -- for an hour or two) is going to enjoy a system where they have to use, equip, and think about a group of people that are disrupting their emotional through line to the PC.

Divinity: Original Sin has the inverse problem; world is dynamic and interactive but companions suck. There's also a combination of other design factors at work here that aren't applicable to Bioware's situation, like turn-based combat and a more aggressively isometric take on third person than Bioware can afford to have.

 

[Tommy Wiseau]

His name kind of reads like 'Man For Hire.'

 

[Ninjerk]

Everyone drowns in water.

 

[nil]

Mercenary writers

"David, I'm already a stretch goal."

 

[Septaryeth]

Also, this quote is missing best quote I saw. Something like "Well, now convince me how she recovered from that I CUT HER FUCKING HEAD OFF.'

Apparently this plot twist is resolved in the exciting new 14.99USD DAI dlc, Tresspasser.

Spoiler

It reveals that she is a lyrium ghost all along.

Spoiler

As long as you paid for it, of course.

 

[Raghar]

What would happen with our homosexual relationships in games? Who would write all that text?

 

[Whisper]

What would happen with our homosexual relationships in games? Who would write all that text?

This, i am also worried about.


No more gay characters who tell - at every occasion, at every dialogue - how they love man ass-fucking other man, in crpgs.
I will cry in my sleep tonight.

 

[l3loodAngel]

So he made a mod. He and million other people make mods... Sorry, but I am not impressed. One thing is improving other peoples work, the other thing is creating stuff from scratch. A lot of Ks projects showed that. Would the Mod for would also be good if he would have made it for vanila Neverwinter nights 2? He had a good base to start from.

Gaider was responsible for designing most of Athkatla and the Drow City in the Underdark. This makes him a better area designer than nearly all the area designers who worked on Pillars of Eternity. It's pretty easy to see how if you take a glance at the games that have influenced him most http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...re-release-thread.75304/page-265#post-3458613

I think the setting made it great rather than the design itself. You have a demi lich sarcophagus as your neighbour, vampires run rampant, a giant dome from other plane in the midle of the city (and No one and I mean no one could figure the way to enter it until you INT 3 lvl 6 Barbarian showed up), hidden crypts with super mages everywhere, beholders in a fucking sewer and all the other weird and wacky bullshit going on. So yeah great design.

Underdark didn't live up to potential and was a disapointment in my opinion.

Not gona waste my time talking about POE...

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

It's actually the other way around.

If you want a good character writer, see MCA. I don't think Gaider has written a character that comes anywhere close.

Think you missed the joke.

Tbh I wasn't joking.

 

[Trashos]

Athkatla >> any other city in any game I have ever played.

Didn't know that this was Gaider's work.

 

[xemous]

MASS EFFECT 1 AND 2 ARE FANTASTIC GAMES MASS EFFECT 2 IS ONE THE BEST GAMES I'VE EVER PLAYED

DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS IS A PHENOMENAL ROLE PLAYING GAME

 

[Burning Bridges]

I didn't even know who David Gayder is. He wrote the awesome story for Dragon Age? And now he is going to kickstart a revival of "true" Dragon Age games for the many fans? Rest In Peace Bro

 

[Elzair]

I didn't even know who David Gayder is. He wrote the awesome story for Dragon Age? And now he is going to kickstart a revival of "true" Dragon Age games for the many fans? Rest In Peace Bro

You think the story for DA:O was awesome? What the fuck are you smoking?

 

[Burning Bridges]

 

[---]

Sarcasm, man... I think