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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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Fairfax

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You said the universe was incredibly generic. I don't think it was, and I do think having generic aesthetics is necessarily bad. One should give credit where it's due, and the aspects I mentioned were quite unique as far as gaming is concerned. Sure, if you consider science fiction in its entirety you can always mention a bunch of stuff and say it somehow resembles all of them, but what's your point? What and how can something be 100% unique and untainted by any artistic influence?
Actually, "generic" is, by definition, the wrong word for what you're trying to say, which might explain this pointless argument.
 

Fairfax

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This:
The whole Revan book just comes off as Karpshyn's desperate attempt to reverse absolutely everything introduced by KOTOR 2, to the point where it just feels like he's doing it out of personal spite. The Exile's apparently now connected to the force again, and is now completely unfamiliar with the concept of force wounds or the idea of feeding off of force powers, despite the fact that she directly confronted and killed a Sith lord who was capable of it, absolutely no mention of any of the companions from the second game, and best of all; the entire conflict of the second game is just summed up as "The Exile defeated the evil Sith Lord Darth Traya and her evil followers. Oh, all that stupid stuff she told you about moral ambiguity? That's just crazy Sith talk, don't worry about it." The fact that she does nothing the entire book but wet herself over Revan and get taken out like a bitch is just icing on the cake.

Oh, and the villain's a mary sue hodge-podge of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Nihulus BUT STRONGER AND EVILER AND WITH NO WEAKNESSES!
 

Atlantico

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You said the universe was incredibly generic. I don't think it was, and I do think having generic aesthetics is necessarily bad.

Right, I get what you're saying, I did misunderstand at first. Apologies.
 
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Fairfax

Arcane
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You said the universe was incredibly generic. I don't think it was, and I do think having generic aesthetics is necessarily bad.

In a thread about a writer, in a thread about a sci-fi fantasy world where I've already written clear as day that I'm not talking about fucking aesthetics, yet you're still going on about it. Clearly, reading comprehension is a skill somewhat beyond your abilities, and evidently you don't know the meaning of the word generic either, which results in you arguing with yourself over aesthetics.

What the fuck do you think "generic" means and how does that translate into being "necessarily bad"?
:deathclaw:
 
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His best work is probably the Darth Bane Trilogy and it isn't really that good.

The tl;dr is: Darth Bane finds a sith holocron left behind by Revan and starts the Rule of Two. He is later killed by his apprentice in a duel who continues his legacy.

Among his worst is the book Revan that bridges KotoR and the mmo TOR...Meetra Surik (Jedi Exile) didn't deserve such an ending.

Our consolation is that it got nuked from orbit along with the rest of the Expanded Universe when Emprah Disney proclaimed an Exterminatus against the franchise.
 

imweasel

Guest
Many fans on BSN were demanding that he come back after the ME3 fiasco, so I bet he will eventually work on Andromeda.

Karpyshyn certainly isn't the best writer, but his writing is much more creative and coherent than any of Mac Walters' drivel.
 
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Kazuki

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Drew Karpyshyn got Eternal Hatred from me, for what he did to Exile in that god-awful "Revan" novel.

The only consolation is, all his stuff in EU got nuked by Disney :lol:
 
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Many fans on BSN were demanding that he come back after the ME3 fiasco, so I bet he will eventually work on Andromeda.

Karpyshyn certainly isn't the best writer, but his writing is much more creative and coherent than any of Mac Walters' drivel.

Maybe. Bioware Austin is basically a different company than the crowd Karpyshyn worked with. Karpyshyn got credited, but Mac Walters did most of the work on Mass Effect 2. On the other hand, he lives in Austin.

As far as his abilities as a writer go, I'm not 100% all of the bad aspects of his writing were his fault. He was never the head game designer like Chris Avellone was, so production was never driven by writing.
 

laclongquan

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"Writer" "work at Bethesda's games" now can anyone tell me how do these two terms define any writers as "good" or "worth throwing him a chance"?

*&%^% The entire fucking game catalogue made by Bethesda share some common things, and one thing clear as day is "derpy as fuck writing quality".

He was and is a Bethesda writer? Dont expect anything good from him.
 

Trotsky

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I'm surprised Drew is getting this much backlash. He's a good writer when he focuses on big picture stuff like universe building but mediocre at everything else. His novels weren't all bad either his two Mass Effect ones were actually enjoyable. I've always suspected the shitty "Revan" novel was EA's choice and not necessarily his. The last project Drew led was the Old Republic mmo and with the exception of the Revan/Exile stuff was a solid game. Bioware seemed to go pretty far into decline after he left as well although that could just be coincidental. I knew he would fizzle out as a writer outside of gaming and probably needed the money again so he came back. It fits my theory that no matter how lucrative/successful gaming is it's still low status and writers are embarrassed to be associated with video games. I don't think Drew Karpyshyn returning to Bioware will do much to salvage their reputation but out of all the bad moves they've both made over the last five years its probably their best. Drew is like the last of the earlier era still there.
 
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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.
 
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Curious_Tongue

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He's seriously a NY Times best selling author (not that it is a particularly high bar)?

GUhvsoS.jpg


:incloosive:

Is that Lindsay Lohan on the cover?
 

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