People News Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk Leave Bioware (and Gaming Industry)

[St. Toxic]

Ray Muzyka (jew) and Greg Zeschuk (jew).

 

[Aeschylus]

Ray Muzyka (jew) and Greg Zeschuk (jew).

Back to GD, shoo, shoo.

 

[Trash]

Anyone who seriously did not see this coming? This has been the standard with any studio EA takes over since pretty much forever. Take over studio, empty it of ip, milk said ip and see all the talent working there run away. Then when they sucked it dry they close the studio. It's happened dozens of times already and we all knew this would be the thing happening when Bioware was taken over.

 

[DemonKing]

I can't blame the Biodudes for taking the big bucks EA no doubt offered them for the company, but EA's track record for destroying the reputation of and assimilating companies they purchase was well known even back in 2007. They must have been aware what the end result of their decision would be.

No doubt EA will cling to the Bioware brand for a few more years, but if they continue to release crap like DA2 under that banner any residual goodwill left in the community will disappear (ok - except for Volo) and they will no doubt go the way of all the rest.

 

[Haba]

Time to pop that bottle of 1998 Brut Vintage.

Next up: Bethesda.

 

[MicoSelva]

Isn't this just of an official confirmation of the earlier (ofificially denied) news that they were leaving the company?
In other words: we already knew this.

I hope this does not speed up Bioware's complete annihilation. As long as their corpse keeps afloat, EA is not out looking for other prey to devour. There are few enough RPG developers on the market even wihout their 'contribution'.

 

[Volourn]

"roofles

9 years Volourn

9 fucking years

It's alright you can cry, I'm here for you"

wut this 'bout?

 

[Excommunicator]

I also wonder if they had to sign a Non-Compete with EA in that they cannot work on games for (X) amount of years.

Precisely. The Old Republic was such a huge venture that there were probably all sorts of crazy things put into their contracts which they foolishly accepted because of how tantalising the idea of a WoW-killer was. Although the feeling that you were in charge of the biggest failure in games and probably one of the biggest failures in any media launch ever (I wonder how it compares, it'd certainly be up there) would hang extremely heavy around your neck, I get the strong feeling that they are basically being forced to make this decision. Saying that they may not ever return is a good way to pretend it is entirely their own decision.

The problem I have with it is that it will almost certainly work to their favour in the long run, and probably not to anyone else's benefit. It's always a good idea to be completely invisible for a time after a massive failure or mistake, and when you resurface you get a lot of your original popularity and some novelty factor to back you up. They'll probably start up some kind of Mass Effect or Dragon age "spiritual successor" eventually, and it wouldn't surprise me if they went the kickstarter route once assuming it is still around in that time. They've demonstrated where their priorities are though and regardless of any vision they might have had for earlier games they are not the kinds of people who should be leading the industry.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Anyone who seriously did not see this coming? This has been the standard with any studio EA takes over since pretty much forever. Take over studio, empty it of ip, milk said ip and see all the talent working there run away. Then when they sucked it dry they close the studio. It's happened dozens of times already and we all knew this would be the thing happening when Bioware was taken over.

I don't think people didn't see it coming - rather, the dispute was over whether the doctors would be the ones to lose out. And they quite clearly aren't - just like Garriot before them, the Biodocs would have become very very rich due to that sale. And moreover, from their perspective it would basically be 'free money' - they get to cash in their company for a few hundred million each, spend a few years making more money from their new EA position than they were before (as previously most of their earnings would have been tied up in the company, whereas once they sold the company and moved to EA any further payment was just gravy), gain total immunity against any losses arising from the company's decline (it's no longer THEIR money, so aside from the effect on their EA shares it doesn't affect THEM whether DA2/TOR flopped) and then get a whole new severance package when they leave EA after the agreed-upon 'mentoring' period ends (I'm guessing that, as is often the case, they would have agreed to stay on for a few years post sale to teach the incoming EA execs the ropes).

Sure, they almost certainly have non-competition clauses in their contracts - the sale would mandate it, as otherwise they could just start a new company (call it 'Biodoc-ware'), steal all their old staff back off EA post-sale and create a new set of IPs in competition with them. Because it's such an obvious way of f****g the buyer over, it's become a standard clause even for retail chain stores and the like. But given what they would have got from the sale, it isn't as though they need to work again now anyway. The only folks who might lose out here are their employees and their fans. And even then, many folks in game development have come out and said that unless you're at the top of the design process, you may as well be making accountancy software - except that if you work in gaming you get paid half as much to work twice as long for the same satisfaction or lack thereof. Moving to a bigger company might bring with it better career opportunities and working conditions (not that EA is reknown for good working conditions, but the smaller developers seem to be the worst for 'perma-crunch-time'), and if the quality of the games being made doesn't affect the nature of your job, why would it matter whether EA was streamlining the games? You probably aren't going to want to spend your down time playing the software that you've been working on all week anyway.

Not to mention, from every interview I've seen of them in the last 5 years, it's been a LONG time since those guys made any contribution to game design. Probably wouldn't change their job that much if Bioware suddenly started making clothing instead of computer software - they're just allocating funding, greenlighting ideas and counting the money. No wonder they're keen on doing something 'more passionate'.

 

[Angthoron]

Well, now the doctors can go from gamedev malpractice to medicinal malpractice.

Oh, wait, they're not that sort of doctors, are they?

 

[waywardOne]

I've said it before, but Bioware was a one-shot wonder, and that only through collaboration with Black Isle. Everything else was hope and lies. Them leaving is as meaningless as Gaider staying; 99% likely to be shit either way.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Well, now the doctors can go from gamedev malpractice to medicinal malpractice.

Oh, wait, they're not that sort of doctors, are they?

Yes, yes they ARE medical doctors. One of them does have a PhD, but it's in medicine - in some countries that can mean a significant contribution to research (i.e. same as a PhD in other fields), but I'm not sure whether his is a 'true doctorate' in that sense, or simply a standard medical degrees. There's a lot of cross-over between the two, in that some countries require a research contribution as part of the doctor's specialist training, and so they use the cases they've actually worked on as the basis for their research.

In any event, I'd have higher gaming expectations if they had research doctorates in math (to help with combat systems analysis) or literature (so that their writers can learn the minimum requirements for goddamn story structure).

 

[Angthoron]

Well, now the doctors can go from gamedev malpractice to medicinal malpractice.

Oh, wait, they're not that sort of doctors, are they?

Yes, yes they ARE medical doctors. One of them does have a PhD, but it's in medicine - in some countries that can mean a significant contribution to research (i.e. same as a PhD in other fields), but I'm not sure whether his is a 'true doctorate' in that sense, or simply a standard medical degrees. There's a lot of cross-over between the two, in that some countries require a research contribution as part of the doctor's specialist training, and so they use the cases they've actually worked on as the basis for their research.

In any event, I'd have higher gaming expectations if they had research doctorates in math (to help with combat systems analysis) or literature (so that their writers can learn the minimum requirements for goddamn story structure).

So don't they have an oath in which they swear not to knowingly cause damage to people? What about all the brians they've destroyed with their retarded entertainment?

 

[Vicissitudes]

http://irrationalgames.com/insider/irrational-interviews-8-bioware/

Here they say they had actual ER shifts in some hospitals WHILE they were also working at BIOWARE (Bio - wares- doctors - get it?). It's a nice interview that sheds some light at the beginning of this company.

 

[Dexter]

These guys founded and co-designed Baldur's Gate. They deserve respect.

I thought that was some sea captain called Balduran. The More You Know.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Ray Muzyka (jew) and Greg Zeschuk (jew).

Their names sound : x.

 

[jewboy]

It's not called retirement when you have a laundry list of career goals left to get through. It's called quitting. Honestly it's great to see this company fall apart, they truly deserve it. They've made lackluster games promoted through paid interviews and reviews for years now. DA:O and ME were their last "okay" games. Everything else has just been choking on its own faggotry so hard that it puked out any redeeming qualities.

Good riddance.

I think you meant to say NWN was their last okay game. DA:O and ME marked the start of Bioware's undeath as an EA company. The EA franchise are direct descendents of those two modern era RPG-as-action-games. I think NWN was their last real game that wasn't just a cynical money grab.

 

[Jaesun]

Mass Effect was Published by Microsoft, not EA. Just FYI.

 

[DemonKing]

I've said it before, but Bioware was a one-shot wonder, and that only through collaboration with Black Isle.

KOTOR was as good if not better than BG IMO, and that had nothing to do with BIS. DA:O and ME 1 & 2 were also semi-decent (haven't finished ME3 yet) and even JE was okish. Hardly one-shot wonders relying on BIS to hold their hands. Also BG was hardly a one-shot wonder in any case, given it had a sequel that most people liked...

Mass Effect was Published by Microsoft, not EA. Just FYI.

Only the 360 version produced before the EA sellout - The real (PC) version was released by EA.

 

[St. Toxic]

Ray Muzyka (jew) and Greg Zeschuk (jew).

Their names sound : x.

And I bet they have a lot of dough too.

(Let's see how many different ways we can find of restating the obvious.)

 

[Whisky]

"roofles

9 years Volourn

9 fucking years

It's alright you can cry, I'm here for you"

wut this 'bout?

Uh oh. I think Volourn might be having trouble maintaining his form in this dimension. If Bioware closes, I fear we might lose him.

 

[kris]

500$ million on spectacular failure of Tortanic.

I might very well be that they made a loss, but how do you come up with a figure like that? Please be reminded that they did sell quite a few pieces of it.

 

[Shadenuat]

The main project I will be working on is a web-based interview show called The Beer Diaries where I interview notable brewers and showcase their beers. If things go well, I’ll work on other beer-related shows, apps and projects. If not, I’ll have drunk a lot of tasty beers

Well that's certanly much better than working on Dragon Age 3

 

[Black]

Black
Fair enough, that was mostly just snark and you probably don't hate everything so I'll tell you what I like and don't like about them and we can be done with this fairly pointless back-and-forth and get back to the schadenfreude. I'm not sure exactly what you consider a 'weeabo story'

I don't know, I didn't call it that. I don't care whether BGs have weeaboo stories but I do know they have many characters that seem to have come out of the worst kinds of anime- one dimensional archetypes like Aerie, tsunderes like Viconia, LOL SO RANDUMB like Minsc or butthurt and bent on revenge like Irenicus. I admit, BGs have memorable characters but only in the worst way. After all, who could possibly forget Anomen.

Comparing IE games to Bethesda games is a completely false comparison and is pretty much just you baiting me with reductio ad aburdem, so I will ignore that.

You misunderstood, I didn't compare IE games to bethesda games, I compared your arguments for defending them to those arguments that bethesdafags use to defend their holy cows. "It's fun, you just have everything".

They really weren't all that simplified systems wise -- point out a direct example if you will in the games that actually used 2E D&D mechanics (i.e. not Planescape)?

There are no games that used AD&D well, and in no way does that excuse BGs for not doing that either. Torment had shit combat, partially thanks to IE, but it was not combat focused. It had like what, 3 mandatory fights? Compared to BGs which are pretty much centred around combat.
It's fine that you don't have problem with rtwp, I do. In games like BGs, IWD, NWN2 etc you're constantly smashing the pause button (or have the autopauses on) which makes combat encounters annoying for me. Not to mention that even from aesthetic point of view it's retarded to have a character swing his weapon and then stand still for 5 seconds.

KOTOR and Neverwinter Nights have absolutely nothing to do with the IE or BG

Nothing? They had "translated" D&D rules just like BGs and were too rtwp. They were basically bioware's transitions from IE to different engines.
And lo behold, many flaws that BGs and their combat, D&D translation etc were also present in those games.
Oh, and your previous attempt at being snarky and claiming that it's cool to hate Bioware on Codex doesn't hold any water- on Codex BGs were already talked about as being subpar in 2006 or so. A shame that I can't find this thread now but just so you know, "hating" on bioware and bgs isn't something new and it should never be seen as something unthinkable.

 

[Coyote]

r00fles.

Chris Priestly has come out months ago, confirming that these rumours are false. So I'll expect a lock with further clarification soon.

As for the Docs, good luck in life even if they're not leaving BioWare as these vicious rumours might indicate.

I like how everyone who responded to this missed the point completely. Are they always so dense over there? Or just so used to dealing with Biodrones that they can no longer distinguish between derpery and parody?*

Could explain that "text is a horrible medium for conveying sarcasm or sincerity" quote from Laidlaw.

* Rhetorical questions. The answer, of course, is both.