General Games Discussion

I realised there was no discussion for games in general, so here one is! And yes, I come with something I wanted to discuss/post about.




BioWare. And Anthem.

This article was written this morning and I spent a good while reading it. It's long. 11,000 words long. But it's one of the most depressing things I've read in a long time.

How BioWare's Anthem Went Wrong.


THE SUMMARY:

'It’s a story of a video game that was in development for nearly seven years but didn’t enter production until the final 18 months, thanks to big narrative reboots, major design overhauls, and a leadership team said to be unable to provide a consistent vision and unwilling to listen to feedback.'

Reading through the entire thing was frustrating, saddening, and just left me feeling deflated. Reading through this article was like watching someone I love slowly die, knowing that there's nothing I can do to help. Knowing that this is what the studio has become actually brought me to tears. This Reddit post and its comments sum up everything that struck me through the heart. It may sound ridiculous, but the games they have made and therefore the company itself became very dear to me, and I can't help but choke on a cocktail of emotion upon realising what has become of them.

(Semi-irrelevant anecdote about my feelings for BioWare):

Spoiler:

This is the studio which made the very first RPG game that I truly fell in love with (excluding Pokemon, which I loved for the creatures, not specifically the RPG experience): Dragon Age Origins. I found it in 2011 when I was in year 12, and after playing many, many hours in Oblivion and loving its open-world RPG goodness, I played Dragon Age: Origins (thanks to a recommendation from @Teddiursa of the Sky) and realised that Oblivion lacked something dear to me: rich, lifelike characters and story choices. Sure it had some, but characters aren't the focus of Bethesda games--gameplay and setting are. But BioWare's games appealed to me so much more, with companions you could recruit, worlds rich with lore, and a compelling storyline which you could change aspects of depending on choices you made. I will admit, as a teenager unsure about who I was and feeling like I couldn't talk to anyone about it, I was also drawn by the fact that I could romance a female character as a female character. It kind of meant a lot to me, and still does. All of these things made me completely adore Dragon Age. I played it many times I should have been studying. XD

Then end of 2012, I see a preowned Mass Effect 2 in one of my local game stores one day for $20. I'd never played the series before, and knew nothing about it--only that it was good. I hadn't properly discovered Steam or indie games yet; in fact I had had limited exposure to games. Mostly I played Pokemon, Sonic, and some old PlayStation titles like Crash and Spyro. Anyway, I was broke, so I mentioned casually to my mum before Christmas that she could pick it up for me because I really couldn't think of much else I wanted.

Single greatest request of my life.

I fell in love instantly. I got a PC version of the first game and started playing that the same time I was playing the second one on the PS3. Everything in these games blew me away: incredible characters, story, and a world that felt real. The music was phenomenal, voice acting was awesome, and the level of detail showed that whoever was working on this really, really cared. These games were a product of passion and dedication. Long story short, I bought the trilogy to play in order and my playthrough of the second game this time was drastically different because my decisions from the first game carried over (coolest freaking thing ever). It felt like an experience I helped to create. Mass Effect 2 is my favourite game of all time, and any game will be hard-pressed to take its place for me.

So, you can imagine I viewed these people in a magical, ethereal light. They were all amazing. They had shaped one of the greatest experiences of my life, and I loved them for it. I never did get back into Dragon Age after that, because I am truly terrible at strategy and I feel like you need to have some level of strategy for DA's combat. XD But I still love it.

When Mass Effect Andromeda came out, well...even just half an hour in, it felt completely different. It was hollow. It lacked soul. It lacked...everything that made the trilogy exceptional. Needless to say, I was incredibly let down by that game. I finished it once and tried to do another playthrough, but couldn't bring myself to do it. One playthrough was all I could muster. As many people have pointed out, it's not necessarily a bad game...it's just average. An average BioWare game. Nothing...stood out about it. Oh, except its absurd number of bugs and glitches.

*sigh*

Anyway. I didn't buy Anthem because I was honestly hurt from Mass Effect Andromeda and I didn't trust them to deliver an experience that I would love. And I'm glad I didn't buy it. But reading about their struggles, the hardships that transpired, and ridiculous decisions that were (or weren't) made, just make me so, so sad. The Frostbite issues, the lack of leadership or a vision, the pressure from EA, the levels of stress that skyrocketed which resulted in what they refer to as "stress casualties" and mental breakdowns and depression and anxiety running rampant throughout the studios is just...goddamn depressing. That's appalling conditions to work in for any company, and the devs did not deserve that. So many of them brought up issues and were ignored. Things didn't used to be like that. Sure they were always stressful at times, and I know there was a huge time crunch for Mass Effect 3's release, but...at least they had direction. And everyone was happy with the result. For the most part, anyway. And now...this is happening.

Bah...I'm just feeling so, so very deflated. I'm extremely glad that I have the Mass Effect trilogy, but I'm extremely sad that I don't think they'll ever make anything like that again, or anything close. And my biggest fear is that constant failures will result in EA forcing BioWare to close.

I just really hope BioWare leadership and management get their act together because their company's games changed lives, mine included. I hope they can recover.

EA is an absolute bane to the industry and they're driving every developer and franchise under them into complete ruin. Activision is no better, though. They no longer understand the art behind video games and the creative process in general. They only think in terms of money and return on investment rather than allowing for creative risk and giving creativity time to reach its full potential. But fans are quickly realizing that one half-baked game after another is their new way of doing things and it's just time to move on, even if it means leaving behind developers and franchises we once loved.

This is likely where the gravitation toward indie games is coming from because new ideas and franchises now have a place to flourish without the pressure. And it proves you don't need the greatest graphics or a huge budget to make games that fans can adore. Risks can be taken, new characters and worlds can be found, and it's more about the immersion than the money. And fans are finding these $15 and $20 games do more and have more that gamers care about than the $60+ games from big publishers.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Neo Emolga

EA is an absolute bane to the industry and they're driving every developer and franchise under them into complete ruin. Activision is no better, though. They no longer understand the art behind video games and the creative process in general. They only think in terms of money and return on investment rather than allowing for creative risk and giving creativity time to reach its full potential. But fans are quickly realizing that one half-baked game after another is their new way of doing things and it's just time to move on, even if it means leaving behind developers and franchises we once loved.

This is likely where the gravitation toward indie games is coming from because new ideas and franchises now have a place to flourish without the pressure. And it proves you don't need the greatest graphics or a huge budget to make games that fans can adore. Risks can be taken, new characters and worlds can be found, and it's more about the immersion than the money. And fans are finding these $15 and $20 games do more and have more that gamers care about than the $60+ games from big publishers.

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Couldn't have said it better. I don't understand how they can have so much player feedback and still not get it. Nobody likes micro-transactions. Especially on a full-priced game. How dense do you have to be to understand this? It's one of the biggest reasons they're ridiculed and lowly regarded. Sure, they still publish decent stuff, but the margin is getting slimmer every year. I just have no idea what happened to BioWare's leadership, either. I mean...I don't think that was EA's influence. Unless they had a hand in who leads the games, but if so, they're choosing poorly.

I completely agree. It's awesome that making games is a tangible concept for indie developers nowadays. It's so refreshing to have a small studio or bunch of people making a game because they care about it, and because they want to develop an awesome product. Not because they're money-hungry. I understand that EA is a business, and every business' goal is to make money, but they could go about it in a much better way. Bleh.

Yeah EA has made so many gaming sins recently it's absurd. To the point there's memes about it. People are angry and it's only a matter of time before they listen, I hope.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Noblejanobii

Yeah EA has made so many gaming sins recently it's absurd. To the point there's memes about it. People are angry and it's only a matter of time before they listen, I hope.

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I don't know if they will. xD It's just gotten to the point where nobody has faith in them anymore. I just hope they don't take down BioWare with them...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Suicune's Fire

I don't know if they will. xD It's just gotten to the point where nobody has faith in them anymore. I just hope they don't take down BioWare with them...

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Yeah, I'm hoping their stocks plummet enough that their shareholders jerk their chain a bit and get them to figure out their crap like the shareholders did with Sony after the emoji movie.

Oh we are talking about how crappy EA is? Let me sliiiiiiiiide this in here

Spoiler:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/64/83...8a350513d2.jpg

But yea, i honestly cant stand EA games anymore. They take precious things and purposefully take giant dumps on them. To the point where i refuse to even buy EA games anymore.

Here's the trend I've been noticing, and it's not just with the video game industry, but with movies, books, music, and so on across many other entertainment fields.

It's the lack of being willing to take creative risk.

Instead of trying something new, no, let's make sequel #83. Let's reboot this thing. Let's make yet another movie about Peter Pan or make a remake of a movie that should have stayed in the past. Let's do a Shakespeare thing again or see what work of fiction is not protected by copyright anymore. The entertainment industry isn't a pioneer or an adventurer anymore, it's a recycling plant.

And where does it come from? This notion that something has to be guaranteed to generate return on investment by some percentage rather than say hey, we're not sure how this is going to turn out and we can't predict the future, but we're going to try our best to make something new, make this thing as great as we can, and do our best to be proud of it and market it and create the need for people to want to try this and get out there to experience it. No, instead it's all about "well, this sold pretty well years ago, so let's just make it again/another."

And yet business is all about taking risk. Sure, smart and educated risks, not reckless gambles. Get the voice of the customer and the market understood. Find out what people would like to see and what they don't want to see. Experiment and try something creative and new. Use market research, and drive an effort to create something that people never knew they wanted but now it's out there.

And yeah, I feel like the indie developers are the only ones doing this. They don't know how their game or their idea is going to work, but they're going to at least try. They're taking that risk and sure, for many, it may go flat or it will just fade into obscurity with only a few fans picking it up. But there are plenty that are striking it big. Meanwhile, the big publishers are essentially driving what used to be beloved franchises into the ground, like making copies of a copy for cheaper and cheaper until it's garbage.

And yes, there a special place in Hell for the ones that conceived of microtransactions. That's not a way to add enhancements to a game, that's a new take on extortion. And the worst cases are when players need to purchase them to stay competitive or else they're always at a disadvantage. My dad had trouble grasping this whole concept at first because he's not big into video gaming, but I explained it to him as imagine wanting to play a game of Chess with an opponent, but they paid money to have five queens and four rooks while you only have the standard set. This isn't gaming anymore, this is duress.

Yeah I’ll be one to add to the frowning trend that EA is TEEEEERRRRRRRIBLE.

Never been real big on it.

That’s true too. A lot of games worry more about sequels then completely rebooting or changing things to a point that makes it so they can push it and get more money from it. Rather than worry more about how to make more money. It’s supposed to be for the enjoyment of the game and the story it’s meant to tell! Not something that you recreate, make more side stories, side mini games, mobile game this one, add a visual novel to this one, go back and rework the first again with one additional thing added, and so on. It’s supposed to be something you visit once and explain things well enough to a point we understand from then and wait for the next.

Yeah I know if you come up with a good idea you can make a living from it. Just look at Scott, who made the Five Nights at Freddy’s games. He’s made a killing off the games, books, merch, and soon Hollywood movie. One where the directors were both satisfied with the script. Scott saw it and threw it out. Saying “he has one better than this.”

One big thing I’ve noticed? A lot....a LOT of games have gone the direction Fortnite did with the “season pass” thing. Where you have tiers for leveling up or completing challenges. You get special items for doing it, but if you have this pass? You get more special items, daily bonuses, exclusive items for that season and more. It’s like microtransactions, but with an additional push to say, “hey, you want this don’t you? Yeah ya do.”

Honestly, I don't follow games enough to know off the top of my head what games EA makes, so I had to look it up. I don't think I've ever played any of the games here, but yeah, from what I've heard what they do is kind of ridiculous.

I have played older versions of their sports games, which leads me to this statement: It sure is easy to make money off of sports games. All you have to do is a release a new game every year and just update the rosters, and bam: profit.