My opinions as to why the game is online-only
Jul 6, 2018 15:40:46 GMT
Pearl, SofaJockey, and 10 more like this
Post by biggydx on Jul 6, 2018 15:40:46 GMT
So one of the major complaints I've seen about Anthem has to do with the fact that it's an online-only game. While the developers (mostly Mark Darrah) have confirmed that the game has many activities that can be played solo, online-only has still discouraged a number of people from wanting to play the game; among other things. I'm not making this thread to try to convince people to pick the game up, but instead, I want to provide reasons as to why I think the game NEEDED to be online-only.
1) Bioware can push out world events for all players simultaneously. The developers have stated that they intend to have world events in the game. For example, that giant Ash Titan is an example of a world event, where it periodically shows up based on an online timer. Most notably, weather events (like rain, winds, fog, etc) are meant to be seen for every player in the open world at the same time, which is facilitated with dedicated servers. Pushing these types of changes to players requires that everyone be online, as they not only need to match event times in different timezones, but they also need to push the event on a timer straight to your console/PC (not through a patch). Otherwise, the whole process becomes clunky. It should also be noted that, and it would not surprise me at all, there's a very high likelihood that certain quests will require that complete a number of world-events.
2) It gives Bioware the ability to tweak the games various mechanics without the need of sending a patch. If you've played Mass Effect 3: Multiplayer (or Andromeda/DA multiplayer), you likely remember how certain weapon, power, and character values underwent changes as the game progressed in its lifespan; ie Balance Changes. Having the game be online-only is a product of building Anthem so that Bioware can readily access many of the games core features. Given that sending a patch to the game requires certification (with the review process taking 5-days on Xbox, as an example), being able to change certain attributes within the game environment - on the fly - serves as a better alternative. It also means that players can see their criticisms/complaints addressed more frequently and quickly as well.
3) The game being online-only prevents players from modifying their loot. One of the biggest issues that plagued Borderlands 1 and 2, was that players could take their save data (which contains all their gear and associated stats) and modify said gear to be overpowered. People could make weapons that could one-shot any boss in the game, or modify their shield to the point where you were basically invincible. What made this even worse was that you could trade items with other players. This pretty much breaks the flow and challenge of the game, and is something that no developer wants. Gearbox, as well as many other developers, ended up learning from this, and require that your gear collections data be stored within their own servers. Since it isn't saved physically to your hard drive, you can't modify the items available to you. Even if you could, you couldn't do it without getting caught.
I'm sure there are other reasons for why the game needed to be online-only, and I'm sure I may be off or not specific enough for some of the reasons I laid out. However, I felt it warranted to at least give people some idea as to why Bioware went this route.
EDIT: I altered the title of the thread so that people wouldn't get the wrong impression that I was providing factual information straight from the devs. This is primarily based on speculation, though #1 is factual (and #2 to some extent), as it has been confirmed by the developers. Sorry for any confusion the thread title may have caused.
1) Bioware can push out world events for all players simultaneously. The developers have stated that they intend to have world events in the game. For example, that giant Ash Titan is an example of a world event, where it periodically shows up based on an online timer. Most notably, weather events (like rain, winds, fog, etc) are meant to be seen for every player in the open world at the same time, which is facilitated with dedicated servers. Pushing these types of changes to players requires that everyone be online, as they not only need to match event times in different timezones, but they also need to push the event on a timer straight to your console/PC (not through a patch). Otherwise, the whole process becomes clunky. It should also be noted that, and it would not surprise me at all, there's a very high likelihood that certain quests will require that complete a number of world-events.
2) It gives Bioware the ability to tweak the games various mechanics without the need of sending a patch. If you've played Mass Effect 3: Multiplayer (or Andromeda/DA multiplayer), you likely remember how certain weapon, power, and character values underwent changes as the game progressed in its lifespan; ie Balance Changes. Having the game be online-only is a product of building Anthem so that Bioware can readily access many of the games core features. Given that sending a patch to the game requires certification (with the review process taking 5-days on Xbox, as an example), being able to change certain attributes within the game environment - on the fly - serves as a better alternative. It also means that players can see their criticisms/complaints addressed more frequently and quickly as well.
3) The game being online-only prevents players from modifying their loot. One of the biggest issues that plagued Borderlands 1 and 2, was that players could take their save data (which contains all their gear and associated stats) and modify said gear to be overpowered. People could make weapons that could one-shot any boss in the game, or modify their shield to the point where you were basically invincible. What made this even worse was that you could trade items with other players. This pretty much breaks the flow and challenge of the game, and is something that no developer wants. Gearbox, as well as many other developers, ended up learning from this, and require that your gear collections data be stored within their own servers. Since it isn't saved physically to your hard drive, you can't modify the items available to you. Even if you could, you couldn't do it without getting caught.
I'm sure there are other reasons for why the game needed to be online-only, and I'm sure I may be off or not specific enough for some of the reasons I laid out. However, I felt it warranted to at least give people some idea as to why Bioware went this route.
EDIT: I altered the title of the thread so that people wouldn't get the wrong impression that I was providing factual information straight from the devs. This is primarily based on speculation, though #1 is factual (and #2 to some extent), as it has been confirmed by the developers. Sorry for any confusion the thread title may have caused.
