Casey Hudson returns to BioWare

Don't forget DLC Doubter...

I beat on Furious Disappointment didn't I? I did. Sorry.

Ugh he tries to do that all the time.

Anyway I think it's good that they are bringing back the veterans.

Interesting, I bring something up once, and you feel the need to beat the drum some more on something that's recently been repeatedly discussed - and you feel the need to be off-topic.

You mean right now, or in the past?

Flynn has been General Manager since the Doctors left if I recall, prior to that Flynn worked on all of the games you would expect with Hudson.

Hudson was the creative director of KotoR and the Mass Effect games, left in 2014 and in 2015 worked for Microsoft for a while. His return here is a promotion as General Manager, meaning hes basically in charge of all the studios and their projects versus creative director which is more or less in charge of the direction of one game. 

Hudson is actually a good choice, and the timing here is good too. Anthem is pretty much getting ready for release, and other BioWare projects are not deep in production where such a change in leadership will hinder them. 

Speculation on my end, EA asked Hudson back, he decided to take it, and Flynn decided to step down. Whatever the reasons may be, from exhaustion and thinking about a change as they said, to being forced in and out by EA, is academic and not really important.

What is important is what Hudson can do...this is the kind of move that can boost confidence in a game like Andromeda, if there is anything to even do there. If not, then it's a long term move for down the line, including the direction of Anthem.

I remember some people hating on origins for not being baldurs gate.

Of course, you're entitled to your opinion. As one who considered the culmination of the ME trinity to be a video-game-level-disaster (story-wise, game-mechanics-wise, PR-wise) we'll probably agree to disagree on this one. 

I think the role of General manager I think means he's effectively the captain of the ship. His main job is to oversee everything that Bioware does I think and make sure that things run smoothly. Kind of what Director Tann is trying to do on the Nexus in MEA although in his case he does it badly. Hopefully Casey can do a better job for Bioware more than Tann can for the Nexus..

So how will this affect Mass Effect going forward?

I wasn't saying anyone who enjoyed the game doesn't have a functioning brain. Critical success is different in this context than personal enjoyment of the game... in other words, I was taking aim at the gaming journalist faction. They rightfully were seen as corrupt - those taking money from large video game publishers and delivering padded positive game reviews. This too-close relationship was on exhibition when a gaming journalist was allowed to voice a character in the game. 

Well, really if we're talking about whether or not a game is a critical success, whether or not any one of us here likes it doesn't matter. I only took a brief look around the internet to find review scores, and overall it seems to be quite positive. It seems to me that regardless of its pitfalls, ME3 has a generally high critic score. Did they take money to pad the scoring? I dunno. If there's solid evidence I'd be keen on taking a look.