Should we fear or embrace change at BioWare and in their games?

Oh, I wasn't aware of her disposition. That's unfortunate. But ya can't please everyone...that's an impossible task. Yet everyone has a right to their own opinion. There will be people who love a game, any game, and people who hate them. Each has their own reasons and that's not to say that any one is more right than another. But at the end of the day, the folks at Bioware (or any game company) have to make the games that they are happy with, games that hopefully will be applauded by fans, but as long as they themselves are happy with their final product (as 'artists/creators') and there are people out there that enjoy a title for everything it is as well as whatever it is not...then that is what counts.

I like Gamermd’s passion and respect her though I’ve never been one to watch that much of her content, but this video (and the comments, good god why did I read the comments) kinda speaks to a panicky attitude I find frustrating among BioWare fans.

If this isn’t the right place for this, let me know

1. EA will close anyone who isn’t making multiplayer! Look at Visceral! Look at BioWare Montreal! Edmonton is on the chopping block.

No, just no. If you actually look into the story of Visceral you can see a number of reasons behind why the studio was shut down, much of it related to dysfunction at the studio itself, the lack of progress on the Star Wars game (That trailer was literally it, there was nothing else complete), and the exorbitant expense of maintaining a studio in California. Yes, EA’s mismanagement in assigning Battlefield Hardline to Visceral played a part because it made it difficult for them to focus resources, but it was more than that. Montreal similarly badly flubbed the development of Mass Effect Andromeda and had to be bailed out by other studios. This idea that EA has an agenda to shut down non-multiplayer studios is stupefying to me. I’m totally nonplussed that she fears Edmonton (which EA just approved a move to a bigger space this year) could be shutdown if Anthem does well.

2. There’s a mass exodus of developers! That means doom!

I’m sorry, but the departure of people who have worked at the company for almost two decades isn’t unusual, especially when it’s happening during a relative lull in development. Even if it was, the people who have replaced them in leadership positions aren’t new faces, they’ve worked at the company for almost as long. Patrick Weekes and Mark Darrah have been deeply involved in the games you all loved, for example. Game development is an intensive and stressful business and for creatives the necessarily corporate nature of AAA game development means they can’t always do what they want. It isn’t surprising that people will leave and it isn’t necessarily a dire portent.

3. Fuck EA

I don’t like Electronic Arts upper management. I think they’re out of touch and too intent on GAAS micro transaction models, not to mention oblivious to their own bad reputation sometimes. That said, the level of loathing for everything they touch has become sickening and self feeding. At the end of the day, we have to remember that games are the product of developers who log thousands of hours to make them a reality. For their sake, I think we owe it to the developers to judge their games by their own merits rather than the publisher footing the bill. If they get it right, they should be rewarded.

What’s worse, these people feed each other’s sense of anxiety and fear. gamermd83 seems to be suffering from this herself as she seems to point to her own fearful commenters as feeding her concerns. I also find myself a bit frustrated when I hear the “Old BioWare is dead/changed” given as a dire warning. I have heard people repeat that phrase virtually nonstop since I started following the company and it’s fan community around 2009. BioWare has been in a state of continuous change for as long as I’ve been following them, this “old BioWare” people talk about has always struck me as a bit of a fictional concept people have built up in their heads around whatever of the developer’s previous games they liked most.

I apologize for venting, but this is something that has bothered me for awhile.

Call me a rabble-rouser, LOL. But I agree, this has become a hot-button topic worth discussing

Yeah, this is old news. Of course there's a chance Bioware might get shutdown. Of course the failure of Andromeda, and more importantly, the mismanagement of pretty much every aspect of its development, is troubling. Of course all the departures are a cause for concern. Comment section is just a repetition of the same old worries.

None of that means DA4 will suck or be an Anthem clone.

We also need to talk about probabilities. I give the probability of Bioware being shutdown about the same chance as CDPR being bought out or going bankrupt in the same year. Is it possible? Sure. Likely? Hell, no.

I find it sad that gamers (especially SPers) sit around and blame EA...or Bioware when they are of equal blame for the state of affairs. I find it perplexing that it's 2019 and you will be able to purchase Anthem for 60$. That's a measly 10$ more than I paid for DAO nearly a decade ago...despite development costs being significantly more (I couldn't even begin to guess how much more). Fans demand more and bigger and better but are unwilling to pay for it. It's no wonder EA goes for the "easy" MP money...or Bioware has had to move toward procedural generation (which tends to cheapen the story and overall experience). Gamers need to be willing to pay for it...and one way or another they will. Either by ponying up more money, having more elements stripped out, and/or seeing more microtransactions being inserted into the game.

This fail of an argument again?

Until their business practices finally caught up with them from accumulated bad will amongst multiple game franchises, they were setting record profits despite charging the price us entitled gamers have been generally willing to pay. Now EA is feeling it a bit, especially after Soderlund went honest and told us how EA really views us.

The OP question is somewhat meaningless to be honest. Gamers always have to embrace change, especially us PC gamers. Games make us upgrade peripherals, upgrade components, learn new controls between iterations of a franchise. New graphics, new animation and mo-cap quality.

There has always been MP. The OP question assumes that some sort of replacement or evolution is happening, and as others have mentioned that is simply not the case.

The trend of multiplayer gaming is being pushed constantly by the publishers and developers because it is a far easier route to microtransaction bonus bucks than making a compelling SP with reasonable monetization. I do not embrace their laziness or greed, and I think we should fear homogenization in the name of profit over diverse categories with niches for many to enjoy.

We should also fear those who applaud it; they certainly scare me.

Many don't, and they shouldn't.

So, you ignored the part of my post where EA had been doing really well on the profit side, as investors were being rewarded. Activision is making plenty of profit. Lost profit is bullshit, so is the need for doubling the price.

As for the always thing - the first BW titles had MP, so your point is invalid. If there was MP in their first game, MP was always there. Dig?

I don't see EA shutting down any more studios for a while. They have run out of them

Rather, EA's fate is inextricably wrapped in BioWare's own; their fate shall be the same I believe. EA is just another company that can fail; see Sears, Roebuck & Co.

Your post ignores the multiple failings of other products from other devs in the EA family. There have been a lot of them lately.

I see your point to an extent; I also disagree with it to an extent.

I gave her channel a shot but it never connected with me.  I remember she made one about how BioWare should stop doing "Mass Effect" games but couldn't really give a good reason as to why and "unsubscribed" soon after...herky-jerky and rambling.

And the comments section of her videos are always like that mess.  Overall, she's fine, I guess - more cringy than offensive/trolly.