Bloomberg: Dragon Age 4 Will Now Be A SP (Non-LS) Game

1. Sure, I agree that grind is ever-present, as it is a staple of how you get XP in RPGs. I disagree that DAI isn't too grindy, however. My shortest vanilla DAI playthrough was 86 hours. Out of those, maybe 15 were critpath, meaning that the rest of the 71 hours were killing the dragons, getting collectibles, exploring and much much muuuch combat with mobs everywhere. Again, this is my shortest playthrough, after I already knew where everything was, how to minimize the time I spent getting to my objectives, knowing how to avoid certain mobs and how to defeat enemies the fastest way. My first playthrough was 117 hours and I didn't even step into every region of the game then, let alone go for 100% completion.

2. I didn't mean to imply that MEA wasn't functional at launch, quote the opposite, it was, but post launch bugged it out and then left it bugged out. If you release a functional product and then ruin it with support but not bother fixing what you ruin, that isn't a good look.

3. Sure, we have to deal with it but we shouldn't accept it. Up to November 2020 I worked in sales support in tourism. What would have happened if I gave my client an incomplete or incorrect quote or reservation and told them to take it like it currently was, pay me full price for it, and I'd get around to fixing it 6 months to a year down the line? I'd get fired for not doing my job and that client would be disinclined to work with my company again. I'm there to offer support for things that are absolutely impossible but I still have to give my client what they asked and make sure that my services are worth the money they pay, otherwise I lose them, I can't just tell them to deal with it. 

4. Yeah, KOTOR 2 was a mess but its release state was due to miscommunication with Lucas Arts about deadlines, not Obsidian having bit off more than they could chew. Obsidian also released NWN2 and Fallout New Vegas (and as Black Isle they released Fallout 1 and 2, Planescape Torment), all perfectly functional games. Yes, NWN2 had some cut content for companions but it still worked perfectly fine and it even got 3 pretty chunky expansions.

My main point is that while post launch support is great in theory, we also have a lot of examples of how it diminishes responsibility. If you can splurge all you want on a project without too much regard for technological and time limitations because you can just fix things later, you put yourself in a much riskier mindset of delivering a product that is buggy, glitchy, and after you start futzing with it leave it much more broken than it first started out (as your own example with TW3).

Aren't you just proving my point? Without ongoing support delivered through downloadable patches, broken games stay broken.

I just hope BW takes the opportunity to voice cast appropriately. No more pallid performers portraying persons of color! Let the humans of different hues be potrayed only by humans of the corresponding hues. And while we are remedying injustices, let's stop having non-humans being portrayed by humans. Let's only cast elves for elves, dwarves for dwarves, qunari for qunari and dragons for dragons. A fresh commitment to cultural sensitivity would make all the difference!

The answer there is: don’t release broken games in the first place.

This is a good thing in general, but remember how far along the development of the game is already. I'm concerned they'll have half-finished nonsense within.

My reaction to all BioWare related news since 2017 has been: LOL.

It's nice to have proof now that DA4 was going to be utter garbage. Which is why my interested in it died with the live service reboot. Writing was on the wall. Yet again.

Now of course this is good news, technically. But it also means there's yet another BioWare game in development hell that has gone through several reboots and there's no telling if whatever the hell they pull out of their butts now is any good.

After a decade under EA's boot, I don't think what's left of Bioware's staff know anymore what they are and what they want to do. They'll always be worried about their ideas not pleasing Big Daddy. There's no such thing as total free range when you're working for the devil, only interested in squeezing the most money out of idiots.

This news is actually just more proof to me that BioWare is creatively burned out. EA drove all the talent away. And those left have not produced anything I like since 2015. So... I'm not celebrating. The BioWare I onced loved is still gone.


But maybe now DA4 won't be a complete disaster like Anthem and merely underwhelming like Andromeda. Yay?!

I hope for those still hopeful that the result will be decent at least. I've stopped holding my breath long ago. I'm just sticking around for the entertainment of the dumpster fire that is BioWare now.

Please keep the expressions of mock violence and schadenfreude to a minimum. Some people's feelings are still a bit raw.

I didn't say they "should be" broken on release, it's just a fact that not every bug can be caught during development. Things will inevitably be found when the game goes on sale and is being played by the public, as opposed to the controlled environment of the studio. It happens to nearly every game. Older games had bugs too, they just *didn't get fixed*.

I think compared to the last games, Dragon Age's staff is still stable. Many of them even worked on DAI, so I don't think they'll suffer the same development problems as ME: A and Anthem did.

As far as spotting sarcasm in text go, I thought yours was pretty easy to spot as well xD

To be honest I still don't think live service will matter too much in single player games. It'll probably be all optional content, something for huge fans to chase and something casual fans can pass on. I don't really think it makes AC worse or anything.