Who is the best BioWare writer, and why?

Nov 2, 2016 16:43:01 GMT @upupaway95 said:

Nov 1, 2016 23:30:21 GMT Arcian said:

Jesus Christ, downplaying it is perfectly within his right as a writer. The fact that he did the best he could with ideas he didn't like makes him the ultimate team player.

Jesus Christ... I should not be under any obligation here to like the guy as much as you do... stop being his apologist.  I have every "right" to form my own impression of him based on what HE says, not you.  And I disagree with your premise - The "ultimate" team player does not undermine the public's impression of the team by making such statements in public.

Jesus hot sauce Christmas cake, I don't think anybody has asked you to like the guy: people have just been coming with their own opinions and impressions of him and his statements and why they disagree with yours.

Quite frankly, you've been coming across as a lot more hostile to other people having different opinions such as with lines like these: "stop being his apologist." and "... Listen, you can love him to bits and be defensive as all get out for him"

The latter quote was in the comment you posted in response to this post of Arcian's: "Having read the thread you're discussing, Chris wasn't complaining, he was answering questions. Complaining would be to express some kind of displeasure with the result. Chris only said, "I had/ the team had this idea, the higherups preferred another idea."

That is not being defensive, that is not loving L'Etoile to bits, that is not disparaging you for having an opinion: that's disagreeing with you.

Seriously, when did Arcian do anything but disagree with your impression of L'Etoile? Because backtracking through the conversation, I haven't seen Arcian aim a rude comment towards you besides the implied exasperation in the "Jesus Christ" in the above comment.

Nov 2, 2016 22:40:06 GMT Link"Guess"ski said:

When it comes to weeks my impression is that in general he gets too much into his own work at times and forgets what might be better for the work than his own desires. Another strange things BioWare writers share is that they all talk about on podcasts and blogs how "listening to movie scores" make them write better. Like, someone said something to the effect of writing while listening to a horror soundtrack and his writing "became really creepy". I don't know what that's about but it sounds more to me like they think the music affects their writing but then if they take a step back, turn off the music they'll probably see it's not as much as they thought. It's just, sometimes I wonder how aware BioWare's writers are about subtext or planning. It's as if they think good writing will come naturally if they just follow on their emotions.

I've written some stuff before where I was forcing myself into a certain mood and was really into it; thought what I was writing was the shit, but then the same evening I re-read it and started cringing because all the errors and tryhardness became apparent.

For some writers, music helps to place oneself in a desired atmosphere and to some, it can also be used as a tool to visualize scenes. This is similar to how ambient tracks are used by some to better immerse oneself in a setting and consider how to better describe a scene setting like, say, a market place with bartering people, animal noises and wagons rolling by.

Example: If you're preparing to plot out or write a battle or invasion, you can play a track that gives you the sense of something foreboding approaching, the building anticipation and then the culmination of overwhelming forces, chaos pouring in past broken gates and then the quiet.

It dosen't necessarily mean you don't plan or employ subtext in your works. It's a writing tool,

I would also like to note that I do think that the Mass Effect series needed better planning and that there were lapses in that. It's part of why I think Mass Effect 2 didn't work as the middle installment of a trilogy.  Just so this isn't mistaken as me saying I didn't feel there were any problems with the writing, planning and such. Also, I did like Mass Effect 2 so don't confuse it as me saying I didn't.

Note: I'm saying some because writing techniques and methods differ from writer to writher and so this does not apply to all.

Nov 2, 2016 23:08:46 GMT @upupaway95 said:

Nov 2, 2016 22:12:24 GMT shechinah said:

...

Arcian started with the "Jesus Christ" business first.

As I noted in my post:

"Because backtracking through the conversation, I haven't seen Arcian aim a rude comment towards you besides the implied exasperation in the "Jesus Christ" in the above comment."