Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Mass Effect Andromeda, Mass Effect Legendary Edition Posts: 459 Likes: 1,506
I think there were bigger issues at play than the Endings. Maybe this is a controversial opinion, but while I think the Endings don't make a lot of sense and could have been done better, I also think they're not The End Of The World and I think it's okay to forgive the studios for making mistakes with that in the context of some larger development and writing struggles/mistakes and an even larger issue with studio culture and the incredible scope of the project. I'm sure people like Hudson and Walters are well aware that the Endings could have been handled better. This fandom culture of lambasting them ad infinitum and not giving them the grace to grow as people for the crime of writing subpar Endings to a video game franchise really needs to just die. Everything Wrong With BioWare:tm: didn't begin nor did it end with them, and even with as little as we know about the behind the scenes events, we know that there was much more to it than 'Hudson and Walters singlehandedly messed up the Endings, Mass Effect, and BioWare!' It was old a decade ago and it's old now.
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect Andromeda, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
I think many would agree with this. I think (and not looking to derail this thread, so this is all I will say on it here) if they had come out after all was said and done, just said, "Yeah, we screwed up the endings. We take responsibility for that, and all we can do going forward is hope to learn from that mistake and try to do better," I think in the short term, it would have really hurt them, but long term, I think that wound could have healed properly, and would not have become so radioactive as it has become.
Q: Does sunk cost ever affect game dev? IE we put so many zots into a feature that isn't working, we may as well put in more to finish it?
A: Sunk cost affects us like it affects most humans. We’re loss-averse creatures and our brains abhor feeling like we’ve wasted resources. The problem then becomes throwing “good” resources after bad and trying to “get over the hump” when it is really just digging our own graves even deeper.
One famous example is Mass Effect Andromeda. ME:A had a major problem with sunk cost - the game was originally intended to feature a procedural planet generator that could create a near-infinite number of planets to explore. The dev team spent a tremendous amount of resources building out such a system and ended up scrapping it because it was just not good enough to generate the kind of quality content they knew their players would expect.
The sunk cost problem is often a real issue because it is extraordinarily difficult to solve and extremely easy to feel like you’re almost finished with them. The biggest problem with sunk cost is that the solution to the problem feels tantalizingly close if you only fix these issues, but this is why these problems are cursed. It’s usually a conflict of core gameplay values that cause these, and pushing to solve the incongruity usually just creates new issues that must be solved.
So it appears BioWare Gear has communications issue.
Not only did I not got my statue today, but instead they gave me an email for new tracker and curious company only today received my order in... Germany??? I thought warehouse is in Austria???
Oh wow, my British friend is in an even worse spot.
For him too it stated it will come from Austria by Monday, as he order on the same day as me. But his order was put on hold due to tax complications, thanks to Brexit. He got the option to refund or wait for 2-3 weeks to get the delivery.
So PSA for any British users here, you may have the same issue too if you order anything from BioWare Gear.
IGN @ign EA is nearing an agreement to move the ongoing development of MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic from BioWare to a third-party studio to allow BioWare to focus on Mass Effect and Dragon Age. bit.ly/3oOYsyq
Check us for all the relevant news about the Next ME game!
Used to be known as Mesina2, later CroGamer002 on old BSN.
dazk
N7 A blade answers only to the hand that wields it
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect Andromeda, Mass Effect Legendary Edition Origin: DazK1805 Posts: 16,190 Likes: 45,672
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Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect Andromeda, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Mass Effect Andromeda, Mass Effect Legendary Edition Posts: 459 Likes: 1,506
IGN @ign EA is nearing an agreement to move the ongoing development of MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic from BioWare to a third-party studio to allow BioWare to focus on Mass Effect and Dragon Age. bit.ly/3oOYsyq
I know there's lots of thinky thoughts on this abounding, but I thought it would be interesting to pull to attention a twitter thread shared by Chris Schmidt @nighguy where he talks about this studio shakeup from the POV of "...someone who worked for BioWare Austin on SWTOR from 2009 as an Assistant World Designer through 2022 as Design Director (with some Anthem, Shadow Realms, and <NDA> years sprinkled about)."
It's a really interesting Window to the relationship between BioWare Edmonton and BioWare Austin, and I think it provides a little depth to the extent that Anthem really messed up BioWare and how that's impacted DA:D development, and of course the ripple effect that that may or may not have had on the next Mass Effect's development. I would probably go as far as to say that this thread really gets to the core of the problem with the Edmonton studio trying to do a live service / multiplayer style of game when it's really not what they do or think of themselves as doing. And the issues were compounded when the Dragon Age and MEA teams were dragged into the mess with Anthem, which Chris was also involved with.
As for how it relates to MEME, I will specifically extract three tweets in two screenshots:
and
It's going to be interesting to see how this affects BioWare and their game development.
Wasn't Chris Schmidt one of the people responsible for the disastrous 10th anniversary of SWTOR and then left Bioware a year later?
Disastrous? Please tell me more.
It was announced in a big way that the 10th anniversary will bring many great things and it will be celebrated throughout the year.
The reality was that there was almost no new story content and only one Flashpoint that was also bugged and released late.
The innovations were mainly a new UI, which was completely confusing and caused eye pain for some players, and the complete overhaul of the classes.
Unfortunately, some classes were no longer competitive after that. There was a DPS class where even the best players could no longer achieve the necessary DPS for a NIM raid.
Only towards the end of the year did they fix some of the bugs.
One more comment on Chris Schmidt. He has hardly spoken in the official SWTOR forum. Instead, he went to private Discord servers and made himself known there and then discussed SWTOR with the people there. That is not acceptable. If he prefers to discuss on Discord rather than in a forum, Bioware should have opened its own official server.
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, SWTOR, Anthem, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Dragon Age The Veilguard Posts: 2,107 Likes: 2,175
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, SWTOR, Anthem, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Dragon Age The Veilguard
As a player, I don't think we need a new Bioware game every year, or even two years, and I can wait even three years, but this stuff hasn't been worth caring about when it gets to 4-5. These are nice games with their corner of the industry, but they should remind people of that every now and again. I think DAIs output was problematic but ultimately fun, MEA was outright problematic and a stain on my view of the franchise, but I still want it to be broadly canon and included (would not have chosen a direct sequel though)....but Anthem, and this wait for DAD, does not make the best narrative for the studio(s). They have to nail a lot of things, and I hope they do.
I have my nitpicks, like I don't prefer the current purple color scheme, and I'm wary about calling it Dread Wolf, etc, but hey, I want it to be good so they can maybe make a great Mass Effect . Waiting up to about 15 years since what I consider to be the last really nice ME content, sucks! It sucks! (I can enjoy MEA for what it is, it is no meme trashfire, in the end)
Kotaku @kotaku BioWare pulls Mass Effect statue after everyone WTFs: bit.ly/3Cnj43S
Earlier today BioWare announced a new piece of merch for Mass Effect fans: a statue of Commander Shepard from the opening of Mass Effect 2, where if you need reminding they are found dead and floating in space. The statue was accompanied by a slightly odd press release, and the combination of the two has led to a lot of fans spending the day wondering if everything was OK at the BioWare Gear Store.
The statue, released as part of a range that also features Kaidan, Thane and the Illusive Man, was pitched in a press release as a “conversation starter”, and described it as “The Mass Effect Shepard’s Death Statue depicts Mass Effect 2's dramatic opening scene: Commander Shepard expelled from a crumbling Normandy and hurtling through space to her untimely demise”.
That’s a...weird thing to capture in a statue, weirder still when it’s pitched that way and you see the sculpt:
BioWare Gear Store @biowaregear Hi all,
Earlier today, we announced the sale of our latest Mass Effect Shepard statue. This statue was intended to be part of a series, commemorating some of the key and most emotional moments in the series. The way we announced it did not convey that properly, nor does it give the moment in the series the credit it deserves.
As a result, we'll be pausing sales on the statue until we can share the larger plan with you.
Thank you,
BioWare Gear Store
If you were able to secure a pre order for this, we will unfortunately need to cancel this until the proper launch. The store will automatically refund your card, and should you need extra customer support, please contact us here: biowarestore-ycampdba71o.gorgias.help/en-US
Post by Unicephalon 40-D on Jun 13, 2023 8:11:58 GMT
Well now we have a confirmation Shepard is dead and can continue without baggage
[ LegendCNCD / AsariLoverFI ] MEA Rules! Waiting for DA4 & ME5 - Look's like sometime in 2186, everything went to hell. We got out just ahead of it! MEA & ME1 (>>>> 3 > 2) -- DAI > DAO > DA2 -- 3500h+ & maxed out all 02/2020 in MEAMP, APEX 137001+, DAIMP (576/761/201), ANTHEM, SW BF II, FO76 - Drinking tears of MP lamers since DooM & Quake in 90's softknees.bandcamp.com/
Well now we have a confirmation Shepard is dead and can continue without baggage
I thought this at first, too but look at the statue. It’s Shep with more or less intact armor floating atop a broken piece of the Normandy SR1’s hull. This was supposed to be about Shep’s death at the start of ME2, not the end of ME3.
I would actually say though, that this doesn't even fit into the category of "emotional moments". I think Shep's death at the beginning of ME2 was the least emotional death ever since everybody already knew that s/he'd be back 5 minutes later. 🤷♂️
On the matter as a whole: Just … WTF was that?!? 🤣
Last Edit: Jun 13, 2023 16:00:17 GMT by AnDromedary
jealous much 
Does she come with an "induction port"?
jealous much 
Does she come with an "induction port"?
. Waiting up to about 15 years since what I consider to be the last really nice ME content, sucks! It sucks! (I can enjoy MEA for what it is, it is no meme trashfire, in the end)
