Sandetiger
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Post by Sandetiger on Sept 15, 2023 17:20:19 GMT
Oh, I actually had not heard about Alexis Kennedy before. I hadn't realized that BioWare had already had a history of hiring outside contractors for writing work, and it makes Ben Gelinas and Mark Darrah's introductions - while no less important - perhaps a little less extraordinary than I had been thinking. And I wasn't active in the fandom when The Last Court was still in play, so I didn't realize an outside studio had been contracted to make TLC, either. Really interesting; I'll pull back to some threads on that from here, as that's got my archivist brain tingling a bit: Bit of a rabbit hole reading for me, but I did think it was interesting to find this: From 2018: I would have to assume that it was on the Mortalitasi rather than Kal Sharok and the dwarves, given what we've seen in marketing since then. But that's the benefit of hindsight, I suppose.
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Post by gervaise21 on Sept 16, 2023 10:20:17 GMT
I think you refer to Alexis Kennedy, who was accused and had lost reputation. Yes, you are right. I got the names mixed up in my mind. I would have to assume that it was on the Mortalitasi rather than Kal Sharok and the dwarves, given what we've seen in marketing since then. But that's the benefit of hindsight, I suppose. It does seem more likely but the Mortalitasi were already pretty well established, as evidenced by TN unless the stories there were based on his work. The dwarves of Kal-Sharok were described as pretty creepy in that codex about them and it is a bit of a mystery how they survived down the years, particularly as Orzammar were completely oblivious until the Dragon Age, so it could be the result of some sort of dwarven death cult.
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Post by Sandetiger on Sept 21, 2023 0:26:17 GMT
I'm just not sure where else to put this, so I'll stick the excerpts from MARK DARRAH'S SEPT 19TH 2023 LIVESTREAM Q&A (which was yesterday as of posting this.) A lot of these excerpts feel relevant to what's being discussed in the main DA:D thread, but again, long, so I didn't want to clog that up. Q: "Do you think the Dragon Age IP should be sold off and taken to another studio like Larian?" Mark: "Uh, I don't think- first of all, that's never going to happen- that- EA doesn't really sell off IPs. I think that it's in good place. It's, uh, it's got support from EA and, uh, and it's moving towards its end." Q: "Will it [Dragon Age: Dreadwolf] be on PS4 or should I save up for a PS5?" Mark: "Dreadwolf will only be on next generation consoles and PC as far as I am aware." Q: "Is this a new beginning for Dragon Age?" Mark: " Dragon Age is a weird franchise um it has had to reinvent itself every single time because of internal corporate pressures um this - like Inquisition, like DA2 - will be different from the games that came before it uh I think that's fine uh it kind of become the uh the part of the DNA of the franchise at this point." Q: "What made you want to reach out to BioWare to consult on Dreadwolf?" Mark: "So, I feel like that's being somewhat over reported. So, I have been doing consulting work since- in 2022 was when I started doing it. I was reaching out to different people I knew where BioWare was when I first reached out to them. At the time they said no, um, and then I was like 'all right, fine' and I started working with some other people and then things changed with BioWare and then they came and reached out to me when their situation was a bit different, um, so, I guess the short answer is, uh, money, uh, the long answer was- I mean- I have contacts there, I knew I could help them out, and I'm certainly interested in Dragon Age being the best game that it can be." Q: "How long is Alpha to Beta to Release? In general terms?" Mark: "Um, almost unanswerable. It is incredibly dependent upon uh the the time from Alpha to Beta- well, first of all, there's lots of different definitions of these different phases, um, uh, but the time from Alpha to Beta is the time of getting the content, uh, finished and then from Beta to Release is more about getting your, uh, bugs fixed. Some games have thousands of bugs, some games have tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of bugs, so these times can be highly dependent upon the game and the genre. If you're making something that's a competitive game, that really needs a lot of tuning, then you want a lot of time in that beta period ideally to get the game in front of people who are going to play it to really dial those knobs in as best you can." Q: "Why does Frostbite struggle with animation, even after so many years?" Mark: "I actually feel like it's actually doing fine with animation, I think it's a content problem not a- it's not an engine problem. When it comes to animation and Frostbite, I think what you're seeing is, um, what is being built now. That being said, uh, Frostbite now uses ant, which is the animation system built for sports, uh, so it is different." Q: "Did you watch Absolution?" Mark: "Uh, yeah I did watch Absolution, I actually really liked Absolution. I'm not sure how enjoyable it would be for a non-Dragon Age person because I'm not a non-Dragon Age person, but as a Dragon Age person I really liked it, I thought it was well made, um, I thought it did something interesting with the IP." Q: "In one of your DA:D videos, you mentioned that DA:O went through a lot of shifts in its development too. Can you give us examples of what early versions or drafts of DA:O were like?" Mark: "Uh, yeah in one of my videos I, um, uh, I said that DA:O went through lots of shift in development, yeah, DA:O was multiplayer two different times before it actually ended up shipping. Also, it was, uh, originally being built on the Neverwinter engine, it shifted engines in the middle, um, so it had some big shifts -- the difference being that you know back in the early 2000s there wasn't as much scrutiny on, uh, development- there wasn't as as wide of a pipeline for rumors as there is now." Q: [asked about having the Warden or Inquisitor appear in the next game.] Mark: "For Dragon Age - or any game that has character creation - it is, um, it is extra work, because you have kind of two choices: you either have to move to sort of default marketing protagonist or you- I guess you have three choices: default marketing protagonist, or you have to put character creation right in the middle of the game flow to allow people to recreate their character, or you have to have some way to move your protagonist appearance from game to game to game -- which it would be the ideal solution but that requires that your character creation uh remains relatively constant from game to game, which typically isn't actually the case." Q: "As a producer how have you mitigated decision fatigue for you and your team throughout closing your project?" Mark: "So one of the reasons why I actually advocate so strongly for triage is that triage is a forum through which you can answer a lot of questions -- especially in the end of the project the closing parts of the project. So you're not going to avoid making decisions. Finaling a project is making thousands of decisions in rapid succession but you can take a little bit of the burden off the individual team members by helping them with that decision making or when necessary making the decisions yourselves, so triage also lets you get a group of people together making decisions as a group. If you've worked together for a while can be faster can be less draining as well." Q: "Do you hope Dreadwolf will be good?" Mark: "Absolutely. That's why I'm working with them." Mark: "Titans [in Dragon Age] have always been in the plan." Q: "Do you feel BioWare could have done more to nurture the [Dragon Age] fanbase between releases other than comics and novels?" Mark: "Yeah, I do actually wish that, um, there was an ecosystem to make game- little games so you know you make the little- you make Final Fantasy Tactics- you make Dragon Age tactics- you make a mobile title. I mean, there was, um, the mobile game or the Dragon Age mobile game which they might completely forget right now, um, that did really well, um, but yeah I think there is an opportunity there. That is not the way that, uh, development works really at EA; it would have had to be done by a different part of EA ." Q: "What do I feel about Dragon Age becoming less writer-oriented?" Mark: "I don't know that that is true, um, definitely it went through a period of trying to focus more on different kinds of gameplay like Anthem is definitely a game driven by its gameplay as opposed to by its story, um, I guess we'll see with Bowie what the actual truth is going to be but I I don't think that's what's happening." Q: "If Dragon Age Origins ever gets a remake will a lot more of the problematic elements be removed?" Mark: "So that's ultimately what it comes down to I think if you did a Dragon Age Origins remaster you wouldn't you would just put a fresh coat of paint on it and that would be what you would do. But if you start to do a remake I think that it becomes necessary to start to open up some of those conversations, uh, and that could be a lot which is honestly one of the things that probably is causing uh hesitation on um doing a remaster or a remake in that case." Q: "Do I think the game industry might be moving towards a small core uh developing group that later introduces pods connected groups?" Mark: "I mean I do think that we may see that more and more with a central core development group that then adds on outsourcers or insourcing pods, um, it's kind of how Ubisoft works. You do see games where when you look in the credits it's a pretty small list for a very big game with a couple of huge outsources attached at the end so, um, I think that, uh, in a lot of ways I think the big Publishers might kind of like that. I think they look at the way that movies are developed where they're spun up and spun down and go 'oh what if we could do that' but they haven't been willing to risk it so if something forced their hands I think they might jump in on that model full hand." Q: "Is it more accurate to think of the DA4 development cycle as one game or two games?" Mark: "Kind of something in between, uh, definitely there have been moments of, um, there have been moments where the game has pivoted to a large degree that it effectively has started over but it hasn't always actually started over and maybe that would have been better, um, so it's a little bit of both."
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Post by gervaise21 on Sept 21, 2023 8:40:44 GMT
A lot of these excerpts feel relevant to what's being discussed in the main DA:D thread, but again, long, so I didn't want to clog that up. Thanks for this. I think it is better posted here so we aren't clogging up the general thread. Q: "How long is Alpha to Beta to Release? In general terms?" Mark: "Um, almost unanswerable. It is incredibly dependent upon uh the the time from Alpha to Beta- well, first of all, there's lots of different definitions of these different phases, um, uh, but the time from Alpha to Beta is the time of getting the content, uh, finished and then from Beta to Release is more about getting your, uh, bugs fixed. Some games have thousands of bugs, some games have tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of bugs, so these times can be highly dependent upon the game and the genre. If you're making something that's a competitive game, that really needs a lot of tuning, then you want a lot of time in that beta period ideally to get the game in front of people who are going to play it to really dial those knobs in as best you can." I could be reading too much into this but the emphasis on bugs makes me think that could be the reason for the delay with DA:D. Back in spring 2023 I raised the issue of the Star Wars game having been released as almost unplayable on PC (based off You Tube comments rather than personal experience) and I expressed concern if the same should occur with DA:D. I think having a buggy release would impact sales, since it would remind people of the problems associated with Andromeda, upset established fans and likely deter new players, so they had to do their best to eliminate them. I also recall how many of the Devs were posting how they were playing through the game at the beginning of the year and that likely alerted them to major issues. So, whilst it could be a delay in getting to Beta in the first place, bugs could be the primary issue. Mark: "Titans [in Dragon Age] have always been in the plan." You didn't indicate what question prompted this. Was it just a follow on comment to the general one about Dreadwolf being good? If so, then it would seem Titans are going to feature prominently in DA:D, which is unsurprising given how much they featured in both the Descent and Trespasser, plus references to them in DAI. If they were always part of the ongoing history of Thedas and not something thought up later in the narrative then it is interesting that there was no mention of them (apart from the Stone) in the first two games. This seems to suggest that they are very much going to be connected with Solas taking the action he did in the past and has planned for the future, particularly given the involvement of Mythal in subduing one or more of them. I'm also even more convinced that Kal-Sharok is going to feature in DA:D.
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Post by Unicephalon 40-D on Sept 21, 2023 9:04:34 GMT
Q: "Why does Frostbite struggle with animation, even after so many years?" Mark: "I actually feel like it's actually doing fine with animation, I think it's a content problem not a- it's not an engine problem. When it comes to animation and Frostbite, I think what you're seeing is, um, what is being built now. That being said, uh, Frostbite now uses ant, which is the animation system built for sports, uh, so it is different." Yeah it never was an engine problem per se and one can see it in Anthem which is heads and shoulders over DAI/MEA.
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Gileadan
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Agent 46
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Post by Gileadan on Sept 21, 2023 9:57:49 GMT
"Uh, I don't think- first of all, that's never going to happen- that- EA doesn't really sell off IPs. I think that it's in good place. It's, uh, it's got support from EA and, uh, and it's moving towards its end."
Yeah, one way or the other. Once the Solas thing is done with it really feels like the franchise's story has been told, and most of the writers that created it are gone anyway. Time for something new.
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Sandetiger
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Post by Sandetiger on Sept 21, 2023 16:45:02 GMT
Mark: "Titans [in Dragon Age] have always been in the plan." You didn't indicate what question prompted this. Was it just a follow on comment to the general one about Dreadwolf being good? If so, then it would seem Titans are going to feature prominently in DA:D, which is unsurprising given how much they featured in both the Descent and Trespasser, plus references to them in DAI. If they were always part of the ongoing history of Thedas and not something thought up later in the narrative then it is interesting that there was no mention of them (apart from the Stone) in the first two games. This seems to suggest that they are very much going to be connected with Solas taking the action he did in the past and has planned for the future, particularly given the involvement of Mythal in subduing one or more of them. I'm also even more convinced that Kal-Sharok is going to feature in DA:D. If I do this again (I probably will lol) I'll be more mindful of including timestamps. But for the record, the videos are fairly easily searchable on desktop if you open up the transcripts box and then bring up the browser search bar :-) The titans came up around the 1:00:36 mark as part of a longer discussion on sources of magic, and changing plans to condense the probability factor -- Mark said that if he could go back and fix a few things about DA:O. one of them would be sources of magic.
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Post by dadithinkimgay on Sept 22, 2023 4:44:08 GMT
"Uh, I don't think- first of all, that's never going to happen- that- EA doesn't really sell off IPs. I think that it's in good place. It's, uh, it's got support from EA and, uh, and it's moving towards its end." Yeah, one way or the other. Once the Solas thing is done with it really feels like the franchise's story has been told, and most of the writers that created it are gone anyway. Time for something new. I believe he was referring to the end of production, not the end of the series.
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Gileadan
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Agent 46
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Post by Gileadan on Sept 22, 2023 4:58:03 GMT
"Uh, I don't think- first of all, that's never going to happen- that- EA doesn't really sell off IPs. I think that it's in good place. It's, uh, it's got support from EA and, uh, and it's moving towards its end." Yeah, one way or the other. Once the Solas thing is done with it really feels like the franchise's story has been told, and most of the writers that created it are gone anyway. Time for something new. I believe he was referring to the end of production, not the end of the series. The question was about the IP as a whole so I assume that was what he was talking about, anything else would make little sense. EA won't give the Dragon Age IP to anyone else, and it's moving towards it's end. Mr. Darrah essentially said "No other studio will be making more Dragon Age games after DA4 because EA does not sell off IPs and because the IP is about to end anyway."
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Post by dadithinkimgay on Sept 22, 2023 5:16:52 GMT
I believe he was referring to the end of production, not the end of the series. The question was about the IP as a whole so I assume that was what he was talking about, anything else would make little sense. EA won't give the Dragon Age IP to anyone else, and it's moving towards its end. Mr. Darrah essentially said "No other studio will be making more Dragon Age games after DA4 because EA does not sell off IPs and because the IP is about to end anyway." Mark announcing that on livestream makes little sense. So does ending a lucrative IP before its next installment is put out.
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Post by colfoley on Sept 22, 2023 5:27:13 GMT
On the issue of 'is the franchise ending'. I believe that Darrah was specifically reffering to Dreadwolf's production specifically as well and not in terms of the series as a whole. Money speaks and if it does well enough it is bound to continue on because EA will want to duplicate said success...especially since we are seeing I guess a circling of the wagons for major IPs amongst pretty much all publishers/devs. That doesen't mean it can't be an ending though. Whether or not it will wrap up most of the plot points of the series or whether or not it can serve as the last DA game regardless is a little bit more uncertain to me. Afterall we have heard mention of a 'five game plan' (which Darrah himself did discuss in the stream) and I do believe I remember someone mentioning they plan their games two out in advance...either in regards to Inquisition or DA 2...and in that respect to some things in DAI feels like it was introduced specifically for some future game. On the other hand I am also fairly confident that Dreadwolf will release without any DLC or specific plans for post launch/ live service support in terms of story expansions. What this means is we're very unlikely to see the 'bridge' DLCs between one project and another which is meant to set up the next game, IE Tresspasser, Arrival, or Legacy. Without which its far more likely that Dreadwolf will be able to stand on its own with minimal plot threads left hanging for a future game unless of course they remain confident they can get a future game. From there though even if they wrap up the main plot line with this next game...and given how much lore remains unexplored and how much story there could be in at least a few aspects that seems like a perposterous undertaking...we could also get smaller games after Dreadwolf that serve as stand alone adventures that continue to advance the world, or tell stories from previous eras in the timeline, or go very far into the future. These games probably won't have much if any connection to one another (think Elder Scrolls) and will be much smaller and scope so BioWare can continue to release 'Dragon Age games'. Anyways though what I really wanted to talk about . No one seems to have caught it or at least maybe don't think its as significant as I do...but Mark Darrah let slip that the game is under the code name 'Bowie' now. (Hope he does not get in trouble.) Thought he made a mistake or it was just some weird name to talk about BioWare in general but later on someone did ask him about it and he was like 'oops guess I just confirmed its name' or something to that effect. But given what we know of this game's dev to this point this does clear up some confusion for what I mentioned before in Schmooples about the various versions of this game. While I guess it wasn't talked about but this pretty much confirms that the 2021 pivot to single player represented a more full 'reboot' of the project afterall. Now hopefully this came with the same rebooting of the budget as before and now it makes a lot more sense why the game isn't going to release until 2024 because since it was a full reboot that now represents a much more logical, though painful, timeline. The other aspect of this that Darrah mentioned is that Dreadwolf has gone through a few weird stages where its kind of three different games, now, but also kind of had some continuity. He mentioned his opinion that maybe it would've been better had there been no continuity at all...and well I disagree. Yes there are aspects of each of the versions I have concerns about, but also elements I have heard about each version I really hope has continued to carry over to the present iteration.
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Gileadan
N5
Agent 46
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Post by Gileadan on Sept 22, 2023 5:51:57 GMT
I probably wouldn't consider a game that cost EA several reboots (hundreds of people paid for years with no result) and now requires external assistance (Triage Games) for who knows how long until it's finished as "lucrative" - quite the opposite, that is a lot of piled up cost, and that right after their seven-year-development-but-dead-on-arrival Anthem disaster. EA has poured a lot of money into BioWare with not so great results in recent years.
Also, full quote of the question and Mr. Darrah's answer:
Q: "Do you think the Dragon Age IP should be sold off and taken to another studio like Larian?" Mark: "Uh, I don't think- first of all, that's never going to happen- that- EA doesn't really sell off IPs. I think that it's in good place. It's, uh, it's got support from EA and, uh, and it's moving towards its end."
The question was whether a studio like Larian could make DA5, not whether BioWare's DA4 should be handed over to them. It was about the IP as a whole. And Mr. Darrah said the IP is moving towards its end, so likely there won't be a DA5.
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Post by colfoley on Sept 22, 2023 6:06:10 GMT
I probably wouldn't consider a game that cost EA several reboots (hundreds of people paid for years with no result) and now requires external assistance (Triage Games) for who knows how long until it's finished as "lucrative" - quite the opposite, that is a lot of piled up cost, and that right after their seven-year-development-but-dead-on-arrival Anthem disaster. EA has poured a lot of money into BioWare with not so great results in recent years. Also, full quote of the question and Mr. Darrah's answer: Q: "Do you think the Dragon Age IP should be sold off and taken to another studio like Larian?" Mark: "Uh, I don't think- first of all, that's never going to happen- that- EA doesn't really sell off IPs. I think that it's in good place. It's, uh, it's got support from EA and, uh, and it's moving towards its end." The question was whether a studio like Larian could make DA5, not whether BioWare's DA4 should be handed over to them. It was about the IP as a whole. And Mr. Darrah said the IP is moving towards its end, so likely there won't be a DA5. Well we don't know how lucrative the game will or won't be since its not out yet. Also if it has rebooted then it may've rebooted the budget to. Might help more for the accounting department or a tax write off (wouldn't that be something) but the current version of DA might be the only thing EA is concerned about in terms of budget so, lot at play with that, but we will see. The statement immedietly preceeding the bolded is a direct contradiction to your hypothesis. Both statements don't exist in a background if BioWare/ DA has EAs support right now then its illogical to assume that this is the planned final game. Now again as per my wall of text above it could still very easily end up being so but I am pretty sure Mark was just being a little inprecise with his language because dadithinkimgay is right, it would be absurd to have a private contractor announce that kind of thing on an open live stream. It wouldn't be his decision and given some of the other statements he made in the stream its unlikely they'd even tell him. Edit: Its also possible to talk about more then one thing at once in any statement.
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Post by Sandetiger on Sept 22, 2023 6:22:31 GMT
I personally think he was just talking about DA4 moving toward its end, and it's jumbled up with the rest of what he was saying. He was actively getting sick in this livestream, and I've actually edited out a lot of the uh, um, uh, ums that he had. And the transcripts don't convey the long pauses where he was staring at the screen trying to figure out what he was reading, gather his thoughts, and then reply in a timely fashion. If you want to ask for clarification, his channel is there and he does read and reply to just about every comment there is. Probably more fruitful than speculating here. EDIT: Actually, I'll just do it myself. Saves time.
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Gileadan
N5
Agent 46
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Post by Gileadan on Sept 22, 2023 6:23:15 GMT
I probably wouldn't consider a game that cost EA several reboots (hundreds of people paid for years with no result) and now requires external assistance (Triage Games) for who knows how long until it's finished as "lucrative" - quite the opposite, that is a lot of piled up cost, and that right after their seven-year-development-but-dead-on-arrival Anthem disaster. EA has poured a lot of money into BioWare with not so great results in recent years. Also, full quote of the question and Mr. Darrah's answer: Q: "Do you think the Dragon Age IP should be sold off and taken to another studio like Larian?" Mark: "Uh, I don't think- first of all, that's never going to happen- that- EA doesn't really sell off IPs. I think that it's in good place. It's, uh, it's got support from EA and, uh, and it's moving towards its end." The question was whether a studio like Larian could make DA5, not whether BioWare's DA4 should be handed over to them. It was about the IP as a whole. And Mr. Darrah said the IP is moving towards its end, so likely there won't be a DA5. Well we don't know how lucrative the game will or won't be since its not out yet. Also if it has rebooted then it may've rebooted the budget to. Might help more for the accounting department or a tax write off (wouldn't that be something) but the current version of DA might be the only thing EA is concerned about in terms of budget so, lot at play with that, but we will see. The statement immedietly preceeding the bolded is a direct contradiction to your hypothesis. Both statements don't exist in a background if BioWare/ DA has EAs support right now then its illogical to assume that this is the planned final game. Now again as per my wall of text above it could still very easily end up being so but I am pretty sure Mark was just being a little inprecise with his language because dadithinkimgay is right, it would be absurd to have a private contractor announce that kind of thing on an open live stream. It wouldn't be his decision and given some of the other statements he made in the stream its unlikely they'd even tell him. Edit: Its also possible to talk about more then one thing at once in any statement. Rebooted the budget? Well yes, they'd probably have to set a new budget every time a game is rebooted just for cost transparency and all, but all the money spent on the cancelled previous iterations is still gone. Creating a new budget for a new project doesn't make the previous losses go away. To be actually lucrative DA4 would have to earn back all the budgets spent on every previous failed attempt, otherwise it would still be an overall loss for EA. It would have to sell well enough to make back the costs of several games essentially. On the other hand BioWare just fired 50 people, studio veterans among them, I suppose because they can't afford them or don't need them anymore or both. And of course they have EA's support right now because without that DA4 would be over instantly, like Anthem Next. It's probably close enough to completion that EA thinks it's worth salvaging and at least get a bit of their spent budgets (plural) back.
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Post by Sandetiger on Sept 22, 2023 6:36:18 GMT
No one seems to have caught it or at least maybe don't think its as significant as I do...but Mark Darrah let slip that the game is under the code name 'Bowie' now. Actually, I am pretty sure that's the code name for the next Mass Effect, and he was referring to that game in terms of the context of BioWare losing a ton of its writers while that game is still in preproduction. Bowie was in metadata for the N7 Day 2022 teaser. The pastebin I was reading is no longer active (otherwise I'd link it), but here's the screenshot I nicked from it:
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Post by colfoley on Sept 22, 2023 7:36:09 GMT
I personally think he was just talking about DA4 moving toward its end, and it's jumbled up with the rest of what he was saying. He was actively getting sick in this livestream, and I've actually edited out a lot of the uh, um, uh, ums that he had. And the transcripts don't convey the long pauses where he was staring at the screen trying to figure out what he was reading, gather his thoughts, and then reply in a timely fashion. If you want to ask for clarification, his channel is there and he does read and reply to just about every comment there is. Probably more fruitful than speculating here. EDIT: Actually, I'll just do it myself. Saves time. I would've advised against that since he can't say much but...best of luck. No one seems to have caught it or at least maybe don't think its as significant as I do...but Mark Darrah let slip that the game is under the code name 'Bowie' now. Actually, I am pretty sure that's the code name for the next Mass Effect, and he was referring to that game in terms of the context of BioWare losing a ton of its writers while that game is still in preproduction. Bowie was in metadata for the N7 Day 2022 teaser. The pastebin I was reading is no longer active (otherwise I'd link it), but here's the screenshot I nicked from it: Oh *deflates a bit* thank you * mutters off to one side* Vishantae Kaffas.
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Post by Sandetiger on Sept 22, 2023 7:49:38 GMT
I would've advised against that since he can't say much but...best of luck. Well, he already said something. So either he clarifies that it was just meant to refer to DA:D nearing development completion, or he has to do damage control. Big ol' shrug. He'll answer what he can.
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Post by colfoley on Sept 22, 2023 7:54:43 GMT
I would've advised against that since he can't say much but...best of luck. Well, he already said something. So either he clarifies that it was just meant to refer to DA:D nearing development completion, or he has to do damage control. Big ol' shrug. He'll answer what he can. See this whole situation is fascinating and just a perfect example of how language can be easily interpreted 7 different ways for 6 people. First time I read through your reply I thought you meant he already replied to your YouTube question so I was going to go and look for it but then on second reading realized you meant that he said something during the stream and that he would reply to you and answer what he can.
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Post by Sandetiger on Sept 22, 2023 8:04:04 GMT
Well, he already said something. So either he clarifies that it was just meant to refer to DA:D nearing development completion, or he has to do damage control. Big ol' shrug. He'll answer what he can. See this whole situation is fascinating and just a perfect example of how language can be easily interpreted 7 different ways for 6 people. First time I read through your reply I thought you meant he already replied to your YouTube question so I was going to go and look for it but then on second reading realized you meant that he said something during the stream and that he would reply to you and answer what he can. Thus illustrating why seeking clarity can be a great thing if you're not sure
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Post by gervaise21 on Sept 22, 2023 8:29:51 GMT
[59:00] Q: "Isn't it only blight, blood, or fade? Lyrium is blood." Mark: "Is it- oh, the question on the magical sources for Dragon Age. Isn't it only blight blood or fade? It isn't because you've got blight, blood, fade- um, well, okay, yes, lyrium is blood now because that was, um, that was that was Dragon Age collapsing the probability space, that's- that's what I mean by Dragon Age is collapsing the probability space - it didn't used to be." [1:00:36] Q: "Oh! that wasn't always the plan for lyrium?? Were titans in the original game plan?! What were the dwarfs?! aren't they referred to as drones all the way in DA:O??" Mark: "I don't know if that was always the plan for lyrium or not- I don't think so, I think that was, um, uh, yeah, no, I think there are Titans- Titans have always been in the plan." If I understand him correctly, the Titans were always part of the narrative and hinted at through the dwarves' tradition of the Stone but lyrium wasn't always linked to them. That would explain why originally it was said to be a mineral and then it became organic in DAI, being revealed to be Titans' blood in the Descent. It was seemingly done to simplify and reduce the range of options for the origin of magic if I understand him correctly. However, to my mind it opened up a whole new can of worms but presumably the narrative will deal with this going forward. I think I shall start another thread to discuss this.
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Post by Sandetiger on Sept 23, 2023 4:24:13 GMT
I personally think he was just talking about DA4 moving toward its end, and it's jumbled up with the rest of what he was saying. He was actively getting sick in this livestream, and I've actually edited out a lot of the uh, um, uh, ums that he had. And the transcripts don't convey the long pauses where he was staring at the screen trying to figure out what he was reading, gather his thoughts, and then reply in a timely fashion. If you want to ask for clarification, his channel is there and he does read and reply to just about every comment there is. Probably more fruitful than speculating here. EDIT: Actually, I'll just do it myself. Saves time. He replied: "Definitely just that Dreadwolf is moving towards ship." So no, he wasn't talking about the end of the IP, just that Dreadwolf is trucking along.
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Post by Gileadan on Sept 23, 2023 5:56:16 GMT
I personally think he was just talking about DA4 moving toward its end, and it's jumbled up with the rest of what he was saying. He was actively getting sick in this livestream, and I've actually edited out a lot of the uh, um, uh, ums that he had. And the transcripts don't convey the long pauses where he was staring at the screen trying to figure out what he was reading, gather his thoughts, and then reply in a timely fashion. If you want to ask for clarification, his channel is there and he does read and reply to just about every comment there is. Probably more fruitful than speculating here. EDIT: Actually, I'll just do it myself. Saves time. He replied: "Definitely just that Dreadwolf is moving towards ship." So no, he wasn't talking about the end of the IP, just that Dreadwolf is trucking along. Thanks for asking him I retract everything I said but boy is his talk imprecise. Oh well, we shall know by the result in the end.
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Post by Sandetiger on Sept 23, 2023 17:18:04 GMT
He replied: "Definitely just that Dreadwolf is moving towards ship." So no, he wasn't talking about the end of the IP, just that Dreadwolf is trucking along. Thanks for asking him I retract everything I said but boy is his talk imprecise. Oh well, we shall know by the result in the end. He actually commented about that in the video -- he's TERRIBLE at interviews haha
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