Mass Effect Andromeda Skepticism thread

Never mind me, I had a major brain fart.

Oh, my bad. Sorry for that.

For some reason I read Origins as EA.

The tomb raider reboots are good examples of improving a game with a sequel, both graphically and through game play (as an example, removing the reliance on QTE).

That's exactly it. I do feel like I'm kind of a shitty fan for taking the most slanderous reviews I saw (nonetheless striking with what is happening) and shoving them in a BioWare forum but I mainly react to it and my criticisms, Sven the venting over bad things about recent games, because it depresses me when BioWare isn't doing well. They've made some of my favorite games and their latest games have still shown signs of promise that those elements are still in there... I'm just constantly dismayed by the decaying focus on story, the sloppy animation work and increasingly "take the short way out" story and writing.

I just want them to be great, it would be awesome for everyone. People would love it and BioWare would feel prouder that they get more resounding response. It's also particularly the "personal agendas" that bothers me. Looking up some BioWare Base videos, that one of Montreal's studio, the Manveer controversy and certain panels there's been a lot of inconsiderate hirings there. A lot of attempts at being inclusive to various types of people maybe, but it is damaging the studio from inside and similarly their excessive focus on trying to justify whatever minority and almost communist-thinking narrative design lately is seriously off putting. The only recent panel footage is from GaymerX con and another where they talk about "identifying with your character". I don't wanna sound like I'm saying "I don't care about LGBTQ so it shouldn't be a focus" I just think they are indeed focusing too much to the point where it comes across that they care more about this than making the game.

Bioware can definitely make good games. DAI was a very good game even.

The quetion I believe Andromeda will answer if that's the best we can expect from Bioware. Very good. If it's truly gone the days we expect materpieces from them. 

This is also pretty fair. Inquisition isn't terrible. It's just such a fucking slog in some parts. Some shallow decision was made to make the game "epic" in scale, and go open world, but instead of giving that kind of world the care it needed, they just added in a bunch of bullshit fetch quests and some MMO crap with arbitrary wait times. 

I never felt that I hated Inquisition. I just felt that it was a chore. It could've been great if anyone at Bioware had cared enough to actually put more fulfilling content in the game. Or even easier, they could've just made the game a lot shorter. You don't need 100 hours to make a game good. 30-40 is standard for most of the best RPGs, including the ones from Bioware themselves. 

yeah I've lost all hype for this game at this point.

I agree with everything you've said here. In spirit, one could say that ND's games could be used as an example for BioWare. It's just in the technical aspects that the comparisons don't work, since the games are so dissimilar. I wholeheartedly agree that BioWare has failed to innovate, or even keep up with the standard in many cases, and it shows.

The employee exit-interviews shared by Link"Guess"ski reaffirm the suspicions that many of us long had, or at least present supporting views from unhappy former employees (not always the best source for info.) Those aren't all old news, either. One was from last summer, so the culture doesn't seem to be getting fixed overnight, if at all.

To be fair to the DAI design, the sloggy bits are optional. I still don't see how anyone runs out of Power playing the game. If you do the main quest line in any area you open, hit any rift you run into along the way, and cash in any requisition or SQ you trip over along the way, you should end up with all the Power you need. (The Hinterlands are an unfortunate exception to this rule because the main quest line is fairly diffuse, and integrates grindy bits like cache finding and ram hunting.)

Having said that, it's almost like the designers were deliberately trolling completionist players. I'm not quite sure how they ended up there. I'm also not certain that their approach to area design was correct; level designers have said that the idea was to make navigation difficult, because mastering the physical layout is part of the gameplay. They were proud of the Oasis design, for instance.

I do wonder what the ME:A approach to these issues will be. I'm not personally concerned because I liked DA:I fine, but I am curious.

Not that it justifies anything, but similar complaints have been/are being made for CDPR (low pay, unreasonably demanding 'crunch' periods, inconsiderate/incompetent upper management, etc.), and they're considered paragons of 'how to do it right in this industry'. There doesn't seem to be too strict a correlation between exploitative management, and lower product quality.

The undeniable fact appears to be that this is an industry that abuses its workers.
Which is of course shocking, given how well they treat their customers.

I rarely talk about my time in Nokia because when I do, people don't want to believe. In my country Nokia was seen as a second Jesus. I worked on the "floor" and I heard management called us "ants". That meant I assembled smart phones, and I had to do it fast. Our every movement was measured, how many seconds it takes when I take that part and how many seconds it is allowed to take when I step that way. My boss had to check that once in a shift and report that we worked according "the standard". No education needed, though I do had more education than many of my bosses. In Nokia education didn't matter, lack of it or having it. For example, the boss of my boss's only training was in tending farm animals. Mainly cows. Basicly, she had NO education at all. I know that because that woman used to work with me before in a different factory. My boss was a drop out from university. I at least had finished commercial college, and had two other professions under my belt. Not that it mattered there a bit.

Wages were so low I had serious trouble to manage with it as a single person, and I didn't even keep a car that would swallow my earnings. Work was done in shifts, and the last year and a half I worked there I had to do it standing 8 hours shift. Someone had a brainfart that taking away our chairs would add productivity, so that's what they did. My legs were so sore it was like standing on a glass shards. At the same time they began to pay golden handshakes to floor-employees so they would quit. I took that too in the end. I was wondering why they did that, and later it came out that at that time the decision of shutting down the Finnish Nokia factory was already made. There wasn't even much cry about it, just a small news in a paper that a someone from upper  management had spilled the beans that they knew already then that the factory will be shut down. The panic of all the unemployed workers was more in focus, and nobody paid attention anymore to why they were unemployed in the first place. Sometimes (alright, often) I hate this country. Btw, Finnish Nokia factory was always profitable, mainly because we could do any smart phone. The lines could be turned to do any phone in a few hours. That wasn't the case in other factories.

Harassment and bullying is not rare in Finnish workplaces, but in Nokia it was the way of the house. I know about people suiciding because of it. Bullies were absolutely shameless because they knew nothing would happen to them. HR didn't give a shit. It's main focus was in finding ways to harass us too, mainly to find ways to avoid paying something. HR was NEVER on your side. There were all kinds of manifests and pretty words, but the reality was that your boss and your co-workers could make your life a living hell and no one would give a shit. I had a good luck with co-workers, but less with bosses. I actually quit once from Nokia because of bullying, and went to another factory for two years. Unfortunately that factory shut it's doors after that time. There are lots of stories about bullying I've heard and seen myself. We are talking about adult people here, not about high school, but it really was like an American high school, I think. I guess many people never grow out of the high school-mentality.

Many who worked for Nokia at 1990-2000, remember it as a good place to work, and I believe them. After that, Nokia became a big thing and management grew arrogant. They were more interested in being "someone in Nokia" than actually doing their work, or properly guiding the company forward. It went to hell and fast. That's what was very familiar for me when I read what the ex-workers from Bioware said. The "good brother" system is the worst. When work begins to be about friendships and nepotism and favorism, and not tolerating any critisism. No one in right mind in Nokia had courage to question anything. I could do that, because no one gave shit what I said, but no one in management. They knew how it worked. Bright engineers, people with brilliant ideas where forced to shut the fuck up and leave, because they were  a threat to someone. That is the sign of the end. When management begins to be more interested about guarding their own status and seats than actually thinking the best of the company.

And how the products where made...oh boy I could tell  you stories about the 700 dollars phones. With that price you would think they were made with care, and tested and whatnot? Nope, ain't nobody got time for that when the two people assembling them were demanded to produce 200-500 (depending on product) of them in an 8 hours shift. You had to run. Of course in theory we had a strickt QA, in practice it was ridicilous. It couldn't be anything else with the pace that was required from us.

This was a long story, sorry, and off-topic but I didn't know how to answer this good question without making it long. I don't think I've ever said this much about it to people who are not my ex-co-workers. Sorry for typos and Engrish.

Gameplay trailer released.

Meanwhile, on the 'Skepticism thread':