Dragon Age News Thread

I wrote it because it seemed, from your post, that you were focusing solely on Solas's view as a counter to blood magic. Dorian doesn't think that blood magic, as a concept, is that bad either -- "Your own blood, or that of a willing participant? What's the harm?" It's only with the practical, real-world application where it's a more thorny issue and should be rejected because of the continual lust for more and more power. Communism is not bad, either, in theory, but it has never been implemented in its pure form because people are assholes and corrupt everything.

They both dislike it, but for different reasons. Sadly, the Inquisitor's terrible options don't really allow for a nuanced discussion. If you say that you think it's evil, he -- and rightly so -- disapproves because that seems to be a case of just parroting Chantry propaganda rather than thinking for yourself.


[edit] And with that I'll bow out of the discussion, as it could easily derail the thread. Blood magic is a complicated issue.

Studio Update from Casey Hudson
by Author - Casey HudsonPosted on - April 16, 2018
blog.bioware.com/2018/04/16/studio-update-from-casey-hudson/

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Humans! It’s going to be an exciting year. There’s so much going on that I wanted to set up a blog where I can share some thoughts and news with you directly. This is the first entry in a series where I’d like to talk about our vision for BioWare, what that means for our upcoming titles, and share some stories about development as we head towards the launch of Anthem.

I started at BioWare 20 years ago. I’ve worked on several of our titles, most notably as the Producer/Director of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the Mass Effect Trilogy. A few years ago, I took some time away to try something different, and had an amazing experience working at Microsoft on mixed-reality and HoloLens. But the Great White North called me home once again when I was offered the opportunity to return to BioWare as General Manager. The idea of leading the company that I was part of building for so long, and returning to work on the game worlds that I love, was one I couldn’t pass up.

When I returned to BioWare last summer, Mass Effect: Andromeda had just been released and there was a significant movement among players asking for a story DLC that would answer questions surrounding the fate of the quarians. As you know, we were not able to deliver story DLC for Andromeda—this was as frustrating for us as it was for players, and it was something we knew we had to solve in future games.

That experience ultimately became a defining moment in refocusing BioWare’s mission. We need to delight players with new experiences and innovation, but we must stay focused on the importance of the world, character, and storytelling elements that players expect from our games. And our games must be designed to continue delivering new stories and experiences, in an ongoing relationship with players in the worlds we’re evolving together.

It’s in that spirit that we are working through production on Anthem–a game designed to create a whole new world of story and character that you can experience with friends in an ongoing series of adventures. It will be unlike anything you’ve played, but if we do it right, it will feel very distinctly BioWare.

Next time I’ll talk more about how our updated studio mission is helping to focus our work on Anthem and the games that will follow!

He did say "games that will follow."  That might include DA.  Hopefully. 

What's that about MEA?

I don't think there's really any big mystery behind it. MEA just didn't sell as well as they'd hoped, the studio ended up being folded into Motive, and everyone else is split between Anthem and SW (and other?).

Probably, I just still would like for them to say it so it can be put to rest. I was honestly hurt by how they decided to deal with the franchise and how little was communicated to fans about it at the time (I mean, it took months just to get the "no dlc" confirmation). 

MEA has been announced as financially sucessful for at least two different Investor Reports, plus it takes time to plan a merger and they pretty much started taking people from BioWare Montreal to Motive as soon as MEA launched leaving behind a small patch team - I still think they planned to merge Montreal into Motive before MEA release and reception. Alot wrong seemed to have happened with BioWare Montreal management, and i think they didn't want to trust them with more resources or have to take even more from their other projects.

It was probably "successful" in that it made it's money back, and maybe turned a small profit.  

I already read Casey post, nothing really to analyze from here, is as it is, just generic hype-up. It's the normal thing to do.

When your apology boils down to "Buy our new thing no one is hyped about" I really dont know what to say.

I feel like I have been burned by Bioware so many times now, that me paying attention to their games at all is Stockholm syndrome.

Even having liked DA2 and Andromeda, I still have to deal with the overwhelming sense of "Not the game it could have been if it wasn't a rushed development" and "A story that will forever be unfinished because memes killed a franchise."

These games take between 2 and 6 years to make, and the whole time the EA sniper is in rafters waiting to take the shot.
I can only maintain excitement for so long before I have nothing left in me.

I'm sorry I had to do it. I know it's cheap.