Anthem Twitter Thread

I know BioFan asked him recently if he was on Anthem, and Mike said "Not necessarily".

He has very large feet?

Ask a Game Dev‏ @askagamedev
Why would Bioware make a game like Anthem? (Spoiler: ... because their senior leadership wants to)

askagamedev.tumblr.com/post/165083521794/why-would-a-game-developing-company-like-bioware

"That said, Bioware has always made games that their senior leadership wants to make. It really isn’t because EA (or anyone else, like you) is forcing them to do things they don’t want to do. It’s a collaborative process for certain, but the decisions on what kind of games to make rests on the leadership at Bioware, many of whom have been with Bioware for over a decade. Anthem, for example, has quietly been in development for many years - some of their senior leadership really love and believe in it. They may or may not end up making games you want to play, but (for good or for ill) I can say with absolute certainty that they are making the games that they want to make."

I think that's a little pollyannish. Or at least, I don't want to believe that it was only BW leadership who pushed MEA out before it was ready.

That said, EA can be very influential without it being evil, necessarily. It could be a confluence of business and vision. BW old-timers wanted to do a multiplayer-first title, EA wanted a bigger piece of the Action gaming pie. Kismet!

Bioware has supported MP in the past.  But it's spic SINGLE PLAYER experiences, that put them on the map.

It wasn't MP that gave us Minsc and Boo, Revan, Commander Shepard, The Grey Wardens, Sagacious Zu, etc.

Edit:  also, the MP Bioware supported prior to ME3 is very different than the MP they now offer

Jay Watamaniuk‏ @jaywatamaniuk
Reached a level of busy where making an excel sheet detailing my exercise plan for 2018 is considered my fun, coffee-break activity.

Is bioware not best know for their single player experience? Other companies and their games are irrelevant caus they don't dictate what bioware makes or does. Bioware has always been at the bottom when it comes to profit, reputation, yata yata yata but they're still known for SP regardless.

How many games can you name that play out like Mass Effect or Dragon Age? Yea the industry does tend to play by trends, but others still put out unique products in their own ways.. So there was nothing silly to what I say as it's true. No one is making bioware produce a SP focused action/RPG with a customizable character with their own story that you play out with certain choices and decisions along with companions that you can interact with. Bioware makes those games cause that's what they do and where their specialty is/was. The trends they played out while making their games would be incorporating the action approach. The gears of war combat fluidity, streamlining the skills and progression, even attempting open world but even with those inclusions, Biowares games still tend to have some sense of identity.

massive sales aren't needed to point out a specialty. Bioware has won plenty of gaming awards, even though those games are far from being the most sold. Being the most sold doesn't mean it's the best, it simply reach s out to far more people. Bioware is a developer that reaches to a niche group, and for that group their name was made by what they did in the past. There was plenty of trends then as there is now, yet they didn't go out of their way to make games built off it like they are now.

Multiplayer alone isn't necessarily a trend either, online gaming has been big since it's inclusion. The real trend is incorporating micro transactions into a MP component cause you're not getting away with that in most SP games. That'd be why Bioware has "tacked on" a MP. Not because they're good at it or  that it's needed, but to squeeze out whatever else they can. That and the market that Anthem is intended for is still partially open unless destiny seals its spot. It's more of an opportunity in this case more so than a trend to me. Take the market, and Bioware will be setting the trend rather than following it.

Imperator Furiåsa‏ @devilkitten
Note to self: as a UX designer for games, never, no matter the need, Google "damage floaters". Apparently that's eye damage territory.


[HASH]ANT
(Delete hashtag when quoting - thanks!)

It does matter on what's unique and what isn't as that's what sells. You can follow a trend all day but if you're not the original or doing something unique in the process you're going to be second fiddle. I full well know sales determines how long you stay relevant but my point is sales don't come unless you offer something no one else does. I also know poor sales can deter a developer away from what they were doing and going back to why people play their games.

As as I said though, bioware has always been for a niche group cause they've never been top sellers. They make their money by meeting THEIR niche group and now we see them getting away from it and they risk shutting down. There's a reason people have been complaining for years how they're no longer the same bioware people used to know, there's a reason bioware has become under fire and why Andromeda was a disappointment and why one of their own studios got shut down and then merged into EA. If money is what matters then bioware has been failing which is why I don't understand the point in money mattering. 

If money was the real issue bioware would go back to being bioware, not chasing opportunities and "hoping" it works. Anthem is a must succeed situation cause that reputation can't take much more.