In this day and age, the launch is not as important as a steady stream of updates for long-living games.
There are exceptions, though. Make a launch bad enough, and it will have a material impact on the success of the game, no matter how good the follow through is. No Man's Sky, Fallout 76, SWBF2, Agony, etc.
True. Though I think in many cases these game were riddled with many more troubles than just a bad or lackluster launch.
“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”
Michael Gamble @gamblemike Anthem has a lot of lore. Like a lot. If you’re into that.
Deity Falkor @deity_Falkor Should we expect an "In the beginning" page or video with a little back story before launch to set the mood?
Michael Gamble @gamblemike
Jorge 🐍 Agent @doomhammer76 How do we get access to this Lore Mike? All in game?
Michael Gamble @gamblemike Yes
Ministry Of Geeks @ministryofgeeks Like Destiny lore, or real lore?
Michael Gamble @gamblemike I have no idea what that means.
Ministry Of Geeks @ministryofgeeks So we have to hunt round multiple web pages for "lore cards", or is it all right there in the game, and makes sense?
Michael Gamble @gamblemike It’s all in game. It’s very BioWare.
Last Edit: Feb 10, 2019 21:34:39 GMT by midnight tea
“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”
I don't think I've seen this Gamerant interview with Mark Darrah linked and it's an interesting one (in non-spoilery way). Here are some nuggets to chew on:
GR: Be it connected shooters, platformers, or what have you, what games did BioWare look to as inspiration before the formulation of Anthem?
MD: Yeah, so, Anthem’s actually been in development since before Destiny came out, so it’s interesting–it’s kind of a bit of parallel evolution there where we kind of ended up in a similar place, but from a different route. Our lead combat designer actually worked on Halo, so that definitely has influenced our combat in terms of tightness of controls.
And there’s a lot of examples of games out there with flying, but what’s really been interesting on this game is, I think, with flying and combat sort of banged into each other, that’s been where we’ve actually found something special, which I don’t really think exists out there right now, and so we’ve had to kind of forge our own path. But I think in that forging, that’s where we’ve really found something.
GR: It’s been confirmed that Anthem will have Seasonal Events of some kind, but how will they work?
MD: So, there’ll be two things, let’s call them “real world events”, which will be more like Christmas events, Easter events, St. Patrick’s Day–I don’t think we’ll do St. Patrick’s Day, but whatever–where it’s a more of a cosmetic thing. The world will do some visual stuff, maybe now it’s at Easter, so grabbits are ten times as likely, and they’re putting eggs everywhere, I don’t know, like those kinds of things where it’s more acute, short, and it’s more of an engagement with the community.
GR: When Cataclysms were originally called Shaper Storms, Anthem lead producer Mike Gamble said in an interview that they could theoretically fit Mass Effect‘s universe into them. Could Cataclysms feature crossover events in that regard?
MD: Yeah, certainly crossovers are not impossible. I don’t think we’ll go there right away, because Anthem needs a little bit of time for its IP to solidify, and establish its own boundaries.
GR: Right. You wouldn’t want to have older intellectual properties overshadow the new one.
MD: That’s right. If you kind of collapse it all together, then all the IPs potentially run the risk of getting undermined a little bit.
Last Edit: Feb 10, 2019 22:13:38 GMT by midnight tea
“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”
Michael Gamble @gamblemike Some tips I want you to have before playing the game.... 1. Please try to avoid spoiling the story for anyone. If you care about story, be careful watching streams. 2. In between missions, talk to the people in Tarsis. They have stories to tell, and I'm proud of the awesome characters the team have written. Many of them hilarious AF and offer great insight into the world. 3. We give you a bunch of coin in the beginning. I recommend playing a few hours to see what Javelin and look you want. The customization system is DEEP. In other words, don't blow it all in 5 minutes 4. Use the alliance system. It's awesome. You'll get good coin from it. 5. If you like a challenge - play on hard. The loot is better, and the missions are beefier. Just don't be surprised if you get your butt handed to you until you're good 6. Seriously though. Use the alliance system. 7. Start out by being aware of the daily and weekly challenges. They're awesome valuable.
Fran Mirabella III (FM3) @franmirabella Sounds safe to assume if you don’t talk to certain folks at certain points, you’ll just lose those additional story moments?
Michael Gamble @gamblemike Not really. Only a few cases of that. BUT. I find that loving the world and caring about the characters makes everything even better.
Last Edit: Feb 11, 2019 1:35:53 GMT by midnight tea
“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect Andromeda, Anthem, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
The Alliance System – “What is That & How Does it Work?”
The Alliance system is a way for you and your friends to be rewarded for playing the game. Anytime you complete an expedition (Mission, Contract, Freeplay, Stronghold) you earn experience. That experience also goes into the Alliance system. Even better, the experience from the OTHER people in your group also goes into the alliance system. Even better STILL, players on your friends list who play without you - THEIR experience also goes into the Alliance System.
At the end of every week, you are awarded Coin (our in-game earned currency, used to purchase various items throughout the game) based on how much experience was contributed to the Alliance System. There are several tiers you can work through each week as well as a weekly cap. We want to encourage players to form friendships and play together and we’ve created the Alliance System to do just that!
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect Andromeda, Anthem, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Thanks Hrunger, so it is like a clan or something were you have a group name and people join that alliance?
Here's what I got, keeping in mind that proper Guilds will be coming after launch. And here is a Reddit Thread if you'd like to wade through it.
Polygon: Players who engaged with the demo will likely have seen the Alliance XP being added up in the end-match screen. This system allows players to form long-term alliances — like a reward system for Freelancers. Essentially, players will join an Alliance and contribute experience after completing any kind of activity. This experience will go into a pool of Alliance XP, and will level the Alliance’s tier each week.
At the end of each week, Coin (the game’s cosmetic currency) will be given out to all Alliance players based on how much experience their Alliance earned that week. Players can increase their individual experience contributions by playing with friends on their friends list — even if they aren’t in the same Alliance.
Coin can be used to purchase items in Anthem. In the demo, players were able to buy different armor pieces and emotes for their Javelins. It’s currently unknown if there are any non-cosmetic uses for Coin.
A more advanced group-finding system, guilds, won’t make it into Anthem before launch. “While we believe the Alliance system is a great way to encourage social interaction with Anthem,” said Irving, “we also understand guilds play a critical role in helping players form organized groups with people of similar interests and play styles. Our goal is to release guilds as soon after launch as we can.”
It seems Alliances and guilds will work separately once they’re both available. However, Alliances seem worth joining even for players who have no desire to play with others. So little is known about guilds in Anthem at this time that it’s hard to say if there’ll be rewards worth joining for.
ZaedricR
Can you clarify what you mean by people on my friendslist playing without me? Does that mean the more people on my friendslist who play anthem, the more coin I get each week?
BioChrisSchmidt
No - we only count the top 5 friends each week. There is no benefit to piling up your friend list other than having lots of people to play with.
So how it works is: - You play the game with or without your friends. - Your friends play the game with or without you. - You are earning progress through the Alliance system as you play, and building a bigger and bigger bucket as you progress through the different tiers of the system. - As your friends play, they are filling that bucket with their own xp (plus a large bonus for being your friend). - At the end of the week, we tally the top 5 contributors to your Alliance and you are awarded based on how much they filled the bucket you created.
Been working on something new. Really excited to share this soon! #anthemgame
hmmm....
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3 decades of RPG gaming from green screen to 4K. Moderator posts mostly marked by 'Police' emoji. Other views shared are just personal ones. On UK time zone.
Emily (aka Domino) Taylor pentapod Dear computer game players who prefer to play solo, not co-op/multiplayer ... why do you prefer to play alone? What prevents you from trying multiplayer games? (As someone who's gameplay has been very MMO-focused, I'm curious!)
Emily (aka Domino) Taylor pentapod In case you're curious, I took 800 of the 1,800+ replies (because limited time in the day!) and categorized the responses. Overwhelmingly, most folks who prefer to play solo, do so because of other players. A sad statement about online toxicity that games need to better address.
Emily (aka Domino) Taylor pentapod Dear computer game players who prefer to play solo, not co-op/multiplayer ... why do you prefer to play alone? What prevents you from trying multiplayer games? (As someone who's gameplay has been very MMO-focused, I'm curious!)
Emily (aka Domino) Taylor pentapod In case you're curious, I took 800 of the 1,800+ replies (because limited time in the day!) and categorized the responses. Overwhelmingly, most folks who prefer to play solo, do so because of other players. A sad statement about online toxicity that games need to better address.
You can add "Because Alliance System penalizes solo players"
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, SWTOR, Anthem, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
