They only said something akin to "in the world of Anthem" - though it's hard to say that they meant in terms of place or story.
Anyway, if it's Earth, it doesn't look like Earth anymore - I'm fairly sure we don't have rock formations like the ones shown in the gameplay footage. So if it's our little planet, it might as well not be it, it's this different.
Suggestion: what if it's a different planet but... alternative Earth?
Remember the Shaper storm and the big, glowing 'portal' of sorts (it is likely portal, because the "player" first asks if we should fly into it, and then another said: "see ya on the other side")? Maybe the story spins around the concept of world-melding or portals through time and space?
I'm leaning more towards terraforming technology gone awry. So this is either some sort of alien planet colonized by humans or Earth after humans attacked the terraforming technology brought by alien invaders.
I'm not sure about the terraforming angle, but the place sure looks like it saw a big, world-altering battle (?), with those strange, giant rings scattered around the landscape.
Still - I'm curious about where these portals lead to?
I mean, the general idea of world-hopping or portals to different times and places is fun, even of only in a sense that I can imagine future expansions - imagine getting "portal to Thedas!" to fly with dragons or "portal to world of Mass Effect" to witness Reaper invasion as well as portals to other BW franchises
Last Edit: Jun 14, 2017 1:52:26 GMT by midnight tea
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Post by Absafraginlootly on Jun 14, 2017 8:20:27 GMT
Well the humans could be native to the planet without it being earth. Human races in fantasy are often on/come from different worlds that the writer's have created the history of.
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Not really. Either a narrative structure or a theme has been told over and over since forever or it hasn't. I can't think of a single one that *hasn't* been told over and over since forever in fact.
Oy, that's quite a cop out. You're talking about super-vague themes or ill-defined "narrative structures", while ignoring that just because a "theme" has been told over and over doesn't change the fact that it's usually been told differently across times and different audiences (and mediums), both in terms of format or approach to the topic. A theme of love written in an egalitarian society that is open to all kinds of relationships will ultimately be written differently than love as it was understood in times of medieval England, for example.
Even the 'classics' we consider 'timeless' are 'timeless' predominantly because we find something that resonates with us - everything else is just relegated to historical footnote, including "classics" of old that we can't find much to relate to anymore... or why we have artists that were "ahead of their times" that are suddenly catapulted to relevance long after their death. Or why the epitome of medieval pop culture like Shakespeare's works is now considered high-brow. Some things will resonate across humanity for the longest time, sure - but even those things are not immune to changeor change of how it's expressed.
There's also no "timeless" toolset or 'structure' that is applicable to all media at all times. We have rules and shorthands that serve us well, but neither they're static, nor something we don't continually update or interpret, especially with art's tendency to continually transgress boundaries. And it's especially noticeable these days, with new ways of telling stories emerging at amazing speeds and old forms and rules not really working for them anymore - hence constant searches for new approaches and experiments with form.
Ultimately, at its base, art is a language and that language - just like normal ones - evolves with use.
Sure, when something is literally 500 years old, it's translation of nuance starts to break down so severely that it impedes the capacity of non experts to understand it. But how contemporary does the "presentation" have to be in order for this to *not* be the case? Is Star Wars too old? The Lord of the Rings?
How about the Wizard of Oz?
Yes, Star Wars is actually getting a little old - why do you think we get NEW Star Wars now, if not to revitalize the brand?
Lord Of The Rings has also been 'updated' through its super-successful movie adaptation. Plus - while I'm sure LOTR will stay a classic, even if for its role of popularizing fantasy genre, I'm fairly confident our generation is now way more wild about "A Song Of Ice And Fire", which is our contemporary fantasy epic.
Wizard of Oz I can't tell much about, because I'm not familiar with it - but I'm fairly sure that "Harry Potter" is way bigger than it now.
And besides, I don't think they are talking about "very contemporary" in the context of format. Perhaps they are. But that still begs the question of "what does that even mean?" How does one make a "very contemporary" presentation/format of a story in a game?
I refer you to top paragraph where I point out that "themes" are written differently across different times and audiences.
I think it is either vacuous PR talk or they are talking about "very contemporary" *topics.* Those are the only two things that make any sort of sense.
Topics, themes. Potayto, potahto. Both words are synonyms of one another, so this just seems like an attempt at trivialization of unspecified things you seem not to like... or just trying to find things to complain about.
Having something to say (or more importantly asking questions) and making saying that something a tentpole of the whole project are not the same thing. It's the difference between say the TV show Black Mirror and Atlas Shrugged, which I've heard accused of many things but being fine storytelling isn't one of them.
Why are you suddenly accusing Bioware or Anthem of making a 'tentpole of something' just because they said they want to tell a contemporary story? Not only you're assuming a lot from very little we know for now, I think you're confusing things.
I mean, the whole argument is bogus. "Atlas Shrugged" is accused of many thing but not fine storytelling... because, from what I know, it's not fine storytelling or much of anything else. On the other hand, "Animal Farm" is considered to be fine storytelling, while at the same its scathing political message is "a tentpole of the whole project".
In other words - a difference lays between good and bad art, or good and bad idea or argument - it has nothing to do with how strong or politicized the message in given artwork is. A given message can be vague and subtle or hit like a brick. If it resonates with its intended audience (or any audience across times), then it resonates - if it doesn't, then it falls flat.
I mean... dunno - the whole things appears to be you not liking the possibility that the game will either contain something or tell it the way you don't approve even if its core "theme" (if you strip everything else from it) would be "timeless" either way.
Eh, I don't really want to keep this conversation going too much longer because as I already said in a previous post it appears PapaCharlie9 identified the most likely meaning of that particular choice of words on the devs' part.
However, there was one nugget in here that were sufficiently irritating that my inner forum warrior won't let them go.
That is the accusation that I am being confused or unclear. I haven't been providing definitions for the terms I've used but I've been quite conscientious of where and when I did chose to use them because they can be vague and synonymous if you aren't careful. For my purposes:
Theme: the message of the story, the "point," why it was written
Narrative structure: the shape or structure the narrative takes (examples include Bildungsroman, Hero's Journey, etc.). There is frequently overlap here in that certain narrative structures almost always have certain themes.
There are no new themes or narrative structures under the sun. They are as old as storytelling.
Format/presentation: the method by which the above two are relayed. This can include things like media (is it a play, a comic, a movie, etc.?), tone - (is it formal, casual, serious, silly?), and possibly genre. It *is* possible to have "very contemporary" presentation, usually in a media sense as entirely new methods of storytelling are occasionally created (the invention of movies, writing, and video games are all examples of that).
Topics: the narrative subjects within the format/presentation whereby the theme and narrative structure are relayed. These can be "very contemporary" as well. This can but doesn't have to ground the rest in very specific, modern issues.
A hypothetical example: a satirical play (presentation/format) that explores the heroism of resistance and revolution (theme) by telling the story of a nobody becoming a hero and amassing a following (narrative structure) to resist a very specific despot who happens to resemble a certain tremendously unpopular American politician who need not be named (topic). If you replaced the American politician with say, Henry the VIII, Huey P. Long, or Stalin, the other things would remain precisely the same. You could also make up an entirely fictitious despot and the others would remain the same.
This was my earlier point. If you are intentionally choosing a "very contemporary" topic for your storytelling, I am aware of no reason to do so other than 1)because you want to make moral statements to a captive audience or 2)because you know doing so will produce controversy and thereby attention for your story.
Does some art do this and manage to be good? Sure (although I personally think it's *exceedingly* rare). It's just something I have 0 interest in receiving from Bioware.
However, as PapaCharlie9 pointed out, it looks like the "very contemporary" bit was instead relayed at presentation/format in that they wanted to make a Destiny type game. You could still accuse them of unneeded trendiness here (and I basically have in other threads), but this is significantly less irritating than the above for me at least.
Oh, one other little nitpick. Star Wars continues getting new installments because it's popular and makes money. Not because it's dated. There has never been a point since Star Wars was first created that there have not been continuous comics, books, cartoons, games, specials, and movies being spit out in that universe.
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drew karpyshyn is also working on Anthem, now I'm curious again
They are bringing heavy-weight writing stuff on the game. Imo this means the quest story-lines will be fleshed out because the companionship part is left a lot to the players themselves, so it leaves a lot of word count for casing the quests in interesting ways. I wonder if the y can do a lot of branching quests without impacting the OW in instances.
i am wondering if the whole point of Anthem is to stay out of the over-emphasis on "relationships" aspects and scale up the storytelling through quests and adventure.
I'm sure the next DA game will do fine. I'm not worried
But if Anthem is going to be Bioware's big moneymaker now, then the pressure on Dragon Age (and Mass Effect) will likely be to become more LIKE Anthem.
Why would they have to become like the Anthem game? If that were to happen, why would I want to buy DA and ME if I can get it all with the anthem thing? If anything I would want Bioware to continue with the way they been going with DA and ME. Let the anthem be its own thing.
Why do people keep buying Call of Duty games?
But have you not noticed how homogenized DA and ME have become over the years?
I don't know. I know I stopped buying them after I stopped playing online with my brother and nephew.
But have you not noticed how homogenized DA and ME have become over the years?
A bit. They're still enjoyable. If they end up being like the anthem thing, I won't waste my money buying 3 games when I can buy one that does it all.
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Struggling off-world colony maybe? Now having to salvage and scrounge to get by...?
It's "futuristic", but hard to say how far. Do we have ftl travel or did we stumble across some other way to get here (wormhole/portal/alien tech)? Is the tech we use ours or have we re-purposed tech that was already here from the older civilization/Scars?
Or was it aliens that crash landed on Earth and did something to the planet forcing humans behind walls (aka Shaper Storms).
That would be a blatant ripoff of Defiance. It's just better all around, for both aesthetic and legal reasons, to not locate it on Earth.
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Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, Anthem, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Javelin Radio? We barely know anything about the game, it is over 15 months off and people are already making podcast about it?
Saying that, those "metal rings" really puzzle me.
Haha, the same thing happened with Destiny, people starting podcasts for that game well over a year before it got released because the hype was real. Anthem has garnered that same level of hype from what I've seen, which is why I'm not surprised that it also has it's own dedicated podcasts this far from it's release.
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, Anthem, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Javelin Radio? We barely know anything about the game, it is over 15 months off and people are already making podcast about it?
Saying that, those "metal rings" really puzzle me.
Haha, the same thing happened with Destiny, people starting podcasts for that game well over a year before it got released because the hype was real. Anthem has garnered that same level of hype from what I've seen, which is why I'm not surprised that it also has it's own dedicated podcasts this far from it's release.
People were compiling volumes of fanfiction well in advance of Destiny's release. I actually contributed to one. People found the lore as it was revealed to be very rich and inspiring (also conspicuously absent from the game itself).
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Haha, the same thing happened with Destiny, people starting podcasts for that game well over a year before it got released because the hype was real. Anthem has garnered that same level of hype from what I've seen, which is why I'm not surprised that it also has it's own dedicated podcasts this far from it's release.
People were compiling volumes of fanfiction well in advance of Destiny's release. I actually contributed to one. People found the lore as it was revealed to be very rich and inspiring (also conspicuously absent from the game itself).
So, that means we are going to see lots of Fanfics soon about monsters, Scars, Tarsus, Javelins, Shaper Storms and a dude named Praxley...
Javelin Radio? We barely know anything about the game, it is over 15 months off and people are already making podcast about it?
Saying that, those "metal rings" really puzzle me.
In co-op games, it pays to build your group before game starts if there is a chance of competition involved, and a lot of those folks just migrate from new title to new title, kindda nomadically.
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