Not the first time he left BioWare and he was the mastermind behind Anthem. Can't help thinking that is probably the main reason since it wasn't a blockbuster hit on release.
BioWare - Two Key People leaving
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Their story is a convoluted one. It's hard for me to read between the lines, I don't see whether they left out of frustration for working there, or because the reproach fell on them.
Casey seems to have been a good influence from what I read, he was project director on KotOR and the first Mass Effect, before moving up, seeing EA's acquisition, then ultimately leaving long after.
No clue about Mark Darrah. He was part of the handheld group from the beginning, where he quickly became project director. He and Aaryn Flynn were rushed by EA to release Dragon Age 2, in order to make up for the Austin division and their late MMO, instead of maturing the project they had in mind. Then the Frostbite engine, and so on.
It seems both did their upmost, but we'll probably never know how it looked from the inside. It must have been hell so I wouldn't pretend to judge, whatever Greg Ellis is throwing at some of them (this guy sounds like a slightly deranged multiclass Paladin/Bard).
Whenever Bioware posts a tweet, it's met with a lot of insults and reproaches. I don't know if that has been going on since they first mishaps, but that must be hard to be in that situation.
Casey seems to have been a good influence from what I read, he was project director on KotOR and the first Mass Effect, before moving up, seeing EA's acquisition, then ultimately leaving long after.
No clue about Mark Darrah. He was part of the handheld group from the beginning, where he quickly became project director. He and Aaryn Flynn were rushed by EA to release Dragon Age 2, in order to make up for the Austin division and their late MMO, instead of maturing the project they had in mind. Then the Frostbite engine, and so on.
It seems both did their upmost, but we'll probably never know how it looked from the inside. It must have been hell so I wouldn't pretend to judge, whatever Greg Ellis is throwing at some of them (this guy sounds like a slightly deranged multiclass Paladin/Bard).
Whenever Bioware posts a tweet, it's met with a lot of insults and reproaches. I don't know if that has been going on since they first mishaps, but that must be hard to be in that situation.
Hard to pinpoint when it started. If I have to guess the fan-base went through a shift around Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 2. It wasn't a good time to be a BioWare fan.
I used to frequent the closed forum and it was messy with arguments, trolls, debates, and shit that downright disgusted me. The term toxic gamer was coined by David Gaider.
This was back in 2013 and things just continued to spiral out of control. BioWare started to release broken games, and the fan-base seemed to never be pleased.
We now come to Mass Effect 3 and the star child debacle. The game was divided with many buyers who enjoyed it and those who outright hated it. The fan-base struck again.
Then came Dragon Age Inquisition which showed they still had the ability to release good RPG's that won GOTY awards again. They followed up with Mass Effect Andromeda.
Now that game had a very troubled development suffice to say. Fans hated it and got all DLC cancelled. Years later we got Anthem an online game with tons of controversy.
Now here we are in 2020 with DA4 and another Mass Effect in development. I hope they both are decent and given enough development time, and resources they need.
One can read a few things between the lines in this blog entty (which no-one has ever read here in the forums, I guess, because there were never any repolies in the SWTOR thread in the Watch's MMORPG section) :
SWTOR seen through the eyes of a tester : http://testerstories.com/a-swtor-context/
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Curious that Hudson left, having just personally announced the development of the next Mass Effect game. I do wonder if there's been some drama. Mind you, this Ellis character smells like an attention-hungry wrongun'.
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It's nothing new that Bioware change a lot. Some players want stick to pre EA and post EA with everything good before and everything bad after. But the truth is this is arguable, let see pre EA:
- BG1, common, I love it, but most new players would hate it.
- BG2, ok sure, but quote it is already the standard Bioware blueprint used again and again until they tried clone Skyrim.
- MDK2 is it more than an experimental game? More a crap for me.
- NWN1 never been a such great RPG, what bless it was only the user made creations, the RPG itself was nothing that great and from far. It was already a massive amount of streamlining. Eventually one extension was really great but that's short.
- Jade Empire, no matter the quality, it's no noteworthy RPG.
- Mass Effect, if I consider the trilogy as a whole is something big, I'm no big fan of ME1. It has rather often bad fillers, tedious space gameplay, the planets mini game is awful gameplay, bigger areas/dungeon had lower filling quality and have repetitive parts, combats quality low down the more you progress with too many repetitions and lack of good design of many combats, it's nothing on par with BG series.
Then EA:
DAO, ME2, for ME3 all the fuss and the whining for having the hero killed, facepalm it's a shame when you see a crowd requesting Hollywood happy end. For DA2 it's alas a rushed game, still NWN1 and Jade Empire aren't better RPG/games, at least for me.
Then DAI and MEA trying clone Skyrim and moving Bioware out of blueprints they knew do and that started with BG2.
For DAI the problem is that players need setup themselves their game flow to do stuff when they feel fun to do it. Try exhaust first area then go to next would only kill the game. Try chain and do all quests would kill the game. Try explore in deep an area and proceed to next area would only kill the game. Try chain any puzzling type would kill the game. Try collect stuff when it bores you to do so would only kill the game. And even, try do everything possible in the game would only kill it.
But if you do yourself a good mix, and design for yourself a proper game flow that match your fun, it enhances a lot the fun of the game. I'm sure it's impossible to understand for many players, but for me with a well self organized game flow so it matches what I want play when I want do it, DAI is much better than ME1 and NW1. And no way BG1 is a really better RPG.
But no matter the changes in team, EA or not EA, years after years Bioware is far ahead anything for:
- Companions .
- Combats design with the exception of DAI.
- Only them achieved do proper RTwP party combats.
And this is despite plenty huge changes in team along decades. From what it comes, no idea. What could give a future Bioware RPG? Low hope in any thing, but no idea.
- BG1, common, I love it, but most new players would hate it.
- BG2, ok sure, but quote it is already the standard Bioware blueprint used again and again until they tried clone Skyrim.
- MDK2 is it more than an experimental game? More a crap for me.
- NWN1 never been a such great RPG, what bless it was only the user made creations, the RPG itself was nothing that great and from far. It was already a massive amount of streamlining. Eventually one extension was really great but that's short.
- Jade Empire, no matter the quality, it's no noteworthy RPG.
- Mass Effect, if I consider the trilogy as a whole is something big, I'm no big fan of ME1. It has rather often bad fillers, tedious space gameplay, the planets mini game is awful gameplay, bigger areas/dungeon had lower filling quality and have repetitive parts, combats quality low down the more you progress with too many repetitions and lack of good design of many combats, it's nothing on par with BG series.
Then EA:
DAO, ME2, for ME3 all the fuss and the whining for having the hero killed, facepalm it's a shame when you see a crowd requesting Hollywood happy end. For DA2 it's alas a rushed game, still NWN1 and Jade Empire aren't better RPG/games, at least for me.
Then DAI and MEA trying clone Skyrim and moving Bioware out of blueprints they knew do and that started with BG2.
For DAI the problem is that players need setup themselves their game flow to do stuff when they feel fun to do it. Try exhaust first area then go to next would only kill the game. Try chain and do all quests would kill the game. Try explore in deep an area and proceed to next area would only kill the game. Try chain any puzzling type would kill the game. Try collect stuff when it bores you to do so would only kill the game. And even, try do everything possible in the game would only kill it.
But if you do yourself a good mix, and design for yourself a proper game flow that match your fun, it enhances a lot the fun of the game. I'm sure it's impossible to understand for many players, but for me with a well self organized game flow so it matches what I want play when I want do it, DAI is much better than ME1 and NW1. And no way BG1 is a really better RPG.
But no matter the changes in team, EA or not EA, years after years Bioware is far ahead anything for:
- Companions .
- Combats design with the exception of DAI.
- Only them achieved do proper RTwP party combats.
And this is despite plenty huge changes in team along decades. From what it comes, no idea. What could give a future Bioware RPG? Low hope in any thing, but no idea.
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Whelp as promised here is the short teaser with no game-play again.
The Next Dragon Age Official Trailer - 2020 Game Awards
The Next Dragon Age Official Trailer - 2020 Game Awards
Let's not give up just yet, perhaps if EA lets them work on the project until the end, if they keep the same engine, now that they have all the tools for Frosbite, if they don't target too many platforms and especially drop the old consoles, and if they don't feel compelled to pour too much content, preferably dropping AC-like fetch quests, then maybe they can produce something good, as they've shown they could so many times before with BG, BG2, NWN, ME and DA:O (and maybe others, I haven't played them all).
Of course, people have left, so we have to hope Christian Dailey, who's only been there for 3 years, won't be too overwhelmed by the project.
That's a lot of conditions to align, but nothing ever goes according to plan in game projects anyway. In any business project, for that matter
Of course, people have left, so we have to hope Christian Dailey, who's only been there for 3 years, won't be too overwhelmed by the project.
That's a lot of conditions to align, but nothing ever goes according to plan in game projects anyway. In any business project, for that matter