[Megathread] Mass Effect Andromeda

[Lahis]

Anthem has to be 11/10 before I'm getting it. I am so freaking pissed they sacrificed Andromeda for it, so I'm just not gonna buy it unless it's literally the best game ever.

inb4 6/10 and 7/10 reviews and EA axes Bioware.

[Nerraw]

inb4 6/10 and 7/10 reviews and EA axes Bioware.

After Visceral I would not be surprised. And I would be fucking livid.

[Lahis]

After Visceral I would not be surprised. And I would be fucking livid.

Well EA did kill one third of Bioware already. They must be feeling the dread in their backs.

[rhorle]

One of those ships was named Hyperion. Do you think the story writers for Andromeda got the ideas for the Angara and the battle between the Jardaan and the ones who deployed the scourge from this novel?

No. Plenty of Science fiction novels recycle story and information. I am reading a book right now that uses the ship name dauntless and another book Amazon suggested uses the same name for the ship the book follows.

http://www.rollingstone.com/glixel/i...f-me-1-w468459 talks a little bit of their influence.

[dope_danny]

Did Mass Effect Andromeda steal from a sci fi novel?


"The first intelligent species to Earth attacked without warning, and only three colony ships escaped. 150 years later, planet Darien hosts humans at peace with indigenous scholarly Uvovo. Buried on the forest moon are secrets of an epic battle between ancient races. In a galactic war, what will Uvovo choose, when their nature is revealed, and the enemy comes?"

One of those ships was named Hyperion. Do you think the story writers for Andromeda got the ideas for the Angara and the battle between the Jardaan and the ones who deployed the scourge from this novel?

Probably. I mean i loved the first two Mass Effect games but they directly rip off their entire plot from a number of 70's sci-fi novels.

[shammypie]

Probably. I mean i loved the first two Mass Effect games but they directly rip off their entire plot from a number of 70's sci-fi novels.

your assuming that those sci-fi novels were original to begin with. Believe it or not most things can be considered a ripoff of something else because humans share and steal ideas. Harry Potter wasn't original either it was just done well.

[rhorle]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...a-monetisation

An interesting read and indicates why the ME:A multiplayer is still supported. $15k for one person seems excessive but I don't doubt the numbers get high. I wonder if EA would have shut down single player DLC any ways because it isn't worth the investment. I don't blame them for focusing on that as people spend way to much money. I just hate that single player experiences are being changed or stopped in favor of finding a way to monetize a multiplayer mode.

[dope_danny]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...a-monetisation

An interesting read and indicates why the ME:A multiplayer is still supported. $15k for one person seems excessive but I don't doubt the numbers get high. I wonder if EA would have shut down single player DLC any ways because it isn't worth the investment. I don't blame them for focusing on that as people spend way to much money. I just hate that single player experiences are being changed or stopped in favor of finding a way to monetize a multiplayer mode.

I remember a few years ago arenanet talked about how 3 people who played Guild Wars 2 spent over 30 grand each in the first year of the gem shop being active. Thats nearly 100 grand from 3 players. Whales are impulsive, addictive personalities that publishers are very eager to exploit because its the easiest money.

[Edge-]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...a-monetisation

An interesting read and indicates why the ME:A multiplayer is still supported. $15k for one person seems excessive but I don't doubt the numbers get high. I wonder if EA would have shut down single player DLC any ways because it isn't worth the investment. I don't blame them for focusing on that as people spend way to much money. I just hate that single player experiences are being changed or stopped in favor of finding a way to monetize a multiplayer mode.

If the single player DLC would have made them money, they would have made it. Story DLC is still a solid revenue generator even with whales spending big on lockboxes. ME3 being a perfect example of this, as a matter of fact as it received both quit a bit of story DLC as well as all the multiplayer support etc. The issue is that ME:A didn't sell well enough, and likely didn't retain enough players, to justify the expense.

If you want an example of what you're talking about, GTA V is perfect. The initially discussed story DLC never appeared as soon as Rockstar/2K figured out that the online aspect was a money printing machine.

But yes, whales exist. They're the ones that largely keep F2P games running and are why many AAA games are moving towards including lockboxes in the game in some fashion.

[Lahis]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...a-monetisation

An interesting read and indicates why the ME:A multiplayer is still supported. $15k for one person seems excessive but I don't doubt the numbers get high. I wonder if EA would have shut down single player DLC any ways because it isn't worth the investment. I don't blame them for focusing on that as people spend way to much money. I just hate that single player experiences are being changed or stopped in favor of finding a way to monetize a multiplayer mode.

With these numbers anyone who believes AAAs will do any Single Player content anymore (unless they can Shadow of War it with lootboxes) are pretty damn naive.

[dope_danny]

With these numbers anyone who believes AAAs will do any Single Player content anymore (unless they can Shadow of War it with lootboxes) are pretty damn naive.

Remember when motherbase coins in MGSV was the height of monstrous developer greed?

[Edge-]

With these numbers anyone who believes AAAs will do any Single Player content anymore (unless they can Shadow of War it with lootboxes) are pretty damn naive.

Except we're still getting Red Dead Redemption 2 which will likely focus largely on single player (at least initially), ME:A still was primarily focused on SP, games like Titanfall 2 and Battlefront 2 have added single player campaigns in response to criticism of prior entries for lacking them, and we still have games like AC:Origins and Wolfenstein 2 that don't even have multiplayer.

[Lahis]

Except we're still getting Red Dead Redemption 2 which will likely focus largely on single player (at least initially), ME:A still was primarily focused on SP, games like Titanfall 2 and Battlefront 2 have added single player campaigns in response to criticism of prior entries for lacking them, and we still have games like AC:Origins and Wolfenstein 2 that don't even have multiplayer.

And on the other end of the spectrum, we have the death of Visceral and repurposing of their linear Uncharted style Star Wars game into something more suited for loot boxes.

RRD2 has been in development for years, before the current loot box trend (and fuck me, if it doesn't have GTAO with horses with same Sharcard bullshit I might have a heart attack).

Titanfall 2 also was released before the current escalation of loot box bullshit.

And Battlefront 2 already has cancerous loot box system in Multiplayer.

Sure, games can have Single Player components, but unless said component can heavily support microtransactions, it's gonna get much less attention by the publisher than those parts that do.

[Edge-]

And on the other end of the spectrum, we have the death of Visceral and repurposing of their linear Uncharted style Star Wars game into something more suited for loot boxes.

RRD2 has been in development for years, before the current loot box trend (and fuck me, if it doesn't have GTAO with horses with same Sharcard bullshit I might have a heart attack).

Titanfall 2 also was released before the current escalation of loot box bullshit.

And Battlefront 2 already has cancerous loot box system in Multiplayer.

Sure, games can have Single Player components, but unless said component can heavily support microtransactions, it's gonna get much less attention by the publisher than those parts that do.

My point was your post was pointlessly hyperbolic and not reflective of reality. Yeah, some games are putting less focus on the single player or expanding traditionally single player games to include multiplayer aspects to drive additional monetization, but y'all are dooming and glooming like it's the end of single player games.

It's not, and the fact that franchises like Assassin's Creed, which expanded into adding multiplayer and have since pulled back and refocused on single player, directly contradict your narrative in a big way.

I get that some folks are learning about whales for the first time, but they've been known about in the industry for quite a while and aren't a remotely new phenomenon to developers or publisher.

[Lahis]

Remember when motherbase coins in MGSV was the height of monstrous developer greed?

We let that shit slide, "they don't affect you if you don't buy them" and with every new release the shit gets worse and worse.

Lets just see how bad it is in 2019. I bet Shadow of War and Battlefront 2 look innocent compared to that.

- - - Updated - - -

My point was your post was pointlessly hyperbolic and not reflective of reality. Yeah, some games are putting less focus on the single player or expanding traditionally single player games to include multiplayer aspects to drive additional monetization, but y'all are dooming and glooming like it's the end of single player games.

It's not, and the fact that franchises like Assassin's Creed, which expanded into adding multiplayer and have since pulled back and refocused on single player, directly contradict your narrative in a big way.

I get that some folks are learning about whales for the first time, but they've been known about in the industry for quite a while and aren't a remotely new phenomenon to developers or publisher.

Doesn't matter if it's Multiplayer is Singleplayer, it is all good as long as they can add this:


(Sure, ACO loot boxes are only available for in game currencies... for now.)

You cannot add loot boxes into linear narrative focused games. You need sufficiently grindy and repetitive systems to support them, and that'll be to the game's detriment.

[Edge-]

You cannot add loot boxes into linear narrative focused games. You need sufficiently grindy and repetitive systems to support them, and that'll be to the game's detriment.

Most RPG's are packed with grindy, repetitive tasks/systems, and AC:O is much more of an RPG than prior entries. Haven't those games had plenty of grinding in them anyways? I only really played Liberation and there were plenty of ways to monetize that game if they'd wanted to, if memory serves (it wasn't a great game though -_-)

Though that's ignoring the complete lack of them in Wolfenstein 2, which also lacks any multiplayer component either.

I imagine these, when they go on sale, won't be any worse than the lockboxes in Shadow of War. Which, after the initial hyperbole and freakouts, ended up being largely a load of /whatever as they didn't impact the core game experience despite the early claims otherwise.

If devs want to let folks bypass some of the grind built into RPG's in general with lockboxes, I don't really care. As long as you can still play just fine without them, the core game experience remains preserved despite their existence.

[Lahis]

I imagine these, when they go on sale, won't be any worse than the lockboxes in Shadow of War. Which, after the initial hyperbole and freakouts, ended up being largely a load of /whatever as they didn't impact the core game experience despite the early claims otherwise.

Except the tiresome end grind.

[Elim Garak]

(Sure, ACO loot boxes are only available for in game currencies... for now.)

You cannot add loot boxes into linear narrative focused games. You need sufficiently grindy and repetitive systems to support them, and that'll be to the game's detriment.

You don't need lootboxes in AC game. The fun in the game is to acquire the items by playing the game. They cannot remove that so lootboxes are purely optional.

Also even mobile freemium games use some kind of in-game currency fro purchases (devs call it hard currency), they just sell it for money separately. I'm pretty sure Ubisoft will if not already does sell it separately in Uplay Store.

[Lahis]

If devs want to let folks bypass some of the grind built into RPG's in general with lockboxes, I don't really care. As long as you can still play just fine without them, the core game experience remains preserved despite their existence.

But that is the thing. They'll make the grind without loot boxes so ludicrously tiring and long while simultaneously dangling the microtransactions in front of people so that they are compelled to buy them. As a result the game without microtransactions suffers greatly.

[Elim Garak]

But that is the thing. They'll make the grind without loot boxes so ludicrously tiring and long while simultaneously dangling the microtransactions in front of people so that they are compelled to buy them. As a result the game without microtransactions suffers greatly.

They cannot do that in premium game. Well they can, but that's a one time cash grab that will bite their entire business in the posterior.