Anthem: Bioware's next Mass Effect-like IP

[yasiru]

Seems like you always have issues with people "Reiterating" and adding there own commentary on what other people have said.

Are you suggesting that Earning money from making your own Commentary/Video from reading other Journals or Playing Games and learning more about the Industry from what others have said is Morally Abhorrent?

I guess all Video Game streamers should also be "Sickening" to you for profiting off of Nintendo's and other Well Known game Developers Hard work according to you.

You also commented on this quote



Which has nothing to do with Angry Joe.

There are plenty of youtubers that I like and enjoy watching, but no, not the ones that spread misinformation and speak about things like they are facts when they are actually not true...which Joe is one of them.

Regarding the tomb quests, I did say from what I recall. They did make the adjustment though that you started earning things toward the quest at lvl three instead of when you got the quest. I do remember that as it affected me when I did it.

[szechuan]

There are plenty of youtubers that I like and enjoy watching, but no, not the ones that spread misinformation and speak about things like they are facts when they are actually not true...which Joe is one of them.

What "Misinformation" was Joe spreading on his Commentary about the game and the Kotaku Article?

[Lorgar Aurelian]

There is no game that has longterm support that does this, at least none that I'm aware of. Every game with continued development includes post-launch revenue in some way, be it subscriptions, expansions/DLC, or cash shops.

Off the top of my head there is the hand Held monster hunters and terraria which I believe is even still getting updates all be it slowly.

[yasiru]

What "Misinformation" was Joe spreading on his Commentary about the game and the Kotaku Article?

I never said he was spreading misinformation in this one specific video. You're just twisting my words to serve your own agenda. But that doesn't negate my statement that he has spread misinformation ever. He absolutely has made videos about game “leaks” and such that were never true. But by all means please keep watching his stuff if you enjoy it....it's just not for me.

[szechuan]

I never said he was spreading misinformation in this one specific video.

You're the one claiming it was Morally Abhorrent for earning money on Reiterating and adding commentary on an Article and Claimed he was spreading Misinformation.

You're just twisting my words to serve your own agenda.

I wasn't.

But that doesn't negate my statement that he has spread misinformation ever.

So what Misinformation has he spread in his reviews?

He absolutely has made videos about game “leaks” and such that were never true.

So he got some things wrong on "leaks"?

But by all means please keep watching his stuff if you enjoy it....it's just not for me.

You're the one making it sound like Angry Joe is/was an Morally Abhorrent youtuber and was the cause of

"death threats and vitriol the devs, content creators, and subreddit moderators have received! /s"

[Charge me Doctor]

They got my $15 for the premier sub, otherwise I'd feel really butt hurt lol

Wonder how much of these 15$ went to bioware and how much to ea

[Ophenia]

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/st...206852609?s=19

Yeah.. this is.. ugh.

Not that I was ever expecting them to be all *YEAH GO AHEAD AND AIR OUR DIRTY LAUNDRY TO PRESS!* but this being the reaction from leadership is... ugh.

Also sad to hear that this is far from a bioware specific problem, though I think we all knew that.

That's common practice in all industries to ask people to not talk to the press at all. Even when there isn't any problem, even if everything goes well, employees are asked not to talk to the press without prior agreement of their hierarchy.

I know I wouldn't be allowed to talk to any media about the project I'm working on without approval, even though I firmly believe we're on great tracks (and I'm not working in the gaming industry, where the press is ... inquisitive and wants to burn everyone alive every time there is a 20-minutes delay).

[Coldkil]

I don't really agree with the premise here, and I think that kotaku article disagrees as well. They clearly didn't plan on developing the game in 1 1/2 years, they worked on it for an incredibly long time. They just got forced into crunch time and having something to release after 4+ years with nothing to show for it. I imagine from the publisher end its more just getting their ROI, and from the developer end needing to have *something* at that point after colossal fuck ups from leadership.

Maybe it was just bad wording on my part. It's not like the game was started only the last 16 months. It's a perfect example of how management doesn't realize what it actually takes to make a game of this scope and how much effort is needed to guarantee quality. The game is in development from 2012 (iirc), but the "concept phase" lasted until the last year or so. It's definitely a failure in the decisional department - you can have an awesome dev team at your hands, but if you're unable to give clear direction, they're working with no final objective and stuff comes out disjointed with the need of a final rush to have something playable for the release date.

Hope this explains better my point. Imho the dev team is doing great, given the premise and environment/schedule they had to work onto. It's clear that gameplay mechanics are what they focused on as top priority, and the rest had to be completed at the best of their effort.

[Ungeir]

Wonder how much of these 15$ went to bioware and how much to ea

Bioware is an EA Studio, so the same as for full purchases of the game: 0$ go to Bioware.

As a wholly owned subsidiary, they have budgets and funding provided by EA - they do not have independent income and expenses. Sales impact bonuses for Bioware employees, and subscriptions are probably factored in via some complicated and possibly unreasonable algorithm.

It's not like the developer-publisher relationships of decades past, when studios got some publisher funding up front and at milestones, and then split the sales with publisher and distributors. Studios such as Bioware are tightly integrated into the greater corporate machinery at organizational, operational and financial levels.

[nekobaka]

Oooof.

This and the mess that was Andromeda's development makes one wonder how the hell Bioware even is a thing anymore.

If Anthem wasn't a LIVE SERVICE that needs constant upkeep, EA would be chopping off Bioware already.

I really wonder how profit expectation of a live service game compared to ME3 and MEA. With ME3 having paid PVE DLC content and cosmetics with PVE and coop being lootbox based with power based awards. Though battlefront did kill that later aspect. MEA could of been created into a multi-year series with coop filling the in-between for both fans and profit. EA thought otherwise.

Than again there is that difference of content that one plays once per play through and content one that grinds in chase of multi-roll RNG loot.

[Yriel]

What "Misinformation" was Joe spreading on his Commentary about the game and the Kotaku Article?

Well actually Joe doesn't seem to have played since the pre-release and most of the points he constantly critisizes are long fixed.

- - - Updated - - -

If Anthem wasn't a LIVE SERVICE that needs constant upkeep, EA would be chopping off Bioware already.

Right now is doubt they are making any money with their shop. It's set up really stupid with 6 random items that are changed every 4 days. The austin MTX guy apparently said that the shop is a catastrophy and they are working on changing it.

- - - Updated - - -

Totally agree. This basically just shows me what I've believed all along, that most gaming redditors just jump on whatever the current bandwagon is...

Reddit is totally schizophrenic, too. Half the users want the Bioware Devs to unionize and demand better working conditions and less working hours for them, the other half wants fixes, loot 2.0 and new content NOW or they'll leave the game. And i think there is quite a big overlap of those two groups...

[Collegeguy]

I knew things would go downhill after Casey Hudson left Bioware. Now so many people left during Anthem, it's just sad that they became a shell of their former selves with no leadership.

[szechuan]

Well actually Joe doesn't seem to have played since the pre-release and most of the points he constantly critisizes are long fixed.

That's not misinformation, he tells people clearly that the review is of the current version of the game at that time.

Those "Fixes" don't excuse how the game was released, fixing "loading" screens was already a low bar to achieve. Not to mention they Bioware keeps screwing up the game with OBVIOUS FLAWS with every subsequent patch which show's they don't even Q&A the patch.

[Yriel]

That's not misinformation, he tells people clearly that the review is of the current version of the game at that time.

In the video he made yesterday he still goes on about things that are long fixed like the tomb quests.

Those "Fixes" don't excuse how the game was released, fixing "loading" screens was already a low bar to achieve.

I agree, especially in the pre-release phase. Still they fixed a lot since then, not just the loading screens. The game is much better now, its just really missing content. Still fun enough for me to play it an hour every day.

[szechuan]

In the video he made yesterday he still goes on about things that are long fixed like the tomb quests.

Because They were talking mainly talking about Biowares Intention in the Video, which was to Clearly Throttle players.

That Mission is still not "Fixed" it's easier to complete but it still doesn't change Biowares intentions and how boring, grindy, and unrewarding the mission is.

I agree, especially in the pre-release phase. Still they fixed a lot since then, not just the loading screens.

Yet they keep screwing up with Every Patch with Obvious Flaws that they clearly don't test.

The game is much better now, its just really missing content. Still fun enough for me to play it an hour every day.

To a lot of people, it isn't.

[Ophenia]

Right now is doubt they are making any money with their shop. It's set up really stupid with 6 random items that are changed every 4 days. The austin MTX guy apparently said that the shop is a catastrophy and they are working on changing it.

In terms of effectiveness, I understand why the shop is done like that.

If the whole content was available, people would just pick the armor set they prefer, the 3 emotes, the arrival and the textures and that's it, all with the in-game currency.
But as it is right now, you'll see one armor set you enjoy, you buy it, without having a clue if there is another armor which you prefer (most of the players won't watch hundreds of Youtube video to make up their mind with "datamined" or pre-release data). And if the next week there is this armor and you don't have any currency left... You'll have 4 days to either buy it with Shards or grind enough currency (which can be complex depending on the challenges you still have to complete).

So this current shop is probably not really profitable RIGHT NOW. But once everyone will have drained their currency (it grows really, really fast in the beginning, I wouldn't be surprised if people believed it's easy af to be a millionnaire), they won't have any possibility but to buy Shards to get whatever set/emote that'll arrive in the future.

[quras]

Well looking at how many people left bioware...its almost a year when this happened:
https://massivelyop.com/2018/03/12/a...tor-hall-hood/
And almost 2 years before this:
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...dromeda-launch

If there are no talented people you cant make a good product. But i always expected something like this is up.

No doubt having lesser talented people will always be a problem but from that article if we are to believe it at all. 5 years of slacking and poor management with no real direction is a greater problem than people that are so called "B" team staff if thats even what they are.

[Ungeir]

No doubt having lesser talented people will always be a problem but from that article if we are to believe it at all. 5 years of slacking and poor management is a greater problem than people that are so called "B" team staff.

There is an actual problem with attracting and retaining talent in the games industry, specificially for (but not exclusively): programmers/engineers/architects, (non-grunt) QA, technical managers, project managers. This is one of the reasons that standardizing engine usage is becoming so common. The industry used to be able to get extremely talent programmers for very low wages. Many are still crunching away at sub-market rates due to passion and the inherent technical challenges of game development - however the poaching from various tech companies, finance and even companies in non-technical sectors, has increased vastly.

A senior programmer can switch to another industry, get paid more than double and work much more sane hours. That's an actual issue for the games industry. If they have to retain these people, they need to cut deeply into profit margins or get the creative/artistic/design staff working at even lower rates and crazy hours.

[quras]

Will be interesting to see what happens within bioware or is this just management talk and within 3 months things are back to the same stressed out environment that it was for years.

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/st...59443949359104

There is an actual problem with attracting and retaining talent ....SNIP....

I'm sure thats a problem in the gaming industry just as it is in so many others. Scalping talent and fishing for the best. So, it's no wonder people left if the environment at bioware is so haphazard, fill with lacking management that can't give direction and clarity on a project as well as keep the stress managed. but I'm not sold that the team left was just "B" level and thats their excuse given the article. Especially so when what was produced in 18 months had so much potential but a little over 5 years wasted and poor management was more the detrimental act here for the game.

Even "B" level programmers can fix things with an additional 5 years of work time if they know the direction of their work and the project.

[Spiridon]

What annoys this is the duality of some games like Anthem, F76 etc. On the one hand, good sales.
But the prevailing reviews of players are mixed and negative, there are those who liked it and are satisfied with everything. (dont understand really how to enjoing game when its full of critical bugs mechanics are broken) Yes some patches can fix most critical bugs (ofc if your engine and databases not a mess of code like F76) and content will be added it will be ok, but you know first impressions are important. People have negative exp. and may not return if they have bad aftertaste from initial state of the game.
Everyone recognizes that games should be released in a more complete form, without critical bugs and a large amount of content.
In my opinion, the concept of testing should be revised. Beta should last many times longer with a much larger number of players. Some portions of marketing budgets must be given to QA teams - let the game quality advertise yourself!
As long as the current principle will work, "let us release what we have, and so they eat it. And we(corps) will get our profit anyway."
But lost some profit, loyality in perspective. If not for sports licenses, I don’t think EA would stay afloat as an independent publisher.
For myself, I decided that I would give up pre-orders in principle. Only CD Red and Larian still have my credit of trust =)