Bioware doubles down on Anthem as pressure mounts [Kotaku]

[sergiodaly]

SuperNova said:

 

sergiodaly said:

I'm not here to defend EA but are they really the cause for all these things that are wrong with the industry? People complain now about online games but they sell single player games to the second hand market without any care of what that will influence the future decisions of publishers, people bought the yearly releases, online focus games like COD, Destiny and overwatch and all the things you complain are present in these games but Activision gets a free pass, same as Take Two with GTA online, and if people set these trends, why are people mad that EA follow them? Why is following the trends your customers set, now called incompetence? EA makes mistakes, yes, no doubt, but follow their customers isn't one of them.

The devs are their employees but with a honest dialogue many things could be prevented like missed dead lines and rushed games full of bugs (BTW Ubi is king here) because I've worked in a software development company and dead lines were missed all the time, not because of management, but because the software developers were always very confident at the beginning, and then they would fail, and I worked with several teams and many were advised to be more realistic but that didn't change the outcome of the next project. Not saying that this happens inside EA, i don't know, but neither do others that claim the fault is in the management. 

As a business they are doing what they think is good for them and I agree with most, not all. As their customer, i also like their new approach of trying something else instead of season pass and I like that because season pass are stupid as stupid can be... I couldn’t care less about MT because I will never use them, and if that means the end of season pass for competitive MP games, then so be it... Of course I believe there's other ways, better ways, but for now not having Season Pass for BF II and Titanfall 2 is a good start.

Personally, Activision, and Take Two certainly don't get a free pass from me and neitehr does Square enix for what they did to Deus EX, but that is not what this topic was about. Personally I find GTA dreadfully boring. But that is also beside the point.

What I'm criticising here is how fresh and creative ideas get snuffed-out in favor of trend-chasing. Rockstar made a great game with GTA by all (but my :P) accounts and take two propositioned them to make an online that could make them even more money, wich they did. And it probably felt fresh in GTA and Rockstar made it work with the concept of the game at large.

But certain publishers see this success and think every game has to be a GTA like seller now, completely neglecting the concept of medium and even high profits in favor of chasing ultra profits. It's not a healthy system. And to an exent, yes it's incompenent because they are sacrificing medum profits in an attempt at much higher profits, wich they will not achieve because the golden goose has already been slain. Ultimately they're also sacrificing their chance at the biggest profits, because they're killing innovation. EA only had an actual COD competitor, something they've been chasing for years, once they reluctantly let the team run with a creative risk with BF 1. Did it outsell COD? No, but people took notice and it got close.

I'm not saying that some studios don't need oversight, or more open communications, or more realistic deadlines. But there is a diffrence between managing a studio, while letting it do what it is good at and forcing them to take on projects they cannot fullfill of have no expertise or passion for. Not to mention literally killing a games balancing in favor of microtransactions.

I can not agree on BFII that lootbox chase with p2w was one of the worst management meddles in recent history and while you might be glad to be rid of the season pass (wich I agree is bull) the alternative is not better in any way shape or form, imo.

On principle, i fully agree that MT are a thing to be purged from games, like i said, I believe there's other ways and better ways, but I think EA and the others publishers will only realize that if we continue to buy the games but not the MT, because if we don't buy the games they get the wrong idea that people didn't want that game and that the game fail, not because of MT, but not good core, not enough marketing, something else,they might even blame gamers as cry babies just to throw the blame around, but if they sell millions and only 0.0001 use MT they will see it as not worth. The BF II issue, was blown out of proportion fuelled by Angry Joe ( i like him but sometimes he goes over board)  and his 4th grade math that didn't take into consideration several ways of getting free loot box and going by the failed logic that everyone wants to unlock everything in a online game... No, in online competitive games people want to have fun and kill that guy that kill them twice already... In a match of 40 players I doubt there will be more than one or two players that did buy MT (p2w) to get a edge, but so does a unemployed guy with lots of time but low skill. I saw people crucifying EA for this game just to be on cool side... And I still say, I'm better off playing all maps with a unified community and deal with the very few that did p2w than having to pay for a season pass and having the community splited.

Just because there's the option to something "bad" doesn't automatically means that a meaningful number of people will do it and that the game is ruined. 

On Bioware subject, wasn't them passionate about mass effect Andromeda? Who's to say Anthem isn't a passionate project of their's... I don't know, but I find it hard to believe that the Anthem IP was created by a EA executive instead of a Bioware creative team...

Last edited by sergiodaly - on 25 January 2018