David Gaider (former lead writer and creator of Dragon Age) says BioWare "quietly resented" its writers

[Riddler]

The consequences of bad code are hard to evade. If your game crashes, or softlocks, or renders garbage to the screen, or plays at 5 frames per second, you can't just dismiss that as an opinion. But the consequences of bad writing are easier to mask with appeals to subjectivism. "The writing is fine, you just don't get it."

This happens with everything and it drives me insane. People like something and suddenly all individual aspects of that thing become good or amazing. You get into internecine arguments about the quality of the music or writing in a movie or a game only to realise that your interlocutor has the mental capacity of a slug and can't distinguish between their personal enjoyment of a product and the quality of its constituent parts.

Only how do you convince someone that a part of their favorite toy is only mid? It's impossible and they'll twist themselves apart trying to justify their biases.

It can happen with anything, like when you've had a really good time at a restaurant and someone starts going on about how incredible the wine was when it was just adequate. The overall experience might have been amazing but that doesn't magically turn the wine in particular into fucking ambrosia.

 

[Jarpie]

I think this old forum classic fits the topic.

 

[Maxie]

That was Drew Karpyshyn, not Gaider you're talking about.

That's even sadder. Between the two, I always held Karpyshyn in higher esteem. Alas, Canadians

Did you read Revan? The guy took a massive shit all over Chris Avellone's kotor 2 and reacted with smug indignation when people criticized him for it.

Very good. Avellone should be taken a shit on every now and then, so that he doesn't run for president over how much tasteless weirdos fellate him.

 

[turkishronin]

That was Drew Karpyshyn, not Gaider you're talking about.

That's even sadder. Between the two, I always held Karpyshyn in higher esteem. Alas, Canadians

Did you read Revan? The guy took a massive shit all over Chris Avellone's kotor 2 and reacted with smug indignation when people criticized him for it.

Very good. Avellone should be taken a shit on every now and then, so that he doesn't run for president over how much tasteless weirdos fellate him.

He worked himself to exhaustion on torment only for it to sell like shit.
Let him drink in peace

 

[Maxie]

That was Drew Karpyshyn, not Gaider you're talking about.

That's even sadder. Between the two, I always held Karpyshyn in higher esteem. Alas, Canadians

Did you read Revan? The guy took a massive shit all over Chris Avellone's kotor 2 and reacted with smug indignation when people criticized him for it.

Very good. Avellone should be taken a shit on every now and then, so that he doesn't run for president over how much tasteless weirdos fellate him.

He worked himself to exhaustion on torment only for it to sell like shit.
Let him drink in peace

It sure must be exhausting to have the work ethic of a drug addict.

 

[Roguey]

Very good. Avellone should be taken a shit on every now and then, so that he doesn't run for president over how much tasteless weirdos fellate him.

One can dunk on Avellone without being a dimwit about it. Karpyshyn couldn't.

 

[Maxie]

Very good. Avellone should be taken a shit on every now and then, so that he doesn't run for president over how much tasteless weirdos fellate him.

One can dunk on Avellone without being a dimwit about it. Karpyshyn couldn't.

You call him a dimwit, and yet his work is canon now. Turns out Avellone's smarts helped him none.

 

[Roguey]

You call him a dimwit, and yet his work is canon now. Turns out Avellone's smarts helped him none.

It was canon until Disney came in and said nothing but the movies and their new stuff are canon. The Old Republic is Legends canon (in contrast to the multiple tiers of canon they used before).

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Gaider seems disappointed with the reception of Stray Gods and tries on Twitter to return to the days of the Bioware Forum .

Quelle chimère!

 

[Hammer Of The Heretics]

You get into internecine arguments about the quality of the music or writing in a movie or a game only to realise that your interlocutor has the mental capacity of a slug and can't distinguish between their personal enjoyment of a product and the quality of its constituent parts.

Or its quality overall. There's no contradiction in saying "This is a high quality product and I don't like it." Nor is there a contradiction in saying "This is bad but I personally like it." Everybody has their guilty pleasures.

 

[9ted6]

I remember everyone dunking on Gaider and the rest back when on BSN. Deserved, but if only we knew how terrible Bioware would actually become after he was gone.

 

[Lacrymas]

Excess calories and male pattern baldness?

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Excess calories and male pattern baldness?

Glasses.

 

[Atlantico]

If true, it's no wonder Bioware now looks no different from every other AAA game developer now.

Well I overtly resented David Gaider and the other writers. I played the games they wrote, you see.

Hence despising them.

 

[skaraher]

And resented they did.

 

[Cheesedragon117]

BioWare "quietly resented" its writers​

If only they'd had the balls to speak up loudly.

Honestly, this is the real issue. You know that quote about "good men doing nothing"? Well, good men have done nothing for so long that quality itself is endangered. The very word "quality" is becoming a dirty word. This is why Seth Dickinson went from a lead writing position at Bungie, to only being allowed to write for the Destiny collector's edition lorebooks. Not only is he not ideologically motivated enough, he's also too good. A real novelist. His mere presence was making all the other troons in the writing room feel small and dumb. They had to cordon him off somewhere.

The gamers are already a vocal majority judging from the posts on this forum and elsewhere, but the developers are still a silent majority. They need to stamp their feet, have strong opinions, take stances, and refuse to back down. As Absinthe was saying, working with any group of people toward any goal is necessarily about compromise and talking your disagreements out. It shouldn't just be a singular politically-correct voice shouting down the rest. Nier:Automata's development was almost stopped over a disagreement on the main character's cup size. The pozzed trash being produced by American studios aren't just symptoms of broader systemic and cultural problems, it's also a sign of unhealthy work environments being normalized. Perhaps Blizzard, Bioware and co. should take inspiration from the WGA writer's strike.