Dishonoredbr
Liturgist
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2019
- Messages
- 2,109
Did EA take over Bioware in the middle of the development?
Yep. That's somethings feels quite unfinished and shit like this shitty DLC deal exist.
Did EA take over Bioware in the middle of the development?
Yeah. It happened on October 11th, 2007, and it was some sketchy shit involving Elevation Partners selling VG Holding Corp. (which was originally billed as a partnership between BioWare and Pandemic protecting them from publisher influence by opening them up to outside investment from Elevation Partners, which became the legal owner of the partnership as the stakeholder of a $300 million investment; this all happened on November 3rd, 2005) to Electronic Arts as part of a fucking massive $860 million deal. It's important to note that the guy who orchestrated this deal (John Riccitiello) was the former COO and President of EA, who left to become a Founder and Managing Director of Elevation Partners, who then became CEO of EA in March of 2007 (the same month that he ceased to be Managing Director of Elevation Partners). On October 11th, he finalized the deal between EA and Elevation Partners to buy BioWare and Pandemic Studios to EA for $860 million. I can't help but wonder if he wasn't playing as both buyer and seller of that transaction, selling other people's companies, buying it with other people's money, and cutting himself a check both ways (as a stakeholder in Elevation Partners and as CEO of EA, plus some stock-related stuff).Oh yeah, how did that happen again? Did EA take over Bioware in the middle of the development?
Sounds like LARPing to me. There is no good reason to side with Werewolves unless you really just want them for your army. You're not presented any reason at all to do it, so you're really just picking mass murder for shits and giggles, because you felt like it.
Nope. This wasn't "enslave nations with necromancy" grade bullshit we knew was never going to happen. This stuff was cut very late. It was planned out pretty heavily. The Orzammar questline is very blatantly a continuation of the events of the Dwarf Noble questline, and the Dwarf Noble makes perfect sense as a third contender. You were flagrantly set up for a revenge plot and even promo pictures reinforced that:
All the way into 2009 they were still selling the Dwarf Noble revenge route as part of the game. People looked forward to it. People were disappointed.
Mostly Obsidian/Troika/Interplay and Bioware (especially under EA) really. There are some pretty massive bugs in DAO and the patches were extremely half-assed. Instead of pumping out really shitty DLC and that Awakening expansion cruft, they should've just worked on adding in missing content (even if they had to bill it as DLC) and fixing the game's numerous issues. You need mods to play DAO, honestly. Just to fix the broken content and all the mechanics that don't work properly.
+ Full Party Control
+ Tactics Framework
+ Reactivity
+ Lore
- Encounter scaling
- Itemization scaling
- Console UI
- gift-giving
- voiced NPC dialogue
- The Fade
... I can't help but wonder if he wasn't playing as both buyer and seller of that transaction, selling other people's companies, buying it with other people's money, and cutting himself a check both ways (as a stakeholder in Elevation Partners and as CEO of EA, plus some stock-related stuff).Oh yeah, how did that happen again? Did EA take over Bioware in the middle of the development?
trying to inform Lilura
trying to inform Lilura
Look, just because I mention scaling in DA:O, and this causes you to look things up in lame-o wikis because YOU don't know how it works off-hand, doesn't mean I need you to quote it back to me, and "inform" me, as if I don't know.
Do you know who I am? I'm someone who doesn't quote any other authority than my own. When I research something, I research within the game, and then I post my findings on my blog as an authoritative source. I don't check wikis and I don't even take into account what the devs say.
I liked all the DLCWarden's Keep. The DLC salesman shit was infamous. Only EA could consider garbage like that to be a good idea. Honestly all the DLC in DAO was fucking terrible, with the exception of the Stone Prisoner which was just a shitty form of gutting game content to turn it into "free" DLC so second-hand copies are fucked. Promo items also fucked the difficulty curve. Not that there was much of one, but still. Promo and DLC items made it worse. EA was really on the fast-track of wrecking brand value in order to make a quick buck.
Nowadays it doesn't garner as much controversy because anyone trying out DAO is getting some Ultimate Edition shit and EA has fully unlocked all the DLC for free many years later, because they couldn't be fucked to keep running the old systems and no one was buying it anymore. So the salesman problem isn't as noticeable when they actually lead to the DLC in question instead of telling you to go buy DLC.
I was like: "You have got to be fucking kidding me! What is this shit?" I was so pissed at the way the DLC was incorporated into the game (basically an in-game advertisement) that I dropped DA:O immediately and never touched it again. Fuck EA and fuck Dragon Age.
I reckon the DAO encounter scaling systems & design were well thought out, for a scaling system *shrug*
It wasn't as bad as DA2. In Da2 when you leveled up your armor DR decreased (because enemy attack rating increased) your To-hit became lower (because enemy defenses became higher) etc. You literally leveled up and became weaker for it.I reckon the DAO encounter scaling systems & design were well thought out, for a scaling system *shrug*
Hear! Hear! Fuck LucasArts and the Secret of Monkey Island, too.
I'll take the bait. The Loom advert was just just a joke and we all know that. But, since you've mentioned SoMI, do you remember a different joke? The one with "Insert disk #22" when you try to look under the tree stump in the woods? EA would have made this shit real, but instead of that line, you'd be greeted with "Buy DLC #22".
That is why games like Might and magic and gothic are supreme in design!Level scaling is an abomination in all its forms. Yes, I'm aware that many of my fave RPGs employ some degree of scaling (BG, Arcanum etc.) - I despise it in them, too. Doesn't matter how subtle it is or if the nature of the enemy doesn't change; I don't want to see it.
Hand-crafted encounters and hand-placed loot is where it's at. I don't care how much it breeds imbalance or power-/meta-gaming. Some randomization in both can be interesting, providing it's drawn from hand-tailored pools.
Wait what? Maybe my memory is too rusty, but can you bring up an example of level scaling in BG?
The companion's levelling was fine,but the enemy spawn was really stupid scaling shenanigans.Wait what? Maybe my memory is too rusty, but can you bring up an example of level scaling in BG?
jeez, replaying it now, I didn't remember the Anvil of the Void dilemma being as cringe as it is
they were really really reaching to tack on moral moral bad bad feelings to the decision of keeping it, which'd be a nobrainer in all circumstance
getting pozzed with darkspawn blood suspect but necessary to become a Spectre, creating golems bad because it's a slippery slope of literally Hitlur and Caridin just ain't feeling it anymore; it's like they took Dreadnoughts and worked out a way to make it gay
No, Shale is the one that turns hostile if you keep the Anvil. Oghren is in favor of keeping it because it's what his wife wants to do.Its really a no brainer. I always keep it, who cares what BioWare is talking to you, there are no real bad repercussions as I remember. I think Oghren objects or something so you have to kill him if he is there and you didn't upgrade that persuasion tree to talk him out?