Interview Mass Effect 2: When you were talking, we were listening.

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: Mass Effect 2

Over at <a href="http://blogs.ign.com/BW_MassEffect/2009/04/30/119240/">IGN's Mass Effect 2 Blog</a>, Executive Producer Casey Hudson said:
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<blockquote>When Mass Effect was released, we were very happy to see how well it was received. But the first thing we did in designing Mass Effect 2 was to listen very carefully to what people were saying about how they played the first one – what they loved, what they wanted to see improved, and the countless anecdotes that describe players’ personal experiences with their unique paths through the story. We read forum posts, reviews, watched people playing the game on YouTube, and literally noted and categorized every piece of feedback we could find, to help us target an overall evolution of the gameplay to the way people actually experienced it. In other words, when you were talking, we were listening.
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That important perspective, combined with the existing trilogy story and our own ambitions for new features, formed the blueprint for Mass Effect 2 – the dark second act in the trilogy.
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And so we arrive at today, with a game still veiled from the public but bearing so many improvements and exciting content that it feels like it’s straining to break free. Fortunately we’ll be able to do that this summer when we demonstrate it at E3. Until then, I can only say that you can look forward to some incredible new experiences in Mass Effect 2 as the story takes on even larger proportions, along with a ton of gameplay improvements and a return of the things most loved by players of the first game.</blockquote>
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Ooohhh.. Dark second act. Of course there's no actual information on any of these improved features but "trust us it'll be cool. Honest".
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You might also want to look at <a href="http://masseffect.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=676700&forum=104">Mass Effect the iPhone game</a>.
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Spotted @ <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com">GameBanshee</a>

 

[Jaesun]

I spotted this first! Fucking Gamebanshee article stealing bastards!

In before Skyway.

 

[Spectacle]

It feels so weird to see people talking about something utterly forgettable and mediocre as if it was a great experience.

 

[MetalCraze]

players’ personal experiences with their unique paths through the story.

Hahaha

In other words, when you were talking, we were listening.

In other words we decided to be even more mainstream

 

[Forest Dweller]

Selective listening.

 

[Crolug]

In other words, when you were talking, we were listening.

Shyeah riiight....

 

[Kingston]

Devs sure tend to take themselves very seriously nowadays. Look at that hardcore gaze!

 

[Andyman Messiah]

He looks like I do when I do my muscle exercises in the bathroom.

 

[chiefnewo]

Over at <a href="http://blogs.ign.com/BW_MassEffect/2009/04/30/119240/">IGN's Mass Effect 2 Blog</a>, Executive Producer Casey Hudson said:
<blockquote>...watched people playing the game on YouTube...

Youtube Let's Plays, because there's where you're going to find the most intelligent feedback on your game, for sure!

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

intelligent

You seem... confused by that conundrum. Let me explain. Business is based on lies. Trying to fleece someone smarter than you is not a good strategy if you aim to make money - you find a demographic more suited to your abilities of both production and deceit. Part of the reason for being pissed about piracy: it robs you of your capability to lie and forces to compete through product quality rather than marketing, and that's just bad business. So, you move to greener pastures, where the sheep are still tender, naive and retarded through tightly-isolated social inbreeding.

Honestly, sometimes, I get the impression the devs/spokespeople/media are simply trolling. Or their target audience is getting dumber by the second, to believe all that garbage. Could be both, I guess...

 

[racofer]

In before Volly.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

hmmm, cool. wonder if ME2 will crash every 5 fucking minutes too because i seem to remember them NOT listening to people with those issues.

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

I hope there'll be aliens in this game instead of those wacky guys in disney suits.

 

[Andhaira]

Will Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3 all use the same engine?

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

Will Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3 all use the same engine?

They'll probably cram more DirectX 10 effects into the engine. I very much doubt that they'll create a new one though.

 

[Chefe]

The question is, were they listening to the people who wanted more "shooty shooty" or more "talky talky"?

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

The question is, were they listening to the people in Bioware who wanted more "shooty shooty" or more "talky talky"?

Fixed.

 

[Mister Arkham]

You know, listening carefully to user feedback is great and all, but it REALLY has to be done carefully. Send out an already biased team to collect data, and each of those people is going to listen to their very own vocal majority and fail to communicate to the rest of the group in a meaningful way. I'm not saying that Bioware isn't being careful, they've certainly proven themselves to be savvy business-folk in the past and I hope that Mass Effect 2 is a tremendous improvement, I just hope that they've considered all of the angles.

The downside, of course, is that if you listen exclusively to feedback and fail to acknowledge good design sense then you've just made your game by committee. Now, I can't name any games off of the top of my head that were designed by committee, but I do know from experience that when it happens in the film world it's a load of trouble, and I'm willing to bet that it's the same when it happens in game design.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

The question is, were they listening to the people who wanted more "shooty shooty" or more "sucky sucky"?

double-fixed.

 

[MetalCraze]

They'll probably cram more DirectX 10 effects into the engine. I very much doubt that they'll create a new one though.

Sorry, next-generation of consoles doesn't support something as outdated as DX10.

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

Ah, silly me. But i'm sure they'll try and squeeze the last putrid drops of "GRAFIX" from it before they have to retire it. (Though that proably won't happen until Microsoft releases a new Xbox that has DX10 and such.)