People News David Gaider has joined Beamdog as Creative Director

[DeepOcean]

Codex is ridiculous, suddenly Gaider is not a fucking degenerate who shits on the playerbase that gave him prominence while producing a series of gay as fuck caricature characters... no... Codex now thinks its a good thing that he's working at Beamdog.

Who really believe Gaider can write anything decent, they are deluding themselves but I think people see this as positive because it is Beamdog we are talking about, they write fanfiction level shit and can't design for shit, Gaider can't make them worse than they already are.

 

[GreyViper]

They should have Gaider do design instead of writing, stuff he designs has been decent to good, while games he's written for have been poor to shit.

Yes, because one thing that brought him fame was Ascension mod. That said, I wonder if this means that the chances of Ascension being converted for the EE version is now more likelier. As to him leaving Bioware, I don't think there is Bioware anymore just a branch of EA and they were doing some house cleaning. Rainbow colored as EA might claim to be, they just might harbor the same feelings like CODEX does against Gaider.

 

[DeepOcean]

Is 2016 the end of the console derp cycle where the great console experiment failed or something? Did the Console wall fallen and refugees from Playstationland flocking to PC and I didn't notice?

No, I don't think it's the end of the derp cycle. It looks more like the console market being divided by the giants, which leads to its own implosion, and any publisher who isn't a giant is looking towards the PC market where digital distribution makes it easier to compete. The fact that new PC sales are at a record low in 2015 only adds to publishers' cautiousness.

I dunno, man, the PC hardware had been shriking for years but each year Steam register record growth. There are millions upon millions of PCs, a huge installed based that is much bigger than all the consoles combined, so slow shiriking of this huge base because of phones and tablets don't affect the PC hardcore market that really buys games, maybe Microsoft has something to worry as they won't be making the same trillions they are used to but that is kinda irrelevant for users. When decent indie titles are starting to sell easily on the range from 150000 copies to 700.000 copies on Steam and some breaking the 1 million barrier, the growth had been phenomenal from the previous console years where even those modest numbers were considerated unrealistic.

The idea of a BG 3 makes alot of sense when you look how PoE peformed and after the abject failure of that MMO casualized trash that N-Space did, the license holder maybe finally open to make a proper RPG. A BG 3 game could break the 1 million sales what is alot of money for a developer like Beamdog. I dunno if Gaider received the EA boot in the ass treatment after Inquisition failure or if he left by his own will but honestly, I dunno why developers waste their time on the console AAA enviroment so much still, that is a model that has very few winners. I have no illusions about David Gaider talent, the guy was always a nerd lardball, the low taste kind that thinks edgy elven samurais with katanas were cool he only got worse with the time when that got mixed with SJW but from a business sense, this is a good decision for him.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I agree. As for Gaider's story, I'm pretty sure, though I can't prove, that he was taken off Dragon age after DAI severely underpreformed. Looking back at their campaign, I think it's evident that EA were shooting for Skyrim-level sales numbers. They name-dropped Skyrim more than once, and even went so far toward the end of the campaign as to claim "If you liked Lord of the Rings, you'll like Dragon Age Inquisition". Google that if you like, the absurdity is true

From what I've seen of Gaider as a person (interviews and public talks), I imagine he became a victim of classical corporate intrigue - he was encouraged by EA to pump up the SJW shit and when the game underpreformed, it was quietly written off to him. No real proof of this, for now at least, but that's what I imagine happened.

I'd be interested to see what he offers if given total freedom, even wihin the DnD universe. I sort of liked the original, the very original Thedas lore, that DAO shipped with. As a writer, he's not worth a cent imo.

I read the first dragon age novel just to see how bad it can get, and I saw some pretty ugly things. Judging by the difference in style I'm almost sure that the second Dragon age novel was licensed from another writer, and not written by Gaider. Not that it's a masterpiece but it seemed too good compared to the first.

 

[LeStryfe79]

I expect great things from Gaider. Then again, I also gave Bernie Sanders $27 by accident while I was drunk.

 

[Schizophrenic monolog]

I fucking knew it!!!

I always suspected BOO!!!

Probably after the next Baldur's Gate 1/2 patch, we'll start hearing Minsc yelling:

Go for the dick BOO!!!

 

[logrus]

I'm really starving for a proper D&D single player cRPG, would be nice to see some other setting instead of FR again. It seems that Beamdog with all its issues is the only company trying to do something in this vein, so I would probably buy D&D game from them.
EE aditional content was not stellar, but it was clear progresss in quality between BG2EE and BGEE. We will soon see how they handle larger story with SoD.
I have already learned to not expect too much, but it is interesting to see Gaider making such a move. If nothing else, I expect that we will at least get proper Ascension release for EE.
I hope thay do not touch BG series with BG3, as this story should be left for good. However, I'm really curious what they want to do now. Full game with different story based on IE:EE engine? 5e RPG in a new engine, or maybe they license PoE engine? Interesting.

 

[Infinitron]

I agree. As for Gaider's story, I'm pretty sure, though I can't prove, that he was taken off Dragon age after DAI severely underpreformed.

I think if Bioware/EA wanted to punish somebody for DA:I's underperformance, the first person to go would be Mike Laidlaw or some other project direction-related role, not Gaider.

 

[~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸-AIN'T]

Unlike you, I seem to remember his writing.

I think there's a twofold reason to show some level of optimism at this.

1) As bad a writer as Gaider is, he's still better than anybody Beamdog has used previously. Still, this by itself is hardly reason to be optimistic.
2) Gaider is actually a solid designer. Between BG2, Ascension, and more recently working on the Pop Demand Mod for Vicky 2, he's shown that he has pretty decent design chops. The only question is whether or not he will actually do any design (other than "creative design" for muh worldbuilding) - from the job description it doesn't really sound likely.

So yeah, in all likelihood this doesn't amount to much. But who knows, maybe he's tired of writing shitty romances and his writing turns out to not be irredeemable, and he also does some design work. It's possible.

 

[Vandringsmann]

With Gaider on board they might be able to pull off a DLC based on this, but with Boo.

 

[Irenaeus III]

I just wish a real man with normal T levels (above 600ng/l) would write an RPG again, I don't even care if he wears a wig or not, just be a real man. Is that too much to ask?

 

[Vandringsmann]

I just wish a real man with normal T levels (above 600ng/l) would write an RPG again, I don't even care if he wears a wig or not, just be a real man. Is that too much to ask?

 

[SwiftCrack]

I guess I am slightly positive?

Yay.

 

[Irenaeus III]

I think this guy makes Action cRPGs, good for him, but not the same as real cRPGs.

 

[Duraframe300]

Supposedly, at a late point in development, the publisher expressed concern about the game being an FPS rather than an RPG, something that didn't overly bother the people making it.

And it shouldn't have, since adding more "RPG elements" made the game worse.

Was this even said that way? I don't remember a specific concern that it was too much like an FPS.

A lot of Alpha Protocol's problems stem from the fact that Obsidian and SEGA had no idea how they should balance the gernes.
In practice the thing SEGA did was step in and say "Shut up and do it that way". Which resulted in the wonky shooting nobody at Obsidian and Chris Avellone was happy with.

IIRC

 

[Maxwell's Demon]

I just wish a real man with normal T levels (above 600ng/l) would write an RPG again, I don't even care if he wears a wig or not, just be a real man. Is that too much to ask?

The units used to measure testosterone are nanograms per deciliter (ng/dL). 600 ng/L (60 ng/dL) is an appropriate value for a woman. At least 2800 ng/L is appropriate for a man.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I think if Bioware/EA wanted to punish somebody for DA:I's underperformance, the first person to go would be Mike Laidlaw or some other project direction-related role, not Gaider.

Makes sense. What's happened with Laidlaw since DAI?

The units used to measure testosterone are nanograms per deciliter (ng/dL). 600 ng/L (60 ng/dL) is an appropriate value for a woman. At least 2800 ng/L is appropriate for a man.

Irenaeus III , you've been living in a lie

 

[Irenaeus III]

lol nice catch

After all this jokes, I hope the best for Beamdog.

 

[Prime Junta]

Codex is ridiculous, suddenly Gaider is not a fucking degenerate who shits on the playerbase that gave him prominence while producing a series of gay as fuck caricature characters... no... Codex now thinks its a good thing that he's working at Beamdog.

I believe this is a function not only of what Codex thinks about Gaider, but also of what Codex thinks of Beamdog.

 

[DarkArcher]

ehhhh. Beamdog is milking Baldur's Gate with Dragonspear. So, we'll have to see what kind of project they do next.

 

[Roguey]

Supposedly, at a late point in development, the publisher expressed concern about the game being an FPS rather than an RPG, something that didn't overly bother the people making it.

And it shouldn't have, since adding more "RPG elements" made the game worse.

Was this even said that way? I don't remember a specific concern that it was too much like an FPS.

A lot of Alpha Protocol's problems stem from the fact that Obsidian and SEGA had no idea how they should balance the gernes.
In practice the thing SEGA did was step in and say "Shut up and do it that way". Which resulted in the wonky shooting nobody at Obsidian and Chris Avellone was happy with.

IIRC

Michael Foster, product evaluator, said AP felt barely RPG. Initial level too challenging for players. “Mass Effect felt more RPG.”

i.e. "this game should have crappy accuracy like Mass Effect."

 

[Kem0sabe]

The first mass effect game had terrible combat but the second one had some of the best combat in an action rpg to date. It was smooth, it was fun and leagues better than anything obsidian has done with new Vegas or alpha protocol shooting wise.

 

[Roguey]

New Vegas was good given its scope and limitations and also not a cover shooter.

 

[DeepOcean]

The first mass effect game had terrible combat but the second one had some of the best combat in an action rpg to date. It was smooth, it was fun and leagues better than anything obsidian has done with new Vegas or alpha protocol shooting wise.

They improved the combat system even more on Mass Effect 3, it is just a pity everything else was so derp.

 

[Elzair]

From what I remember they said this expansion (previously called Adventure Y) is supposed the be last IE engine game and after that they would switch to something full 3d.

I would love to see a new BG game in PoE engine modified to use D&D 5e ruleset.

That would be SO awesome! Maybe MCA will join Inxile and resurrect Torn. Can you imagine an Infinity Engine game IN 3D?!

I remember saying that 15 years ago. All of this has a certain time warp quality.