Dragon Age Dragon Age: The Veilguard Thread

[Butter]

Veilguard writing can't be bad. They were brave enough to say "non-binary" in a fantasy setting. That's quality writing in my book!

It's not fair to punish people in key creative positions for producing a bomb. They'll learn and do better next time.

 

[Morgoth]

What were the Doctors thinking when they made a bargain with the EA Devil?

The Old Republic was their dream game, and they needed a lot of money to make it happen. EA was willing to provide it. Once it and ME3 shipped, they didn't give a damn what happened to the company, they fulfilled their dreams, retired gracefully.

The Old Republic was James Ohlen's dream game IIRC. That chap set Bioware up for ruin. It then only took some gullible Doctors and a very greedy Riccitello to jump on board with such a moronic proposition.

 

[Roguey]

The Old Republic was James Ohlen's dream game IIRC. That chap set Bioware up for ruin. It then only took some gullible Doctors and a very greedy Riccitello to jump on board with such a moronic proposition.

TOR is the sole reason why Edmonton wasn't shuttered years ago, the money it was bringing in let them take their time on Inquisition, Anthem, and Veilguard (until EA took it away in 2023 to light a fire under them because they were unhappy with how slow Veilguard was going).

 

[Morgoth]

The Old Republic was James Ohlen's dream game IIRC. That chap set Bioware up for ruin. It then only took some gullible Doctors and a very greedy Riccitello to jump on board with such a moronic proposition.

TOR is the sole reason why Edmonton wasn't shuttered years ago, the money it was bringing in let them take their time on Inquisition, Anthem, and Veilguard (until EA took it away in 2023 to light a fire under them because they were unhappy with how slow Veilguard was going).

How can Veilguard been going slowly when the Singleplayer version only started development in 2021? That's 3 years to shipped product. Fairly good/normal pace, no?

The Life service debacle before that, that's on EA. Why do people keep forgetting that?

 

[Tyrr]

It's not like they started from zero 3 years ago. 3 years for just turning a life service game into a single player one.

 

[Roguey]

How can Veilguard been going slowly when the Singleplayer version only started development in 2021? That's 3 years to shipped product. Fairly good/normal pace, no?

The Life service debacle before that, that's on EA. Why do people keep forgetting that?

Total development was nearly 10 years. The first Dragon Age, with its two false starts, took five years and back then that was considered a terribly long development time.

 

[Taxnomore]

I really need to finish that game to make room for KCD2.

 

[Morgoth]

How can Veilguard been going slowly when the Singleplayer version only started development in 2021? That's 3 years to shipped product. Fairly good/normal pace, no?

The Life service debacle before that, that's on EA. Why do people keep forgetting that?

Total development was nearly 10 years. The first Dragon Age, with its two false starts, took five years and back then that was considered a terribly long development time.

You done with your midwittery? 7 out of those 10 years wasted is EA's responsibility. How many EA execs were fired for that? Zilch.

 

[Roguey]

You done with your midwittery? 7 out of those 10 years wasted is EA's responsibility. How many EA execs were fired for that? Zilch.

Bioware management is just as responsible and that's how these things go, the people at the top don't get punished until the whole studio's done for.

 

[Tyrr]

Funny how DA2, done in 16 months, was still much better than Failguard.

 

[Taxnomore]

Funny how DA2, done in 16 months, was still much better than Failguard.

It's because the Mass Effect fandom hadn't had time to bleed into that license just yet.

 

[Camel]

Funny how DA2, done in 16 months, was still much better than Failguard.

Granted DA2 is better than Veilguard but it's not "much better". It was the first genuinely bad BioWare game with terrible writing, unlikeable and badly written companions stopped being the saving grace.
Interestingly BioWare included a ton of consequences from DA:O choices in DA2, even many minor ones, which makes 4 choices carrying from Inquisition to Veilguard even more pathetic.

 

[VelothianWanderer]

If there is a "nu ME" in the making (and that's a BIG IF), what are the chances they make a decent game of it for a change?

Can they? They don't have the talent. Let's presume for a second they fire their incompetent writers and hire someone who can actually write story and dialogue, without inserting woke garbage into the story. There's still a lot to Mass Effect - action, character design, animations, gunplay... Veilguard did have one redeeming quality - locations looked pretty. So I guess they have at least a few competent designers on their team. But what about everything else? And then there's the issue of management. Good managers don't result in Veilguard, so they too need to go.

The market also isn’t where it was when they created the Mass Effect series. Cover based shooters were all the rage back then, but now the market has shifted back to more run and Gun gameplay. Mass Effect was never a good tactical cover based shooter, but they’d probably have to do something even better today to get by if being a cover based shooter was what they were staying with.

Cover based shooters "were all the rage" due to the fact that technology finally allowed for that kind of gameplay. The first cover based shooter for the xbox was Kill Switch, which was noteworthy simply for its cover based combat. It was novel at the time, and it definitely wasn't just a "trend". Cover based combat was ubiquitous for the same reason that physics, destructible environments, and console multiplayer were ubiquitous -- it was cutting edge for the time.

Why don't we see cover-based combat today? It's because devs are talentless hacks for the most part, and studios have transitioned to making games for the lower common denominator who weren't gamers back in the day and have since taken up the hobby since it's become popular and acceptable to play games now. This is also the reason we don't really see much interactivity in games now, no destructible environments and no cover-based combat. There's a brand new audience to cater too, and this audience doesn't care about any of that.

 

[Space Satan]

Awww...they are feeling betrayed.

 

[Lagole Gon]

I have possibly fake memories of early Dragon Age concept art with mongols. And it bothers me very much. Post all early DA stuff plox.

 

[Tyranicon]

Whenever someone posts one of these tweets, I feel like I need an AI summarizing literally who these people even are.

 

[Taxnomore]

We can now be in unison with the trans people. First Bioware betrayed us RPG lovers. Now it has betrayed them too. They should join the RPGCodex and we can both shit on them like a big family.

 

[Tyrr]

Awww...they are feeling betrayed.

Wasn't that the freak that gushed over the top scars option?

 

[Taxnomore]

I have possibly fake memories of early Dragon Age concept art with mongols. And it bothers me very much. Post all early DA stuff plox.

This was back when Dragon Age was still running on the Neverwinter Nights engine.

 

[Lagole Gon]

I have possibly fake memories of early Dragon Age concept art with mongols. And it bothers me very much. Post all early DA stuff plox.

This was back when Dragon Age was still running on the Neverwinter Nights engine.

Well, duh. I know that. BUT WAS THERE CONCEPT ART WITH MONGOLS?!

 

[Camel]

Paddy Weekes brought a male troon "Laura Kate Dale" while developing Veilguard.

 

[Padzi]

Awww...they are feeling betrayed.

Why do these people identify with the studio as if it were a part of their personhood? They are not a part of the brand those studios create. Job of those studios is to make a good product.

 

[NecroLord]

Why do these people identify with the studio as if it were a part of their personhood? They are not a part of the brand those studios create. Job of those studios is to make a good product.

Ideological tie.
Should Bioware ever drop its current politics and focus instead solely on the gameplay and the game as a whole without political subtext (far left one, at least), all those tumblerinas, troons and DEI writers and contributors would drop Bioware in an instant.
That or Bioware itself would fire them...

 

[Takamori]

Well to no one surprise the writing was a explosive diarrhea. My issue during these 10 fucking years no executive or product manager saw the product in development and thought there was something wrong and just went with yeah totally the first thing the playerbase of a game that is about dragons, demons , spells and sword is fucking talks about gender identity totally yeah guys and trans customization in a setting with fucking healing spells and shit. This is gonna sell 20 mill units, mvp product right there.
While its funny watching those hack frauds getting fired, no fag enabler got nuked from a higher position because this don't happen if someone with moneybags position just say stop with that shit.

 

[Larianshill]

Have you seen the average Dragon Age fan on twitter? Especially the ones who showed up in droves to bat for the game when it just released. Of course Bioware thinks that's who their fans are, who they should appeal to.