Dragon Age Dragon Age: The Veilguard Thread

[Elttharion]

An honest retrospective on DA4's development would be fascinating but I doubt we'll ever get one.

Why not? Schreier published very revealing development retrospectives for Mass Effect Andromeda and Anthem. I fully expect to see something similar for Veilguard, especially with all these layoffs. Those people are gonna talk.

I'd wager Veilguard's a kulturkampf totem for most mainstream game journalists with access to current and former Bioware devs in a way Andromeda and Anthem never were, Schreier included. Bioware made the game they wanted, the missionaries proselytised its divine brilliance and yet the savages would not be converted. Nay to honest appraisal lest the court ideology be subject to scrutiny.

We may well get a retrospective but there'll be likely be minimal acknowledgement or exploration of reasons for failure beyond the financials. Maybe with some gestures towards executive/publisher meddling as well even though I'm increasingly convinced that many on the team, the writers in particular, were given near total freedom to implement their bad ideas unchallenged based on some of Busche's statements in that interview.

Well yeah, they're not gonna say "We filled the game with gay shit". Still plenty to talk about.

If it’s Schreier or any mainstream outlets doing the reporting I doubt we hear much about the production phase of this game during the actual part that became The Veilguard. But we do probably hear about the early stuff like, like when it was an online game, and the earlier version of Dragon Age 4 before that. I don’t think Schreier is capable of honestly reporting on this like with Anthem do to the politics surrounding it.

There however do seem to be BioWare employees pissed off about the direction of the game and the studio give the leaks, so I’m sure we’ll hear about what was happening there.

The problem is that no game journo will touch the story with a ten foot pole. The only people interested in 'reporting' about it are anti wokers and any dev who turns up to them will be insta blacklisted. A dude shared some of the internal DEI talk on Activision and people in the industry went insane, they were trying to find who it was by any means necessary. The best we can expect are some semi vague anon posts about what went down, imho.

 

[mediocrepoet]

The problem is that no game journo will touch the story with a ten foot pole. The only people interested in 'reporting' about it are anti wokers and any dev who turns up to them will be insta blacklisted. A dude shared some of the internal DEI talk on Activision and people in the industry went insane, they were trying to find who it was by any means necessary. The best we can expect are some semi vague anon posts about what went down, imho.

I always find it weird seeing your opinions on this stuff while you're posting as a pink haired cartoon girl.

 

[Tyranicon]

The most important question that any expose of DAV needs to answer is how the fuck EA/Bioware could have thought the 9 Jun 2024 reveal trailer was a good idea. Like did EA test audience'd the game and everyone loved it? I am not sure Schreier wants to answer this question cause it's going to make the entire gaming industry look bad, like how is it possible nobody said "this looks lame" at the game?

Lol there's no mystery there. I just assumed it was an open secret.

They were surprised their audience isn't 100% a reddit echochamber.

 

[mediocrepoet]

The most important question that any expose of DAV needs to answer is how the fuck EA/Bioware could have thought the 9 Jun 2024 reveal trailer was a good idea. Like did EA test audience'd the game and everyone loved it? I am not sure Schreier wants to answer this question cause it's going to make the entire gaming industry look bad, like how is it possible nobody said "this looks lame" at the game?

Lol there's no mystery there.

They were surprised their audience isn't 100% a reddit echochamber.

Well, to be fair, it basically was. The problem is that that echochamber is pretty friggin' small, but the echoes make it seem bigger.

 

[Tyranicon]

Well, to be fair, it basically was. The problem is that that echochamber is pretty friggin' small, but the echoes make it seem bigger.

That's the thing, the people who would appreciate that trailer was a vocal minority. It was pretty funny to see people initially really liking the trailer, only to change their mind when popular opinion swayed. "U-uh yeah, it doesn't l-look good."

There was a large portion of their audience that were essentially lurkers from DA1, who was completely "unserved" as a target. I don't think anybody in this group (which I'm sure counts some of the people in this very thread) expected a "return to form," but they didn't expect the IP to have moved that drastically.

Everything after that intial trailer was damage control. And I'll say this much, I think in retrospect, the BioWare marketing/PR team actually did a good job in handling the situation, seeing what they have to work with, and especially after they saw what happened to Concord.

 

[mediocrepoet]

There was a large portion of their audience that were essentially lurkers from DA1, who was completely "unserved" as a target.

Certainly as far as Dragon Age is concerned. That ship sailed with DA2, anyone who expected anything after DA:I was so far out there, they had no hope of being communicated with.

I don't think anybody in this group (which I'm sure counts some of the people in this very thread) expected a "return to form," but they didn't expect the IP to have moved that drastically.

I think you're wrong, either misremembering or unaware. As soon as it was clear it was not only in development hell, but that leaked footage that looked like Dragon Age Souls hit, I think if you didn't know you were about to be served some sort of shit platter, you have cognitive issues. On top of that, Bioware sucks at action games. The only decent action games Bioware has ever produced were built by other parts of EA and Bioware went in and did art and/or dialogue.

 

[Tyranicon]

I think you're wrong, either misremembering or unaware. As soon as it was clear it was not only in development hell, but that leaked footage that looked like Dragon Age Souls hit, I think if you didn't know you were about to be served some sort of shit platter, you have cognitive issues. On top of that, Bioware sucks at action games. The only decent action games Bioware has ever produced were built by other parts of EA and Bioware went in and did art and/or dialogue.

I'm talking about a lurker fanbase who hasn't kept in touch with any news.

Even Codex is surprised by the magnitude of Veilguard. I remember being in the some BioWare thread when the leaks happened and people here were mostly just comparing it to nu-God of War and expecting Inquisition 2.

What we got was way worse than Inquisition 2, which probably would've sold well.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Even Codex is surprised by the magnitude of Veilguard. I remember being in the some BioWare thread when the leaks happened and people here were mostly just comparing it to nu-God of War and expecting Inquisition 2.

What we got was way worse than Inquisition 2, which probably would've sold well.

Yeah. Yeah that's true.

I actually can't believe they released it as such. There are real scenes in there that look like some anti-woke parody. It's like they made GoW-lite and then channeled the spirit of Dustborn into it.

 

[Taxnomore]

I'm finally getting near the end. Maybe I'll do a proper review in the topic. But everybody's talking about Tash and the dumb final evil masterminds reveal, but nobody seems to be talking about an even worse plot twist. Like, holy shit.

Spoiler

At the beginning the game, Varric gets hurt. He spends the rest of the adventure being treated for it, sometimes offering you advice or moral support during the group meetings.

Very late in the game, you find out that Varric has been dead all along and he's just in your imagination.

Nothing foreshadows it.

At no point in the game Rook and Varric appear to be super friends or close (although you're being told they are), meaning that you fail to actually care too.

Also, I have to say it :

"Varric dead, but identifies as alive."

 

[Infinitron]

The most important question that any expose of DAV needs to answer is how the fuck EA/Bioware could have thought the 9 Jun 2024 reveal trailer was a good idea. Like did EA test audience'd the game and everyone loved it? I am not sure Schreier wants to answer this question cause it's going to make the entire gaming industry look bad, like how is it possible nobody said "this looks lame" at the game?

Mainstream game journos complained about that trailer. This stuff isn't as taboo as some of you think.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I'm finally getting near the end. Maybe I'll do a proper review in the topic. But everybody's talking about Tash and the dumb final evil masterminds reveal, but nobody seems to be talking about an even worse plot twist. Like, holy shit.

Spoiler

At the beginning the game, Varric gets hurt. He spends the rest of the adventure being treated for it, sometimes offering you advice or moral support during the group meetings.

Very late in the game, you find out that Varric has been dead all along and he's just in your imagination.

Nothing foreshadows it.

At no point in the game Rook and Varric appear to be super friends or close (although you're being told they are), meaning that you fail to actually care too.

Also, I have to say it :

"Varric dead, but identifies as alive."

I'm mildly disgusted and disappointed that you're playing this.

 

[Warrax]

Aha, Busche being hired to destroy the Baldur's Gate franchise next. Get ready for bharvs in BG4.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Aha, Busche being hired to destroy the Baldur's Gate franchise next. Get ready for bharvs in BG4.

I think that was "Trick" Weekes' brain child.

 

[Warrax]

Aha, Busche being hired to destroy the Baldur's Gate franchise next. Get ready for bharvs in BG4.

I think that was "Trick" Weekes' brain child.

I think more than one person was needed to pile up a stack of shit that high.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Aha, Busche being hired to destroy the Baldur's Gate franchise next. Get ready for bharvs in BG4.

I think that was "Trick" Weekes' brain child.

I think more than one person was needed to pile up a stack of shit that high.

To get "Bharv" in there? That's one writer, man.

 

[Taxnomore]

I'm finally getting near the end. Maybe I'll do a proper review in the topic. But everybody's talking about Tash and the dumb final evil masterminds reveal, but nobody seems to be talking about an even worse plot twist. Like, holy shit.

Spoiler

At the beginning the game, Varric gets hurt. He spends the rest of the adventure being treated for it, sometimes offering you advice or moral support during the group meetings.

Very late in the game, you find out that Varric has been dead all along and he's just in your imagination.

Nothing foreshadows it.

At no point in the game Rook and Varric appear to be super friends or close (although you're being told they are), meaning that you fail to actually care too.

Also, I have to say it :

"Varric dead, but identifies as alive."

I'm mildly disgusted and disappointed that you're playing this.

Don't worry, I'm 100% disgusted with myself.

 

[abija]

The most important question that any expose of DAV needs to answer is how the fuck EA/Bioware could have thought the 9 Jun 2024 reveal trailer was a good idea. Like did EA test audience'd the game and everyone loved it? I am not sure Schreier wants to answer this question cause it's going to make the entire gaming industry look bad, like how is it possible nobody said "this looks lame" at the game?

EA probably spent yearly on danger hairs more than that game would ever hope to produce. They didn't want to fire them for the real reasons so they showcased the product, ate the loss but this way nobody blinked when they took them to the chopping block.

Or the company is infested with grifters up to the gills.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

If it’s Schreier or any mainstream outlets doing the reporting I doubt we hear much about the production phase of this game during the actual part that became The Veilguard. But we do probably hear about the early stuff like, like when it was an online game, and the earlier version of Dragon Age 4 before that. I don’t think Schreier is capable of honestly reporting on this like with Anthem do to the politics surrounding it.

There however do seem to be BioWare employees pissed off about the direction of the game and the studio give the leaks, so I’m sure we’ll hear about what was happening there.

Wasn't his Blizzard book fairly comprehensive? Haven't read it, I was curious, but not sure I want to enrich rat man.

I have no idea. I didn’t even know he wrote a book, or at least I completely forgot about it. But the two situations aren’t the same, this Veilguard situation isn’t even similar to the past BioWare fuck ups. The Veilguard is a game where Schreier went out and tried dunking on the CHUDs on Twitter despite the info he was using not being useful for that purpose...he’s not going to give the CHUDs more ammo in something that’s been steaked out as part of the culture war.

I do think he’ll probably cover it, but the coverage will be focused on the history of Dragon Age 4 leading up to The Veilguard more so than the things BioWare did to fuck up The Veilguard. My guess would be that blame will likely be shifted more to EA and BioWare, even if The Veilguard seems to be exactly the game BioWare wanted to make.

The only way I can see Schreier covering how BioWare fucked up The Veilguard is if it gets covered heavily by others first, and coverage of it is shown to be noncontroversial. Kind of like how Colin Moriarty was the first person to report Concord’s development budget; when that happened there were industry people (and Moriarty seems to be good with some people now given who he has on his YouTube channel now) that dismissed it as bullshit because it was Colin Moriarty, (Jason Schreier was one of the people that tried downplaying it, it seems) but after a month of people largely not giving a fucking shit that the story did come from Moriarty, Moriarty’s story about the game’s budget was basically confirmed by Kotaku.

With the Blizzard thing, I’m guessing the book is largely about the controversies they’ve had in recent years. In the Blizzard case Blizzard is the bad guy, so they’re fair game. But with The Veilguard you’re the bad guy if you’re going after that game or have bad things to say about BioWare over it.

 

[Fedora Master]

Aha, Busche being hired to destroy the Baldur's Gate franchise next. Get ready for bharvs in BG4.

That IP has been dead for decades.

 

[Fedora Master]

The most important question that any expose of DAV needs to answer is how the fuck EA/Bioware could have thought the 9 Jun 2024 reveal trailer was a good idea. Like did EA test audience'd the game and everyone loved it? I am not sure Schreier wants to answer this question cause it's going to make the entire gaming industry look bad, like how is it possible nobody said "this looks lame" at the game?

Mainstream game journos complained about that trailer. This stuff isn't as taboo as some of you think.

So what's YOUR informed opinion on the trailer?

Trick question, you naturally never watch the shit you post here.

 

[Infinitron]

The most important question that any expose of DAV needs to answer is how the fuck EA/Bioware could have thought the 9 Jun 2024 reveal trailer was a good idea. Like did EA test audience'd the game and everyone loved it? I am not sure Schreier wants to answer this question cause it's going to make the entire gaming industry look bad, like how is it possible nobody said "this looks lame" at the game?

Mainstream game journos complained about that trailer. This stuff isn't as taboo as some of you think.

So what's YOUR informed opinion on the trailer?

Trick question, you naturally never watch the shit you post here.

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/chat/archive/page-5942?room_id=1&order=newest#rm-1543880

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Not even in the shoutbox can one get away from Infinitron's newsposting.

 

[Fedora Master]

The most important question that any expose of DAV needs to answer is how the fuck EA/Bioware could have thought the 9 Jun 2024 reveal trailer was a good idea. Like did EA test audience'd the game and everyone loved it? I am not sure Schreier wants to answer this question cause it's going to make the entire gaming industry look bad, like how is it possible nobody said "this looks lame" at the game?

Mainstream game journos complained about that trailer. This stuff isn't as taboo as some of you think.

So what's YOUR informed opinion on the trailer?

Trick question, you naturally never watch the shit you post here.

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/chat/archive/page-5942?room_id=1&order=newest#rm-1543880

Shoutbox and the 5 trannies that still hang out there doesn't count.

I would like to remind you and everyone else that you accused JamesDixon of making shit posts because he didn't "comment" on the stuff he posted.

 

[mediocrepoet]

With the Blizzard thing, I’m guessing the book is largely about the controversies they’ve had in recent years. In the Blizzard case Blizzard is the bad guy, so they’re fair game. But with The Veilguard you’re the bad guy if you’re going after that game or have bad things to say about BioWare over it.

Yeah, I tend not to think of things through a culture war lens since it strikes me as infantile and dumb. I think you're right though and I was giving Schreier too much credit in assuming something as basic as "journalistic integrity."

 

[Warrax]

Aha, Busche being hired to destroy the Baldur's Gate franchise next. Get ready for bharvs in BG4.

That IP has been dead for decades.

There's the IP being dead, and the IP getting dug up and dressed up in a clown suit and dragged along the highway.

Just wait till you see old fat Middle Eastern Viconia with one leg and a deep man's voice.