Editorial Is DA 2 the End of BioWare as a Traditional RPG Creator?

[Jaesun]

You know; like when EA took over that other CRPG giant, Origin. Trust Volourn. Just trust him.

Origin was destroying itself, EA was not the primary culprit of this collapse.

There actually is an excellent article about this on The Escapist. I do not have a link handy, but it was a very informative and interesting read.

 

[Annonchinil]

Is it this?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/article ... -of-Origin

 

[Volourn]

"You know; like when EA took over that other CRPG giant, Origin. Trust Volourn. Just trust him."

BIO is not Origin. Trust me on that.

 

[100lbsofdogmeat]

The only thing that *really* bugs me, personally, is not the absence of "C&C" (whatever that might mean) or "character customisation" (such as choosing a race, background, etc.), but rather that "more dynamic" combat system Bioware has in mind for DA2. I sorta hoped - after all the criticism DA's inane filler combat received - that they'd at least attempt to improve on encounter design in DA2. Well, it seems they've gone in the opposite direction: to make combat even more "popamole" seems to be their only goal...

i believe c&c means choice and consequence, very important in rpg's actually. and character customization is also a big part, for me at least... not so much what their face looks like (which is pretty lame), but who they are (race, gender, background stories, etc)... hence ROLE-playing. good crpg's, like table-top rpg's... which imo are always a billion times better, generally let you make your character instead of shitting one particular one out for you. these aren't FPS or fucking mario brothers. and consoles be damned!

i though DAO was pretty boring, never bothered finishing it and thankfully i didn't buy that POS. can't say i'm surprised with the direction bioware is headed with this one. i agree with brother none, for the most part, they've been heading down this path further and further for a long time. and i think they've really sucked since Neverwinter Nights...

just stick with the classics and you can't fail!

I looked at this post and thought 'whoa, Lyric Suite must have succumbed to dementia completely now'. Then I thought something is definitely wrong and noticed 'post count: 1' + different name.

YOU ARE NOT LYRIC SUITE

i am not! haha. but probably a bit crazy.

 

[Jaesun]

Is it this?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/article ... -of-Origin

Yes that is it. Few will read it in it's entirety... it is an excellent read. Thanks for the link.

 

[Arcanoix]

The golden age of Bioware rpgs coincided with the existence of Black Isle Studios Interplay as the publisher and assistant designers of Bioware cRPGs.

The facts speak for themselves: If Obsidian and Bioware reuinted the world would return to that golden age.

Fucking newfags.

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Oh sorry.... I must have made some mistake when I looked at my Baldur's Gate game box and it said Black Isle... or when their logo flashes on the screen when I click start... or when Black Isle offers me registration!


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Isle_Studios

Products

* Fallout (1997)[4]
* Fallout 2 (1998)
* Planescape: Torment (1999)
* Icewind Dale (2000)
* Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter (2001)
* Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter - Trials of the Luremaster (2001)
* Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (2001)
* Icewind Dale II (2002)
* Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II (2004)

Among the products whose development Black Isle assisted are:

* Baldur's Gate (1998)
* Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast (1999)
* Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000)
* Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal (2001)
* Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader (2003)

And yes, while Interplay were involved with those games as well and contributed to publishing them, they also hired the man that killed Fallout and no longer deserve recognition.


Apparently my join date makes me a new fag though so what could I possibly hope to know about cRPGs?

^ Ironyuri wins. You lose. Now, Ironyuri, new - alt - I don't care. Leave this place, and never return. For Your Own Good. These people are so fucked in the head anymore, and they have every right to be - but still - they're not strong enough to climb above the insanity they were tossed into years ago.

 

[Jaesun]

FFS!

 

[Phelot]

Is it this?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/article ... -of-Origin

Yes that is it. Few will read it in it's entirety... it is an excellent read. Thanks for the link.

I remember that article. It was a good history lesson, but what I mostly got out of it was how blood sucking EA is on the industry. I think they've gotten big enough to the point were they don't need to do frivolous lawsuits to get smaller devs to buckle, but they certainly promote what I'd call a "genre trap" essentially forcing all games to follow a strict set of core rules for their respective genre. THink about how creative and different games were when EA was just another kid on the block. Then they got powerful and suddenly everyone was following their business model: make cheap shit that is safe and guaranteed to sell well. Maybe their games can't compete with the indie companies, but who cares they market their games better and make more money so in the end they can simply buy the small guys up, get ahold of their IPs, rape them until they stop making money, then dissolve the company. Rinse and repeat.

Hell, look at Bioware, they're learning: change what it means to be an RPG, dumb it down so more time can be put into graphics, VO's, and cutscenes and less on atmosphere, character build systems, balancing. Essentially turn RPG into a "technical shooter." No doubt DA2 will be much easier to develop just as ME2 likely was and no one cried too hard about the lost RPG elements in ME2, no doubt they won't even blink an eye when ME3 is just an FPS with "C&C"

IT really seems like the best companies that make the best games are those that focused more on making games that they are proud of, that they'd like to play whether it be Origin or Troika doesn't matter, they made games because they loved it, not to make money because hell ask any one of them and they'll gladly point out how little they made.

In the end it's gotten to be nearly impossible for an indie company to make something comparable to AAA titles, mostly because if a game doesn't have "cutting edge" graphics and Ray Liotta VO's then it gets slapped with the dreaded "old skool" or "indie" labels that are quite frankly looked down upon and called pretentious if they expect to sell their game for more then $10.

 

[100lbsofdogmeat]

In the end it's gotten to be nearly impossible for an indie company to make something comparable to AAA titles, mostly because if a game doesn't have "cutting edge" graphics and Ray Liotta VO's then it gets slapped with the dreaded "old skool" or "indie" labels that are quite frankly looked down upon and called pretentious if they expect to sell their game for more then $10.

quite true. mostly graphics and gimmicks are what appeal most to current-day gamers. maybe because the younger gamers haven't been exposed to anything with value or quality?

and while i never really liked bethesda's games, they also had some nefarious corporate-hijacking. forced out the original owner and became a hideous disaster.

this should be a testament to indie studios if approached by big publishers, keep those bitches at bay!

 

[Sceptic]

Is it this?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/article ... -of-Origin

Thank you for reminding of days when The Escapist used to be good.

 

[ironyuri]

^ Ironyuri wins. You lose. Now, Ironyuri, new - alt - I don't care. Leave this place, and never return. For Your Own Good. These people are so fucked in the head anymore, and they have every right to be - but still - they're not strong enough to climb above the insanity they were tossed into years ago.

Maximum brofist for you, bro!



(And I'm not a god damned alt!)

My goal is to bring about the of the Codex and to reverse years of . While this will be a difficult task I feel that I am up to it. Codex Unite for the good of the cRPG!

 

[Lyric Suite]

The facts speak for themselves: If Obsidian and Bioware reuinted the world would return to that golden age.

Or maybe Obsidian could get some decent programmers. That's the only thing Bioware always had to their favor.

 

[GarfunkeL]

^ Ironyuri wins. You lose. Now, Ironyuri, new - alt - I don't care. Leave this place, and never return. For Your Own Good. These people are so fucked in the head anymore, and they have every right to be - but still - they're not strong enough to climb above the insanity they were tossed into years ago.

Maximum brofist for you, bro!

For fucks sake, Black Isle was the name of the RPG-division of Interplay and it was officially formed after Fallout shipped.

So Gragt had a point and it was a good point and you two are for not realizing it, FFS.

 

[JarlFrank]

The only thing that *really* bugs me, personally, is not the absence of "C&C" (whatever that might mean) or "character customisation" (such as choosing a race, background, etc.), but rather that "more dynamic" combat system Bioware has in mind for DA2. I sorta hoped - after all the criticism DA's inane filler combat received - that they'd at least attempt to improve on encounter design in DA2. Well, it seems they've gone in the opposite direction: to make combat even more "popamole" seems to be their only goal...

i believe c&c means choice and consequence, very important in rpg's actually. and character customization is also a big part, for me at least... not so much what their face looks like (which is pretty lame), but who they are (race, gender, background stories, etc)... hence ROLE-playing. good crpg's, like table-top rpg's... which imo are always a billion times better, generally let you make your character instead of shitting one particular one out for you. these aren't FPS or fucking mario brothers. and consoles be damned!

i though DAO was pretty boring, never bothered finishing it and thankfully i didn't buy that POS. can't say i'm surprised with the direction bioware is headed with this one. i agree with brother none, for the most part, they've been heading down this path further and further for a long time. and i think they've really sucked since Neverwinter Nights...

just stick with the classics and you can't fail!

I looked at this post and thought 'whoa, Lyric Suite must have succumbed to dementia completely now'. Then I thought something is definitely wrong and noticed 'post count: 1' + different name.

YOU ARE NOT LYRIC SUITE

Same here. Read through the post, saw typos and bad grammar and thought "HOLY FUCK LYRIC SUITE WHAT HAPPENED" then I saw that this guy is some newfag.

YOU ARE NOT LYRIC SUITE